Chekhov's 1899 work baby Olenka, the daughter of retired civil servant Plemennikov, was sitting on the porch of the courtyard thinking.It was hot, and the flies were always obsessively entangled.The thought that it would soon be dark made me happy.Dark rain clouds moved here from the east, and humid air blew from there from time to time. Kujin stood in the middle of the courtyard, looking at the sky.He is the manager of the theater troupe, who runs the "Jivori" playground, and lives in a wing of the courtyard. "It's going to rain again!" he said dejectedly. "It's going to rain again! It's raining every day, every day, as if it's trying to mess with me! It's going to hang me! Bankrupt me! Lose a lot of money!"

He clapped his hands together and said to Olenka: "Look! Olga Semyonovna, that's the way we live. I can't help but cry! One works hard, exhausts oneself, and sleeps at night thinking of how to do well. But what happened? First off, the audience is ignorant people, savages. I rank them the best operettas, fantasies, first-rate satirical singers, but do they want to see it? You Assuming they can understand? All they need to do is to watch funny straw plays! Give them vulgar plays! Next, please look at the weather. It rains almost every night. It started on May 10th, and continued for a whole May and a June.

It's terrible!The theatergoers won't come, but don't I still have to pay the rent?Don't actors still have to be paid? " In the evening of the next day, when the clouds turned again, Kujin laughed hysterically and said, "What does that matter? If it wants to rain, let it rain! It will fill the garden with water, and just drown me alive! Call me this I was unlucky in this life, and I will still be unlucky in the next life! Let those actors turn me to the court! What is the court? Just send me to Siberia to do hard labor! Send me to the guillotine! Hahaha!" On the third day it was still the same. ...

Olenka listened silently and attentively to Kukin, and sometimes tears welled up in her eyes.At last, his misfortune touched her heart, and she fell in love with him.He was short and thin, with a sallow complexion, his hair parted in two sides, and he spoke in a high-pitched tenor voice, with his mouth curled up when he spoke.There was always a look of despondency on his face, but he stirred in her a genuine affection.She is too old to love someone, and she can't do otherwise.Earlier she had loved her father, and now he was ill, sitting in an armchair in a dark room, breathing hard; she had also loved her aunt, who used to come from Bryansk every two years Back; before this, when she was in junior high school, she had loved her French teacher.She was a quiet, kind, considerate girl, with gentle, gentle eyes, and perfect health.If a man sees her plump, ruddy face, her soft, fair neck with a mole, and the innocent, kind smile on her face whenever she hears something pleasant, She would think to herself: "Yeah, this girl is pretty good..." and smiled slightly.As for women, in the middle of a conversation, they often can't help but suddenly hold her hand, and can't help but say with affection: "Baby!"

This house is located in the gypsy residential area on the outskirts of the city, not far from the "Jivoli" playground. She has lived in this house since the day she was born, and her father has written in his will that the house will be belongs to her.In the evening and night, she could hear the music of the band in the amusement park and the crackling of firecrackers. She thought it was Kujin who was fighting against his fate, attacking his great enemy-the indifferent audience, she Her heart tightened sweetly, and she didn't feel sleepy at all.When it was almost dawn and he came home, she would lightly knock on the window of her bedroom, only showing her face and one shoulder to him through the curtain, smiling tenderly. ... He proposed to her and they were married.When he got close to her and saw her neck and plump shoulders clearly, he raised his hands and patted her lightly, saying, "Baby!"

He was happy, but because it rained day and night on the wedding day, the frustrated look never left his face. They are doing well after marriage.She is in charge of his box office, takes care of the housekeeping of the amusement park, keeps accounts, and pays wages.Her ruddy face, cute and innocent smile that seemed to be shining, sometimes flashed in the small window of the box office, sometimes in the catering department, and sometimes in the background.She has often said to her acquaintances that the greatest, most important, and indispensable thing in the world is the theater, and that only in the theater can one obtain real enjoyment, become educated, and become kind.

