Drowned read in full. Read the book "May Night, or the Drowned Woman" online completely free - Nikolai Gogol - MyBook. III. An unexpected opponent. CONSPIRACY
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
MAY NIGHT, OR DROWNED
You know the enemy of his dad! to start that, if the people are baptized, then they purr, purr, mov the chorta after the hare, but everything is not up to sniffing; tilki well where the devil is upletetstsya, then twirl your tail - so de vono it will rise from the sky.
The sonorous song flowed like a river through the streets of the village ***. There was a time when, tired of the day's labors and worries, the lads and girls noisily gathered in a circle, in the brilliance of a clear evening, to pour out their fun into sounds that are always inseparable from despondency. And the evening, always thinking, dreamily hugged the blue sky, transforming everything into uncertainty and distance. It's already twilight; and the songs didn't stop. With a bandura in his hands, the young Cossack Levko, the son of the village head, who had eluded the peselniks, made his way. The Cossack is wearing a Retilov hat. The Kozak is walking down the street, strumming his hand on the strings and dancing. Here he quietly stopped in front of the door of a hut lined with low cherry trees. Whose house is this? Whose door is this? After a little silence, he began to play and sang:
The sun is low, the evening is shining,
Come out before me, my heart!
“No, apparently, my clear-eyed beauty fell asleep soundly! said the Cossack, having finished his song and approaching the window. - Galya, Galya! are you sleeping, or do you want to come out to me? You're afraid, right, that no one sees us, or maybe you don't want to show your white face in the cold! Don't be afraid: there is no one. The evening is warm. But even if someone showed up, I will cover you with a scroll, wrap my belt around you, cover you with my hands - and no one will see us. But even if there was a breath of cold, I will press you closer to my heart, I will warm you with kisses, I will put my hat on your little white legs. My heart, my fish, my necklace! look for a moment. Stick your white hand through the window... No, you are not sleeping, you proud maiden! he said louder and in such a voice as one who is ashamed of instant humiliation expresses himself. - You like to mock me; Goodbye!" Here he turned away, put his cap on one side, and proudly walked away from the window, quietly plucking the strings of the bandura. At that moment the wooden handle at the door turned: the door swung open with a creak, and the girl at the time of the seventeenth spring, entwined in twilight, timidly looking around and not letting go wooden handle, crossed the threshold. In the semi-clear darkness, bright eyes burned warmly, like stars; the red coral monisto shone, and the lad's eagle eyes could not hide even the blush that shyly flashed on her cheeks. “How impatient you are,” she told him in an undertone. - I'm already angry! Why did you choose such a time: a crowd of people staggers every now and then through the streets ... I'm trembling all over ... "
Oh, do not tremble, my red viburnum! Come closer to me! - said the lad, embracing her, throwing aside the bandura that hung on a long strap around his neck, and sitting down with her at the door of the hut. - You know that it is bitter for me not to see you for an hour.
Do you know what I think, - the girl interrupted, thoughtfully sinking her eyes into him. - It’s like something whispers in my ear that we won’t see each other so often in the future. You have unkind people: the girls all look so envious, and the lads ... I even notice that my mother has recently begun to look after me more severely. I confess, I had more fun with strangers. - Some kind of movement of anguish was expressed on her face at last words.
Two months only in the direction of the native and I already miss it! Maybe I'm tired of you?
Oh, I'm not tired of you, - she said, grinning. - I love you, black-browed Cossack! That's why I love that you have brown eyes, and how you look at them - it's as if it's smiling in my soul: it's both fun and good for her; that you wink affably with your black mustache; that you walk down the street, sing and play the bandura, and it's nice to listen to you.
Oh my Galya! cried the lad, kissing and pressing her tighter to his chest.
Wait! full, Levko! Tell me in advance, have you spoken to your father?
What? he said as if waking up. - Yes, that I want to marry, and you marry me - he said. - But somehow sadly this word sounded in his mouth: he spoke.
