Sjuza un tauriņš

Resounding, clean, easily memorable short verses in the beautiful translation by Nina Gernet and Sergey Hippius preserved the soft playful intonation and truly French elegance, flirtation, and gentle mockery. The book is not only meant to be reread but also, thanks to the wonderful illustrations by Vladimir Konashevich, repeatedly examined. Characters and objects are always shown in full so that, as the artist himself said, "all their parts are visible". Costumes, utensils, houses, and the heroes themselves retain their national color. Konashevich does not simply draw pictures. He develops and embellishes the text, surrounding the small poem with such a mass of eloquent "really real" details that describing them would take a whole page.