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Maksim Gorky

Makar Chudra

A damp cold wind was blowing from the sea, spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splashing of the waves running up to the shore and the rustling of coastal bushes. From time to time its impulses brought wrinkled, yellow leaves with them and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames, the darkness of the autumn night surrounding us trembled and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra , an old gypsy, - he guarded the horses of his camp, spread out fifty paces from us.

Ignoring the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened his chekmen, exposed his hairy chest and beat it mercilessly, he reclined in a beautiful, strong pose, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe, blew thick clouds of smoke from his mouth and nose and, fixing his eyes somewhere over my head and the deadly silent darkness of the steppe, he spoke to me without stopping and without making a single movement to protect himself from sharp blows of the wind.

- So you go? This is good! You have chosen a glorious fate for yourself, falcon. That's how it should be: go and look, you've seen enough, lie down and die - that's all!

- Life? Other people? he continued, skeptically listening to my objection to his "That's right." - Ege! And what's up to you? Aren't you your own life? Other people live without you and will live without you. Do you think that someone needs you? You are not bread, not a stick, and no one needs you.

– Learn and teach, you say? Can you learn how to make people happy? No you can not. You turn gray first, and say what you need to learn. What to teach? Everyone knows what he needs. Those who are smarter take what they have, those who are dumber get nothing, and everyone learns by himself...

“They are funny, those people of yours. They huddle together and crush each other, and there are so many places on earth, - he waved his hand broadly towards the steppe. - And everything works. For what? To whom? No one knows. You see how a man plows, and you think: here he is, drop by drop with sweat, exudes his strength on the ground, and then lies down in it and rots in it. Nothing will be left for him, he sees nothing from his field and dies as he was born - a fool.

- Well, - was he born then, perhaps, to dig the earth and die, without even having time to dig out his own graves? Does he have a will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it! What can he do with himself? Only to strangle himself, if he grows a little wiser.

- And I, look, at the age of 58 I saw so much that if you write all this on paper, you won’t put it in a thousand bags like yours. Come on, tell me, in what regions have I not been? And you won't say. You don't even know the places I've been. This is how you need to live: go, go - and that's it. Do not stand in one place for a long time - what is in it? Look how day and night run, chasing each other, around the earth, so you run away from thoughts about life, so as not to stop loving it. And if you think about it, you will fall out of love with life, it always happens. And it was with me. Hey! It was, falcon.

- I was in prison, in Galicia. "Why do I live in the world?" - I thought out of boredom, - it's boring in prison, falcon, uh, how boring! - and longing took me by the heart, as I looked out of the window at the field, took it and squeezed it with tongs. Who's to say why he lives? No one will say, falcon! And you don't have to ask yourself. Live and that's it. And walk around and look around you, and that longing will never take. I almost choked myself with my belt, that's how!

- Heh! I spoke with one person. A strict man, one of your Russians. It is necessary, he says, to live not as you yourself want, but as it is said in God's word. Submit to God, and he will give you everything you ask of him. And he himself is full of holes, torn. I told him to let himself new clothes asked God. He got angry and drove me away, cursing. And before that he said that it is necessary to forgive people and love them. He would forgive me if my speech offended his grace. Also a teacher! They teach them to eat less, but they themselves eat ten times a day.

He spat into the fire and fell silent, filling his pipe again. The wind howled plaintively and quietly, horses neighed in the darkness, a tender and passionate song-dumka floated from the camp. It was sung by the beautiful Nonka, Makar's daughter. I knew her voice of a thick, chesty timbre, always somehow strange, displeased and demanding - whether she sang a song, whether she said "hello". On her swarthy, matte face, the arrogance of the queen froze, and in her dark brown eyes, covered with some kind of shadow, a consciousness of the irresistibility of her beauty and contempt for everything that was not herself flashed.

Makar gave me the phone.

- Smoke! Does the girl sing well? That's it! Would you like to be loved like this? No? Fine! So be it - do not trust the girls and stay away from them further. Kissing a girl is better and more pleasant than smoking a pipe for me, but kissed her - and the will died in your heart. She will bind you to herself with something that is not visible, but it is impossible to break it, and you will give her all your soul. Right! Watch out girls! Lie always! I love you, he says, more than anything in the world, but come on, prick her with a pin, she will break your heart. I know! Hey, how much do I know! Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you one story? And you remember her, and, as you remember, you will be a free bird for your life.

