On the country road (Chekhov)
An der Landstrasse ( Russian: На большой дороге , Na bolschoi doroge ) is a one-act play by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which was written in the fall of 1884 and banned by the censors in 1885 as a "dark and dirty play". It was not until 1914 that the text became available in a Moscow anthology on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the author's death. Chekhov staged his short story Im Herbst, published in 1883, in the play . The German translation came onto the book market in 1958.
content
Tichon's tavern on Landstrasse is overcrowded with overnight guests. Many pilgrims or tramps have to sleep sitting down or on the floor. In the middle of the night the tramp Merik comes in. This 35-year-old self-assured farmer's son, with a stolen ax in his hand, lets the host take off his boots and drives the brickworker Fedja from his sleeping place. The ruined landowner Borzow cannot get vodka because he cannot pay. So the ragged, drunk guest gives a gold medallion . Tikhon opens it. Guests crowd around the bar and admire the portrait of a beautiful woman.
Kusma, passing through, stops and recognizes his gracious Herr Borzow. Kuzma chats that he was a serf with the Borzows in the Yergovsk district , two hundred weres from the tavern. The lady, a city dweller, ran away to a lawyer in the city after the wedding. She has children with the lawyer. Borzow, Kuzma claims, gave his money to a brother-in-law and is now penniless.
Borzov does not contradict. He just wonders: What do people care about his story?
Kusma pays his bill and leaves the tavern in the middle of the night. Merik snatches the medallion from the landlord, looks at the portrait, comments: "Run away after the wedding ... It's like that!" And throws the piece of jewelery on the floor. The innkeeper takes it, closes the bar and makes himself comfortable on the bar. Merik offers Borzow his place to sleep on the bench and makes do with the floor. The tramp, like the landlord, had had bad luck in love.
A coachman asks to be admitted. For emergency repairs to his overturned carriage, he needs a sturdy rope. The injured passenger, a lady from the city who wants to go to Warsonofievo, comes in. It is Borzow's wife, Marja Borzowa. When she recognizes her husband, she runs into the middle of the taproom screaming. Borzow kneels down in front of her and asserts that he will soon be sober. Marja Borzowa wants to travel on immediately. Merik jumps up, recognizes Marja Borzowa as the lady on the medallion and strikes with the ax.
Merik, who has been so courageous up to now, cries because he did not kill the travelers.
German-language editions
First edition
- Anton Chekhov. Classic. In publisher Kurt Desch . Vienna, Munich, Basel 1958
Used edition
- On the country road. Dramatic etude in one act. Translated from the Russian by Gudrun Düwel. P. 5–35 in: Wolf Düwel (Ed.): Anton Chekhov: The cherry orchard. Dramas. 719 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1964 (1st edition)
literature
- Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes : Im Herbst. P. 140–147 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
- The text
- Wikisource: На большой дороге (Чехов) (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- online in the Komarow library (Russian)
- info at theatertexte.de (Translator: Regine Kühn )
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Pieces No. 2 (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)