The fable of an insect and a mouse

The fable of an insect and a mouse (or some other animal), who marry and embark on
a life together, only to end in tragedy, is widely disseminated from the Mediterranean
region to India. One version involving a beetle (Ṭuroyo keze, Kurmanji kêz) circulates
throughout Anatolia and Iraq. The following Ṭuroyo and Kurmanji version was recorded
during the 2020 summer field season of the Russian expedition to Tur Abdin in the
village of Dērqube from a speaker of the Bequsyone dialect. She relates the narrative
portions of the fable in Ṭuroyo, but switches to Kurmanji for its versified portions. In
addition to the text and a translation, this study includes an interlinear glossing. It also
discusses the motifs of the fable according to the standard classification scheme, as
well as its relationship to other attested versions collected in various languages including
Arabic, Kurmanji, and Turkish.