“There was Zobar in the world, a young gypsy, Loiko Zobar. All of Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and Slavonia, and everything around the sea, knew him - he was a daring fellow! There was not a village in those parts of the world in which a heel or two of the inhabitants would not swear to God to kill Loiko, but he lived for himself, and if he liked the horse, then at least put a regiment of soldiers to guard that horse - all the same, Zobar will prancing on it! Hey! who was he afraid of? Yes, if Satan came to him with all his retinue, if he had not put a knife into him, he would probably have had a strong quarrel, and what the devil would give a kick in the snout - that's just right!

“And all the camps knew him or heard about him. He loved only horses and nothing else, and then not for long - he would ride and sell, and whoever wants the money, take it. He didn’t have a treasured one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only you would feel good about it. That's what he was, a falcon!

“Our camp wandered around Bukovina at that time, about ten years ago. Once, on a spring night, we sit: I, Danilo the soldier, who fought together with Kossuth, and the old Nur, and all the others, and Radda, Danilov's daughter.

“Do you know my Nonka? Queen girl! Well, Radd cannot be compared with her - a lot of honor to Nonka! About her, this Rudd, you can’t say anything in words. Perhaps her beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin as his soul.

“She dried a lot of brave hearts, wow, a lot! In Morava, a magnate, an old, forelock, saw her and was dumbfounded. He sits on a horse and looks, trembling, as if in a flame. He was handsome, like the devil on a holiday, his zhupan was sewn with gold, on his side a saber sparkled like lightning, the horse stomped a little with his foot, all this saber was in precious stones, and blue velvet on his hat, like a piece of the sky - the old ruler was important! He watched and watched and said to Rudda: “Hey! Kiss, I'll give you a purse of money." And she turned away, and only! “Forgive me if I offended you, at least look kindly,” the old magnate immediately lowered his arrogance and threw a purse at her feet - a big purse, brother! And she, as if by chance, kicked him in the dirt, and that's all.

“Oh, girl! he groaned, and with a whip on the horse - only dust rose in a cloud.

“But the next day he came again. “Who is her father?” - thunder rumbles through the camp. Danilo left. “Sell your daughter, take whatever you want!” And Danilo and tell him: “It’s only the pans who sell everything, from their pigs to their conscience, but I fought with Kossuth and don’t trade anything!” He roared and even for a saber, but who One of us put a lit tinder in the horse's ear, and he carried the fellow away. And we took off and went. We go for a day and two, we look - we caught up! “You are gay, he says, my conscience is clear before God and you, give the girl to me as a wife: I will share everything with you, I am very rich!” It burns all over and, like a feather grass in the wind, sways in the saddle. We thought.

“Come on, daughter, speak up! Danilo said to himself.

“If an eagle entered the raven’s nest of her own free will, what would she become? Radda asked us.

“Danilo laughed and all of us with him.

"Great, daughter! Did you hear, sir? It's not working! Look for a dove - those are more pliable. - And we went ahead.

“And that ruler grabbed his hat, threw it on the ground and galloped so that the earth trembled. That's what Radda was like, the falcon!

"Yes! So one night we sit and hear - the music floats across the steppe. Good music! The blood caught fire in her veins from her, and she called somewhere. All of us, we felt, from that music wanted something like that, after which it would not be necessary to live, or, if you live, so - kings over the whole earth, falcon!

“Here, a horse cut out of the darkness, and a man sits and plays on it, driving up to us. He stopped by the fire, stopped playing, smiling, looking at us.

“- Ege, Zobar, yes it's you! Danilo shouted to him joyfully. So here he is, Loiko Zobar!

“The mustache fell on the shoulders and mingled with the curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is the whole sun, by golly! It was as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. It stands all, as if in blood, in the fire of a fire and sparkles with its teeth, laughing! Damn me if I didn't love him as much as myself, before he said a word to me or just noticed that I, too, live in this world!

“Here, falcon, what kind of people there are! He will look into your eyes and fill your soul, and you are not at all ashamed of it, but also proud of you. With such a person, you yourself become better. Few, friend, such people! Well, okay, if not enough. There would be a lot of good things in the world, so they would not even consider it good. So that! And listen further.

