Makar's dream

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Vladimir Korolenko

Makar's dream , also a dream ( Russian Сон Макара , Son Makara ), is a Christmas story by the Russian writer Vladimir Korolenko , which was written in 1883 in eastern Siberia and published in 1885 in issue 3 of the Moscow magazine Russkaja Mysl . Julius Grünberg's translation into German came onto the book market in Leipzig in 1891 .

From the autumn of 1881 to the end of 1884 Korolenko lived as an exile in Siberia. The model for the title character Makar is the Yakut farmer Sachar Zykunow, in whose hut Korolenko was welcomed during his exile in Amga .

contents

The great silent Makar lives in the Yakut village of Chalgan. It is as if he has forgotten how to speak properly over the years. One day before Christmas Makar gets drunk, is thrown out of the tavern and controls his traps in the snowy taiga when the frost is grim. He imagines the mortal enemy Aljoschka in the church and also looks into his traps. Aljoschka, like Makar, stays away from the service and suddenly stands behind the drunk. There were fights in which Aljoschka won the upper hand. Afterwards, the drunken Makar is missing his hat and both gloves - according to Korolenko, the death sentence in the wintry taiga. Makar breathes out his life; freezes to death in the middle of the wilderness.

Makar steps in front of God the Father - an old man whose silver beard hides his belt. The servants of God wear large white wings on their backs. Makar's good deeds are weighed against his sins in this world on a scale. God's Son and the dove are present during the day of judgment. God asks Makar to list his good deeds. Makar is cheating. But God knows everything.

Suddenly Makar is gifted with fluent, convincing speech. At first God is annoyed about the insubordinate newcomer, but then he listens with interest, encouraged by his son who is arrested on the ground, and lets himself be convinced by the fool Makar. Lo and behold - the miracle happens; the scales lean in Makar's favor.

Makar, God and the servants of God weep.

German-language editions

Used edition

  • Makar's dream. A Christmas Story. German by Traute and Günther Stein . Pp. 224–262 in Vladimir Korolenko: Makar's Dream and Other Stories. With an afterword by Herbert Krempien . 275 pages. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1980 (1st edition)

Web links

annotation

  1. ↑ For all Trinity , Makar's dream - seen from a religious point of view - goes haywire. Korolenko writes that the Russian men in Chalgan have married Yakut women, can no longer speak perfectly Russian and have adopted Yakut customs. So it is not God the Father who judges the frozen Makar, but the old Tojon (Russian Тойон , see the second meaning in the list). This is - somewhat like Manitu with the Algonquin - the great chief of the Yakuts.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Korolenko bibliography , short stories, 9th entry
  2. ↑ Russian Захар Цыкунов