Dream Tales and Prose Poems Read online

  I carefully picked up the flower that had fallen in the mud, and, going back to the drawing-room, laid it on the table before her chair.

  And now at last she came back, and with light footsteps, crossing the whole room, sat down at the table.

  Her face was both paler and more vivid; her downcast eyes, that looked somehow smaller, strayed rapidly in happy confusion from side to side.

  She saw the rose, snatched it up, glanced at its crushed, muddy petals, glanced at me, and her eyes, brought suddenly to a standstill, were bright with tears.

  'What are you crying for?' I asked.

  'Why, see this rose. Look what has happened to it.'

  Then I thought fit to utter a profound remark.

  'Your tears will wash away the mud,' I pronounced with a significant expression.

  'Tears do not wash, they burn,' she answered. And turning to the hearth she flung the rose into the dying flame.

  'Fire burns even better than tears,' she cried with spirit; and her lovely eyes, still bright with tears, laughed boldly and happily.

  I saw that she too had been in the fire.

  April 1878.

  TO THE MEMORY OF U. P. VREVSKY

  On dirt, on stinking wet straw under the shelter of a tumble-down barn, turned in haste into a camp hospital, in a ruined Bulgarian village, for over a fortnight she lay dying of typhus.

  She was unconscious, and not one doctor even looked at her; the sick soldiers, whom she had tended as long as she could keep on her legs, in their turn got up from their pestilent litters to lift a few drops of water in the hollow of a broken pot to her parched lips.

  She was young and beautiful; the great world knew her; even the highest dignitaries had been interested in her. Ladies had envied her, men had paid her court … two or three had loved her secretly and truly. Life had smiled on her; but there are smiles that are worse than tears.

  A soft, tender heart … and such force, such eagerness for sacrifice! To help those who needed help … she knew of no other happiness … knew not of it, and had never once known it. Every other happiness passed her by. But she had long made up her mind to that; and all aglow with the fire of unquenchable faith, she gave herself to the service of her neighbours.

  What hidden treasure she buried there in the depth of her heart, in her most secret soul, no one ever knew; and now, of course, no one will ever know.

  Ay, and what need? Her sacrifice is made … her work is done.

  But grievous it is to think that no one said thanks even to her dead body, though she herself was shy and shrank from all thanks.

  May her dear shade pardon this belated blossom, which I make bold to lay upon her grave!

  September 1878.

  THE LAST MEETING

  We had once been close and warm friends…. But an unlucky moment came … and we parted as enemies.

  Many years passed by…. And coming to the town where he lived, I learnt that he was helplessly ill, and wished to see me.

  I made my way to him, went into his room…. Our eyes met.

  I hardly knew him. God! what sickness had done to him!

  Yellow, wrinkled, completely bald, with a scanty grey beard, he sat clothed in nothing but a shirt purposely slit open…. He could not bear the weight of even the lightest clothes. Jerkily he stretched out to me his fearfully thin hand that looked as if it were gnawed away, with an effort muttered a few indistinct words—whether of welcome or reproach, who can tell? His emaciated chest heaved, and over the dwindled pupils of his kindling eyes rolled two hard-wrung tears of suffering.

  My heart sank…. I sat down on a chair beside him, and involuntarily dropping my eyes before the horror and hideousness of it, I too held out my hand.

  But it seemed to me that it was not his hand that took hold of me.

  It seemed to me that between us is sitting a tall, still, white woman. A long robe shrouds her from head to foot. Her deep, pale eyes look into vacancy; no sound is uttered by her pale, stern lips.

  This woman has joined our hands…. She has reconciled us for ever.

  Yes…. Death has reconciled us….

  April 1878.

  A VISIT

  I was sitting at the open window … in the morning, the early morning of the first of May.

  The dawn had not yet begun; but already the dark, warm night grew pale and chill at its approach.

  No mist had risen, no breeze was astir, all was colourless and still … but the nearness of the awakening could be felt, and the rarer air smelt keen and moist with dew.

  Suddenly, at the open window, with a light whirr and rustle, a great bird flew into my room.