What will you do with it? The old bastard, as usual, pretended to be deaf: he doesn’t hear anything and still scolds that I’m wandering around God knows where and hang out with the lads through the streets. But do not grieve, my Galya! Here is a Cossack word for you, that I will persuade him.
Yes, you just have to, Levko, say a word - and everything will be your way. I know this from my own experience: sometimes I wouldn’t listen to you, but if you say a word, I involuntarily do what you want. Look, look! she continued, laying her head on his shoulder and raising her eyes upwards, where the warm Ukrainian sky shone immensely blue, hung from below with curly branches of cherries that stood in front of them. - Look: far away, stars flashed: one, another, third, fourth, fifth ... Isn't it true, it's the angels of God who opened the windows of their bright houses in the sky and look at us? Yes, Levko? After all, they are looking at our land? What if people had wings like birds - they could fly there, high, high ... Wow, scary! Not a single oak tree will reach the sky. But they say, however, that there is somewhere, in some distant land, such a tree that rustles with its peak in the sky itself, and God descends on it to earth at night before the bright holiday.
No, Galya; God has a long ladder from heaven to earth. She is placed before the bright resurrection by the holy archangels; and as soon as God steps on the first step, all the unclean spirits will fly headlong and fall into hell in heaps, and therefore not a single one on the feast of Christ evil spirit does not happen on earth.
How quietly the water sways like a baby in a cradle! Hanna went on, pointing to the pond, gloomily furnished with a dark maple forest and mourned by the willows that drowned their mournful branches in it. Like a powerless old man, he held the distant, dark sky in his cold embrace, sprinkling with icy kisses the fiery stars that dimly shone in the warm night air, as if anticipating the imminent appearance of the brilliant king of the night. Near the forest, on the mountain, the old wooden house; moss and wild grass covered its roof; curly apple trees grew in front of his windows; the forest, embracing its shadow, threw a wild gloom over him; a walnut grove spread at its foot and rolled down to the pond.
I remember, as if through a dream, - said Hanna, not taking her eyes off him, - long, long ago, when I was still small and lived with my mother, they told something terrible about this house. Levko, you really know, tell me! ..
God bless him, my beauty! You never know what women and stupid people will not tell. You will only disturb yourself, you will become afraid and you will not sleep peacefully.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
MAY NIGHT, OR DROWNED
You know the enemy of his dad! to start that, if the people are baptized, then they purr, purr, mov the chorta after the hare, but everything is not up to sniffing; tilki well where the devil is upletetstsya, then twirl your tail - so de vono it will rise from the sky.
The sonorous song flowed like a river through the streets of the village ***. There was a time when, tired of the day's labors and worries, the lads and girls noisily gathered in a circle, in the brilliance of a clear evening, to pour out their fun into sounds that are always inseparable from despondency. And the evening, always thinking, dreamily hugged the blue sky, transforming everything into uncertainty and distance. It's already twilight; and the songs didn't stop. With a bandura in his hands, the young Cossack Levko, the son of the village head, who had eluded the peselniks, made his way. The Cossack is wearing a Retilov hat. The Kozak is walking down the street, strumming his hand on the strings and dancing. Here he quietly stopped in front of the door of a hut lined with low cherry trees. Whose house is this? Whose door is this? After a little silence, he began to play and sang:
The sun is low, the evening is shining,
Come out before me, my heart!
