Good Doctor Aibolit

In the autumn of 1924, Chukovsky and Dobuzhinsky were walking around St. Petersburg and wondered where the name “Barmaleeva Street” came from. “Who was this Barmaley?” – Chukovsky became interested. Dobuzhinsky replied that Barmaley was a robber, a famous pirate, “in a cocked hat, with such a mustache.” He drew a terrible robber and suggested that Chukovsky write a fairy tale about him. And the fairy tale was written, and almost immediately a positive hero appeared in it - Doctor Aibolit from the fairy tale of Hugh Lofting retold by K.I., endowed, however, with the traits of a Russian intellectual most dear to Chukovsky’s heart.

So that the reader does not get confused, we will explain right away: “Doctor Aibolit” is a retelling of Lofting, published in a separate edition in 1936. It’s just that “Aibolit” is a completely original poetic fairy tale by Chukovsky, published in 1929. There is some relationship, but only distant. “Barmaley,” where Doctor Aibolit tries to save Tanya and Vanya from the robber, was written in 1924. Regardless of the time of publication, all of these tales date back to the early 1920s, when Chukovsky read and retold Lofting.

And copyright issues in Soviet Russia were resolved simply. When Chukovsky shared the publishing plans for World Literature with Mr. Keeney of the APA, the American asked: “What about copyright?” Chukovsky was embarrassed and could not really explain that in Soviet Russia copyright is considered a bourgeois relic. This position seemed wild to him, and in the prosaic “Doctor Aibolit” he honestly stated: “According to Hugh Lofting.” Why not “Lofting in Chukovsky’s translation”? We'll see now.

Here Lofting writes (my interlinear translation. - I.L.):

“Many years ago, when our grandfathers were little, there lived a doctor, and his name was Dolittle - John Dolittle, M.D. (M.D. - I. L.)."D. m." means that he was the right doctor and knew quite a lot.

He lived in the town of Luzhinsk-on-the-Marsh. All people - both old and young - knew him by sight. And when he walked down the street in his top hat, everyone said: “Here comes the doctor! He is very clever!" Both dogs and children ran up and followed him, and even the crows that lived in the bell tower croaked at him and nodded their heads.

The house in which he lived on the edge of the city was quite small; but the garden is quite large; it had a spacious lawn and stone benches, over which weeping willows hung. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, managed his household, but the doctor looked after the garden himself.

He loved animals very much, and many lived at his home. In addition to the goldfish in the pond at the bottom of the garden, he had rabbits in his pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in his linen closet, and a hedgehog in his basement. He also had a cow and a calf and an old lame horse twenty-five years old, and chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals. But most of all he loved the duck Dab-Dub, the pigeon Jip, the pig Gab-Gub, the parrot Polynesia and the owl Too-Too."

And here’s what Chukovsky made of it:

“Once upon a time there was a doctor. He was kind. His name was Aibolit. And he had an evil sister, whose name was Varvara.

More than anything in the world, the doctor loved animals. Hares lived in his room. There was a squirrel living in his closet. A prickly hedgehog lived on the sofa. White mice lived in the chest.

But of all his animals, Dr. Aibolit loved most of all the duck Kiku, the dog Ava, the little pig Oink-Oink, the parrot Karudo and the owl Bumba."

What happens to the text? All the details that give the doctor nationality, specificity, and social status are lost. A small house with a typical English garden, weeping willows and a pond is lost, even the top hat disappears and the main thing remains: “Once upon a time there was a doctor. He was kind." If you compare this work on the text with the diary, you can immediately see: Chukovsky is trying to tell this fairy tale to four-year-old Murochka, who does not care at all whether the doctor had stone benches in the garden or not, she is interested in something else: “Is he kind?” (The diary entry dated July 15, 1924 reads: “In the evening on the terrace I retold Mouret’s “The Golden Goose” - and every time I appeared in the fairy tale new character, she asked: “Is he kind?” She needed to know whether to sympathize with him or not, whether to spend her love on him: “And then she sees a hungry old man sitting in the forest by the road.” - “Is he kind?” - “Yes.” - “Well, I feel sorry for him.”) And the doctor’s sister (Varvara, not Sarah) was angry, Chukovsky immediately sets the coordinate system; Lofting doesn’t say anywhere about Sarah that she was evil. She simply presented complaints to the doctor within the framework of common sense: the waiting room is full of mice and hedgehogs, the best patients have turned their backs on you, how are you going to live?

By the way, even new animal names were invented for Murochka. “Abba” in her infant language meant “dog”; “Bumba” she called Chukovsky’s secretary Maria Nikitichna Ryzhkina, who wrote under the pseudonym “Pambe”...

The text is shortened, leaving only the skeleton - the most important thing so that the child does not get lost in the abundance of details - even funny ones (the doctor’s rheumatic patient sat on a hedgehog in the waiting room and has not come to see him since). The main thing remains: the kindness of the doctor, the ability to heal any patient, knowledge of the animal language and heroism. A particular English doctor with a first and last name and a scientific degree, with a sister-housekeeper Sarah, with a linen closet and a piano, has completely turned into a fairy-tale doctor for children from two to five.

