A summary of Gorky’s “Old Woman Isergil”
The narrator listened to these stories in Bessarabia, on the seashore. He then worked with a group of Moldovans. They went to the sea in the evening, and the narrator remained in the vineyard with the old woman Izergil. Moldovans walked and sang, they were cheerful and beautiful in the rays of the setting sun. The old woman asked her companion why he did not go with all the young people, he discouraged himself with fatigue. She said in displeasure: “You are old, you Russians, all gloomy like demons are afraid of you girls, but you’re young and strong.” The moon rose, and across the steppe came shadows from the running clouds. The old woman said that she saw Larra. The narrator looked, but saw nothing except the shadow. And the old woman said that Larra had turned into a shadow, and told this tale. “Many thousands of years have passed since that time, when this happened. Far to the east there is a country of a large river, this is a very generous country! There
Once a black-haired and tender girl was stolen by an eagle. About her, they burned and forgot. And twenty years later she returned tired and withered, but with her was a young man, handsome and strong, like she herself twenty years ago. She said that she lived with an eagle wife in his nest. When the eagle lost its strength, he folded his wings, rushed from the top and crashed. Everyone looked with surprise at the son of an eagle; but he was no different from the others, only his eyes were cold and proud, like an eagle. They talked with him, and he answered very haughtily.
The elders said that he was extraordinary. Then people became angry and drove him out of the tribe. He laughed and left wherever he wanted. Then he went to a beautiful girl and hugged her, and she pushed him away, then he killed her. All were frightened: for the first time “they were killing a woman like that”. He was seized and tied up, but not killed, finding it too easy for him to die. Long thought what penalty to betray
The young man was called Larry, which means rejected. When he was sentenced, he laughed. He was alone, like a father, but his father was not a man. The young man began to live alone, occasionally abducting cattle and girls from the tribe. He was shot from a bow, but he was invulnerable. So dozens of years passed. But one day he came close to people, rushed to him, and he stood, not defending himself. Then people realized that he wanted to die, and did not touch him. He drew his knife and hit himself in the chest, but the knife broke like a stone. People gladly found out that he could not die. They left him lying in the steppe, since then he walks, waiting for death, has already turned into a shadow. “He has no life, and death does not smile at him, and there is no place for him among people.” This is how a man was struck for his pride! “
In the night a beautiful song was pouring. The old woman asked if her interlocutor had ever heard of singing so? He shook his head negatively, and she confirmed that he had not heard and would never hear. “Only beauties can sing well, beauties who love life!” The old woman began to tell: she wove carpets all day long, when she was young, and at night she ran to her lover. She ran for three months while she loved. The narrator looked at the old woman: “Her black eyes were still dim, they were not revived by the memory, the moon lit up her dry, chapped lips, pointed chin with gray hair on it and a wrinkled nose curved like the owl’s beak. The cheeks were black pit, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair, which had been knocked out from under the red rag, which had been wrapped around her head. The skin on her face,
She told me that she lived near the sea in Falmy with her mother. Izergil was fifteen years old when a “tall, flexible, black-eared, cheerful person” appeared at their edges. She saw him standing with one foot in the boat, and the other on the beach. He was surprised by her beauty, and she fell in love with him. Four days later she became his. He was a fisherman from Prut. Mother found out about everything and beat her. The fisher called Izergil with him to the Danube, but by that time she already stopped loving him: “But I did not like him then – only he sings and kisses, nothing more! It was boring already!”
Then a friend introduced her to Hutsul. “Red was, all red – and a mustache, and curls!” He was sometimes affectionate and sad, and at times, like an animal, roared and fought. She went to the Hutsul, and the fisherman long grieved and cried for her. Then he found the other one. Later, both of them were hanged: a fisherman and a hutsul. They were seized from the Romanian; He was revenged: the farm was burned, and he became a beggar. The narrator guessed that Izergil did this, but to his question the old woman answered evasively that she was not the only one who wanted to take revenge. There were executed friends. Izergil remembered how the Turk loved. He was in his harem in Scutura. For a week I lived, and then I missed you.
