The first day of the Great Fast
The first day of the Great Lent ( Russian Чистый понедельник , Tschisty Ponedelnik = Clean Monday ) is a short story by Russian Nobel laureate for literature Ivan Bunin , which was completed on May 12, 1944, and in October Issue 1945 New York edition of the Russian magazine schurnal Nowy appeared .
Late winter 1913 in Moscow : the first-person narrator from the Penza governorate and the young lady - as the protagonist is addressed only once by the narrator - are healthy, young, good-looking and rich people's children. The young woman's father, a widowed merchant, lives in Tver . The two young people met during a public lecture, which Andrej Bely had largely celebrated singing and dancing. Together they attend a Chaliapin concert. She ca n't stand the brisk bass and leaves the hall early.
To the narrator's regret, the young lady does not feel she was made to be a wife. On a Sunday, or more precisely, on the last day of Butter Week , i.e. one day before the Great Fast, both of them drive to the New Maiden Monastery in the afternoon . Both visit this and that. She is amazed how he is loved by him. During a subsequent tour of the cemetery, she rejects the overall appearance of Chekhov's grave. Finally, both of them go in search of Gribojedow's house in the Ordynka district in the street of the same name.
The next day, the eponymous Monday of Lent, the couple attended a colorful evening in the art theater and met Katschalow and Sulerschizki there. In the middle of the night the narrator accompanies the young lady home and is allowed to stay with her for the first time until morning. After the night of love, she says goodbye to him. She goes to her father and informs her lover of her future plans by letter. The letter a fortnight later disillusioned him. She wants to take the veil .
On New Year's Eve 1914, that unforgettable first day of the Great Lent will soon be celebrating its second anniversary, the narrator feels as if a nun was looking at him through the eyes of her beloved. He had entered the Martha and Maria monastery in the Ordynka district . In the entourage of Grand Duke Mitri Palytsch and Grand Duchess Elsawet Feodorovna , the nun had walked in the midst of a crowd of her own kind.
German-language editions
- Used edition
- The first day of the Great Fast. German by Erich Ahrndt . P. 527-544 in: Karlheinz Kasper (Ed.): Iwan Bunin: Dunkle Alleen. Stories 1920–1953 . 580 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1985
Web links
- The text
- online (fourth from last text in part 3) at Lib.ru (Russian)
- online at bunin.niv.ru (Russian)
- online in the Komarow library (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 501
- ↑ Russian New Journal
- ↑ Edition used, p. 535, 5th Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 529, 11. Zvu
- ↑ Russian Vasili Ivanovich Katschalow (1875–1948)
- ↑ russ. Leopold Antonovich Sulerschizki (1872-1916)
- ↑ Edition used, p. 541, 5th Zvu