"But do the audience understand that?" she said. "They only want to watch a silly show! Last night when we played "Little Faust," nearly all the boxes were empty; Exchange a vulgar play with me, don't worry, the theater will be packed. Tomorrow Vanicka and I are going to play "Orpheus in Hell". Please come and see .” She learned everything Kukin said about theater and actors.Like him, she looked down on audiences because they were ignorant and indifferent to art.She attends rehearsals, corrects the movements of actors, and monitors the behavior of musicians.When a dissatisfaction with the theater troupe was published in a newspaper in the city, she shed tears, and then went to the editorial department of the newspaper to clear it up.

The actors liked her and called her "Vanniczka and me," or "Baby."She took pity on them and lent them a small amount of money.If they cheated on her now and then, she only wept secretly, but did not complain to her husband. They also do well in winter.Throughout the winter, they rented theaters in the city to perform plays, and only let them out for a short time, to the Little Russian troupe, or magicians, or local amateurs.Olenka had grown fat, and her face glowed with contentment.Kujin, however, became yellow and thin, and complained that the loss was too large. In fact, the business was good that winter.Every night when he coughed, she gave him raspberry and linden flower juice, rubbed his body with perfume, and wrapped him in a soft shawl.

"You are really my sweetheart!" She smoothed his hair and said very sincerely, "You really hurt me!" On Lent⑤, he set out for Moscow to hire a theater troupe.As soon as he left, she couldn't sleep, she always sat by the window and looked at the stars.At this time she compared herself to a hen.The rooster is not in the nest, and the hen can't sleep all night, restless.Kukin, who was delayed in Moscow, wrote a letter saying that he would not be back until Easter, and in addition, he explained several things about "Zivori".But on the Monday before Good Friday ⑥, when it was late at night, there was a frightening knock on the door. I don’t know who was banging on the wicket door hard, just like beating a big bucket-bang bang bang!The sleepy cook ran to open the door, patting over the puddle with her bare feet.

"Excuse me, please open the door!" Someone said in a low bass voice outside the door. "There's a telegram from your family!" Olenka had received telegrams from her husband before, but this time, for some reason, she was terrified.She opened the telegram with trembling hands, and saw the following message: Ivan Petrovich passed away suddenly today and should be buried like a river on Tuesday. That's exactly what was written in the telegram—Ruhe's funeral, and the word "ji" that didn't make any sense at all.The telegram is the next payment from the Director's Office of the Opera Troupe.

"My love!" cried Olenka. "Vanicka, my love, my dear! Why did I meet you? Why did I know you and fall in love with you? Poor Olenka, poor, unfortunate creature! To whom? ..." On Tuesday they buried Kukin in the Vagonkovo ​​cemetery in Moscow; on Wednesday Olenka came home, and as soon as she entered the room she fell on the bed and wept so loudly that it could be heard in the next yard and in the street. . "Baby!" said the neighbor, crossing himself, "my dear Olga Semyonovna, poor, so sorry!" Three months later, Olenka was walking home from mass one day, very sad and very sad.It happened that her neighbor, Vasily Andreich Pustovalov, was also coming home from church, and was walking beside her.He was the manager of the timber yard of the merchant Babakayev.In his straw hat and white waistcoat with a gold watch chain, he looked more like a landowner than a merchant. "Everything is God's will, Olga Semyonovna," he said solemnly, with a tone of sympathy in his voice. "If our loved ones die, it must be God's will. In this situation, we should hold back our grief and obey our fate." He saw Olenka at the door, said good-bye to her, and went on.After that, all day long, his solemn voice kept ringing in her ears, and when she closed her eyes, she seemed to see his black beard.She likes him very much.And she obviously made a good impression on him, because not long after, an elderly lady whom she didn't know very well came to her house for coffee, and as soon as she sat down at the table, she immediately talked about Pu Stovalov, said he was a reliable and good man, and any girl of marriageable age would be happy to marry him.Three days later Pustovalov himself called for a call.He didn't sit for long, only ten minutes or