WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:06.919
Chapter ten, The Peasant Merry.
It was the second day in Easter week.

2
00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:11.080
The air was warm, the sky
was blue, the sun was high,

3
00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:16.920
warm, bright, but my soul
was very gloomy. I sauntered behind

4
00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:21.239
the prison barracks. I stared at
the palings of the stout prison fence,

5
00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:26.039
counting the movers, but I had
no inclination to count them, though it

6
00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:30.120
was my habit to do so.
This was the second day of the holidays.

7
00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:34.119
In the prison, the convicts were
not taken out to work. There

8
00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:38.880
were numbers of men drunk. Loud
abuse and quarreling was springing up continually in

9
00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:44.399
every corner. There were hideous,
disgusting songs and card parties installed beside the

10
00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:49.000
platform beds. Several of the convicts, who had been sentenced by their comrades

11
00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:53.679
for special violence, to be beaten
till they were half dead, were lying

12
00:00:53.719 --> 00:00:58.039
on the platform bed covered with sheepskins, till they should recover and come to

13
00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:03.359
themselves again. Nigh had already been
drawn several times for these two days of

14
00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:07.719
holiday. All this had been torturing
me till it made me ill, And

15
00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:11.599
indeed I could never endure without repulsion
the noise and disorder of drunken people,

16
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:17.359
and especially in this place on these
days. Even the prison officials did not

17
00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:21.120
look into the prison, made no
searches, did not look for vodka,

18
00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:26.000
understanding that they must allow even these
outcasts to enjoy themselves once a year,

19
00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.799
and that things would be even worse
if they did not. At last,

20
00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:34.319
a sudden fury flamed up in my
heart, a political prisoner called m met

21
00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.719
me. He looked at me gloomily, his eyes flashed, and his lips

22
00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:42.920
quivered. Jehet zebrigand he hissed to
me through his teeth and walked on.

23
00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:48.079
I returned to the prison ward,
though only a quarter of an hour before

24
00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:52.480
I had rushed out of it as
though I were crazy, when six stalwart

25
00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:57.200
fellows had altogether flung themselves upon the
drunken Tatar Gazin to suppress him, and

26
00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.480
had begun beating him, beat him
stupidly. A camel might have been killed

27
00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:06.120
by such blows, but they knew
that this Hercules was not easy to kill,

28
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.560
and so they beat him without uneasiness. Now, on returning I noticed

29
00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:14.759
on the bed in the furthest corner
of the room Gayzine, lying unconscious,

30
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.840
almost without sign of life. He
lay covered with a sheepskin, and everyone

31
00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:23.599
walked around him without speaking, though
they confidently hoped that he would come to

32
00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:27.759
himself next morning. Yet if luck
was against him, maybe from a beating

33
00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.960
like that, the man would die. I made my way back to my

34
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.759
own place, opposite the window with
the iron grating, and lay on my

35
00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.039
back, my hands behind my head, and my eyes shut. I liked

36
00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:43.879
to lie like that. A sleeping
man is not molested. And meanwhile one

37
00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:46.680
can dream and think. But I
could not dream. My heart was beating

38
00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:53.240
uneasily, and EM's words jeheese brigande
were echoing in my ears. But why

39
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.800
describe my impressions? I sometimes dream
even now of those times at night,

40
00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:02.199
and I have no dreams more agonizing. Perhaps it will be noticed that even

41
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:07.080
to this day I have scarcely once
spoken in print of my life in prison.

42
00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:09.000
The House of the Dead, I
wrote fifteen years ago, in the

43
00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:14.199
character of an imaginary person, a
criminal who had killed his wife. I

44
00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:17.639
may add, by the way,
that since then very many persons have supposed,

45
00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:22.319
and even now maintained, that I
was sent to penal servitude for the

46
00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:27.280
murder of my wife. Gradually I
sank into forgetfulness, and by degrees,

47
00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.039
was lost in memories. During the
whole course of my four years in prison,

48
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:35.479
I was continually recalling all my past, and seemed to live over again

49
00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:38.639
the whole of my life and recollection, these memories rose up of themselves.

50
00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:43.759
It was not often that of my
own will I summoned them. It would

51
00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:47.280
begin from some point, some little
thing, at times unnoticed, and then

52
00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:53.360
by degrees there would rise up a
complete picture, some vivid and complete impression.