Interesting in the Aibolit-Barmaley cycle are the Chukovian images of good and evil: evil is personified by Barmaley - big, rude and cruel, and good - by a cozy, intelligent, merciful doctor, akin in spirit to Chekhov in K.I.’s understanding. If you read the description of Chekhov in “ Contemporaries" and compare him with Doctor Aibolit - the type is undoubtedly the same: a delicate, selfless, unmercenary intellectual with a strong inner core. The point is not that Chukovsky copied his doctor from Chekhov or from the Vilna doctor Shabad, as he himself said; it’s just that for him both the one and the other and the third doctor are the best personification of the forces of good. The article about Chekhov was written much later than Aibolit, and it is unlikely that Chukovsky himself thought about the relationship between the two doctors he described, but the clearer the relationship and the more understandable What Chukovsky could oppose the strong-necked, bow-legged, mediocre, gross evil that does not even have rudimentary ethical ideas.

Here Chekhov, sick and exhausted, goes to Sakhalin “with the sole purpose of bringing at least some relief to powerless, outcast people, at least a little to protect them from the tyranny of the soulless police system”:

“He was shaking so severely all the way, especially starting from Tomsk, that his joints, collarbones, shoulders, ribs, vertebrae ached... his arms and legs were numb from the cold, and he had nothing to eat, since, due to inexperience, he did not grab bring the necessary food with you..."

“... while making his way through the spring flood in a cart, he soaked his felt boots and had to constantly jump into the cold water in wet boots to hold the horses.”

But Doctor Aibolit goes to Africa to help sick animals:

And in his face the wind, and snow, and hail:

“Hey, Aibolit, come back!”

And Aibolit fell and lies in the snow:

But Doctor Chekhov does not stop: “And yet he makes his way forward and forward.”

And Doctor Aibolit doesn’t stop:

And Aibolit galloped forward

And only one word repeats:

"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo..."

And so Chekhov spends the night in a hut on the floor in wet clothes, and walks around the huge island on foot to compile a census of its population, and now Aibolit for ten nights in a row “does not eat, does not drink and does not sleep, / For ten nights in a row / He heals unfortunate animals / And sets and sets thermometers for them...”

On November 9, Chukovsky writes in his diary: “I don’t like Barmaley at all, I wrote him for Dobuzhinsky, in the style of his pictures.” He calls it a “verbal operetta,” created specifically to awaken in children a sense of poetic rhythm. He called “Barmaleya” an adventurous novel for the little ones. However, adventurous novels - both for small and large ones - were not appropriate and not at the time. Time wanted to build and live in a continuous fever of everyday life.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Sigmund Freud by Ferris Paul

From the book Ball of Predators by Brooke Connie

From the book Ivankiada author

Good advice It was like looking into the water. Several days pass, I meet in the yard... who do you think? Well, of course, Kozlovsky. “Old man,” he falls to my left ear, “do you know where I was?” “Come on, don’t be tormented, finish it right away.” “Old man, I was at Melentyev’s.” “Really you

From the book by Korney Chukovsky author Lukyanova Irina

Good Doctor Aibolit In the autumn of 1924, Chukovsky and Dobuzhinsky were walking around St. Petersburg and wondered where the name “Barmaleeva Street” came from. “Who was this Barmaley?” – Chukovsky became interested. Dobuzhinsky replied that Barmaley was a robber, a famous pirate, “in

From the book Stalin and Khrushchev author Balayan Lev Ashotovich

“The good doctor Aibolit will heal everyone, he will heal”... An amazing document was published in the magazine “Istochnik” No. 3 for 1997 - a letter sent to I.V. Stalin in 1943. It amazes with its callousness, cruelty and callousness: “... a large group of children has formed in the country,

From the book Anti-Chess. Notes from a villain. Return of the defector by Korchnoi Viktor

Victor MALKIN, MD WHO ARE YOU, DOCTOR ZUKHAR? Vladimir Petrovich Zukhar, Doctor of Medical Sciences, unexpectedly for himself and for all of us, his comrades, became a worldwide famous person. They wrote a lot about him in the foreign press, they talked about the “mysterious” doctor

From the book Memoirs of Korney Chukovsky author Team of authors

V. Kaverin I AM A GOOD LION 1It was in those distant times (1921), when I, a nineteen-year-old student, was a member of a small literary society"Serapion's brothers." In addition to weekly readings, we sometimes organized evenings full of uncontrollable fun! My youth

From the book Monsieur Gurdjieff by Povel Louis

From the book Wolf Passport author Evtushenko Evgeniy Alexandrovich

10. Good grandfather In the cathedral of the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, standing over the Strait of Magellan, the Sunday sermon was ending. “And may humility be in your hearts...” the priest’s soft baritone hummed rhythmically under the stone arches, while raising his voice

From the book The Idiot author Koreneva Elena Alekseevna

Chapter 39. Doctor Aibolit In the fall of 1979, I began a dizzying affair with a doctor at the French embassy, ​​the same one whom I once met in the “ghetto” for foreign journalists on Sadovaya-Samotechnaya. After returning from Germany, I threw a party at my place.

