The Alpha-Bestiary
Y is for Yussef,
The yak from Yaroslavl
Who loved to grovel on the gravel.
He met a maiden yak and fell in love.
She bid him behave in slavish ways,
Which won his heart and loving devotion.
He popped the question, she said yes,
If he wore yellow for his wedding day.
He assented with never a hesitation.
Yussef vowed to love, honor and obey,
And so today he is the maiden yak’s slave,
And if he behaves the way she wants,
She lets him grovel on the Yaroslavl gravel.
Y is for Yussef,
The yak from Yaroslavl
Who loved to grovel on the gravel.
He met a maiden yak and fell in love.
She bid him behave in slavish ways,
Which won his heart and loving devotion.
He popped the question, she said yes,
If he wore yellow for his wedding day.
He assented with never a hesitation.
Yussef vowed to love, honor and obey,
And so today he is the maiden yak’s slave,
And if he behaves the way she wants,
She lets him grovel on the Yaroslavl gravel.
Yaroslavl, 250 km/160 mi northeast of Moscow, is the oldest extant community on the Volga river. St. Vladimir the Great, the ruler of Kievan Rus, sent one of his younger sons, the future Yaroslav I the Wise, was sent to administer the northern lands near Rostov Veliky but in 1010 he transferred him to Veliky Novgorod when he was in his early thirties. That year he visited Strelka, a popular park, and founded a kremlin (fortification) there, which was known as "Yaroslav's." It reamined a relatively minor fortified city for the next 2 centuries. In the early 13th century it was one of the principal residences of Konstantin Vsevolodovich, grand prince of Vladimir, and when he died in 1218 it passed to his 2nd son Vsevolod, who established an independent principality there which lasted until it was annexed into the princpality of Moscow in 1463.
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