so, and didn't talk much, but Olenka fell in love with him already, and loved him so much that she couldn't sleep all night, feeling feverish all over her body, as if she had a fever, until the second day. In the morning of the next day, someone will invite the elderly lady to come.The marriage was quickly settled, and the wedding ceremony followed. Pustovalov and Olenka had a very good marriage.Usually he would stay in the lumber yard before lunch and then go out to do business, so Olenka would sit in the office for him, settle the accounts and sell the goods until evening. "The price of lumber is rising year by year, and the price goes up by 20% a year," she told customers and acquaintances. "Lord, please have mercy on us. We used to sell local wood, but now Vasichka has to go to Mogilev Province every year to buy wood. The shipping costs are so high!" she went on, showing fear. Covering his face with his hands, he said, "What a huge shipping fee!" She felt as if she had been in the lumber business for a long, long time, and felt that the most important and important thing in life was lumber.What are "beams", "logs", "sheets", "wainscoting", "box boards", "slats", "blocks", "slabs", etc., To her, there was something endearing and touching in those words. ... As she slept at night, she dreamed that there was a mountain of planks and planks, an endless chain of wagons carrying timber out of town and into the distance.She also dreamed that a large number of logs twelve feet long and five inches thick were erected and walked on the lumber yard. Then the logs, beams, and rough boards collided with each other, making a sound of dry wood, It fell down for a while, and stood up again for a while, overlapping each other.Olenka cried out in her sleep, and Pustovalov said softly to her: "Olenka, what's the matter with you, dear? Cross yourself." She thinks what her husband thinks.If he thought it was hot in the room, or that business was slow now, she thought so too.Her husband disliked any entertainment, and was always at home on holidays.She did the same. "You're always at home or in the office," said the acquaintances. "You ought to go to the show, my dear, or go to the circus." "Vassizka and I don't have time to go to the theatre," she answered solemnly. "We're workers, and we don't bother to watch nonsense. What's the use of going to the theater?" Pustovalov and she always went to all-night prayers on Saturdays and morning prayers on holidays.There was always a look of emotion on their faces as they walked home side by side from church.They both smelled nice, and her silk dress rustled nicely.At home they drank tea and ate bread and brioche and various jams, and then pies.Every day at noon, in their yard and on the street outside the gate, there is always the fragrant smell of red beet soup, fried mutton or roast duck, etc., and there is the smell of fish on fasting days. Whoever walks through the gate of their house, You can't help but be hungry.In the office, the samovar is always boiling, and they entertain customers with tea and bagels.The couple went to take a bath once a week, and walked home side by side, both of them flushed. "It's not bad, we're doing well, thank God," Olenka used to say to acquaintances, "if only God would make it possible for everyone to live like Vasicka and me." Whenever Pustovalov went to Mogilev Province to buy wood, she always missed him very much, couldn't sleep all night, and cried.A young veterinarian in the army, Smirnin, rented a wing of her house and sometimes visited her in the evening.He came to chat with her and play cards, which relieved her boredom.It was especially interesting to hear him talk about his own family life.He had been married and had a son, but he had separated from his wife because she had changed her mind about him, and now he hated her and sent her forty rubles a month for his son's maintenance.At these words Olenka sighed, shook her head, and felt sorry for him. "Oh, God bless you," she said to him at parting, sending him downstairs with a candle. "Thank you for coming to cheer me up, and I ask God to give you health, Holy Mother..." She followed her husband's example, and her expression was always very dignified and stable.The veterinarian had already come out of the downstairs door, and she called to him, saying: "You understand, Vladimir Platonitch, you must make peace with your wife. You must at least forgive for the sake of your son." She!... Don't worry, that little guy must understand in his heart." When Pustovalov came back, she whispered to him the veterinarian and his unhappy home life, and they both