Name day (Chekhov)
The name day ( Russian Именины , Imeniny ) is a story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which was published in 1888 in the November issue of the Saint Petersburg Severny Westnik .
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The time will come in about two months. Olga Mikhailovna will give birth to her first child. The young woman is afraid of the birth. Maybe she'll die doing it.
The strenuous celebration of the name day of her husband, the 34-year-old president of the jury court Pyotr Dmitritsch, lasts more than twelve hours. The hostess Olga Mikhailovna constricted her body because she wanted to hide the pregnancy from the guests. The lady of the house accidentally overhears suspiciously, hidden behind the bushes of the spacious garden of her property, as Pyotr Dmitritsch pours out his heart to the beautiful 17-year-old Lyubotschka. In general, Olga Mikhailovna hated the guests. Mostly it is bland, talentless, heartless, limited creeps who hate the court president. Olga Mikhailovna knows. Your husband is not much better. In court, he calls on peasants as witnesses, dismisses lawyers and yells at people. Even at the celebration of his name day, the behavior of her husband repeatedly arouses Olga Mikhailovna's anger. For example, he's having fun at his wife's expense; refers the guests to Olga Mikhailovna on educational issues because she once studied. Olga Mikhailovna fears the future. One day her husband will reproach her for being richer than him.
When the guests left after midnight, Olga Mikhailovna had to vent her heart in the marriage bed. She criticizes the overheard intimate conversation with the pretty Lyubotschka and trumps: "I hated you all day today ...!" Pyotr Dmitritsch thinks he is not listening and leaves the bedroom with his pillow under his arm in the direction of the study. Olga Mikhailovna jumps up and wants to leave the house forever. But - she comes to her senses a little - the house is her property. Olga Mikhailovna cannot calm down. She enters the study and hurls her truth in her husband's face: “You hate me because I am richer than you! You will never forgive me and always lie to me! "
Olga Mikhailovna screams incessantly and has to be operated on by two doctors under anesthesia the next evening. The child was stillborn.
German-language editions
Output used:
- The Name Day, pp. 58–92 in Anton Chekhov: The Witch. Stories. German by Ada Knipper and Gerhard Dick. 388 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1977 (1st edition, licensor: Rütten & Loening, Berlin)
Web links
- The text
- Именины (Чехов) (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, entry Powesti No. 7 (Russian)
- Notice of first publication in the Labor der Fantastik (Russian)