And the Earth Will Sit on the Moon: Essential Stories by Gogol Nikolai

Author:Gogol, Nikolai [Gogol, Nikolai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics
ISBN: 9781782275169
Amazon: B07ZJY8JGB
Goodreads: 49122229
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2019-12-05T08:00:00+00:00

OLD-WORLD LANDOWNERS

HOW I LOVE the unassuming life of those proprietors of remote estates who are known in Little Russia as old-world landowners and who, like decrepit picturesque cottages, present such a welcome contrast in their motley garb to all the sleek new buildings whose walls have not yet been drenched in rain, whose roofs have not yet turned green with mould, and whose plastered porches still conceal their red bricks from view. How pleasant it is, every once in a while, to descend for a moment into the sphere of this uncommonly sequestered life, where not a single desire flies beyond the palisade encircling a small yard, beyond the wattle fence of the orchard filled with apple and plum trees, beyond the peasant huts encircling the orchard and tottering in the shade of pussy willows, elders and pear trees. The life of their unassuming proprietors is so calm, so calm that for a moment you might be lulled into thinking that passions, desires and all those restless creatures of the evil spirit that threaten the world’s peace simply do not exist and that you have seen them only in the bright glitter of your dreams. From here I see a low little house with a gallery of blackish little wooden posts running all the way around it, so that, in hail and thunder, you may close the shutters without getting soaked. Beyond the cottage I see a fragrant bird cherry, line upon line of low-growing fruit trees drowning in the crimson of cherries and a sapphire sea of plums covered in a dull leaden film, and a spreading maple with a mat in its shade on which to rest; in front of the house is a spacious yard with its fresh, low grass and a well-trodden path from the barn to the kitchen and the kitchen to the master’s quarters; a long-necked goose drinking water with baby goslings as delicate as their own down; a palisade hung with strings of dried pears and apples and rugs left out to dry; a cart laden with melons by the barn and an unharnessed ox lounging beside it… All these things hold an ineffable charm for me, perhaps because I can no longer see them and because we always hold dearest what we no longer have. Be that as it may, even then, whenever my britchka would approach this little house, my soul would slip into a state of astonishing sweetness and tranquillity, the horses would trot merrily up to the porch, and the driver, himself a picture of calm, would climb down from his box and begin filling his pipe, just as if he had come back to his own home; even the barking of the phlegmatic mutts and mongrels was music to my ears. But I liked nothing so much as the actual proprietors of these unassuming abodes, those solicitous old men and women coming out to welcome me. At times their faces appear before me even now, amidst the noise,

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