  I started, looked closely at it…. It was not a bird; it was a tiny winged woman, dressed in a narrow long robe flowing to her feet.

  She was grey all over, the colour of mother-of-pearl; only the inner side of her wings glowed with the tender flush of an opening rose; a wreath of valley lilies entwined the scattered curls upon her little round head; and, like a butterfly's feelers, two peacock feathers waved drolly above her lovely rounded brow.

  She fluttered twice about the ceiling; her tiny face was laughing; laughing, too, were her great, clear, black eyes.

  The gay frolic of her sportive flight set them flashing like diamonds.

  She held in her hand the long stalk of a flower of the steppes—'the Tsar's sceptre,' the Russians call it—it is really like a sceptre.

  Flying rapidly above me, she touched my head with the flower.

  I rushed towards her…. But already she had fluttered out of window, and darted away….

  In the garden, in a thicket of lilac bushes, a wood-dove greeted her with its first morning warble … and where she vanished, the milk-white sky flushed a soft pink.

  I know thee, Goddess of Fantasy! Thou didst pay me a random visit by the way; thou hast flown on to the young poets.

  O Poesy! Youth! Virginal beauty of woman! Thou couldst shine for me but for a moment, in the early dawn of early spring!

  May 1878.

  NECESSITAS—VIS—LIBERTAS!

  A BAS-RELIEF

  A tall, bony old woman, with iron face and dull, fixed look, moves with long strides, and, with an arm dry as a stick, pushes before her another woman.

  This woman—of huge stature, powerful, thick-set, with the muscles of a Hercules, with a tiny head set on a bull neck, and blind—in her turn pushes before her a small, thin girl.

  This girl alone has eyes that see; she resists, turns round, lifts fair, delicate hands; her face, full of life, shows impatience and daring…. She wants not to obey, she wants not to go, where they are driving her … but, still, she has to yield and go.

  Necessitas—Vis—Libertas!

  Who will, may translate.

  May 1878.

  ALMS

  Near a large town, along the broad highroad walked an old sick man.

  He tottered as he went; his old wasted legs, halting, dragging, stumbling, moved painfully and feebly, as though they did not belong to him; his clothes hung in rags about him; his uncovered head drooped on his breast…. He was utterly worn-out.

  He sat down on a stone by the wayside, bent forward, leant his elbows on his knees, hid his face in his hands; and through the knotted fingers the tears dropped down on to the grey, dry dust.

  He remembered….

  Remembered how he too had been strong and rich, and how he had wasted his health, and had lavished his riches upon others, friends and enemies…. And here, he had not now a crust of bread; and all had forsaken him, friends even before foes…. Must he sink to begging alms? There was bitterness in his heart, and shame.

  The tears still dropped and dropped, spotting the grey dust.

  Suddenly he heard some one call him by his name; he lifted his weary head, and saw standing before him a stranger.

  A face calm and grave, but not stern; eyes not beaming, but clear; a look penetrating, but not unkind.

  'Thou hast given away all thy riches,' said a tranqu
il voice…. 'But thou dost not regret having done good, surely?'

  'I regret it not,' answered the old man with a sigh; 'but here I am dying now.'

  'And had there been no beggars who held out their hands to thee,' the stranger went on, 'thou wouldst have had none on whom to prove thy goodness; thou couldst not have done thy good works.'

  The old man answered nothing, and pondered.

  'So be thou also now not proud, poor man,' the stranger began again. 'Go thou, hold out thy hand; do thou too give to other good men a chance to prove in deeds that they are good.'

  The old man started, raised his eyes … but already the stranger had vanished, and in the distance a man came into sight walking along the road.

  The old man went up to him, and held out his hand. This man turned away with a surly face, and gave him nothing.

  But after him another passed, and he gave the old man some trifling alms.

  And the old man bought himself bread with the coppers given him, and sweet to him seemed the morsel gained by begging, and there was no shame in his heart, but the contrary: peace and joy came as a blessing upon him.

  May 1878.

