The Kiss (Chekhov)

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Anton Chekhov

The Kiss ( Russian Поцелуй , Pozelui ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on December 15, 1887 in the St. Petersburg daily Novoje wremja .

Wladimir Czumikow's translation into German was published by Diederichs in Leipzig in 1901 . In 1896 a German version was published in the Hungarian Danube-Temes-Bote. Other translations: 1890 into Czech ( Hubička ), 1896 into Slovak ( Bozk ), 1897 into Serbo-Croatian ( Poljubac ), 1899 into Hungarian ( A csók ) and 1908 into English ( The Kiss ).

action

On the way to the summer camp on May 20, around eight o'clock in the evening, the artillery brigade with six batteries of four guns each moved into the church village of Mestetschki. The landowner Lieutenant General a. D. von Rabbeck asks the officers to sit at table. Actually, the overtired officers just want to rest, but they wash themselves, change clothes and accept the friendly invitation. "Staff Captain Ryabovich, a small, slightly crooked officer with glasses and a whiskers ... is probably the shyest, most modest, most colorless officer in the whole brigade." He likes "a young girl in a lilac-colored dress". He enjoys the music, the brandy and stays with the non-dancers. Captain Ryabovich has never before embraced the waist of a decent woman. After a game of billiards with the son of the landlord, Ryabovich wants to return to the dancers. It gets lost in the rooms of the Rabbeck manor. In a completely dark room, the shy captain is kissed by a woman - a mistake in the dark. Nevertheless, Ryabovich is enchanted by the soft, fragrant female arms, the warm cheek and the kiss received. He surrenders to the unknown feeling. Was it the lilac-colored young lady?

The brigade moves on with its guns. The captain imagines his future with that woman at his side. Ryabovich tells his two comrades about the strange encounter. One of the two, the officer Merslyakov, who reads the European messenger incessantly , suspects the unknown beauty to be a psychopath . The amorous Ryabovich is not deterred by such outlandish talk. An inner voice promises him that he will see this woman again. Which friends! On the way back from the summer camp to the location, the officers in the area of ​​the above-mentioned church village are again invited. Oh dear! This time the host is called General Fontryabkin. Ryabovich is not going.

background

Anton Chekhov wrote in almost every situation. Wolf Düwel cites a passage from the memories of the Russian writer Ivan Leontjew as evidence . Chekhov stayed in Petersburg for a few days at the beginning of December 1887. The occasion was meetings with publishers. Leontiev entered Chekhov's hotel room and was about to withdraw quietly because Chekhov - as I said - was busy writing. The former artilleryman Leontjew had to stay and look through the kiss critically for the correctness of the militarily colored passages. A little later the story appeared in the daily newspaper Novoje vremja .

filming

German-language editions

Used edition

  • The kiss , pp. 586–607 in Gerhard Dick (ed.) And Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhov: Das Swedish matchstick . Short stories and early narratives. German by Georg Schwarz. 668 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1965 (1st edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian reference to first publication
  2. ↑ Notes on translations
  3. ↑ engl. The Kiss (Chekhov) , translator Robert Crozier Long
  4. ↑ Zhytomyr Oblast : Russian Местечко
  5. ↑ Düwel (Ed.) In the edition used, p. 656, 10. Zvo to p. 657, 6. Zvo
  6. ↑ Russian Леонтьев, Иван Леонтьевич
  7. ↑ Russian Поцелуй
  8. ↑ Russian Балаян, Роман Гургенович