From the book CAPTAIN BEEFHEART: BIOGRAPHY by Barnes Mike

From the book Self-Portrait: The Novel of My Life author Voinovich Vladimir Nikolaevich

Good grandfather I loved my grandfather, my mother’s father, very much. I loved him because he was my grandfather, because he refused me nothing, rocked me on his leg and let me smoke cigarettes. And when he heard footsteps in the corridor, he frightenedly took away the cigarette butt: “Mom is coming!” He gave it to me

From the book Ugresh Lyra. Issue 3 author Egorova Elena Nikolaevna

My good city, the city on the sand, is growing with honor. Troubles are far away, Domes are in place. The holiday is showered with the ringing of silver. This city teases with many good things. Bordered by the river, with quarry-eyes, my good city lives under

From the book Sailing to Heavenly Russia author Andreeva Alla Alexandrovna

Chapter 5. GOOD HOME The Dobrov family, as I already said, lived in Maly Levshinsky Lane, on Prechistenka. Until the 60s, there was a two-story, unremarkable house there. He was very old and, as they said, survived the fire of Moscow under Napoleon. Such houses in Moscow were called

From the book Chemistry author Volodarsky Alexander

“Good God” My stay in the colony would not be complete without attending some kind of concert. Cultural events behind barbed wire are a phenomenon that deserves close study. Over the years, the prison entertainment genre has developed and manifested itself in new

From the book With a dirk and a stethoscope author Razumkov Vladimir Evgenievich

Good Doctor Aibolit!
He is sitting under a tree.
Come to him for treatment
And the cow and the she-wolf,
And the bug and the worm,
And a bear!

He will heal everyone, he will heal everyone
Good Doctor Aibolit!

And the fox came to Aibolit:
“Oh, I was bitten by a wasp!”
And the watchdog came to Aibolit:
“A chicken pecked me on the nose!”
And the hare came running
And she screamed: “Ay, ah!
My bunny got hit by a tram!
My bunny, my boy
Got hit by a tram!
He was running along the path
And his legs were cut,
And now he's sick and lame,
My little bunny!”

And Aibolit said:
"No problem! Give it here!
I'll sew him new legs,
He will run along the track again.”

And they brought a bunny to him,
So sick, lame,
And the doctor sewed his legs,
And the bunny jumps again.
And with him the mother hare
I also went dancing.
And she laughs and shouts:
“Well, thank you, Aibolit!”

Suddenly a jackal came from somewhere
He rode on a mare:
“Here is a telegram for you
From Hippopotamus!

"Come, doctor,
To Africa soon
And save me, doctor,
Our babies!

"What's happened? Really
Are your children sick?

"Yes Yes Yes! They have a sore throat
Scarlet fever, cholera,
Diphtheria, appendicitis,
Malaria and bronchitis!

Come quickly
Good Doctor Aibolit!”

"Okay, okay, I'll run,
I will help your children.
But where do you live?
On the mountain or in the swamp?

"We live in Zanzibar,
In the Kalahari and Sahara,
On Mount Fernando Po,
Where does Hippo walk?
Along the wide Limpopo."

And Aibolit stood up, Aibolit ran,
He runs through fields, through forests, through meadows.
And Aibolit repeats only one word:
"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

And in his face the wind, and snow, and hail:
“Hey, Aibolit, come back!”
And Aibolit fell and lies in the snow:
“I can’t go any further.”

And now to him from behind the tree
Shaggy wolves run out:
“Sit down, Aibolit, on horseback,
We’ll get you there quickly!”

And Aibolit galloped forward
And only one word repeats:
"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

But here in front of them is the sea -
It rages and makes noise in the open space.
And there is a high wave in the sea,
Now she will swallow Aibolit.

"Oh, if I drown,
If I go down,

With my forest animals?

But then a whale swims out:
“Sit on me, Aibolit,
And, like a big ship,
I’ll take you ahead!”

And sat on the whale Aibolit
And only one word repeats:
"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

And the mountains stand in front of him on the way,
And he begins to crawl through the mountains,
And the mountains are getting higher, and the mountains are getting steeper,
And the mountains go under the very clouds!

"Oh, if I don't get there,
If I get lost on the way,
What will happen to them, to the sick,
With my forest animals?

And now from a high cliff
Eagles descended to Aibolit:
“Sit down, Aibolit, on horseback,
We’ll get you there quickly!”

And Aibolit sat on the eagle
And only one word repeats:
"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

And in Africa,
And in Africa,
On the black Limpopo,
Sits and cries
In Africa
Sad Hippopo.

He's in Africa, he's in Africa
Sits under a palm tree
And by sea from Africa
He looks without rest:
Isn't he going on a boat?
Dr. Aibolit?

And they prowl along the road
Elephants and rhinoceroses
And they say angrily:
“Why is there no Aibolit?”

And there are hippos nearby
Grabbing their tummies:
They, the hippos,
Stomachs hurt.

And then the ostrich chicks
They squeal like piglets
Oh, it's a pity, a pity, a pity
Poor ostriches!

They have measles and diphtheria,
They have smallpox and bronchitis,
And their head hurts
And my throat hurts.

They lie and rave:
“Well, why isn’t he going?
Well, why isn't he going?
Dr. Aibolit?"

And she took a nap next to her
toothy shark,
toothy shark
Lying in the sun.

Oh, her little ones,
Poor baby sharks
It's been twelve days already
My teeth hurt!

And a dislocated shoulder
The poor grasshopper's;
He doesn't jump, he doesn't jump,
And he cries bitterly
And the doctor calls:
“Oh, where is the good doctor?
When will he come?