“No, apparently, my clear-eyed beauty fell asleep soundly! said the Cossack, having finished his song and approaching the window. - Galya, Galya! are you sleeping, or do you want to come out to me? You're afraid, right, that no one sees us, or maybe you don't want to show your white face in the cold! Don't be afraid: there is no one. The evening is warm. But even if someone showed up, I will cover you with a scroll, wrap my belt around you, cover you with my hands - and no one will see us. But even if there was a breath of cold, I will press you closer to my heart, I will warm you with kisses, I will put my hat on your little white legs. My heart, my fish, my necklace! look for a moment. Stick your white hand through the window... No, you are not sleeping, you proud maiden! he said louder and in such a voice as one who is ashamed of instant humiliation expresses himself. - You like to mock me; Goodbye!" Here he turned away, put his cap on one side, and proudly walked away from the window, quietly plucking the strings of the bandura. At that moment the wooden handle at the door turned: the door swung open with a creak, and the girl, at the time of the seventeenth spring, entwined in twilight, looking around timidly and without releasing the wooden handle, stepped over the threshold. In the semi-clear darkness, bright eyes burned warmly, like stars; the red coral monisto shone, and the lad's eagle eyes could not hide even the blush that shyly flashed on her cheeks. “How impatient you are,” she told him in an undertone. - I'm already angry! Why did you choose such a time: a crowd of people staggers every now and then through the streets ... I'm trembling all over ... "
Oh, do not tremble, my red viburnum! Come closer to me! - said the lad, embracing her, throwing aside the bandura that hung on a long strap around his neck, and sitting down with her at the door of the hut. - You know that it is bitter for me not to see you for an hour.
Do you know what I think, - the girl interrupted, thoughtfully sinking her eyes into him. - It’s like something whispers in my ear that we won’t see each other so often in the future. You have unkind people: the girls all look so envious, and the lads ... I even notice that my mother has recently begun to look after me more severely. I confess, I had more fun with strangers. - Some kind of movement of anguish was expressed on her face at the last words.
Two months only in the direction of the native and I already miss it! Maybe I'm tired of you?
Oh, I'm not tired of you, - she said, grinning. - I love you, black-browed Cossack! That's why I love that you have brown eyes, and how you look at them - it's as if it's smiling in my soul: it's both fun and good for her; that you wink affably with your black mustache; that you walk down the street, sing and play the bandura, and it's nice to listen to you.
Oh my Galya! cried the lad, kissing and pressing her tighter to his chest.
Wait! full, Levko! Tell me in advance, have you spoken to your father?
What? he said as if waking up. - Yes, that I want to marry, and you marry me - he said. - But somehow sadly this word sounded in his mouth: he spoke.
What will you do with it? The old bastard, as usual, pretended to be deaf: he doesn’t hear anything and still scolds that I’m wandering around God knows where and hang out with the lads through the streets. But do not grieve, my Galya! Here is a Cossack word for you, that I will persuade him.
Yes, you just have to, Levko, say a word - and everything will be your way. I know this from my own experience: sometimes I wouldn’t listen to you, but if you say a word, I involuntarily do what you want. Look, look! she continued, laying her head on his shoulder and raising her eyes upwards, where the warm Ukrainian sky shone immensely blue, hung from below with curly branches of cherries that stood in front of them. - Look: far away, stars flashed: one, another, third, fourth, fifth ... Isn't it true, it's the angels of God who opened the windows of their bright houses in the sky and look at us? Yes, Levko? After all, they are looking at our land? What if people had wings like birds - they could fly there, high, high ... Wow, scary! Not a single oak tree will reach the sky. But they say, however, that there is somewhere, in some distant land, such a tree that rustles with its peak in the sky itself, and God descends on it to earth at night before the bright holiday.
No, Galya; God has a long ladder from heaven to earth. She is placed before the bright resurrection by the holy archangels; and as soon as God steps on the first step, all the unclean spirits will fly headlong and fall into hell in heaps, and therefore not a single evil spirit appears on earth on the feast of Christ.
How quietly the water sways like a baby in a cradle! Hanna went on, pointing to the pond, gloomily furnished with a dark maple forest and mourned by the willows that drowned their mournful branches in it. Like a powerless old man, he held the distant, dark sky in his cold embrace, sprinkling with icy kisses the fiery stars that dimly shone in the warm night air, as if anticipating the imminent appearance of the brilliant king of the night. Near the forest, on a mountain, an old wooden house dozed with closed shutters; moss and wild grass covered its roof; curly apple trees grew in front of his windows; the forest, embracing its shadow, threw a wild gloom over him; a walnut grove spread at its foot and rolled down to the pond.
