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Gusev

January 21, 2013
influences, Photography
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“Gusev spends a long time thinking about fish as big as mountains and about thick, rusty chains, then he gets bored and starts thinking about his village, which he is now returning to after five years service is the Far East. A picture of a huge pond covered with snow appears in his mind… On one side of the pond is the brick coloured pottery, with a tall chimney and clouds of black smoke; on the other side is the village… Out of the yards – the fifth one along from the end–his brother Alexey is driving a sleigh; sitting behind him are his little son Vanka in his big felt boots, and his little girl Akulka, also in felt boots. Alexey has been drinking, and Vanka is laughing, but you cant see Akulka’s face because she is all wrapped up.

‘He should watch out, or those children will catch their death,’ thinks Gusev. ‘May the Lord give them the good sense to honour their parents,’ he whispers, ‘and not be cleverer than their mother and father….’

‘These need new soles,’ says the sick sailor deliriously in his bass voice. ‘Oh Yes!’

Gusev’s thought are cut short, and instead of the pond, a large bulls head without eyes suddenly appears in his vision for no apparent reason, and the horse and sleigh are no longer moving forward but are whirling round and round in black smoke. But he is still glad that he seen his family. The pleasure of it quite takes his breath away, making his body tingle and his fingers tremble.

‘The lord has ordained that we should meet!’ he mutters deliriously, but then immediately opens his eyes and looks for water in the darkness.

He takes a drink then lies down, and once again he sees the sleigh being pulled along, then again the bull’s head without eyes, the smoke and the clouds….And so it continues until dawn

From Gusev p46, in

Chekhov, A. (2004). About Love and other stories. Translated by Rosamund Bartlett.

Oxford: Oxford world Classics.