But look, some kind of bird
It rushes closer and closer through the air,
Look, Aibolit is sitting on a bird
And he waves his hat and shouts loudly:
"Long live sweet Africa!"

And all the kids are happy and happy:
“I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived! Cheers cheers!"

And the bird circles above them,
And the bird lands on the ground,
And Aibolit runs to the hippos,
And pats them on the tummies,
And everyone in order
Gives me chocolate
And sets and sets thermometers for them!

And to the striped ones
He runs to the tiger cubs
And to the poor hunchbacks
Sick camels
And every Gogol,
Mogul everyone,
Gogol-mogol,
Gogol-mogol,
Serves him with Gogol-Mogol.

Ten nights Aibolit
Doesn't eat, doesn't drink and doesn't sleep,
Ten nights in a row
He heals unfortunate animals
And he sets and sets thermometers for them.

So he cured them,
Limpopo!
So he cured the sick,
Limpopo!
And they went to laugh
Limpopo!
And dance and play around,
Limpopo!

And the shark Karakula
Winked with her right eye
And he laughs, and he laughs,
As if someone was tickling her.

And the little hippos
Grabbed their tummies
And they laugh and burst into tears -
So that the oak trees shake.

Here comes Hippo, here comes Popo,
Hippo-popo, Hippo-popo!
Here comes the Hippopotamus.
It comes from Zanzibar,
He goes to Kilimanjaro -
And he shouts and he sings:
“Glory, glory to Aibolit!
Glory to the good doctors!

Korney Chukovsky

Do children know who wrote “Aibolit” - the most popular fairy tale among younger literature lovers preschool age? How was the image of the doctor created, who was the prototype, and is it even worth reading this fairy tale to children? This is discussed in more detail below.

Who wrote "Aibolit"?

This fairy tale was written by the famous children's writer and the poet in 1929, it was first presented to readers and immediately won the hearts of thousands of readers. She was loved not only by children, whose caring parents read them bedtime stories, but also by adults, who liked the plot of the work.

The author of “Aibolit” not only told the story of a dedicated medical worker who strictly observed the Hippocratic Oath, but rhymed it into living verses that easily stick in the memory and are remembered by children literally from the second reading.

Chukovsky considers Doctor Dolittle, the hero of an English fairy tale, to be the prototype of Aibolit, who heals animals and understands their language. Korney Ivanovich was translating a fairy tale for Russian-speaking children and at some point thought that it would be nice to write his own fairy tale about the same wonderful person.

“Aibolit” is a story about how a general practitioner is engaged in medical activities, curing animals from various diseases, and sometimes his methods are quite unique: chocolate, sweet eggnog, which suggests that he is not just a skilled healer of bodies, but also unfortunate souls. He receives patients while sitting under a tree, which suggests his altruism and complete dedication to his work, while he does not divide animals into classes, castes or occupations - for everyone there is a moment of attention and a method of treatment.

At some point, a messenger arrives on horseback with an urgent letter, in which the inhabitants (animals) of Africa, having learned about his abilities, pleadingly ask for help. Naturally, the compassionate Aibolit rushes to the rescue, and various animals and birds help him in this. Together, they defeat the terrible epidemic within ten days, without leaving even for a moment. As a result, the fame of the doctor’s amazing abilities spreads throughout the world.

Characteristics of the main character

“Good Doctor Aibolit...” - this is exactly what the first line of the fairy tale in verse sounds like, and it is this that defines the essence of this fairy-tale little man: his kindness and love for animals knows no bounds, because sometimes the doctor finds himself in critical situations, on the brink of life and death , and still makes a choice in favor of the sufferer, and not himself. His professional quality They don’t let you doubt for a second the enormous amount of knowledge that Aibolit possesses. Chukovsky gave him such qualities as breadth of soul and fearlessness, gullibility, but at the same time gentleness of soul.

At the same time, the plot clearly shows that even such a wonderful and brave person has moments of despair and loss of strength, which makes him even more humane, closer to the common people, in contrast to European and American stories in which the main characters were often endowed with “divine » qualities.

What does this work teach?

The fairy tale “Aibolit” is intended to open in the hearts the knowledge that it does not matter what species, genus and family you belong to: in moments of grief, difficulties and suffering, living beings must help each other not only for payment or gratitude, but simply at the behest heart and kindness of soul. Having acquired such wisdom, a person rises to a higher level of evolution - selfless love for animals and the whole world.

The one who wrote “Aibolit” made the work easy to understand even for the youngest listeners, knowing that the seeds of goodness planted in early childhood will certainly germinate and bear great fruit, shaping the moral and highly moral spirit of a person.

Author about Aibolit

Korney Ivanovich spent quite a long time selecting rhymes for this fairy tale, going through hundreds of phrases and plot phrases, trying to put maximum meaning into a small number of words, knowing that an excessively long “epic” would tire a child, for whom scrupulous descriptions of nature, objects and appearance are of little interest, because he himself can figure it out thanks to the amazing imagination that is highly developed in every child.

