person
Ignat Ryabov
Ryabov
also: Игнат Рябов, Игнашка, Рябов, Ignashka, Ryabov
A big, broad-shouldered, habitually silent peasant who has drunk away his own gun and joins Filimon Slyunka in begging the tavern-keeper Semyon for the loan of his pawned one, so the two of them can go stand watch for the woodcock flight.
Reading notes
- Too Early! §16 bows down to the ground
A "земной поклон" (zemnoy poklon, "earthly" or full prostration) is normally a gesture of Orthodox religious devotion, made before an icon; Ryabov's sudden prostration before the tavern-keeper is a startling, almost blasphemous transfer of that gesture onto a secular plea for the gun, underscoring how desperately the mute, inarticulate Ryabov wants to go hunting.