I remember, as if through a dream, - said Hanna, not taking her eyes off him, - long, long ago, when I was still small and lived with my mother, they told something terrible about this house. Levko, you really know, tell me! ..
God bless him, my beauty! You never know what women and stupid people will not tell. You will only disturb yourself, you will become afraid and you will not sleep peacefully.
Tell me, tell me, dear, black-browed lad! she said, pressing her face against his cheek and embracing him. - No! you obviously don't love me, you have another girlfriend. I won't be afraid; I will sleep peacefully at night. Now I won't sleep if you don't tell me. I will suffer, and think... Tell me, Levko!..
Apparently, people are telling the truth, that the girls have a devil that incites their curiosity. Well, listen. For a long time, my dear, a centurion lived in this house. The centurion had a daughter, a bright lady, white as snow, like your face. Sotnikov's wife had long since died; the centurion conceived to marry another. “Will you undead me in the old way, dad, when you take another wife?” - “I will, my daughter; even stronger than before I will press you to my heart! I will, my daughter; even brighter I will give earrings and monists! - The centurion brought his young wife to new house mine. The young wife was good. Blush and white was the young wife; she only looked at her stepdaughter so terribly that she cried out when she saw her, and if only the stern stepmother had said a word all day long. Night came: the centurion went with his young wife to his bedchamber; the white pannochka locked herself in her room. She became bitter; began to cry. Looks, a terrible black cat sneaks up to her; her fur is on fire, and iron claws clatter on the floor. In fright, she jumped up on the bench: the cat followed her. She jumped onto the couch: the cat went there too, and suddenly threw herself on her neck and strangled her. With a cry, tearing herself away, she threw it on the floor; the dreadful cat is stalking again. Tosca took her. His father's saber hung on the wall. Grabbed her and bryak on the floor - a paw with iron claws bounced off, and the cat with a squeal disappeared into a dark corner. The whole day the young wife did not leave her room; on the third day she came out with a bandaged hand. The poor lady guessed that her stepmother was a witch and that she had cut off her hand. On the fourth day, the centurion ordered his daughter to carry water, sweep the hut like a simple peasant, and not show up in the panorama. It was hard for the poor thing; Yes, there is nothing to do: she began to fulfill her father's will. On the fifth day the centurion drove his barefoot daughter out of the house and did not give a piece of bread for the journey. Then only the panna sobbed, covering her white face with her hands: “You ruined your own daughter, father! The witch has destroyed your sinful soul! God forgive you; but I, the unfortunate one, apparently, He does not order to live in this world! ..” And there, you see ... - Here Levko turned to Hanna, pointing his finger at the house. - Look here: there, further from the house, the highest bank! From this shore, a pannochka rushed into the water, and since then she has not been in the world ...
On a quiet and clear evening, when girls and lads gather in a circle and sing songs, the young Cossack Levko, the son of a village head, going up to one of the huts, calls the clear-eyed Hanna with a song. But the timid Hanna does not come out right away, she is afraid of the envy of girls, and the audacity of lads, and maternal severity, and something else unclear. There is nothing for Lyovka to console the beauty: his father again pretended to be deaf when he talked about marriage. Sitting on the threshold of the hut, Hann asks about the house with the shuttered shutters, which is reflected in the dark water of the pond. Levko tells how the centurion who lived there with his daughter, "a clear lady", got married, but the stepmother did not like the lady, harassed her, tormented her and forced the centurion to drive her daughter out of the house. The lady rushed from the high bank into the water, became the head of the drowned women, and once dragged her stepmother-witch into the water, but she herself turned into a drowned woman and thus escaped punishment. And on the site of that house they are going to build Vinnitsa, for which the distiller has come today. Here Levko said goodbye to Ganna, hearing the returning lads.