“Radda says: “Well, Loiko, you are playing! Who made you such a sonorous and sensitive violin?” And he laughs: “I did it myself! And I made it not from wood, but from the breast of a young girl whom I loved deeply, and I twisted the strings from her heart. The violin lies a little more, well, yes, I know how to hold a bow in my hands!“

“It is known that our brother is trying to immediately cloud the girl’s eyes so that they do not light his hearts, but they themselves would be covered with sadness for you, that’s Loiko too. But - not on that one. Radda turned away and, yawning, said: “They also said that Zobar is smart and dexterous, people lie!” and walked away.

“Ege, beauty, you have sharp teeth! Loiko flashed his eyes as he dismounted from his horse. Hello, brothers! Here I am to you!

“We ask a guest! Danilo said in response to him. We kissed, talked and went to bed ... We slept soundly. And in the morning, we look, Zobar's head is tied with a rag. What is this? And this horse hit him with a sleepy hoof.

"Eh, eh, eh! We understood who that horse was, and smiled into his mustache, and Danilo smiled. Well, wasn't Loiko worth Radda? Well, I do not! No matter how good the girl is, but her soul is narrow and shallow, and even though you hang a pound of gold around her neck, it’s all the same better than that what she is, not to be her. Ah, okay!

“We live and live in that place, we had good things about that time, and Zobar is with us. It was a friend! And wise, like an old man, and knowledgeable in everything, and understood Russian and Magyar letters. Sometimes, he would go to talk - he would not sleep for a century, he would listen to him! And he plays - thunder kill me, if someone else in the world played like that! He would draw a bow along the strings - and your heart would tremble, hold it again - and it would freeze, listening, and he would play and smile. And I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, listening to him. Now someone is moaning bitterly for you, asking for help and cutting your chest like a knife. But the steppe tells the sky tales, sad tales. The girl is crying, seeing off the good fellow! A good fellow calls the girl to the steppe. And suddenly - gay! A free, lively song rumbles like thunder, and the sun itself, just look, will dance across the sky to that song! That's it, falcon!

“Every vein in your body understood that song, and you all became a slave to it. And if then Loiko had shouted: “To the knives, comrades!” - then we would all have gone to the knives, with whom he would have indicated. He could do everything with a man, and everyone loved him, loved him deeply, only Radda alone does not look at the guy; and all right, if only this, otherwise he would make fun of him. She touched Zobar's heart hard, something hard! Grinding his teeth, pulling his mustache, Loiko, his eyes look darker than the abyss, and sometimes they sparkle so much that it becomes scary for the soul. Loiko will go far into the steppe at night, and his violin cries until the morning, cries, buries Zobar's will. And we lie and listen and think: what to do? And we know that if two stones roll at each other, it is impossible to stand between them - they will mutilate. And so it went.

“Here we were, all assembled, and talking about business. It got boring. Danilo asks Loiko: “Sing, Zobar, a song, make your soul happy!” He looked at Radda, who was lying face up not far from him, looking at the sky, and struck the strings. So the violin spoke, as if it really was a girl's heart! And Loiko sang:

Gay gay! Fire burns in my chest
And the steppe is so wide!
Like the wind, my greyhound is fast,
My hand is strong!

“She turned Rudd's head and, standing up, grinned in the eyes of the singer. It flared up like the dawn.

Gay hop, gay! Well, my friend!
Let's jump ahead, shall we?!
The steppe is dressed in a harsh haze,
And there the dawn awaits us!
Gay gay! Let's fly and meet the day.
Rise to the top!
Yes, just do not touch the mane
Beautiful moon!

“Here he sang! Nobody sings like that anymore! And Radda says, as if sipping water:

“- You wouldn’t fly so high, Loiko, you’ll fall unevenly and into a puddle with your nose, you’ll stain your mustache, look. - Loiko looked at her like a beast, but did not say anything - the guy endured and sings to himself:

Gay goop! Suddenly the day will come here
And we sleep with you.
Hey gay! After all, we are with you then
We will burn in the fire of shame!

"- Is a song! Danilo said. - Never heard such a song; Let Satan make his own pipe out of me, if I'm lying!

“Old Nur wiggled his mustache and shrugged his shoulders, and the daring Zobar song was howling to our hearts! Only Radda didn't like it.

“This is how a mosquito once hummed, mimicking the scream of an eagle,” she said, as if throwing snow at us.

“Maybe you, Radda, want a whip? - Danilo reached out to her, and Zobar threw his hat on the ground and said, all black as earth:

“Stop, Danilo! Hot horse - steel bit! Give me your daughter in marriage!

