The old Isergil

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The old Isergil ( Russian Старуха Изергиль ) is a story by the Russian writer Maxim Gorki from 1894, which appeared in the Samara newspaper (Самарская газета - Samarskaja gaseta) in the second half of April of the following year . A translation into German by Michael Feofanow came out in Leipzig in 1902.

Looking back on her long life, the old Isergil complains: "... I see that people do not live, but always just adapt ... and that is what life is about."

Gorky in 1889

content

Near the Bessarabian town of Akkerman , the first-person narrator, a Russian , helps with the grape harvest together with Moldovans . In the evening after their work is done, the young people enjoy themselves on the shores of the Black Sea . The first-person narrator stays with old Isergil in the shadow of the grapevines and lets her tell three stories - that of her eventful life and two fairy-tale legends ; one from the haughty Larra and the other from the sacrificial death of the young man Danko.

1

Thousands of years ago, a powerful tribe celebrated a feast. Meanwhile, an eagle descended and kidnapped one of the girls. After twenty years it came back - now as the eagle's widow and mother of a youth. He was given the name Larra by the members of the tribe - the outcast, because he had his eye on the beautiful young daughter of one of the tribal elders and the girl had rejected him out of fear of her father. Then the eagle's son had killed the girl and had just been cast out. The terrible judgment of the tribe had been: Larra should be free.

After several decades, Larra wants to die and sticks a knife in her chest. The knife breaks. The tribe members are pleased to see that the suicide cannot die. This is how Larra was punished. He must wander around forever as an outcast.

2

Old Isergil had lived in Dobruja with her husband, a Moldovan, for thirty years when he died a year before the action began. Now the approximately 70-year-old shows some of the “beautiful moments” of her “greedy life”. These all happened before their 30-year marriage to that Moldovan. Because she loved as a 15-year-old in her home at Falmi on Byrlat a Hutsul , who wore a bright red mustache. Once she hit this Hutsul in the face. For that she bit his cheek. He would later like to let her kiss the scar. The bearded man and her closest lover, a black-bearded fisherman from the Prut , perished. In Scutari , a dignified old Turk kept them in his harem. After Bochnia resold, the old Isergil already was 40 years old, according to Krakow . She had really loved the Poles there, her Arkadek. They even freed him from captivity by the Cossacks . The reward was ingratitude: Arkadek left them. The old Isergil went to Dobruja, married - as I said - and the "greedy life" was over.

3

In the back of the chatting, far back in the steppe, blue lights glow out of the darkness. “These sparks come from the burning heart of Danko”, announces the old Isergil.

It came this way. Once, in olden times, the tribe of young Danko was driven by enemies into a swampy forest area. The desperate tribe let Danko lead them out of the hostile area. When during the march the fickle became weak and protested, Danko tore his heart out of his chest and lifted it up. The heart blazed brighter than the sun, lit the way out of the swampy forest to a settlable plain. Danko fell dead. The proud heart burst into sparks and went out. Before every thunderstorm, the sparks still light up in the steppe.

reception

  • Gorky's early texts are populated by nomads from the Black Sea steppes, fishermen and stray farmers.
  • Those allegorical legends tone keep in the footsteps of the young Gorky in Russian literature also Aitmatov ( "The Boy and the Sea") and Rytcheu ( If the whales move away ) by.
  • Russian literary studies assign the text with figures such as Larra and Danko to neo-romanticism .

filming

  • The old Isergil. Played by Maria Kapnist, also appears in the film The Gypsy Camp Goes to Heaven (1975).

German-language editions

  • Maxim Gorki: The wooden rafts and other stories. Only authorized translation from Russian by August Scholz . 507 pages. Malik-Verlag , Berlin 1926 ( Makar Tschudra. About the siskin who lied and the woodpecker who loved the truth. Jemeljan Piljaj. Grandfather Archip and Lenjka. Tschelkasch . Once in autumn. The song of the falcon. A mistake. The old one Isergil. The story with the silver lock. My traveling companion . The log rafts. Bolek. In Weltschmerz. Konovalov . The Khan and his son. The exit ).
  • The old Isergil (translator not mentioned). P. 30–39 in: Maxim Gorki: Selected Works: Stories. Fairy tale. Memories. SWA-Verlag, Berlin 1947 (typesetting: Dr. Karl Meyer GmbH, Leipzig. Printing: Leipziger Buchdruckerei GmbH, Leipzig).
  • The old Isergil. German by Georg Schwarz. P. 87–113 in: Maxim Gorki: Stories. With a foreword by Edel Mirowa-Florin. Vol. 1 from: Eva Kosing, Edel Mirowa-Florin (Hrsg.): Maxim Gorki: Works in four volumes. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1977.
  • The tramp and other stories (also contains: The old Isergil. Malwa . Twenty-six and one . People who have been ). Translated from the Russian by Arthur Luther . With an introduction by Stefan Zweig and illustrations by Theodor Eberle. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 1998. 309 pages. ISBN 978-3-458-33919-9

First edition

  • Maxim Gorki: The old Isergil. Collected short stories from Russian by Michael Feofanow. Book decorations by Otto Ubbelohde . Diederichs, Leipzig 1902.
Used edition
  • The old Isergil. German by Arthur Luther. P. 320–342 in: Maxim Gorki: Erzählungen. First volume. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1953

literature

  • Nina Gourfinkel: Maxim Gorki. With testimonials and photo documents. Translated from the French by Rolf-Dietrich Keil . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1958 (1986 edition) ISBN 3-499-50009-4
  • Nadeshda Ludwig: Maxim Gorki. Life and work . Series of Contemporary Writers. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1984.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 490, penultimate entry
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 337, 7th Zvo
  3. ↑ Russian Данко
  4. ↑ Ludwig, p. 30, 7th Zvu
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 335, 11. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 336, 6th Zvu
  7. ↑ Gourfinkel, p. 10, 13. Zvo
  8. ↑ Ludwig, p. 30, 5th Zvu
  9. ↑ Russian Неоромантизм
  10. ↑ Russian Капнист, Мария Ростиславовна
  11. ↑ Russian Табор уходит в небо