Revenge (Alexander Serafimowitsch)
Revenge ( Russian Месть , Mest) is a short story by the Russian - Soviet writer Alexander Serafimowitsch , which appeared in December 1897 in the regional newspaper Prijasowski krai in Rostov-on-Don .
Sea of Azov - in winter on the ice of Taganrog Bay near Berdyansk and Genichesk : two fishermen - young Nikita and his father, who is around fifty years old - ride a horse-drawn sleigh to their nets on a frosty, moonlit night. The latter are each stretched between two neighboring ice holes - chopped by hand. The nets are empty.
The fisherman's profession is particularly dangerous in winter. Nikita's father had once driven as far as Kerch on an ice floe . He had suffered several frostbite in the process. The job is not only dangerous. It's also about survival. Besides the professional survival, this also means the continued existence of the fishing family. The fisherman Petro Dranjko, father of seven children, had his nets frozen under the ice in a severe frost. Petro Dranjko did not have the funds for new networks. He couldn't fish anymore. So he got the catch from someone else's nets.
Nikita and his father suspect such theft, but have never caught Petro Dranjko in the act. While checking their last net, father and son surprise the eagerly stealing fish thief, overwhelm him and pull the tied man on a line under the ice from one hole to the next. The corpse is placed vertically on a pole next to frozen fish. Other fish thieves avoid the gruesome place or steal even more cautiously than before.
German-language editions
- Used edition
- The revenge. P. 18–38 in: Alexander Serafimowitsch: On the rafts. Stories. Transferred by Friedrich Schwarz. 160 pages. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1969 (1st edition, Insel-Bücherei No. 911, licensor: Aufbau Verlag Berlin)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Russian Приазовский край - ( Pryasowske )
- ↑ Russian Таганрогский залив