Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, 10 May 1888. Sumy.
И. П. ЧЕХОВУ, 10 мая 1888 г. Сумы. 10 мая.
Headnote
1 Written from Sumy on 10 May 1888 to Chekhov’s brother Ivan Pavlovich, a schoolteacher in Moscow, not long after the family had settled in for the summer at the Lintvaryov estate on the Psyol.
2 Dashing off before a trip into town, Chekhov runs through a rapid, numbered list of dacha news: everyone’s health is improving; the lodgings are spacious but lack any indoor conveniences; the river teems with fish, and he reports his first catches along with a wish list of fishing tackle for Ivan to bring; the Lintvaryov family, though hospitable and cultured, is a sober household, weighed down by the illness of one of the Lintvaryov daughters, a doctor who has gone blind from a brain tumor and has no hope of recovery. He adds notes on the price of provisions and wine, the magazine they receive, outings by boat and by cart, the local peasants’ fishing and fiddle-playing on St. Nicholas’s day, and closes with greetings to family and a request for cheap devotional and literary pamphlets to distribute to the farmhands.
I’m off to town just now, so I must be brief. I’ll write point by point:
Сейчас еду в город, а посему должен быть краток. Пишу по пунктам:
1) Everyone is well. The coughs and colds are gradually clearing up.
1) Все здравствуют. Кашли и насморки мало-помалу проходят.
2) The lodgings are roomy and comfortable. But there are no conveniences. For those one has to go out to the bushes and the ditches every time. "In the old days, in the open air" has its own charm when it’s warm and dry, but what will it be like in the rain, in the cold, or in the middle of a bout of diarrhea?
2) Квартира просторна и удобна. Но удобств нет. За удобствами приходится каждый раз ходить в кусты и в канавы. "Бывалыча на чистом воздухе" имеет свою прелесть, когда тепло и сухо, но каково-то будет в дождь, в холод или во время поноса?
3) The river is wide, deep, and beautiful. The following fish are found in it: perch, chebak, ide, pike-perch, belizna (a kind of shelisper), chub, roach, catfish, sibil, and small pike... The first fish I caught on a line was a pike, the second a large perch. Perch are caught here on crayfish tails. Crayfish are without number. In the pond nothing bites.
3) Река широка, глубока и красива. Водятся в ней следующие рыбы: окунь, чебак, язь, судак, белизна (порода шелишпера), голавль, плотва, сом, сибиль, щука ласкирка... Первая рыба, какую я поймал на удочку, была щука, вторая – большой окунь. Окуней здесь ловят на рачьи шейки. Раков – тьма-тьмущая. В пруде не клюет.
4) There are fishing rods, and floats too. Bring as many hooks of every kind as you can – very large, medium, and very small, a few with snoods for us and many without snoods to hand out to the local peasants and their children. Big hooks are needed for catfish – one of that size or even a bit bigger. Bring fishing line and gut. There are plenty of boats here, and people fish from boats. No one steals the set-lines.
4) Удилища есть, поплавки тоже. Привези возможно больше всяких крючков, очень больших, средних и очень малых, немного с волосками для нас и много без волосков для раздачи хохлам и хохлятам. Требуются большие крючки для сомов – такой или чуточку даже больше. Привези лесок и струн. Лодок здесь много, и рыбу ловят с лодок. Жерлиц не крадут.
5) Our hosts are good people, but not cheerful – weighed down by grief. One of the Lintvaryov daughters, a woman doctor, has gone blind from a tumor in the brain and is incurably ill. It is a serious family. There is no "Lizak." The people here are literary. They know about everything.
5) Хозяева народ хороший, но невеселый, подавленный горем. Одна из девиц Линтваревых, женщина-врач, ослепла от опухоли в мозгу и неизлечимо больна. Семья серьезная. Лизак не существует. Народ здесь литературный. Знают про всё.
6) Provisions are not as cheap as Mother thought.
6) Провизия не так дешева, как думала мать.
7) A bottle of Santorini wine costs 35 kopecks in Sumy.
7) Бутылка сантуринского в Сумах стоит 35 коп.
8) We’re getting "Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya."
8) Получаем "Всемирную иллюстрацию".
9) We went by boat up the river to the mill.
9) Ездили на лодке по реке на мельницу.
And yesterday we drove somewhere in a light cart to a "manor."
А вчера ездили на линейке куда-то в "мызу".
10) The local peasants are passionate fishermen. I’ve already made the acquaintance of many of them and am learning their wisdom from them. Yesterday, on St. Nicholas’s day, they went along the Psyol in boats and played the fiddle.
10) Хохлы страстные рыболовы. Я уже со многими знаком и учусь у них премудрости. Вчера, в день св. Николая хохлы ездили по Пслу в лодках и играли на скрипках.
And what conversations! There’s no conveying them – you have to hear them for yourself.
А какие разговоры! Их передать нельзя, надо послушать.
Your A. Chekhov.
Твой А. Чехов.
Buy about three rubles’ worth of penny books, both religious and secular (Filaret’s "Merciful," Grigorovich, Gogol, and the like), to give out to the earthworm-diggers. Send the books along with someone. Of the religious books choose only lives of the saints.
Купи рубля на три копеечных книжек священных и светских (Филарет милостивый, Григорович, Гоголь и проч.) для раздачи червекопателям. Книжки вышли с кем-нибудь. Из священных книг выбирай только жития.