53
00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:57.639
I used to analyze these impressions,
give new features to what had happened

54
00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:00.639
long ago, and best of all, I used to correct it, correct

55
00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:05.319
it continually. That was my great
amusement. On this occasion, I suddenly,

56
00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:10.319
for some reason, remembered an unnoticed
moment in my early childhood, when

57
00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:13.919
I was only nine years old,
a moment which I should have thought had

58
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.839
utterly forgotten, but at that time
I was particularly fond of memories of my

59
00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:21.199
early childhood. I remembered the month
of August in our country house, a

60
00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:26.120
dry, bright day, but rather
cold and windy. Summer was waning,

61
00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:29.399
and soon we should have to go
to Moscow to be bored all the winter

62
00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:31.879
over French lessons, and I was
so sorry. To leave the country.

63
00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:38.000
I walked past the threshing floor,
and going down the ravine, I went

64
00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:41.319
up to the dense thicket of bushes
that covered the further side of the ravine

65
00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:44.920
as far as the copse, and
I plunged right into the midst of the

66
00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:48.879
bushes and heard a peasant plowing alone
on the clearing, about thirty paces away.

67
00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:53.000
I knew that he was plowing up
the steep hill, and the horse

68
00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.439
was moving with effort, and from
time to time the peasant's call come up

69
00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:00.680
floated upwards to me. I knew
all almost all our peasants, but I

70
00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.839
did not know which it was plowing
now, and I did not care who

71
00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:08.759
it was. I was absorbed in
my own affairs. I was busy too.

72
00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.839
I was breaking off switches from the
nut trees to whip the frogs.

73
00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.199
With nutsticks make such fine whips,
but they do not last, while birch

74
00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:19.920
twigs are just the opposite. I
was interested too in beetles and other insects.

75
00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:25.199
I used to collect them. Some
were very ornamental. I was very

76
00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:29.079
fond too of the little nimble red
and yellow lizards with black spots on them.

77
00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:32.319
But I was afraid of snakes.
Snakes, however, were much more

78
00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:36.319
rare than lizards. There were not
many mushrooms there. To get mushrooms,

79
00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:39.920
one had to go to the birch
wood, and I was about to set

80
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:43.399
off there. And there is nothing
in the world I loved so much as

81
00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:46.000
the wood, with its mushrooms and
wild berries, with its beetles, and

82
00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:50.720
its birds, its hedgehogs and squirrels, with its damp smell of dead leaves,

83
00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.720
which I loved so much. And
even as I write, I smell

84
00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.680
the fragrance of our birch wood.
These impressions will remain for my whole life.

85
00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:01.120
Suddenly, in the mist of the
profound stillness, I heard a clear

86
00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:06.720
and distinct shout wolf. I shrieked, and beside myself with terror, calling

87
00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:11.319
out at the top of my voice, ran out into the clearing and straight

88
00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:15.240
to the peasant who was plowing.
It was our peasant Mary. I don't

89
00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:16.839
know if there is such a name, but every one called him Mary,

90
00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:21.680
a thick set, rather well grown
peasant of fifty with a good many gray

91
00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:26.399
hairs in his dark brown, spreading
beard. I knew him, but had

92
00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:30.439
scarcely ever happened to speak to him
till then He stopped his horse on hearing

93
00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:34.399
my cry, and when breathless I
caught with one hand at his plow and

94
00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:39.439
with the other at his sleeve.
He saw how frightened I was. There

95
00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:42.879
is a wolf, I cried,
panting. He flung up his head and

96
00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.720
could not help looking round for an
instant, almost believing me, Where is

97
00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.360
the wolf? A shout? Someone
shouted wolf? I faltered out, nonsense,

98
00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:54.920
nonsense, a wolf? Why it
is your fancy? How could there

99
00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:58.360
be a wolf? He muttered,
reassuring me. But I was trembling all

100
00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:01.279
over and still kept tight hold off
his smock frock, and I must have

101
00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:06.000
been quite pale. He looked at
me with an uneasy smile, evidently anxious

102
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.319
and troubled over me. When you
have had a fright eh? Eh,

103
00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:13.399
he shook his head. There,
dear, come little one. Eh.

104
00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:16.759
He stretched out his hand and all
at once stroked my cheek. Come come

105
00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:20.879
there, Christ be with you.
Cross yourself. But I did not cross

106
00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:25.360
myself. The corners of my mouth
were twitching, and I think that struck

107
00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:29.319
him particularly. He put out his
thick, black nailed, earth stained finger

108
00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:31.959
and softly touched my twitching lips.
Hey, there there, he said,

109
00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.879
to me with a slow, almost
motherly smile. Dear, dear, what

110
00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:41.000
is the matter there? Come come? I grasped at last that there was

111
00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:44.680
no wolf, and that the shout
that I heard was my fancy. Yet

112
00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:48.120
that shout had been so clear and
distinct. But such shouts not only about

113
00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.439
wolves. I had imagined once or
twice before, and I was aware of

114
00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:57.519
that. These hallucinations passed away later
as I grew older. Well I will

115
00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:01.000
go, then, I said,
looking at him timidly and inquiringly. Well

116
00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:05.560
do, and I'll keep watch on
you as you go. I won't let

117
00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:09.519
the wolf get at you. He's
added, still smiling at me with the

118
00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:13.240
same motherly expression. Well Christ be
with you. Come run along, then,

119
00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:16.959
and he made the sign of the
cross over me and then over himself.