"Here's the speech! Danilo chuckled. - Take it if you can!

“- Good! - said Loiko and said to Radda: - Well, girl, listen to me a little and don't boast! I saw a lot of your sister, ege, a lot! None of them touched my heart like you did. Oh, Radda, you filled my soul! Well? What will be, it will be so, and ... there is no such horse on which one could ride away from oneself! .. I take you as a wife before God, my honor, your father and all these people. But look, do not interfere with my will - I am a free man and I will live the way I want! He approached her, clenching his teeth, his eyes flashing. We look, he extended his hand to her, - here, we think, and put a bridle on the steppe horse Rudd! Suddenly we see, he waved his hands and ground the back of his head - roar! ..

“What a wonder? Like a bullet hit the little one in the heart. And it was Radda who whipped his belt whip around his legs and pulled him towards her - that's why Loiko fell.

“And again the girl lies without moving and smiles silently. We are watching what will happen, but Loiko is sitting on the ground and clutching his head with his hands, as if he is afraid that it will burst. And then he got up quietly and went into the steppe, not looking at anyone, Nur whispered to me: “Look after him!”

And I crawled after Zobar across the steppe in the darkness of the night. That's right, falcon!"

Makar knocked the ashes out of his pipe and started stuffing it again. I wrapped myself more tightly in my overcoat and, lying down, looked into his old face, black from sunburn and wind. Shaking his head severely and sternly, he whispered something to himself; his gray mustache moved, and the wind tousled his hair on his head. It looked like an old oak, burned by lightning, but still powerful, strong and proud of its strength. The sea whispered as before with the shore, and the wind still carried its whisper across the steppe. Nonka no longer sang, and the clouds gathered in the sky made the autumn night even darker.

“Loiko walked leg by leg, hanging his head and lowering his hands like whips, and, having come to the beam to the stream, he sat down on a stone and groaned. He gasped so much that my heart bled with pity, but still he did not go up to him. Words can't help grief, right?! That's it! He sits for an hour, another sits and the third does not move - he sits.

"And I'm lying nearby. The night is bright, the moon flooded the whole steppe with silver, and everything is visible far away.

“Suddenly I see: Radda is hurrying away from the camp.

“I have fun! "Oh, it's important! - I think, - the daring girl Rudd! “So she came up to him, he did not hear. She put her hand on his shoulder; Loiko shuddered, unclenched his hands and raised his head. And how he jumps up, yes for the knife! Wow, she will cut the girl, I see, and I was about to shout to the camp and run to them, suddenly I hear:

“- Drop it! I'll break my head! - I look: Radda has a pistol in her hand, and she aims at Zobar's forehead. That's Satan girl! Well, I think they are now equal in strength, what will happen next?

"- Listen! - Radda stuck a pistol in her belt and says to Zobar: - I did not come to kill you, but to put up, drop the knife! He dropped it and frowns into her eyes. It was amazing, brother! Two people are standing and looking at each other like animals, and both are such good, daring people. The clear moon looks at them and I - and that's it.

“Well, listen to me, Loiko: I love you! Radda says. He only shrugged his shoulders, as if bound hand and foot.

“- I saw good fellows, and you are removed and more beautiful than their soul and face. Each of them would shave off his mustache - if I blinked an eye at him, they would all fall at my feet if I wanted to. But what's the point? They don't hurt too much anyway, and I would beat them all. There are few daring gypsies left in the world, few, Loiko. I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you. And I can't live without you, just as you can't live without me. So I want you to be mine, body and soul, do you hear? - He chuckled.

“I hear! It's fun for the heart to listen to your speech! Well, say more!

“And one more thing, Loiko: no matter how you turn around, I will defeat you, you will be mine. So don’t waste your time - my kisses and caresses are waiting for you ahead ... I will kiss you hard, Loiko! Under my kiss, you will forget your daring life ... and your living songs, which so delight the young gypsies, will no longer sound across the steppes - you will sing love, tender songs to me, Radda ... So do not waste time, - I said this, it means , tomorrow you will submit to me as a senior comrade young man. You will bow at my feet in front of the whole camp and kiss my right hand - and then I will be your wife.

"That's what the damn girl wanted! This was never heard of; only in the old days it was like that among the Montenegrins, the old people said, but never among the gypsies! Come on, falcon, come up with something funnier? You’ll break your head for a year, you won’t invent it!