  THE INSECT

  I dreamed that we were sitting, a party of twenty, in a big room with open windows.

  Among us were women, children, old men…. We were all talking of some very well-known subject, talking noisily and indistinctly.

  Suddenly, with a sharp, whirring sound, there flew into the room a big insect, two inches long … it flew in, circled round, and settled on the wall.

  It was like a fly or a wasp. Its body dirt-coloured; of the same colour too its flat, stiff wings; outspread feathered claws, and a head thick and angular, like a dragon-fly's; both head and claws were bright red, as though steeped in blood.

  This strange insect incessantly turned its head up and down, to right and to left, moved its claws … then suddenly darted from the wall, flew with a whirring sound about the room, and again settled, again hatefully and loathsomely wriggling all over, without stirring from the spot.

  In all of us it excited a sensation of loathing, dread, even terror…. No one of us had ever seen anything like it. We all cried: 'Drive that monstrous thing away!' and waved our handkerchiefs at it from a distance … but no one ventured to go up to it … and when the insect began flying, every one instinctively moved away.

  Only one of our party, a pale-faced young man, stared at us all in amazement He shrugged his shoulders; he smiled, and positively could not conceive what had happened to us, and why we were in such a state of excitement. He himself did not see an insect at all, did not hear the ill-omened whirr of its wings.

  All at once the insect seemed to stare at him, darted off, and dropping on his head, stung him on the forehead, above the eyes…. The young man feebly groaned, and fell dead.

  The fearful fly flew out at once…. Only then we guessed what it was had visited us.

  May 1878.

  CABBAGE SOUP

  A peasant woman, a widow, had an only son, a young man of twenty, the best workman in the village, and he died.

  The lady who was the owner of the village, hearing of the woman's trouble, went to visit her on the very day of the burial.

  She found her at home.

  Standing in the middle of her hut, before the table, she was, without haste, with a regular movement of the right arm (the left hung listless at her side), scooping up weak cabbage soup from the bottom of a blackened pot, and swallowing it spoonful by spoonful.

  The woman's face was sunken and dark; her eyes were red and swollen … but she held herself as rigid and upright as in church.

  'Heavens!' thought the lady, 'she can eat at such a moment … what coarse feelings they have really, all of them!'

  And at that point the lady recollected that when, a few years before, she had lost her little daughter, nine months old, she had refused, in her grief, a lovely country villa near Petersburg, and had spent the whole summer in town! Meanwhile the woman went on swallowing cabbage soup.

  The lady could not contain herself, at last. 'Tatiana!' she said … 'Really! I'm surprised! Is it possible you didn't care for your son? How is it you've not lost your appetite? How can you eat that soup!'

  'My Vasia's dead,' said the woman quietly, and tears of anguish ran once more down her hollow cheeks. 'It's the end of me too, of course; it's tearing the heart out of me alive. But the soup's not to be wasted; there's salt in it.'

  The lady only shrugged her shoulders and went away. Salt did not cost her much.

  May 1878.

  THE REALM OF AZURE

  O realm of azure! O realm of light and colour, of youth and happiness! I have beheld thee in dream. We were together, a few, in a beautiful little boat, gaily decked out. Like a swan's breast the white sail swelled below the streamers frolicking in the wind.

  I knew not who were with me; but in all my soul I felt that they were young, light-hearted, happy as I!

  But I looked not indeed on them. I beheld all round the boundless blue of the sea, dimpled with scales of gold, and overhead the same boundless sea of blue, and in it, triumphant and mirthful, it seemed, moved the sun.

  And among us, ever and anon, rose laughter, ringing and gleeful as the laughter of the gods!

  And on a sudden, from one man's lips or another's, would flow words, songs of divine beauty and inspiration, and power … it seemed the sky itself echoed back a greeting to them, and the sea quivered in unison…. Then followed again the blissful stillness.

  Riding lightly over the soft waves, swiftly our little boat sped on. No wind drove it along; our own lightly beating hearts guided it. At our will it floated, obedient as a living thing.