120
00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.319
I walked away, looking back almost
at every tenth step. Mary stood

121
00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:26.120
still with his mare as I walked
away, and looked after me and nodded

122
00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:28.199
to me every time I looked around. I must own I felt a little

123
00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.519
ashamed at having let him see me
so frightened, but I was still very

124
00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.519
much afraid of the wolf as I
walked away until I reached the first barn

125
00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:39.480
half way up to the slope of
the ravine. There my fright vanished completely,

126
00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:43.840
and all at once our yard dog
Voltchok flew to meet me. With

127
00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:48.639
Voltchok, I felt quite safe,
and I turned round to Mary for the

128
00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:52.360
last time. I could not see
his face distinctly, but I felt that

129
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:56.080
he was still nodding and smiling affectionately
to me. I waved to him,

130
00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:00.399
He waved back to me and started
his little mare come up. I heard

131
00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:03.799
his call in the distance again,
and the little mare pulled at the plow

132
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:07.519
again. All this I recalled,
all at once. I don't know why,

133
00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:11.120
both extraordinary minuteness of detail. I
suddenly roused myself and sat up on

134
00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:16.159
the platform bed, and I remember
found myself still smiling quietly at my memories.

135
00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:20.080
I brooded over them for another minutes. When I got home that day,

136
00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:24.519
I told no one of my adventure
with Mary, and indeed it was

137
00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.679
hardly an adventure, And in fact
I soon forgot Mary when I met him

138
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:31.320
now and then afterwards. I never
even spoke to him about the wolf or

139
00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.000
anything else. And all at once, now, twenty years afterwards, in

140
00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:39.519
Siberia, I remembered this meeting with
such distinctness to the smallest detail, so

141
00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:43.840
it must have lain hidden in my
soul, though I knew nothing of it,

142
00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:46.559
and rose suddenly to my memory when
it was wanted. I remembered the

143
00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:50.200
soft, motherly smile of the poor
serf, the way he signed me with

144
00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:54.799
the cross and shook his head.
There there you have had a fright little

145
00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:58.279
one. And I remembered particularly the
thick earth stained finger with which he softly,

146
00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.759
and with him in tenderness, touched
my quivering lips. Of course,

147
00:10:01.799 --> 00:10:05.879
anyone would have reassured a child,
but something quite different seemed to have happened

148
00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:09.399
in that solitary meaning. And if
I had been his own son, he

149
00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.720
could not have looked at me with
eyes shining with greater love? And what

150
00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.240
made him like that? He was
our serf and I was his little master.

151
00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.159
After all, no one would know
that he had been kind to me,

152
00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:24.120
and reward him, for it was
he perhaps very fond of little children

153
00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:28.120
some people are. It was a
solitary meaning in the deserted fields, and

154
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.679
only God perhaps may have seen from
above, with what deep and humane civilized

155
00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:37.200
feeling, and with what delicate,
almost feminine tenderness the heart of a coarse,

156
00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:41.200
brutally ignorant Russian serf, who had
as yet no expectation, no idea

157
00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:46.600
even of his freedom may be felled. Was not this perhaps what Konstantine Aksakov

158
00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:50.120
meant when he spoke of the high
degree of culture of our peasantry. And

159
00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:52.840
when I got down off the bed
and looked around me, I remember I

160
00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:58.039
suddenly felt they could look at these
unhappy creatures with quite different eyes, that

161
00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:01.440
suddenly, by some miracle, hatred
and anger had vanished utterly from my heart.

162
00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:05.000
I walked about, looking into the
faces that I met. That shaven

163
00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:09.159
peasant branded on his face as a
criminal, bawling his horse drunken song,

164
00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:13.600
may be that very merry I cannot
look into his heart. I met em

165
00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:18.440
again, that evening poor fellow.
He could have had no memories of Russian

166
00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:22.840
peasants, and no other view of
these people. But jeheyte c Brigand yes,

167
00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:28.919
the Polish prisoners had more to bear
than I. End of Chapter ten