“Loiko sprang to the side and shouted to the whole steppe, as if he had been wounded in the chest. Radda trembled, but did not betray herself.

“Well, goodbye until tomorrow, and tomorrow you will do what I told you. Do you hear, Loiko?

“I hear! I’ll do it,” Zobar groaned and held out his hands to her. She didn't even look back at him, but he staggered like a tree broken by the wind and fell to the ground, weeping and laughing.

“This is how the damned Radda lured the young man. By force I brought him to myself.

“Ehe! What devil needs people to grieve? Who loves to listen to how the human heart groans, bursting with grief? Think here!

“I returned to the camp and told the old people about everything. We thought about it and decided to wait and see what will happen from this. And there was this. When we all gathered around the fire in the evening, Loiko also came. He was confused and lost terribly weight during the night, his eyes were sunken; he lowered them and, without raising them, said to us:

“This is the thing, comrades: I looked into my heart that night and did not find a place in it for my old free life. Radda lives there only - and that's it! Here she is, the beautiful Radda, smiling like a queen! She loves her will more than me, and I love her more than my will, and I decided to bow at Radda's feet, so she ordered everyone to see how her beauty conquered the daring Loiko Zobar, who before her played with girls, like a gyrfalcon with ducks . And then she will become my wife and will caress and kiss me, so that I won’t even want to sing songs to you, and I won’t regret my will! Is that right, Radda? He lifted his eyes and looked at her vaguely. She silently and sternly nodded her head and pointed to her feet with her hand. And we looked and did not understand anything. I even wanted to go somewhere, just not to see Loiko Zobar fall at the feet of a girl - even if this girl and Radda. It was something ashamed, and pitiful, and sad.

"- Well! Radda called to Zobar.

“Ege, don’t rush, you’ll have time, you’ll get bored more ...” he laughed. Like steel rang, - he laughed.

“So that’s the whole point, comrades! What remains? All that remains is to try whether my Radda has such a strong heart as she showed it to me. I'll try - forgive me, brothers!

“We didn’t even have time to guess what Zobar wanted to do, and Radda was already lying on the ground, and Zobar’s curved knife stuck up to the hilt in her chest. We are numb.

“But Radda pulled out the knife, threw it aside and, holding the wound with a lock of her black hair, smiling, said loudly and distinctly:

“Goodbye, Loiko! I knew that you would do that! .. - and she died ...

“Did you understand the girl, falcon ?! That's what, damn me for all eternity, the devilish girl was!

“Eh, yes, and I will bow at your feet, proud queen! - Loiko barked all over the steppe and, throwing himself to the ground, pressed his lips to the feet of the dead Radda and froze. We took off our hats and stood in silence.

“What do you say in such a case, falcon? That's it! Nur said: “We must tie him up!..” If Loiko Zobar's hands had not risen, no one would have risen, and Nur knew it. He waved his hand and stepped aside. And Danilo picked up the knife thrown aside by Radda, and looked at him for a long time, moving his gray mustache, Radda's blood had not yet frozen on that knife, and it was so crooked and sharp. And then Danilo came up to Zobar and thrust a knife into his back, just against the heart. The old soldier Danilo was also Radda's father!

"- Like this! – Turning to Danila, Loiko said clearly and left to catch up with Radd.

“And we watched. Radda was lying, her hand with a lock of hair pressed to her chest, and her open eyes were in the blue sky, and at her feet lay the daring Loiko Zobar. Curls fell over his face, and his face was not visible.

“We stood and thought. Old Danila's mustache trembled, and his thick eyebrows scowled. He looked at the sky and was silent, and Nur, gray as a harrier, lay face down on the ground and began to cry so that his old man's shoulders shook.

“There was something to cry over here, falcon!

“... You go, well, go your own way, without turning to the side. Go straight ahead. Maybe you won't die in vain. That's it, falcon!"

Makar fell silent and, hiding his pipe in a pouch, wrapped his chekmen around his chest. It was raining, the wind became stronger, the sea rumbled dull and angry. One by one, the horses approached the dying fire and, having examined us with large intelligent eyes, stopped motionlessly, surrounding us in a dense ring.

- Hop, hop, ho! Makar shouted affectionately to them and, patting the neck of his beloved black horse with his palm, said, addressing me: “It’s time to sleep!” - Then he wrapped himself in a chekmen and, powerfully stretched out on the ground, fell silent.