At the same time, Chukovsky wanted the fairy tale’s rhymes not to be banal and primitive, because he was an admirer of the great poetry of Pushkin, Derzhavin and Nekrasov: he simply could not lower his creation to the level of boulevard rhymes. Therefore, the fairy tale in verse was rewritten again and again: something was added, others were categorically cut out, sometimes in large parts. The author wanted to focus the reader’s attention on the character of the doctor, on his heroic attitude towards his profession, no! - quicker life path, when his honor and conscience did not allow him to leave the sufferer in trouble.

Therefore, the fairy tale underwent several changes, was cut in half, and only then was presented to the readers.

There is a continuation of the fairy tale!

The one who wrote “Aibolit” did not stop there, because the popularity of the story was considerable: children wrote letters to Chukovsky, bombarding him with questions about what happened next, how the doctor lived, whether he had relatives and other things that are interesting specifically for children. Therefore, Korney Ivanovich decided to write a fairy tale in prose about the same doctor, but with a more detailed description of what was happening: if the fairy tale in verse was close to children under six years old, then the second version of the story was closer to children from six to 13 years old, since the plots in it more - as many as four, and each contains a separate moral that Chukovsky wanted to convey to young readers.

This story was first published in 1936, revised by the author several times, finalized, and in 1954 it was finally established in the finished version. The fairy tale was liked by fans of Korney Ivanovich’s work, but many admitted that he was better at fairy tales in verse.

It is worth mentioning that the character of Aibolit appears in two more fairy tales in verse by the same author: “Barmaley” (1925) and “Let’s overcome Barmaley” (1942). Judging by the dates, “Barmaley” was written earlier than “Aibolit,” which means that the author first created a fleeting image, which he later fully revealed in a separate work.

Good Doctor Aibolit!

He is sitting under a tree.

Come to him for treatment

And the cow and the she-wolf,

And the bug and the worm,

And a bear!

He will heal everyone, he will heal everyone

Good Doctor Aibolit!

part 2

And the fox came to Aibolit:

“Oh, I was bitten by a wasp!”

And the watchdog came to Aibolit:

“A chicken pecked me on the nose!”

And the hare came running

And she screamed: “Ay, ah!

My bunny got hit by a tram!

My bunny, my boy

Got hit by a tram!

He was running along the path

And his legs were cut,

And now he's sick and lame,

My little bunny!”

And Aibolit said: “It doesn’t matter!

Give it here!

I'll sew him new legs,

He will run along the track again.”

And they brought a bunny to him,

So sick, lame,

And the doctor sewed his legs.

And the bunny jumps again.

And with him the mother hare

I also went dancing.

And she laughs and shouts:

“Well, thank you, Aibolit!”

Part 3

Suddenly a jackal came from somewhere

He rode on a mare:

“Here is a telegram for you

From Hippopotamus!

"Come, doctor,

To Africa soon

And save me, doctor,

Our babies!

"What's happened? Really

Are your children sick?

"Yes Yes Yes! They have a sore throat

Scarlet fever, cholera,

Diphtheria, appendicitis,

Malaria and bronchitis!

Come quickly

Good Doctor Aibolit!”

"Okay, okay, I'll run,

I will help your children.

But where do you live?

On the mountain or in the swamp?

"We live in Zanzibar,

In the Kalahari and Sahara,

On Mount Fernando Po,

Where does Hippo walk?

Along the wide Limpopo.

Part 4

And Aibolit stood up and Aibolit ran.

He runs through fields, through forests, through meadows.

And Aibolit repeats only one word:

"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

And in his face the wind, and snow, and hail:

“Hey, Aibolit, come back!”

And Aibolit fell and lies in the snow:

And now to him from behind the tree

Shaggy wolves run out:

“Sit down, Aibolit, on horseback,

We’ll get you there quickly!”

And Aibolit galloped forward

And only one word repeats:

"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

Part 5

But here in front of them is the sea -

It rages and makes noise in the open space.

And there is a high wave in the sea,

Now she will swallow Aibolit.

"Oh, if I drown,

If I go down.

With my forest animals?

But then a whale swims out:

“Sit on me, Aibolit,

And, like a big ship,

I’ll take you ahead!”

And sat on the whale Aibolit

And only one word repeats:

"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

Part 6

And the mountains stand in front of him on the way,

And he begins to crawl through the mountains,

And the mountains are getting higher, and the mountains are getting steeper,

And the mountains go under the very clouds!

"Oh, if I don't get there,

If I get lost on the way,

What will happen to them, to the sick,

With my forest animals?

And now from a high cliff

Eagles flew to Aibolit:

“Sit down, Aibolit, on horseback,

We’ll get you there quickly!”

And Aibolit sat on the eagle

And only one word repeats:

"Limpopo, Limpopo, Limpopo!"

part 7

And in Africa,

And in Africa,

On black

Sits and cries

Sad Hippopo.

He's in Africa, he's in Africa

Sits under a palm tree

And by sea from Africa

He looks without rest:

Isn't he going on a boat?

Dr. Aibolit?

And they prowl along the road

Elephants and rhinoceroses

And they say angrily:

“Why is there no Aibolit?”

And there are hippos nearby

Grabbing their tummies:

They, the hippos,

Stomachs hurt.

And then the ostrich chicks

They squeal like piglets.

Oh, it's a pity, a pity, a pity

Poor ostriches!

They have measles and diphtheria,

They have smallpox and bronchitis,

And their head hurts

And my throat hurts.

