Title: Вышел зайчик погулять

General Information:

• Verbal Folklore: Russian nursery rhyme
• Language: Russian
• Country of Origin: Russia
• Informant: Katya Pronichenko
• Date Collected: 5/13/2020

Informant Data:

• Katya Pronichenko was born November 6, 2000.  She was born and raised in L.A., where she lived with her older brother and Russian and Ukrainian parents.  Growing up, Katya attended Russian school in her native L.A. and frequently spoke Russian to her friends and family.  Katya is a current Dartmouth student in the class of 2023.

Contextual Data:

• Social context: As a young girl, Katya heard this nursery rhyme from her parents.  The short story contained within the rhyme served as entertainment for small children.  When discussing this nursery rhyme, Katya joyfully recalled this nostalgic memory from her childhood.  
• Cultural context: This nursery rhyme is well-known and uniform throughout Russia but has little to no cultural implications. 

Item:

Audio File:

 

Original Text:

Раз, два, три, четыре, пять,

Вышел зайчик погулять.

Вдруг охотник выбегает,

Прямо в зайчика стреляет.

Пиф – паф! Ой-ой-ой!

Умирает зайчик мой.

Привезли его домой,

Оказался он живой!

Transliteration:

Raz, dva, tri, chetyre, pyat’,

Vyshel zaychik pogulyat’.

Vdrug okhotnik vybegaet,

Pryamo v zaychika strelyaet.

Pif – paf! Oy-oy-oy!

Umiraet zaychik moy.

Privezli yevo domoy,

Okazalsya on zhivoy!

Word-for-word translation: 

One, two, three, four, five

A bunny went out for a walk.

Suddenly a hunter appeared,

And shot the bunny.

Bang! Bang! Oh, oh, oh!

My bunny is going to die.

He was brought home,

Turns out he’s alive.

Free translation: 

One, two, three, four, five

A bunny went for a walk.

Suddenly a hunter appeared,

And shot the bunny.

Bang! Bang! Oh, no!

My bunny is going to die,

I brought him home,

But turns out he was alive.

Informant’s Comments: Katya interpreted the nursery rhyme as a short story simply detailing how a rabbit was shot in the forest but miraculously survived.  

Collector’s Comments: Although not always appearing simultaneously, rabbits, forests, and hunters are all common elements in Russian folklore.   Their inclusion in this nursery rhyme reflects the importance of these core figures as a part of the Russian cultural identity in verbal genres.

Collector’s Name: Jasmine Li

Tags/Keywords:

• Russian
• Nursery rhyme
• Entertainment
• Verbal folklore