sighed, shook their heads, and talked about the boy, who must be missing his father.Later, because of some strange connection in thought, the two of them knelt down in front of the holy image and kowtowed, begging God to give them children. In this way, the Pustovalovs lived peacefully for six years in love and harmony.But, alas, one winter, Vasily Andreitch, wanting to drink enough hot tea, went out to sell wood without his hat on, and fell ill with a cold.She sent for the best doctors to treat him, but it got worse and worse, and after four months he died.Olenka was again a widow. "Who did you leave me to, my relatives?" she cried bitterly after sending her husband to the funeral. "Without you now, how can I, a miserable and unfortunate person, live on? Kind people, have pity on me, a helpless person..." She put on a black mourning dress and sewed a white mourning badge on it. , no longer wearing hats and gloves. She didn't go out, only went to church now and then, or to her husband's grave, and was always at home, like a nun.It was not until six months later that she removed the white mourning badge and opened the shutters.Sometimes she could be seen going to the market with her cook in the morning to buy vegetables, but how she lived at home now, and what was going on in her house, one can only guess.People were really guessing, because she was often seen drinking tea with the veterinarian in their little garden, and he read her the news from the newspaper, and because she met a woman she knew at the post office and said to her: " There is much disease in our town, because of the lack of proper supervision of a veterinarian, and it is often heard that some have been ill from drinking milk, or have contracted disease from horses or cows. In fact, the health of livestock should be as concerned as the health of humans. " She recounted the veterinarian's thoughts, and now she saw everything as he did.Apparently she could not live a year without loving anyone, and she found new happiness in the annex of her house.Anyone else would have been reproached for such behavior, but with Olenka no one thought the worst of it, and everything in her life could be forgiven.Neither she nor the veterinarian told anyone about the change in their relationship, and tried to conceal it; but it was impossible, because Olenka could not keep a secret.Whenever he had guests in his room, colleagues from the army, she would pour tea for them, or arrange dinner for them, and talk about rinderpest, tuberculosis in livestock, and the slaughterhouse in the city.As for him, he was coy and restless, and when the guests dispersed, he grabbed her hand and said softly angrily: "I asked you not to talk about things you don't understand! When we veterinarians talk about our profession , don't cut in. It's a pain in the ass!" She looked at him in surprise and fear, and asked: "But, Volodechka, what shall I talk about?" With tears in her eyes, she hugged him and begged him not to be angry.They were both happy, but the happiness did not last long.The veterinarian left with the army and never came back, because the army has been transferred to a far away place, probably Siberia.So Olenka was left alone. Now she was quite alone.My father had died long ago, and his armchair was thrown in the attic, covered with dust and missing a leg.She was thinner and ugly, and when people met her in the street, they no longer looked at her as they used to, nor did they smile at her.Apparently the good old days are behind us and left behind.Now she had to live a new life, an unfamiliar life, about which it was better not to think.In the evening Olenka was sitting on the porch listening to the "Divory" band, and the crackling of firecrackers, but this could no longer arouse any resonance in her heart.She looked at her empty yard indifferently, thinking of nothing, hoping for nothing, and when night fell she went to bed and dreamed of her empty yard.She ate and drank, of course, but it seemed out of necessity. Worst of all, she had no insight whatsoever.She saw things around her and understood what was going on around her, but she couldn't form her own opinion about those things, didn't know what to say.How terrible it is to have no insight!For example, she saw a bottle, saw it was raining, or saw a countryman passing by in a cart, but she couldn't tell why the bottle, the rain, or the countryman existed or what their meaning was, even if they took a thousand Give her the ruble, and she can't say anything.When she was with Kukin or Pustovalov, and later with the veterinarian, Olenka could explain everything, she could give her own