They lie and rave:

“Well, why isn’t he going?

Well, why isn’t he going?

Dr. Aibolit?"

And she took a nap next to her

toothy shark,

toothy shark

Lying in the sun.

Oh, her little ones,

Poor baby sharks

It's been twelve days already

My teeth hurt!

And a dislocated shoulder

The poor grasshopper's;

He doesn't jump, he doesn't jump,

And he cries bitterly

And the doctor calls:

“Oh, where is the good doctor?

When will he come?

Part 8

But look, some kind of bird

It rushes closer and closer through the air.

Look, Aibolit is sitting on a bird

And he waves his hat and shouts loudly:

"Long live sweet Africa!"

And all the kids are happy and happy:

“I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived! Hooray! Hooray!"

And the bird is circling above them,

And the bird lands on the ground.

And Aibolit runs to the hippos,

And pats them on the tummies,

And everyone in order

Gives me chocolate

And sets and sets thermometers for them!

And to the striped ones

He runs to the tiger cubs

And to the poor hunchbacks

Sick camels

And every Gogol,

Mogul everyone,

Gogol-mogol,

Gogol-mogol,

Serves him with Gogol-Mogol.

Ten nights Aibolit

Doesn't eat or drink or sleep

Ten nights in a row

He heals unfortunate animals

And he sets and sets thermometers for them.

Part 9

So he cured them,

Limpopo! So he cured the sick,

Limpopo! And they went to laugh

Limpopo! And dance and play around,

And the shark Karakula

Winked with her right eye

And he laughs, and he laughs,

As if someone was tickling her.

And baby hippos

Grabbed their tummies

And they laugh and burst into tears -

So the mountains shake.

Here comes Hippo, here comes Popo,

Hippo-popo, Hippo-popo!

Here comes the Hippopotamus.

It comes from Zanzibar,

He goes to Kilimanjaro -

And he shouts and he sings:

“Glory, glory to Aibolit!

Glory to the good doctors!


Veterinarians are known to be a noble profession. In medical assistance to a dumb creature,
which cannot even explain what hurts him, there is something similar to treatment
small child. True, sometimes patients of veterinarians can easily crush or swallow their attending physician. The noble and dangerous work of veterinarians is an excellent basis for literary works. The main book healers of animals are the Russian Aibolit and the English Dolittle. In fact, these two characters are closest relatives.

The bestial Doctor Dolittle, the personification of kindness and compassion, was born in a place not very suitable for these feelings - in the trenches of the First World War. It was there in 1916 that Lieutenant of the Irish Guards Hugh John Lofting, in order to encourage his son Colin and daughter Elizabeth Mary who remained in England, began writing letters
compose a fairy tale for them, illustrating it with your own hands. The war went on for a long time, the fairy tale turned out to be long. In 1920, already in the USA, where the Loftings moved, these letters caught the eye of a familiar publisher, who was delighted with both the fairy tales and the pictures. That same year, The Story of Doctor Dolittle was published.

It was quickly followed by “The Travels of Doctor Dolittle”, “Post Office...”, “Circus...”, “Zoo...”, “Opera...” and “Park...” by the same doctor. In 1928, Lofting grew tired of his character and, wanting to get rid of him, sent him to the moon. But readers longed for continuations, and five years later “The Return of Doctor Dolittle” happened - his “Diary” was published. Three more stories about the veterinarian were published after Hugh Lofting's death in 1947.


* Hugh John Lofting
-------
When the adventures of John Dolittle, M.D. take place, the opening lines of the first book say vaguely: “A long time ago, when your grandparents were little.” Judging by the surroundings, the carriages and sailing ships in the yard, it was the 1840s. But the place where he lived is indicated quite accurately - central England, the small fictitious town of Puddleby. He was not an animal doctor, but an ordinary, human one, but he loved animals so much that he drove his entire clientele away from his house, filled with assorted fauna. The parrot Polynesia, or simply Polly, taught him the animal language, and four-legged and winged patients flocked to Dolittle from all over the area. Glory o wonderful doctor quickly spread throughout the world and he was called to help by African monkeys, who were decimated by the epidemic. Dolittle, with several animal helpers, rushed to the rescue, but in Africa he was captured by the king of black savages. A daring escape, healing of the suffering and a gorgeous gift from the rescued in the form of an unprecedented two-headed antelope. The way back, captivity again, scary sea pirates, freeing a little boy and returning home.

And this is an incomplete list of adventures of just the first story. And then Doctor Dolittle and the animals travel all over England, earn money in the circus and menagerie, organize the best bird post office in the world, end up on an island with dinosaurs, stage an opera written by a pig, and set off
into space... As already mentioned, the profession of a veterinarian is dangerous, but very interesting.


John Dolittle reached Soviet readers surprisingly quickly. In 1920, a book about him was published in the USA, two years later - in England, and already in 1924, “The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle” was published in the USSR, translated by Lyubov Khavkina with pictures by the author. Lyubov Borisovna conscientiously translated all the doctor’s adventures. She did not Russify the names of the characters, but simply transcribed them. For example, a two-headed herbivore was called pushmipulya in its version. The footnote explained that this strange word “means Tolkmen - Jerking You.” The seven-thousandth circulation of this publication sold out, remaining almost unnoticed by historians of children's literature. The era of Aibolit was coming.


