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Peasants
I
II
III IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
IX Oh, what a grim, what a long winter!
Their own grain did not last beyond Christmas, and they had to
buy flour. Kiryak, who lived at home now, was noisy in the
evenings, inspiring terror in everyone, and in the mornings he
suffered from headache and was ashamed; and he was a pitiful
sight. In the stall the starved cows bellowed day and night -- a
heart-rending sound to Granny and Marya. And as ill-luck would
have it, there was a sharp frost all the winter, the snow
drifted in high heaps, and the winter dragged on. At
Annunciation there was a regular blizzard, and there was a fall
of snow at Easter.
But in spite of it all the winter did end. At the beginning of
April there came warm days and frosty nights. Winter would not
give way, but one warm day overpowered it at last, and the
streams began to flow and the birds began to sing. The whole
meadow and the bushes near the river were drowned in the spring
floods, and all the space between Zhukovo and the further side
was filled up with a vast sheet of water, from which wild ducks
rose up in flocks here and there. The spring sunset, flaming
among gorgeous clouds, gave every evening something new,
extraordinary, incredible -- just what one does not believe in
afterwards, when one sees those very colours and those very
clouds in a picture.
The cranes flew swiftly, swiftly, with mournful cries, as though
they were calling themselves. Standing on the edge of the
ravine, Olga looked a long time at the flooded meadow, at the
sunshine, at the bright church, that looked as though it had
grown younger; and her tears flowed and her breath came in gasps
from her passionate longing to go away, to go far away to the
end of the world. It was already settled that she should go back
to Moscow to be a servant, and that Kiryak should set off with
her to get a job as a porter or something. Oh, to get away
quickly!
As soon as it dried up and grew warm they got ready to set off.
Olga and Sasha, with wallets on their backs and shoes of plaited
bark on their feet, came out before daybreak: Marya came out,
too, to see them on their way. Kiryak was not well, and was kept
at home for another week. For the last time Olga prayed at the
church and thought of her husband, and though she did not shed
tears, her face puckered up and looked ugly like an old woman's.
During the winter she had grown thinner and plainer, and her
hair had gone a little grey, and instead of the old look of
sweetness and the pleasant smile on her face, she had the
resigned, mournful expression left by the sorrows she had been
through, and there was something blank and irresponsive in her
eyes, as though she did not hear what was said. She was sorry to
part from the village and the peasants. She remembered how they
had carried out Nikolay, and how a requiem had been ordered for
him at almost every hut, and all had shed tears in sympathy with
her grief. In the course of the summer and the winter there had
been hours and days when it seemed as though these people lived
worse than the beasts, and to live with them was terrible; they
were coarse, dishonest, filthy, and drunken; they did not live
in harmony, but quarrelled continually, because they distrusted
and feared and did not respect one another. Who keeps the tavern
and makes the people drunken? A peasant. Who wastes and spends
on drink the funds of the commune, of the schools, of the
church? A peasant. Who stole from his neighbours, set fire to
their property, gave false witness at the court for a bottle of
vodka? At the meetings of the Zemstvo and other local bodies,
who was the first to fall foul of the peasants? A peasant. Yes,
to live with them was terrible; but yet, they were human beings,
they suffered and wept like human beings, and there was nothing
in their lives for which one could not find excuse. Hard labour
that made the whole body ache at night, the cruel winters, the
scanty harvests, the overcrowding; and they had no help and none
to whom they could look for help. Those of them who were a
little stronger and better off could be no help, as they were
themselves coarse, dishonest, drunken, and abused one another
just as revoltingly; the paltriest little clerk or official
treated the peasants as though they were tramps, and addressed
even the village elders and church wardens as inferiors, and
considered they had a right to do so. And, indeed, can any sort
of help or good example be given by mercenary, greedy, depraved,
and idle persons who only visit the village in order to insult,
to despoil, and to terrorize? Olga remembered the pitiful,
humiliated look of the old people when in the winter Kiryak had
been taken to be flogged. . . . And now she felt sorry for all
these people, painfully so, and as she walked on she kept
looking back at the huts.
