On the wagon
On the carriage ( Russian На подводе , podwode Na ) is a story of Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which in the 21 December 1897 Moscow newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti published.
Spring in Russia: for thirteen years, the teacher Marja Wassiljewna has been going to the city and receiving her salary there. This time she took the opportunity to buy sugar and flour. Now she is driving back to her village Vyazovye on a bumpy ride in the wagon of the elderly coachman Semyon.
Marja had become a teacher against her will. As a schoolchild, she had lived comfortably with her parents in Moscow at the Red Gate. Then the parents died. She had written to her brother, an officer. Then there was no more answer. A photo of Marja's mother, the only memory from Moscow's time, fades badly over the years in the damp living room in the Vyazovy village school.
On the way, the teacher is overtaken by Mr. Chanow and his four-in-hand truck . The 40-year-old Vyazovy landowner laughs. The young lady, as Marja is called in the village, admires the still handsome bachelor. Fall in love? Marja doesn't like to think about it. The girl Marja, once so “young, pretty and elegant”, has aged prematurely in the village, “has become unsightly, clumsy and clumsy”. Marja lives in constant fear of inspectors and the uncouth farmers.
The road, with deeply muddy ruts, gets even worse. Semjon, obstinate, avoids the bridge and takes a shortcut. The horse stops in the middle of the river in the ford. The water is up to his stomach. Marja gets soaked with her food supplies. The horse trudges to the bank. While Semyon then has to wait for the evening train to pass through at the level crossing just before Vyazovye, Marja dismounts, shivering from the cold. In the passenger train that finally passes by, Marja follows the face of a lady. This looks remarkably like her dear mother. Suddenly, for the first time in those thirteen years mentioned above, Marja is surprised by the faded images from happy Moscow times, which for a few moments have now become abundantly clear. At that moment she overtook Chanov, who did not take the shortcut, for the second time. Marja smiles happily at the landowner. But after a few seconds all bliss is over, apparently forever. The barrier rises. Semjon asks to get in. Vyazovye is reached.
German-language editions
Output used:
- On the carriage , pp. 242-251 in Anton Chekhov: The Witch. Stories. German by Michael Pfeiffer. 388 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1977 (1st edition, licensor: Rütten & Loening, Berlin)
Web links
- The text
- На подводе (Чехов) (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 557 (Russian)
- Notice of first publication in the Labor der Fantastik (Russian)
- Entry in WorldCat