Headnote
1
The Threat (Угроза) is one of Chekhov’s tiny 1884 comic anecdotes – barely more than a joke set down on the page, in the vein of the humor-magazine miniatures he was turning out by the dozen in these years. There is no scene-setting, no character beyond a type: a gentleman robbed of his horse, a newspaper threat, a frightened thief, and a punch line.
The piece works entirely by escalation and reversal. The gentleman’s notice promises unnamed "extreme measures" once used by his father in a like case, and the vagueness alone is enough to terrify the thief into returning the horse. Only at the end, when a friend finally asks what those measures actually were, does Chekhov spring the anticlimax: the father, robbed of his own horse, simply carried the saddle home on his back. The threat was never a threat at all, only the shape of one – and the gentleman’s closing line, that he would gladly have done the same had the thief not spared him the walk, lands the joke without a wasted word.
Translation Original
1 A certain gentleman had a horse stolen from him. The very next day, in all
У одного барина украли лошадь. На другой же день во всех
2 the newspapers the following notice appeared: "If the horse is not
газетах было напечатано следующее объявление: "Если лошадь не будет мне
3 returned to me, necessity will force me to resort to those extreme
возвращена, то необходимость заставит меня прибегнуть к тем крайним мерам, к
4 measures which my father once resorted to in a similar case." The threat
которым когда-то в подобном же случае прибег мой отец". Угроза подействовала.
5 took effect. The thief, not knowing what to fear, but supposing something
Вор, не зная, чего бояться, но предполагая нечто необыкновенно страшное,
6 uncommonly terrible, took fright and secretly returned the horse. The gentleman, delighted
испугался и тайком возвратил лошадь. Барин, обрадованный таким исходом дела,
7 by this outcome, confessed to his friends that he was very glad he had
признавался своим приятелям, что он очень счастлив тем, что ему не понадобилось
8 not needed to follow his father’s example.
последовать примеру своего отца.
9 "But what, after all, did your father do?" he was asked.
– Что же, однако, сделал ваш отец? – спросили его.
10 "You ask what my father did? Very well, I will
– Вы спрашиваете, что сделал мой отец? Извольте, я вам
11 tell you... When his horse was stolen from him at a coaching inn, he put the saddle
скажу... Когда на постоялом дворе у него украли лошадь, он надел седло себе на
12 on his own back and walked home on foot. I swear I would have done the same, if the
спину и вернулся домой пешком. Клянусь, я сделал бы то же самое, если бы вор не
13 thief had not been so kind and obliging!"
был так добр и обязателен!