After the well-known description of the Ukrainian night, Kalenik, who has been pretty sloppy, bursts into the narrative and, cutting on what the light is worth a village head, with “indirect steps”, not without the help of crafty maidens, is looking for his hut. Levko, having said goodbye to his comrades, returns and sees Hanna, talking about him, Levka, with someone indistinguishable in the darkness. The stranger scolds Levko, offering Hanna his more serious love. The unexpected appearance of mischievous lads and a clear moon reveals to the angry Lyovka that this stranger is his father. Frightening his head, he persuades the lads to teach him a lesson. The head himself (about whom it is known that he once accompanied Queen Catherine to the Crimea, which he likes to mention on occasion, is now crooked, severe, important and widowed, lives somewhat under the heel of his sister-in-law) is already talking in the hut with the distiller, when Kalenik stumbled , constantly scolding his head, falls asleep on the bench. Feeding the ever-increasing anger of the owner, a stone flies into the hut, breaking the glass, and the distiller, with an appropriate story about his mother-in-law, stops the curses boiling on the lips of the head. But the insulting words of the song outside the window force the head into action.
The instigator in a black turned-out sheepskin coat is caught and thrown into a dark room, and the head with the distiller and the tenth are sent to the clerk, so that, having caught the brawlers, this very hour "make a resolution to them all." However, the clerk himself had already caught the same tomboy and put him in a barn. Contesting with each other the honor of this capture, the clerk and the head, first in the closet, and then in the barn, find a sister-in-law, whom they already want to burn, considering the devil. When the new prisoner in the turned-out sheepskin coat turns out to be Kalenik, the head goes berserk, equipping the timid tenths without fail to catch the instigator, promising merciless punishment for negligence.
About this time, Levko, in his black sheepskin coat and with his face smeared with soot, went up to the old house by the pond, struggling with the drowsiness that was taking over him. Looking at the reflection of the master's house, he notices that the window has opened in it, and there are no gloomy shutters at all. He sang a song, and the window that had been closed was opened again, and a clear lady appeared in it. Crying, she complains about her stepmother who has taken refuge and promises Levko a reward if he finds a witch among the drowned women. Levko looks at the girls leading round dances, they are all pale and transparent, but they start a game of crow, and the one who volunteered to be a crow seems to him not as bright as the others. And when she grabs the victim and anger flickers in her eyes, "Witch!" - says Levko, and the lady, laughing, gives him a note for his head. Here Lyovka, who has awakened, who still holds a piece of paper in his hand and curses his illiteracy, is grabbed by tenths with his head. Levko submits a note that turns out to be written by “commissar, retired lieutenant Kozma Dergach-Drishpanovsky” and contains, among the rebuke to the head, an order to marry Lyovka Makogononok to Ganna Petrychenkova, “as well as to repair bridges along the high road” and other important assignments. To the questions of the stupefied head, Levko comes up with a story of a meeting with the commissar, who supposedly promised to come to the head for lunch. Encouraged by such an honor, the head promises Lyovka, in addition to the whip, a wedding tomorrow, starts his eternal stories about Tsarina Catherine, and Levko runs away to the famous hut and, having crossed the sleeping Hanna in the window, returns home, unlike the drunken Kalenik, who is still looking and cannot find your home.
"May Night, or the Drowned Woman" is one of the most fabulous and enchanting stories by N.V. Gogol from his collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". Beautiful illustrations of the artist Olga Ionaitis, imbued with the spirit of Ukrainian folklore, create a unique flavor fairy tale. Undoubtedly, both adults and children will greatly enjoy reading this romantic work.
I. Hanna 1
II. head 2
III. An unexpected opponent. Conspiracy 3
IV. Boys walking 4
V. Drowned 6
VI. Awakening 7
Footnotes 7
Nikolay Gogol
May Night, or the Drowned Woman
Yogo dad knows the enemy! start sho-nebud rob the people of hell, then they purr, purr, mov horti after a hare, but everything is not up to shmigu; Tilki Well, well, hell, the devil’s upletetsya, then twirl your tail - so it’s devastated, it’s not like from the sky .