The Turk had a sixteen-year-old son, Izergil with him and fled from Bulgaria to harem, later went to Poland with the monk. On the question of the interlocutor, what happened to the young turchon, with whom she escaped from the harem, Izergil answered that he died of homesickness or of love. The Pole-monk humiliated her, and she once threw him into the river. Izergil did not meet her lover later. “These are bad meetings, anyway with the dead.” Izergil continued her story… In Poland, it was difficult. “There live cold and deceitful people.” They hiss like snakes, because they are deceitful. Then she fell into bondage with a Jew who traded it. Then she loved one man with a severed face. He defended the Greeks, in this fight he was hacked. She added: “In life, you know, there is always a place for deeds, and those who do not find them are lazy and cowards.” Then there was the Magyar, later killed. And “her last game is gentry.” It’s very beautiful, and Izergil was already forty years old. She lived in Krakow, and everything she had: horses, gold, servants… Pan knelt for her love, but, having achieved it, he immediately dropped it. Then he fought with the Russians and was captured, and Izergil rescued him, killing the sentry. Pan lied to Izergil that for this she would love her forever, but she pushed away the “lying dog”. Izergil has come to Moldova, where she has lived for thirty years. She had a husband, but died a year ago. She lives among the youth who loves her fairy tales. And the old woman looks at the young and remembers the past. According to her, before people were cleaner, they had more strength and fire, “that’s why life was more fun and better.” old. She lived in Krakow, and everything she had: horses, gold, servants… Pan knelt for her love, but, having achieved it, he immediately dropped it. Then he fought with the Russians and was captured, and Izergil rescued him, killing the sentry. Pan lied to Izergil that for this she would love her forever, but she pushed away the “lying dog”. Izergil has come to Moldova, where she has lived for thirty years. She had a husband, but died a year ago. She lives among the youth who loves her fairy tales. And the old woman looks at the young and remembers the past. According to her, before people were cleaner, they had more strength and fire, “that’s why life was more fun and better.” old. She lived in Krakow, and everything she had: horses, gold, servants… Pan knelt for her love, but, having achieved it, he immediately dropped it. Then he fought with the Russians and was captured, and Izergil rescued him, killing the sentry. Pan lied to Izergil that for this she would love her forever, but she pushed away the “lying dog”. Izergil has come to Moldova, where she has lived for thirty years. She had a husband, but died a year ago. She lives among the youth who loves her fairy tales. And the old woman looks at the young and remembers the past. According to her, before people were cleaner, they had more strength and fire, “that’s why life was more fun and better.” that for this will love her forever, but she pushed away the “lying dog”. Izergil has come to Moldova, where she has lived for thirty years. She had a husband, but died a year ago. She lives among the youth who loves her fairy tales. And the old woman looks at the young and remembers the past. According to her, before people were cleaner, they had more strength and fire, “that’s why life was more fun and better.” that for this will love her forever, but she pushed away the “lying dog”. Izergil has come to Moldova, where she has lived for thirty years. She had a husband, but died a year ago. She lives among the youth who loves her fairy tales. And the old woman looks at the young and remembers the past. According to her, before people were cleaner, they had more strength and fire, “that’s why life was more fun and better.”
Night came and Izergil asked her interlocutor if he saw sparks in the steppe. Blue! The old woman admitted that she herself did not see them. “These sparks from the burning heart of Danko.” The narrator sat and waited for Izergil to begin his new tale.
Some people lived on the earth in the old days: the impenetrable forests surrounded their campsites on three sides, and with the fourth, there was a steppe, there were these cheerful, strong and courageous people. ” But the conquerors came and drove them into the depths of the forest. The forest is old and dense, there are bogs in it, from which a deadly stench rises. And people began to perish. We must leave the forest or forward, or back into slavery to the invaders. People thought what to do, and weakened from these thoughts. “They already wanted to go to the enemy and bring him his will as a gift, and no one, scared of death, was afraid of slavish life.” But then Danko appeared and saved everyone alone. “
Danko is a handsome young man. Beautiful – always bold. He persuaded people to go through the forest, because he has the end. People looked at Danko and realized that he was the best, and believed him. At first everyone went for Danko fun. But the way was difficult, the strength and determination of people melted every day. Thunderstorm began. People are exhausted. They were ashamed to admit their weakness, and they decided to remove their anger at Danko. They accused him of being unable to lead them out of the forest. And Danko called them weak. People decided to kill Danko. And he realized that without him they would perish. “And then his heart flashed with the fire of desire to save them, lead them to an easy path, and then the beams of that mighty fire flashed in his eyes, and they, seeing this, thought that he was enraged…” and began to surround Danko, so that it would be easier for him to kill. Danko thought what he could do for people? “
The heart brightly lit the forest with a torch of love for people, and they, amazed by Danko’s act, rushed after him cheerfully and quickly, and suddenly the forest ended. People saw before them a radiant steppe. They were having fun. And Danko fell and died. “One cautious man, fearing something, stepped on Dunco’s burning heart, and it crumbled into sparks and died away…”
That’s where in the steppe these blue lights appear before a thunderstorm. The old woman, exhausted by the stories, fell asleep, and the sea all rustled and rustled…
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