The eel caterpillar

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Anton Chekhov

The eel caterpillar ( Russian Налим , Nalim ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on July 1, 1885 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta .

One summer morning, farmers Gerassim and Lyubim, who work as carpenters, are supposed to build a bath house for gracious Mr. Andrei Andreevich on the bank. Instead, both of them have been fishing for an eel caterpillar weighing around ten pounds in the deep waters of the bank for over an hour . The predatory fish has crawled under the roots of the willow bushes in the water and cannot be caught. Even in the cold water, the carpenters worked up a sweat from their enthusiasm for the hunt, and they cursed each other and instructed each other: the slippery fish should be gripped by the gills. Well said, but it fails. Around noon the frail shepherd Jefim directs his flock to the watering place. Jefim ignores the herd, approaches the two fishing carpenters and gives good advice: Catching the eel must be learned. Rummaging around wouldn't do anything.

Meanwhile the flock enters the gracious lord's vegetable garden. Andrej Andrejewitsch appears with the newspaper in hand and drives Jefim out of the water to do his real work. The Lord is also dissatisfied with Gerassim and Lyubim. How are the two clumsy fishing guys going to finish the bathhouse? The criticism ricochets off the defaulting carpenters. When the gracious gentleman realizes what it is about, he too is gripped by the hunting fever. Andrej Andrejewitsch fails too and calls his coachman Vasily. In the meantime, Ljubim continues to instruct his colleague Gerassim: The tree roots can be worked with an ax. Gerassim gets his tools of the trade. Carefully - so that the carpenters don't chop off his fingers - the gracious gentleman reaches into the water and catches the fish by the gills, grabs and takes it out for his great pleasure. The strong predatory fish breaks loose with one blow and disappears, never to be seen again, in its wet element.

Used edition

  • Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected Works in Individual Volumes : Die Eelraupe. P. 325–332 in: Gerhard Dick (ed.): Anton Chekhov: From rain to eaves. Short stories. Translated from Russian by Ada Knipper and Gerhard Dick. With a foreword by Wolf Düwel. 630 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1964 (1st edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in WorldCat