I. Ganna
The sonorous song flowed like a river through the streets of the village ***. There was a time when, weary of the day's work and worries, the lads and girls gathered noisily in a circle, in the brilliance of a clear evening, to pour out their fun into sounds that are always inseparable from despondency. And the thoughtful evening dreamily hugged the blue sky, turning everything into uncertainty and distance. It's already twilight; and the songs didn't stop. With a bandura in his hands, the young Cossack Levko, the son of the village head, who had eluded the peselniks, made his way. The Cossack is wearing a Retilov hat. The Kozak is walking along the street, strumming his hand on the strings and dancing. Here he quietly stopped in front of the door of a hut lined with low cherry trees. Whose house is this? Whose door is this? After a little silence, he began to play and sang:
The sun is low, the evening is close,
See me, my heart!
- No, it seems that my clear-eyed beauty fell asleep soundly! said the Cossack, having finished his song and approaching the window. - Galya! Galya! Are you sleeping or don't you want to come out to me? You're afraid, right, that no one sees us, or maybe you don't want to show your white face in the cold! Don't be afraid: there is no one. The evening was warm. But even if someone showed up, I will cover you with a scroll, wrap my belt around you, cover you with my hands - and no one will see us. But even if there was a breath of cold, I will press you closer to my heart, I will warm you with kisses, I will put my hat on your little white legs. My heart, my fish, my necklace! look for a moment. Stick your white hand through the window... No, you are not sleeping, you proud maiden! he said louder and in such a voice as one who is ashamed of instant humiliation expresses himself. - You like to mock me, goodbye!
Here he turned away, put his cap on one side, and proudly walked away from the window, quietly plucking the strings of the bandura. At that moment the wooden handle at the door turned: the door swung open with a creak, and the girl, at the time of the seventeenth spring, entwined in twilight, looking around timidly and without releasing the wooden handle, stepped over the threshold. In the semi-clear darkness, bright eyes burned warmly, like stars; red coral monisto shone; and from the eagle eyes the lad could not hide even the color that shyly flashed on her cheeks.
“What an impatient you are,” she said to him in an undertone. - I'm already angry! Why did you choose such a time: a crowd of people staggers every now and then through the streets ... I'm trembling all over ...
- Oh, don't tremble, my red viburnum! Come closer to me! - said the lad, embracing her, throwing aside the bandura that hung on a long strap around his neck, and sitting down with her at the door of the hut. “You know that it is bittersweet for me not to see you for an hour.
– Do you know what I think? interrupted the girl, fixing her eyes on him thoughtfully. - It’s like something whispers in my ear that we won’t see each other so often. You have unkind people: the girls keep looking so envious, and the lads ... I even notice that my mother has recently begun to look after me more severely. I confess, I had more fun with strangers.
A certain movement of melancholy was expressed on her face at the last words.
- Two months only in the direction of the native and I already miss it! Maybe I'm tired of you?
“Oh, you don’t bother me,” she said, grinning. “I love you, black-browed Cossack!” That's why I love that you have brown eyes, and how you look at them - it seems to be smiling in my soul: both fun and good for her; that you blink affably with your black mustache; that you walk down the street, sing and play the bandura, and it's nice to listen to you.
- Oh my Galya! the lad screamed, kissing and pressing her tighter to his chest.
- Wait! full, Levko! Tell me in advance, have you spoken to your father?
- What? he said as if waking up. - That I want to marry, and you marry me - he said.
But somehow dejectedly sounded in his mouth this word "said".
- What?
"What are you going to do with him?" The old bastard, as usual, pretended to be deaf: he doesn’t hear anything and still scolds that I’m wandering around God knows where, hang out and play pranks with the lads through the streets. But do not grieve, my Galya! Here is a Cossack word for you, that I will persuade him.