* Dr. Dolittle. Jersey stamp, 2010
-------
According to the memoirs of Korney Chukovsky, he invented the doctor (though his name then sounded like Oybolit) in 1916 on a train from Helsingfors (Helsinki) to Petrograd, entertaining and calming his sick son. But it was a long way from oral travel history to a book fairy tale - like from Finland to Africa. Only in 1924 did Korney Ivanovich begin to translate Lofting’s story, simultaneously retelling it to his little daughter Mura. The translation, or rather retelling, by Chukovsky was first published in 1925 and was very different from the original. It was not for nothing that the writer, while working, monitored children’s reactions to what was written - the text was clearly adapted for the youngest readers. All unnecessary details disappeared from it, it turned out much more
more concise than Khavkina’s translation. Doctor Dolittle became Aibolit, his place of residence lost all national features, the assistant animals received names that sounded familiar to Russian ears, and the writer simply and clearly called the two-headed antelope Tyanitolkay. True, this translation was very different from the fairy tale “Doctor Aibolit,” which is still published today. In Africa, Aibolit and his friends were captured by the Negro king Chernomaz, and on the way back they returned home without any incident. From Loftting's twenty chapters, Chukovsky left only
fourteen. He dedicated his retelling to “dear Doctor Konukhes, the healer of my little ones.”


* Korney Chukovsky with his daughter Mura

In the same 1925, Aibolit appeared in a poetic fairy tale, although not yet in his own, but as a character in “Barmaley”: a doctor, flying over Africa in an airplane, tried to save Tanya and Vanya from the clutches of robbers, but he himself ended up in a fire, from where he politely asked the crocodile to swallow Barmaley. Then, succumbing to the groans of the bandit, he petitioned for his release. It is interesting that in both books of 1925, Aibolit is depicted by illustrators as a typical bourgeois: in a tailcoat, top hat and with a thick belly. Soon Korney Ivanovich began to compose poetic tales about the doctor. “Aibolit” was published in 1929 in three issues of the Leningrad magazine “Yozh”. Chukovsky further simplified Lofting's plot
and rhymed what was left of him. Doctor Aibolit almost lost his individual traits, retaining only two, but very important for children - kindness and courage. Due to the blurriness of the image, the illustrators each drew it in their own way. But their doctor invariably resembled the doctors whom little readers could meet in the nearest hospital. Readers also really liked the methods of treatment that Aibolit used on his tailed patients: chocolates, eggnog, patting the tummies, and from purely medical procedures - only endless temperature measurements. It was impossible not to love such a doctor, and Soviet literature received a new positive hero. In the same year, Aibolit appeared in another fairy tale by Chukovsky - “Toptygin and the Fox.” He is at the request
the stupid bear was sewn on with a peacock's tail.

In 1935, a fairy tale in verse about Aibolit was published as a separate edition. True, it was called “Limpopo”. Subsequently, Korney Ivanovich renamed
poem in “Aibolit”, and the name “Doctor Aibolit” remained behind the prose story-fairy tale.
It was published in 1936. Chukovsky himself appeared on the cover as the author, although the title page honestly said “By Hugh Lofting.” Compared to the publication eleven years ago, the story has undergone significant changes. This time Korney Ivanovich retold the entire first book about Dolittle, breaking it into two parts. The second was called "Penta and the Sea Robbers" and included the adventures of the doctor, omitted by the reteller in 1925.


* This is how children first saw Aibolit (artist Dobuzhinsky, 1925)
-------
The first part, “Journey to the Land of the Monkeys,” has noticeably become more Russified. For example, the doctor’s sister, who was called Sarah both in Lofting and in the previous retelling, suddenly became Varvara. At the same time, Chukovsky, apparently in order to highlight Aibolit’s virtue, made her an evil tormentor of animals. Evil must be punished, and in the finale of the first part, Tyanitolkai throws Varvara into the sea. In the original source, Sarah, who was not harmful, but simply zealous, got married peacefully.

All black savages also disappeared from Africa. Representatives of the indigenous population oppressed by the colonialists and their king Chernomaz were replaced by Barmaley and his pirates. It's funny that the American publishers of Lofting's fairy tale followed the same path in the 1960s and 1970s. They noticeably smoothed out some episodes related to the blackness of individual characters.


* Cover of the first edition of the fairy tale "Doctor Aibolit" (artist E. Safonova)

In the 1938 edition, Chukovsky included retellings of two more episodes of the adventures of Doctor Dolittle - “Fire and Water” and “The Adventure of the White Mouse.” “Doctor Aibolit” is published approximately in this form to this day, although the writer made minor changes to the text of the story until the end of his life. Chukovsky wrote the last fairy tale about Doctor Aibolit in the harsh year of 1942. “Let’s defeat Barmaley” was published by Pionerskaya Pravda. Unlike all other Chukovsky fairy tales, this one didn’t turn out very well.
kind and extremely militarized. Peaceful Aibolitiya, inhabited by birds and herbivores, is attacked by a horde of predators and other animals that seemed scary to Chukovsky, under the leadership of Barmaley. Aibolit, riding a camel, leads the defense:

"And put it at the gate
Long-range anti-aircraft guns.
To the arrogant saboteur
No troops landed on us!
You, machine gunner frog,
Hide behind a bush
So that on the enemy unit
Unexpected attack."