opinion about everything, but now she Her mind and her heart were as empty as that yard.Life became terrible and bitter, like chewing absinthe. Gradually, the city expanded in all directions.The gypsy neighborhood is already called Main Street, new houses have been built and alleys have appeared on the original site of the "Tivoli" playground and timber yard.Time flies so fast!Olenka's house was blackened, the roof was rusted, the shed was askew, and the yard was covered with weeds and brambles.Olenka herself was old and ugly.In summer, she sat in the corridor, her heart was as empty and dull as before, full of bitterness.In winter, she sat by the window and looked at the snow.Whenever she smelled the fragrance of spring, or the wind brought the church bells tinkling, the past would suddenly come to her mind, her heart would constrict sweetly, and tears would flow down her cheeks, but this It only lasted a minute, and after that, my heart was empty again, and I didn't know why I wanted to live.The black cat Breska clung to her and purred softly, but the kindness of such a cat could not touch Olenka's heart.She doesn't need this!What she needed was a love that would capture her whole being, her whole soul, her whole reason, the kind that would give her thought, give her direction in life, and warm her aging heart.She shook the black cat off her dress, and said to it in a distressed way, "Go away, go away! . . . There is no need to stay here!" And so the days passed, day after day, year after year, without joy, without insight.What Mavra the cook said, she listened to. One hot day in July, near dusk, the cattle in the city had just driven along the street, and the whole courtyard was covered with flying dust, like a cloud, when someone knocked on the door suddenly.Olenka went to open the door herself, opened her eyes, and couldn't help being stunned. There was a veterinarian, Smirnin, with gray hair and casual clothes standing outside.She suddenly remembered everything, couldn't help crying, and put her head on his chest, unable to say a word.She was so excited that she did not notice how they both entered the house afterward, and sat down to tea. "My darling!" she muttered, trembling with joy, "Vladimir Platonitch! Where did God send you?" "I'm going to live here forever," he said. "I'm out of the Army and I've come here to try my luck and have a stable life. Besides, my son is supposed to be in middle school by now. He's grown up. You know, I've made up with my wife." "Where is she?" asked Olenka. "She was in the hotel with her son, and I came out to find a house." "Lord, saints, just come and live in my house! Can't you settle down here? Well, Lord, I don't want you to pay for the house," said Olenka anxiously, crying again Get up, "You guys live here, I'll just move to the wing. Lord, I'm so happy!" The next day the roof was painted, the walls whitewashed, and Olenka walked up and down the yard with her hands on her hips, giving orders.The old smile appeared on her face, and her whole body was full of vitality and energy, as if she had just woken up from a long sleep.The veterinarian's wife arrived, a thin, ugly woman with cropped hair and a wayward expression.She took her little boy, Sasha, a fat ten-year-old, too short for his age, with bright blue eyes and a dimple in each cheek.As soon as the child entered the yard, he ran after the cat, and immediately heard his happy and cheerful laughter. "Auntie, is this your cat?" he asked Olenka. "When your cat has a kitten, please give us one. Mom is very afraid of mice." Olenka talked to him and gave him tea.The heart in her chest suddenly warmed and tightened sweetly, as if the boy was her own son.Every evening, when he sat down in the dining room to review his homework, she would look at him with tenderness and pity, and murmur: "My dear, beautiful young man... My little darling, who looks so white , so smart." "'A portion of land surrounded by water on all sides is called an island,'" he read. "A part of land surrounded by water on all sides..." she learned to say, and it was the first time she could speak her opinion with confidence after years of silence and emptiness of thought. Now she has an opinion.During dinner, she chatted with Sasha's parents, saying how difficult it is for children to study in middle school, but classical education is still better than real education, because after graduating from middle school, there are many career opportunities, including becoming a doctor. You can also be an engineer. " Sasha started secondary school.His mother left for Kharkov to visit her sister and never returned.His father