- Yes, you just have to say a word, Levko - and everything will be your way. I know this for myself: sometimes I wouldn’t listen to you, but if you say a word, I involuntarily do what you want. Look, look! she continued, laying her head on his shoulder and raising her eyes upward, where the warm Ukrainian sky shone immensely blue, hung from below with the curly branches of the cherries that stood in front of them. “Look, far away, stars flashed: one, another, third, fourth, fifth ... Isn’t it true, it’s the angels of God who opened the windows of their bright houses in the sky and look at us? Yes, Levko? After all, they are looking at our land? What if people had wings like birds - they could fly there, high, high ... Wow, scary! Not a single oak tree will reach the sky. But they say, however, that there is somewhere, in some distant land, such a tree that rustles with its peak in the sky itself, and God descends through it to earth at night before the bright holiday.
- No, Galya; God has a long ladder from heaven to earth. She is placed before the Bright Resurrection by the holy archangels; and as soon as God steps on the first step, all the unclean spirits will fly headlong and fall into hell in heaps, and therefore not a single evil spirit appears on earth on the feast of Christ.
- How quietly the water sways, like a child in a cradle! Hanna continued, pointing to the pond, gloomily furnished with a dark maple forest and mourned by the willows that drowned their mournful branches in it.
Like a powerless old man, he held the distant, dark sky in his cold embrace, sprinkling fiery stars with icy kisses, which dimly shone in the warm night air, as if anticipating the imminent appearance of the brilliant king of the night. Near the forest, on a mountain, an old wooden house dozed with closed shutters; moss and wild grass covered its roof; curly apple trees grew in front of his windows; the forest, embracing its shadow, threw a wild gloom over him; a walnut grove spread at its foot and rolled down to the pond.
Tell me, tell me, dear, black-browed lad! she said, pressing her face against his cheek and embracing him. - No! you obviously don't love me, you have another girlfriend. I won't be afraid; I will sleep peacefully at night. Now I won't sleep if you don't tell me. I will suffer, and think... Tell me, Levko!..
Apparently, people are telling the truth, that the girls have a devil that incites their curiosity. Well, listen. For a long time, my dear, a centurion lived in this house. The centurion had a daughter, a bright lady, white as snow, like your face. Sotnikov's wife had long since died; the centurion conceived to marry another. “Will you undead me in the old way, dad, when you take another wife?” - “I will, my daughter; even stronger than before I will press you to my heart! I will, my daughter; even brighter I will give earrings and monists! - The centurion brought his young wife to his new house. The young wife was good. Blush and white was the young wife; she only looked at her stepdaughter so terribly that she cried out when she saw her, and if only the stern stepmother had said a word all day long. Night came: the centurion went with his young wife to his bedchamber; the white pannochka locked herself in her room. She became bitter; began to cry. Looks, a terrible black cat sneaks up to her; her fur is on fire, and iron claws clatter on the floor. In fright, she jumped up on the bench: the cat followed her. She jumped onto the couch: the cat went there too, and suddenly threw herself on her neck and strangled her. With a cry, tearing herself away, she threw it on the floor; the dreadful cat is stalking again. Tosca took her. His father's saber hung on the wall. Grabbed her and bryak on the floor - a paw with iron claws bounced off, and the cat with a squeal disappeared into a dark corner. The whole day the young wife did not leave her room; on the third day she came out with a bandaged hand. The poor lady guessed that her stepmother was a witch and that she had cut off her hand. On the fourth day, the centurion ordered his daughter to carry water, sweep the hut like a simple peasant, and not show up in the panorama. It was hard for the poor thing; Yes, there is nothing to do: she began to fulfill her father's will. On the fifth day the centurion drove his barefoot daughter out of the house and did not give a piece of bread for the journey. Then only the panna sobbed, covering her white face with her hands: “You ruined your own daughter, father! The witch has destroyed your sinful soul! God forgive you; but I, the unfortunate one, apparently, He does not order to live in this world! ..” And there, you see ... - Here Levko turned to Hanna, pointing his finger at the house. - Look here: there, further from the house, the highest bank! From this shore, a pannochka rushed into the water, and since then she has not been in the world ...
And the witch? Hanna interrupted timidly, fixing her teary eyes on him.
