Headnote
1
A Necessary Preface (“Необходимое предисловие” in the original) is a very short comic sketch from 1885, written in Chekhov’s rapid-fire early manner: a scene reported almost entirely in dialogue, with no more narration than a stage direction needs. A young couple rides home from their wedding, and the husband, in high spirits, insists that his bride pull his beard as hard as she can. She refuses, protests, finally obliges – and he doesn’t flinch. He then seizes a lock of her hair at the temple and pulls it himself, making her cry out, and draws the moral: that she now knows he is far stronger and more tolerant of pain than she is, so that she will remember it if she is ever tempted to raise her fists against him or threaten to scratch his eyes out.
The piece closes on a mock-solemn paraphrase of the wifely-submission injunction from Ephesians 5:33 (“let the wife stand in fear of her husband”), which gives the sketch its title: the exchange is staged, in miniature, as a kind of catechism or object lesson the husband has engineered to establish dominance on the very day of the marriage, dressed up as a game.
Translation Original
1 A young, newly married couple is riding home from the church.
Молодая, только что повенчанная пара едет из церкви восвояси.
2 “Now then,
Varya,” says the
husband, “take hold of my beard and give it a good, hard yank.”
– Ну-ка,
Варя, – говорит
муж, – возьми-ка меня за бороду и рвани изо всех сил.
3 “God knows what you dream up!”
– Бог знает что ты выдумываешь!
4 “No, no, please! I beg you! Take it and yank it, no ceremony at all...”
– Нет, нет, пожалуйста! Прошу тебя! Возьми и рвани без всяких церемоний...
5 “Enough, what do you need that for?”
– Полно, для чего тебе это?
6 “
Varya, I’m asking... I’m demanding it, in fact! If you love me, you’ll take hold of my beard and pull it... Here’s my beard, pull it!”
– Варя, я прошу... требую наконец! Если ты любишь меня, то возьмешь меня за бороду и дернешь... Вот моя борода, рви!
7 “Not for anything! To cause pain to a man I love more than life itself... no, never!”
– Ни за что! Причинять боль человеку, которого я люблю больше жизни... нет, никогда!
8 “But I’m asking!” the newly minted husband begins to grow angry. “Do you understand? I’m asking and... demanding!”
– Но я прошу! – начинает сердиться новоиспеченный супруг. – Понимаешь? Я прошу и... требую!
9 At last, after a long show of reluctance, the bewildered young wife plunges her small hands into her husband’s beard and pulls it as hard as she can... The husband doesn’t even wince...
Наконец, после долгих ломаний, недоумевающая женя запускает свои маленькие ручки в мужнину бороду и рвет ее, насколько хватает сил... Муж даже не морщится...
10 “Imagine, it doesn’t hurt me in the least!” he says. “By God, it doesn’t hurt! Now then, wait, now it’s my turn with you...”
– Представь, а мне ведь нисколько не больно! – говорит он. – Ей-богу, не больно! А ну-ка, постой, теперь я тебя...
11 The husband takes hold of a few hairs at
his wife’s temple and gives them a sharp tug. The wife lets out a loud shriek.
Муж берет жену за несколько волосков, что около виска, и сильно дергает. Жена громко взвизгивает.
12 “Now, my dear,” the husband sums up, “you see that I am many times stronger and tougher than you. This is something you need to know, in case some day in the future you take it into your head to come at me with your fists, or threaten to claw my eyes out... In a word, let the wife stand in fear of her husband!”
– Теперь, мой друг, – резюмирует муж, – ты видишь, что я во много раз сильнее и выносливее тебя. Это тебе необходимо знать на случай, если когда-нибудь в будущем полезешь на меня с кулаками или пообещаешь выцарапать мне глаза... Одним словом, жена да убоится мужа своего!
