The Overcoat

In the department of — but it is better not to mention the department. There is nothing more irritable than departments, regiments, courts of justice, and, in a word, every branch of public service. Each individual attached to them nowadays thinks all society insulted in his person. Quite recently a complaint was received from a justice of the peace, in which he plainly demonstrated that all the imperial institutions were going to the dogs, and that the Czar’s sacred name was being taken in vain; and in proof he appended to the complaint a romance in which the justice of the peace is made to appear about once every ten lines, and sometimes in a drunken condition. Therefore, in order to avoid all unpleasantness, it will be better to describe the department in question only as a certain department.

So, in a certain department there was a certain official — not a very high one, it must be allowed — short of stature, somewhat pock-marked, red-haired, and short-sighted, with a bald forehead, wrinkled cheeks, and a complexion of the kind known as sanguine. The St. Petersburg climate was responsible for this. As for his official status, he was what is called a perpetual titular councillor, over which, as is well known, some writers make merry, and crack their jokes, obeying the praiseworthy custom of attacking those who cannot bite back.

 

The Shadow

It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the hottest lands they are burnt to Negroes. But now it was only to the hot lands that a learned man had come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.

He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors–the window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the whole house slept, or there was no one at home.

The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine must fall there from morning till evening–it was really not to be borne.

The learned man from the cold lands–he was a young man, and seemed to be a clever man–sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became quite meagre–even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it. It was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they began to freshen up again.

 

Alice and The Pigeon

One evening in winter as Alice, a dear little girl whom everybody loved, pushed aside the curtains of her bedroom window, she saw the moon half hidden by great banks of clouds, and only a few stars peeping out here and there. Below, the earth lay dark, and cold. The trees looked like great shadows.

There was at change in her sweet face as she let fall the curtain and turned from the window.

“Poor birds!” she said.

“They are all safe,” answered her mother, smiling. “God has provided for every bird a place of rest and shelter, and each one knows where it is and how to find it. Not many stay here in the winter time, but fly away to the sunny south, where the air is warm and the trees green and fruitful.”

“God is very good,” said the innocent child. Then she knelt with folded hands, and prayed that her heavenly further would bless everybody, and let his angels take care of her while she slept. Her mother’s kiss was still warm upon her lips as she passed into the world of pleasant dreams.

 

Dreams

Two peasant constables — one a stubby, black-bearded individual with such exceptionally short legs that if you looked at him from behind it seemed as though his legs began much lower down than in other people; the other, long, thin, and straight as a stick, with a scanty beard of dark reddish colour — were escorting to the district town a tramp who refused to remember his name. The first waddled along, looking from side to side, chewing now a straw, now his own sleeve, slapping himself on the haunches and humming, and altogether had a careless and frivolous air; the other, in spite of his lean face and narrow shoulders, looked solid, grave, and substantial; in the lines and expression of his whole figure he was like the priests among the Old Believers, or the warriors who are painted on old-fashioned ikons. “For his wisdom God had added to his forehead” — that is, he was bald — which increased the resemblance referred to. The first was called Andrey Ptaha, the second Nikandr Sapozhnikov.

 

The Erlking

The Erlking

Who’s riding so late through th’ endless wild?
The father ‘t is with his infant child;
He thinks the boy ’s well off in his arm,
He grasps him tightly, he keeps him warm.

My son, say why are you hiding your face ?
Oh father, the Erlking ’s coming apace,
The Erlking ’s here with his train and crown!
My son, the fog moves up and down. -

Be good, my child, come, go with me!
I know nice games, will play them with thee,
And flowers thou ‘It find near by where
I live, pretty dress my mother will give.”

Dear father, oh father, and do you not hear
What th’ Erlking whispers so close to my ear?
Be quiet, do be quiet, my son,
Through leaves the wind is rustling anon.

Do come, my darling, oh come with me!
Good care my daughters will take of thee,
My daughters will dance about thee in a ring,
Will rock thee to sleep and will prettily sing.”

Dear father, oh father, and do you not see
The Erlking’s daughters so near to me?
My son, my son, no one ’s in our way,
The willows are looking unusually gray.

I love thee, thy beauty I covet and choose,
Be willing, my darling, or force I shall use!
“Dear father, oh father, he seizes my arm!
The Erlking, father, has done me harm.

The father shudders, he darts through the wild;
With agony fill him the groans of his child.
He reached his farm with fear and dread;
The infant son in his arms was dead.

 

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Fifth Edition

I.

WAKE! For the Sun, who scatter’d into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav’n, and strikes
The Sultan’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.

II.

Before the phantom of False morning died,
Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
“When all the Temple is prepared within,
“Why nods the drowsy Worshiper outside?”

 

Metzengerstein

Pestis eram vivus – moriens tua mors ero.

– Martin Luther

HORROR and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a date to this story I have to tell? Let it suffice to say, that at the period of which I speak, there existed, in the interior of Hungary, a settled although hidden belief in the doctrines of the Metempsychosis. Of the doctrines themselves – that is, of their falsity, or of their probability – I say nothing. I assert, however, that much of our incredulity – as La Bruyere says of all our unhappiness – ” vient de ne pouvoir être seuls .”

But there are some points in the Hungarian superstition which were fast verging to absurdity. They – the Hungarians – differed very essentially from their Eastern authorities. For example, ” The soul ,” said the former – I give the words of an acute and intelligent Parisian – ” ne demeure qu’un seul fois dans un corps sensible: au reste – un cheval, un chien, un homme meme, n’est que la ressemblance peu tangible de ces animaux. “

 

God Sees the Truth, But Waits

In the town of Vladimir lived a young merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. He had two shops and a house of his own.

Aksionov was a handsome, fair-haired, curly-headed fellow, full of fun, and very fond of singing. When quite a young man he had been given to drink, and was riotous when he had had too much; but after he married he gave up drinking, except now and then.

One summer Aksionov was going to the Nizhny Fair, and as he bade good-bye to his family, his wife said to him, “Ivan Dmitrich, do not start to-day; I have had a bad dream about you.”

 

Alyosha

Pada suatu ketika hiduplah dua orang kakak beradik. Yang muda bernama Alyosha. Dia dijuluki Alyosha Gorshok – “Alyosha si Botol” – karena suatu hari ibunya menyuruhnya mengantar botol susu kepada istri pendeta di gereja dan dia tersandung sehingga botolnya pecah. Gara-gara itu ibunya memukulinya. Sejak saat itu teman-temannya mengejeknya dengan julukan Alyosha si Botol.

Alyosha berbadan kurus, telinganya tinggi sebelah, dan hidungnya besar. Dia sering digoda teman-temannya, “Telinga Alyosha mirip anjing yang nongkrong di aras bukit.” Di desanya ada sebuah sekolah, tetapi Alyosha tak pandai menulis, di samping itu dia tak punya banyak waktu untuk belajar. Kakaknya bekerja di kota, di rumah seorang saudagar. Karena itu Alyosha harus membantu bapaknya sejak dia mulai bisa berjalan. Dia harus menggembala kambing dan sapi di padang rumput dengan adik perempuannya yang masih kecil. Setelah umurnya sedikit bertambah, dia harus memelihara kuda, siang dan malam. Ketika umurnya mulai 12 tahun, dia mulai meluku dan menjadi sais kereta bapaknya. Wajahnya selalu ceria. Kalau teman-temannya menertawakannya, dia diam saja atau ikut tertawa. Kalau ayahnya membentak, dia diam saja dan mendengarkannya. Begitu ayahnya selesai membentaknya, dia tersenyum dan melanjutkan pekerjaannya.