Witch? The old women invented that from that time on all the drowned women went out, on a moonlit night, into the lord's garden to warm themselves for a month; and the centurion's daughter became chief over them. One night she saw her stepmother near the pond, attacked her and dragged her screaming into the water. But the witch was found here too: she turned under water into one of the drowned women and through that she got away from the whip of green reed, with which the drowned women wanted to beat her. Trust the grandmothers! They also say that the pannochka gathers drowned women every night and looks into each one's face one by one, trying to find out which of them is a witch; but still didn't know. And if one of the people gets caught, he immediately makes him guess, otherwise he threatens to drown in water. Here, my Galya, as the old people say! .. The present pan wants to build a winery on that place and sent a distiller here on purpose ... But I hear the conversation. These are ours returning from songs. Farewell, Galya! Sleep well; don't think about these womanish inventions! Having said this, he hugged her tighter, kissed her and left.
Farewell, Levko! said Hanna, fixing her eyes thoughtfully on the dark forest.
A huge fiery month majestically began to cut out of the earth at that time. Another half of it was underground; and already the whole world was filled with some kind of solemn light. The pond sparkled. The shadow from the trees began to separate clearly on the dark greenery. "Goodbye, Hannah!" her words came from behind, followed by a kiss. "You've returned!" she said, looking round; but, seeing an unfamiliar lad in front of her, she turned away. "Goodbye, Hannah!" - came again, and again someone kissed her on the cheek. “Here the hard one brought another!” she spoke with her heart. "Farewell, dear Hanna!" - “And the third one!” - "Goodbye! Goodbye! Farewell, Hanna! - and kisses covered her from all sides. “Yes, there is a whole gang of them!” - Shouted Hanna, breaking out of the crowd of lads, vying with each other in a hurry to hug her. - “How can they not get tired of kissing incessantly! Soon, by God, it will be impossible to appear on the street!” Following these words, the door slammed shut, and all that could be heard was the iron bolt being pulled with a squeal.
Do you know Ukrainian night? Oh, you don't know the Ukrainian night! Take a look at her. The moon looks from the middle of the sky. The immense vault of heaven resounded, parted even more immensely. It burns and breathes. The earth is all in silver light; and the wonderful air is cool and stuffy, and full of bliss, and moves an ocean of fragrances. Divine Night! Charming night! The forests, full of darkness, became motionless, inspired, and cast a huge shadow from themselves. Quiet and calm these ponds; the cold and gloom of their waters is sullenly enclosed in the dark green walls of the gardens. The virgin thickets of bird cherry and sweet cherry timidly stretched their roots into the spring cold and occasionally murmur with their leaves, as if angry and indignant, when the beautiful anemone - the night wind, sneaking up instantly, kisses them. The whole landscape is asleep. And above everything breathes; everything is wonderful, everything is solemn. And in the soul it is both immense and wonderful, and crowds of silver visions harmoniously arise in its depths. Divine Night! Charming night! And suddenly everything came to life: forests, and ponds, and steppes. The majestic thunder of the Ukrainian nightingale is pouring, and it seems that even the month has heard it in the middle of the sky ... As if enchanted, the village is dozing on a hill. Even whiter, even better shine with a month of crowds of huts; even more dazzling are their low walls cut out of the darkness. The songs are silent. Everything is quiet. The pious people are already asleep. Somewhere only narrow windows shine. In front of the thresholds of other only huts, a belated family makes their late supper.
Yes, hopak is not dancing like that! That's what I look, everything is not glued. What is this godfather telling?.. Ah, well: gop trawl! gop trawl! hop, hop, hop! - This is how a middle-aged man, who was on a spree, talked to himself, dancing along the street. - By God, this is not how hopak is danced! Why should I lie! oh god it's not! Ah, well: gop trawl! gop trawl! hop, hop, hop!
Here, the man is crazy! it would be nice to have some kind of lad, otherwise an old boar, for children to laugh, dances down the street at night! cried an elderly woman passing by, carrying straw in her hand. - Go to your house! Time to sleep long time!