After walking two miles with them Marya said good-bye, then
kneeling, and falling forward with her face on the earth, she
began wailing:
"Again I am left alone. Alas, for poor me! poor, unhappy! . . ."
And she wailed like this for a long time, and for a long way
Olga and Sasha could still see her on her knees, bowing down to
someone at the side and clutching her head in her hands, while
the rooks flew over her head.
The sun rose high; it began to get hot. Zhukovo was left far
behind. Walking was pleasant. Olga and Sasha soon forgot both
the village and Marya; they were gay and everything entertained
them. Now they came upon an ancient barrow, now upon a row of
telegraph posts running one after another into the distance and
disappearing into the horizon, and the wires hummed
mysteriously. Then they saw a homestead, all wreathed in green
foliage; there came a scent from it of dampness, of hemp, and it
seemed for some reason that happy people lived there. Then they
came upon a horse's skeleton whitening in solitude in the open
fields. And the larks trilled unceasingly, the corncrakes called
to one another, and the landrail cried as though someone were
really scraping at an old iron rail.
At midday Olga and Sasha reached a big village. There in the
broad street they met the little old man who was General
Zhukov's cook. He was hot, and his red, perspiring bald head
shone in the sunshine. Olga and he did not recognize each other,
then looked round at the same moment, recognized each other, and
went their separate ways without saying a word. Stopping near
the hut which looked newest and most prosperous, Olga bowed down
before the open windows, and said in a loud, thin, chanting
voice:
"Good Christian folk, give alms, for Christ's sake, that God's
blessing may be upon you, and that your parents may be in the
Kingdom of Heaven in peace eternal."
"Good Christian folk," Sasha began chanting, "give, for Christ's
sake, that God's blessing, the Heavenly Kingdom . . ."
NOTES
left one also: Matthew 5:39
Our Father: the first words of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew
6:9-13
heavy laden: Matthew 11:28
words like: the original has astche, dondezhe, words in Church
Slavonic, the liturgial language
Slaveytown: original has "Khamskaya or Kholuefka," names
implying cads and toadies [kham = cad]
"Hermitage" garden: The Hermitage Garden was one of Moscow's
best restaurants
good soul: the original has Batiushka, "little father," with
overtones of addressing a Russian Orthodox priest; there is no
English equivalent
Omon's: a restaurant not as "high-class" as the Hermitage Garden
His mother: the passage she reads is from Matthew 2:13
holy Saints: the original has Batiushki, "little fathers"
Fast of the Assumption: August 15
emancipation: the serfs were set free in 1861
rissoles: bitki, meat dumplings
Battenburg: Alexander of Battenberg (1857-1893) was prince of
Bulgaria from 1879-1886; he was forced to abdicate by Alexander
III of Russia
chaise: a covered traveling wagon
prayer to Battenburg: the picture of Battenburg is located near
the icons, so the old man evidently mistakes the picture for a
religious icon
Zemstvo: a district council with locally elected members
Holy Mother of Kazan, Holy Mother of Smolensk, Holy Mother of
Troerutchitsy: allegedly "wonder-working" icons
superior to themselves: the original has "all addressed her and
her daughter Sasha as vy."; that is, they used the polite form
of "you," vy, rather than the familiar form, ty.
Elijah's Day: July 20
Assumption: August 15
Ascension: September 14
Feast of the Intercession: October 1
get exemption: a youngest son or a sole surviving son was exempt
from military duty
cupping: an outdated medical treatment in which blood is removed
by placing evacuated glass cups on the skin; bleeding the
patient by cupping, applying leeches, or cutting was accepted
medical practice from the middle ages until the middle of the
19th century
Annunciation: March 25
porter: dvornik, house porter or door-keeper
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