The forces are not equal, but the valiant Vanya Vasilchikov flies to the aid of the animals from a distant country, and a radical turning point occurs in the war:

“But Vanyusha takes out a revolver from his belt
And with a revolver he attacks her like a hurricane:
And he hit Karakul
Four bullets between the eyes"

The defeated Barmaley was sentenced to capital punishment, carried out immediately:

“And so much stinking poison poured out
From the black heart of a murdered reptile,
That even hyenas are nasty
And they staggered like drunken people.
Fell into the grass and got sick
And every one of them died.
A good animals saved from the infection
They were saved by their wonderful gas masks.”

And general prosperity came.


* Drawing by V. Basov for the fairy tale “Let’s overcome the Barmals. 1943)
-------
In 1943, “Let’s Defeat Barmaley” was published by three publishing houses at once. At the end of the year it was included in an anthology of Soviet poetry. And then a thunderstorm broke out. Stalin personally deleted “The War Tale” from the proofs of the collection. Soon devastating articles appeared in newspapers. On March 1, 1944, Pravda published an article by the director of the Institute of Philosophy, P. Yudin, with the eloquent title “K.’s vulgar and harmful concoction.”
Chukovsky": "K. Chukovsky brought into the world of animals social phenomena, endowing animals with the political ideas of “freedom” and “slavery”, divided them into bloodsuckers, parasites and peaceful workers. It is clear that Chukovsky could not have come out of this venture with anything but vulgarity and nonsense, and this nonsense turned out to be
politically harmful." The fairy tale “Let’s Defeat Barmaley” is difficult to classify as one of Korney Ivanovich’s creative successes, but it hardly deserves accusations of “consciously vulgarizing the great tasks of raising children in the spirit of socialist patriotism.” After such extreme criticism of fairy tales in verse, Chukovsky no longer wrote.

“Let’s Defeat Barmaley” was published the next time only in the collected works in 2004. True, two fragments from this fairy tale - “Joy” and “Aibolit
and the Sparrow" (in the magazine version - "On Aibolit's Visit") - Chukovsky published as independent works.

Cinema added new touches to Aibolit’s biography. In the 1938 film “Doctor Aibolit,” the roles of animals were played by real trained animals. With this approach, it was difficult to play out scenes of pan-African healing, and screenwriter Evgeniy Schwartz built the plot around the events of the second and third parts of the story about the doctor. Almost the entire film Aibolit does not deal with medicine,
and with law enforcement activities - he fights against pirates and their leader Benalis, who is actively helped by the evil Varvara. The climax is a naval battle scene using watermelons, apples and other ammunition.

The military theme continues in the cartoon “Barmaley” (1941). Tanechka and Vanechka go to Africa not for the sake of pranks, but, armed with a rifle with a bayonet, to repel the villain walking around
topless but wearing a top hat. Aibolit, with the help of aviation, supports the liberation of Africa from Barmaley oppression. In Rolan Bykov’s wonderful film fairy tale “Aibolit-66,” the doctor, with difficulty, but still rehabilitates the robber and his gang.

In the film “How We Searched for Tishka” (1970), Aibolit made a career in the penitentiary
system - works in a zoo. Finally, in the animated series “Doctor Aibolit” (1984), director David Cherkassky wove a bunch of other Chukovsky fairy tales into the main plot. “The Cockroach”, “The Stolen Sun”, “The Fly Tsokotukha” turned the doctor’s story into an exciting thriller.

The film adaptations of Dolittle's adventures went even further. In the 1967 film, a veterinarian was given a cute girlfriend and a goal in life - to find a mysterious pink sea snail, and the black prince Bumpo from Lofting's book was for some reason baptized into William Shakespeare X. In 1998, American political correctness made Dolittle himself black. All that remains from the fairy tale is the name of the main character and his ability to talk to animals. The action is moved to modern America, and the plot is practically invented from scratch. But Dolittle, played by comedian Eddie Murphy, turned out to be so charming that the film collected good box office, forcing the producers to make four sequels. True, starting from the third film, the doctor himself no longer appears on the screen - the problems of animals are resolved by his daughter Maya, who inherited her father's talent for languages. By 2009, the topic of conversations with animals was completely exhausted.


By that time, Lofting’s books had already been repeatedly translated into Russian and published in our country. Most translations carefully followed the first editions of the Dolittle tales, not paying attention to later distortions of the original source for the sake of tolerance. The translation versions mainly differed in the spelling of proper names. For example, the main character's last name was sometimes written with one letter "t",
and sometimes with two. The most extravagant was Leonid Yakhnin, who did not translate the fairy tale, but “retold” it. He mixed several stories under one cover, for some reason repeatedly diluted the text with verses missing from the original and changed most of the names beyond recognition. So,
Yakhnin calls tyanitolkai somewhat erotically “there and here and there.”
Despite all these translations, Hollywood turned out to be stronger than Russian book publishers, and if any of our young fellow citizens have any associations with the name Dolittle, then most likely it is the image of a funny black doctor.

But Aibolit will live forever in our country - in children's books, films, cartoons and the names of veterinary clinics.