  We came on islands, enchanted islands, half-transparent with the prismatic lights of precious stones, of amethysts and emeralds. Odours of bewildering fragrance rose from the rounded shores; some of these islands showered on us a rain of roses and valley lilies; from others birds darted up, with long wings of rainbow hues.

  The birds flew circling above us; the lilies and roses melted away in the pearly foam that glided by the smooth sides of our boat.

  And, with the flowers and the birds, sounds floated to us, sounds sweet as honey … women's voices, one fancied, in them…. And all about us, sky, sea, the heaving sail aloft, the gurgling water at the rudder—all spoke of love, of happy love!

  And she, the beloved of each of us—she was there … unseen and close. One moment more, and behold, her eyes will shine upon thee, her smile will blossom on thee…. Her hand will take thy hand and guide thee to the land of joy that fades not!

  O realm of azure! In dream have I beheld thee.

  June 1878.

  TWO RICH MEN

  When I hear the praises of the rich man Rothschild, who out of his immense revenues devotes whole thousands to the education of children, the care of the sick, the support of the aged, I admire and am touched.

  But even while I admire it and am touched by it, I cannot help recalling a poor peasant family who took an orphan niece into their little tumble-down hut.

  'If we take Katka,' said the woman, 'our last farthing will go on her, there won't be enough to get us salt to salt us a bit of bread.'

  'Well,… we'll do without salt,' answered the peasant, her husband.

  Rothschild is a long way behind that peasant!

  July 1878.

  THE OLD MAN

  Days of darkness, of dreariness, have come…. Thy own infirmities, the sufferings of those dear to thee, the chill and gloom of old age. All that thou hast loved, to which thou hast given thyself irrevocably, is falling, going to pieces. The way is all down-hill.

  What canst thou do? Grieve? Complain? Thou wilt aid not thyself nor others that way….

  On the bowed and withering tree the leaves are smaller and fewer, but its green is yet the same.

  Do thou too shrink within, withdraw into thyself, into thy memories, and there, deep down, in the very depths of the soul turned inwards on
itself, thy old life, to which thou alone hast the key, will be bright again for thee, in all the fragrance, all the fresh green, and the grace and power of its spring!

  But beware … look not forward, poor old man!

  July 1878.

  THE REPORTER

  Two friends were sitting at a table drinking tea.

  A sudden hubbub arose in the street. They heard pitiable groans, furious abuse, bursts of malignant laughter.

  'They're beating some one,' observed one of the friends, looking out of window.

  'A criminal? A murderer?' inquired the other. 'I say, whatever he may be, we can't allow this illegal chastisement. Let's go and take his part.'

  'But it's not a murderer they're beating.'

  'Not a murderer? Is it a thief then? It makes no difference, let's go and get him away from the crowd.'

  'It's not a thief either.'

  'Not a thief? Is it an absconding cashier then, a railway director, an army contractor, a Russian art patron, a lawyer, a Conservative editor, a social reformer?… Any way, let's go and help him!'

  'No … it's a newspaper reporter they're beating.'

  'A reporter? Oh, I tell you what: we'll finish our glasses of tea first then.'

  July 1878.

  THE TWO BROTHERS

  It was a vision …

  Two angels appeared to me … two genii.

  I say angels, genii, because both had no clothes on their naked bodies, and behind their shoulders rose long powerful wings.

  Both were youths. One was rather plump, with soft smooth skin and dark curls. His eyes were brown and full, with thick eyelashes; his look was sly, merry, and eager. His face was charming, bewitching, a little insolent, a little wicked. His full soft crimson lips were faintly quivering. The youth smiled as one possessing power—self-confidently and languidly; a magnificent wreath of flowers rested lightly on his shining tresses, almost touching his velvety eyebrows. A spotted leopard's skin, pinned up with a golden arrow, hung lightly from his curved shoulder to his rounded thigh. The feathers of his wings were tinged with rose colour; the ends of them were bright red, as though dipped in fresh-spilt scarlet blood. From time to time they quivered rapidly with a sweet silvery sound, the sound of rain in spring.