went out every day to see a doctor for the animals, and often stayed at home for three days in a row.Olenka felt that Sasha was completely neglected, that she would become a superfluous person in the family and would starve to death.She let him move to live in her own wing, and furnished him a small room there. For six months, Sasha lived with her in the wing.Every morning Olenka went to his little room, and he slept soundly, with his hands under his cheeks, and there was no sound.She couldn't bear to wake him up. "Sashenka," she said sadly, "get up, sweetie! Time to go to school." He just got up, dressed, said his prayers, and sat down to his morning tea.He drank three cups of tea and finished two large bagels with half a French brioche.He hadn't fully woken up yet, so he wasn't in a good mood. "You haven't learned your fable by heart, Sashenka," said Olenka, looking at him as if she were going to send him away, "how much I have to worry about you. You must study hard, be good." ...you have to listen to what the teacher says." "Hey, please leave me alone!" Sasha said. Then he went out and went to school along the street.He is short in stature, but wears a big hat and carries a schoolbag.Olenka followed him without a sound. "Sashenka!" she cried. When he looked back, she would stuff a date or a piece of sugar into his hand.They turned the corner and walked into the alley where his school was located, and he was ashamed because a tall, fat woman was following behind.He turned and said: "You go home, mother. I can walk alone now." She just stopped and looked at his back without blinking her eyes until he disappeared by the school gate.Ah, how she loved him!Never before had her love been so deep as this time; her motherly affection was burning hotter, never before had she given her soul so selflessly, unselfishly, and joyfully.For this other boy with the big hat and the dimpled cheek, she would have given her whole life, and would have given it up, with tears of tenderness and joy.Why is that?Who can tell why? She dropped Sasha off at school and walked home quietly, contented, grounded, and loving.Her face had grown younger during the last six months, it was smiling and beaming, and everyone who met her looked at her with pleasure and said to her: "Good morning, dear Olga Semyonovna! How are you doing, darling?" "It's so hard to study in high school these days," she said at the market. "Yesterday the first-grade teacher asked the students to learn a fable, translate a Latin, and do exercises. Is this a joke? ?... Oh, how can a little child bear it?" She started talking about teachers, homework, textbooks, exactly what Sasha had said. At two o'clock, they had lunch together, reviewed classes together in the evening, and cried together.She put him to bed, made the sign of the sign of the cross on his chest for a long time, whispered prayers, and then she went to bed herself, dreaming of the distant and hazy future, when Sasha graduated, became a doctor or engineer, and had his own life. He bought a horse and a carriage, got married, and had children. ... After she fell asleep, she was still thinking about this, and tears flowed down her cheeks from her closed eyes.The black cat lay beside her, calling, "Meow...meow...meow." Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door.Olenka woke up, breathless with terror, her heart was beating violently.Half a minute later, there was another knock on the door. "This must be a telegram from Kharkov," she thought, shaking all over. "Sasha's mother is telling him to go to Kharkov. . . . Oh, Lord!" She was desperate, her head, hands, and feet were all cold, and she felt that there was no one more unlucky than her in the whole world.But a minute later there was a voice: the veterinarian had come home from the club. "Oh, thank God," she thought. A stone in her heart slowly fell, and she felt relieved again.She lay down, thinking of Sasha, who was sleeping soundly in the next room, and occasionally said in his dream: "I'll beat you! Get out of here! Don't hit anyone!" "Notes" ① Olga's pet name. ②Light opera by the French composer Hervé (1825-1892). ——Russian text editor's note ③Culkin's name, Ivan's pet name. ④ Light opera by the French composer Offenbach (1819-1880). ——Russian text editor's note ⑤ Refers to the forty-day fast before Easter to commemorate Jesus' hunger strike in the wilderness. ⑥Christian holidays commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus in the week before Easter. ⑦ Vasily's pet name. ⑧1 Russian inch is equal to 4.4 centimeters. ⑨ Vladimir's pet name. ⑩Sasha and Sashenka are nicknames for Alexander.