1 Вот жена и невзлюбилападчерицу; нет житья сироте. The motif of the evil or wicked stepmother often appears in Western European folk tales as well as in Russian folklore. Well-known tales such as “Cinderella” have the evil stepmother model at their heart.
2 Думал, думал наш мужик и повез свою дочь в лес. In other tales with structure similar to this one, the wife actually orders the husband to take his daughter away. Invariably the husband agrees, and sometimes the narrator explains “what else could he do?”
3 на курьихножках Baba Yaga typically lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs. A traditional explanation for this image is that huts were often built on stumps (to keep them off the damp ground), and the splayed roots at the base of the stump resemble chicken feet.
4 «Избушка, избушка! Стань к лесу задом, а ко мне передом». Избушка и поворотилась. This command may be found in other tales as well. Baba-Yaga’s hut typically stands at the edge of forest, a liminal space that represents her role as an initiator of the young girl who is leaving childhood and entering maturity. In some tales, including this one, the hut apparently merely faces the forest, and must be told to turn around. In others it is spinning constantly, and therefore cannot be entered until it has been ordered to stand still.
5 Идет мужик в избушку, а в ней баба-яга: впереди голова, в одном углу нога, в другом — другая. This is a typical image of Baba-Yaga—she usually takes up the entire hut.
6 «Русским духом пахнет!» This motif of scenting the visitor appears in other tales—to some it may be reminiscent of the giant from “Jack and the Beanstalk” saying “Fee, fie, fo, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!”
7 Баба-яга костяная нога! This is Baba-Yaga’s usual epithet, which may be translated as “Baba-Yaga The Bony-Legged.” The boniness indicates her preternatural old age, which was commonly associated with sorcery in Russian folk belief. Women in general were expected to be plump, as an indication of both beauty and strength and ability to resist famine and bear healthy children.
8 Дай кашки Kasha is a general term for cooked cereal, or, more narrowly, a specific term for buckwheat groats (grain). It can be served in a porridge-like state for breakfast, or as a side dish or element of the main meal.
9 ты на всякое веретенцепо ниточке напряди The mice tell the girl to “stretch the thread on each spindle,” but apparently they complete her tasks after she gets them started in this way, although the tale doesn’t say this explicitly. It is common in fairy tales for magic helpers to complete a heroine’s “impossible tasks” for her.
10 его дочь Neither of the two daughters has a name in this story, and from this point onward the two can be easily confused.
11 «Врешь, — говорит, — скажи: в коробе косточки гремят!» The stepmother says the dog is lying because she expects and hopes that Baba-Yaga has killed the girl and the husband is bringing the bones back home.
12 Отвез мужик. The stepmother wants her own daughter taken to the witch, thinking that she will be able to obtain the same sort of wealth as the stepdaughter. The stepmother’s own daughter is the heroine’s traditional “wicked” stepsister, although in this tale she is more unpleasant than what we would consider wicked.
13 Вот тебе сказка, а мне кринка масла. This sort of poetic ritual ending appears in many tales to varying degrees, and it may have originated as a remnant from the actual peasant who told the tale and received payment in the form of butter for having provided entertainment. Ethnographers did travel the country recording fairy tales told by peasants, and peasants did request rewards for providing entertainment. More generally, a lot of tales suggest that a peasant traveler might get lodging and food at the end of the day by telling tales to the bored people living along the route, and using a formulaic ending (“I drank mead, but none of it got into my mouth, hint hint”) might have been an easier way to remind the audience (whether friends or strangers) of the deal than waiting to ask once the tale is completely finished and the mood has changed (or it is someone else’s turn to tell a story).