I didn't want to sleep. I looked into the darkness of the steppe, and in the air before my eyes floated the regally beautiful and proud figure of Radda. She pressed her hand with a lock of black hair to the wound on her chest, and through her swarthy, thin fingers blood oozed drop by drop, falling to the ground in fiery red stars.

And behind her, the daring fellow Loyko Zobar swam on her heels; his face was covered with locks of thick black curls, and frequent, cold, large tears dripped from under them ...

The rain intensified, and the sea sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud couple of handsome gypsies - Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of an old soldier Danila.

And they both circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda.

History of creation

The story "Makar Chudra" was published in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz" dated September 12, 1892. For the first time, the author signed under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. This story begins a romantic period in the writer's work. The romantic works of M. Gorky also include: the story "The Old Woman Izergil", "The Song of the Falcon" and "The Song of the Petrel", the poem "The Girl and Death" and other works of the writer.

In one of the letters to A.P. Gorky wrote to Chekhov: “Really, the time has come for the need for the heroic: everyone wants exciting, bright, such, you know, that it doesn’t look like life, but is higher, better, more beautiful. It is imperative that today's literature begin to embellish life a little, and as soon as it begins to embellish life, that is, people will begin to live faster, brighter.

The title of the story is related to the name of the main character. Makar Chudra - an old gypsy, a thoughtful philosopher, knowing the essence life, whose camp roams the south of Russia.

Genus, genre, creative method

The cycle of romantic works by M. Gorky immediately attracted the attention of critics and readers with its excellent literary language, the relevance of the topic, and an interesting composition (the inclusion of legends and fairy tales in the narrative). Romantic works are characterized by the opposition of the hero and reality. This is how the story "Makar Chudra" is constructed, the genre feature of which is "a story within a story". Makar Chudra acts not only as the main character, but also as a narrator. Such an artistic technique makes the narrative more poetic and original, helps to better reveal the ideas about the values ​​of life, the ideals of the author and the narrator. The action of the story takes place against the backdrop of a raging sea, a steppe wind, and a disturbing night. This is the atmosphere of freedom. The narrator assigns himself the role of a wise contemplator of life. Makar Chudra is a skeptic who is disappointed in people. Having lived and seen a lot, he appreciates only freedom. This is the only criterion by which Makar measures the human personality.

Subject

The theme of the writer's romantic works is the desire for freedom. Makar Chudra also talks about will and freedom. The work is based on the poetic love story of Loiko and Radda, told by Makar Chudra. The heroes of a beautiful legend cannot choose between pride, freedom and love. Passion for freedom determines their thoughts and actions. As a result, both die.

Idea

The short story contains ideas of freedom, beauty and joy of life. Makar Chudra's thoughts about life testify to the philosophical mindset of the old gypsy: “Are you yourself not life? Other people live without you and will live without you. Do you think that someone needs you? You are not bread, not a stick, and no one needs you ... ". Makar Chudra speaks of the desire for inner freedom, freedom without restrictions, since only a free person can be happy. Therefore, the wise old gypsy advises the interlocutor to go his own way, so as not to "perish. in vain." The only value on earth is freedom, it is worth living and dying for it, - this is what the heroes of this story think. This is what dictated the actions of Loiko and Radda. In the story, Gorky performed a hymn to the beautiful and strong man. The desire for a feat, the worship of strength, the glorification of freedom is reflected in the story "Makar Chudra".

The nature of the conflict

For the old gypsy, the most important thing in life is personal freedom, which he would never exchange for anything. His desire for freedom is also embodied by the heroes of the legend told by Makar Chudra. Young and beautiful Loiko Zobar and Radda love each other. But in both the desire for personal freedom is so strong that they even look at their own love as a chain that binds their independence. Each of them, declaring his love, sets his own conditions, trying to dominate. This leads to a tense conflict, ending in the death of the heroes. ,

Main heroes

In the story, one of the main characters is the old gypsy Makar Chudra. The gypsy's wisdom is revealed through the legend about Loiko and Radda, who are in love. He believes that pride and love are incompatible. Love makes you humble and submit to your loved one. Makar talks about man and freedom: “Does he know the will? The expanse of the steppe concept? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, and that's it! In his opinion, a person born a slave is not capable of performing a feat. Makar admires Loiko and Radca. He believes that this is how a real person worthy of imitation should perceive life, and that only in such a life position can one preserve one's own freedom. As a real philosopher, he understands: it is impossible to teach a person anything if he himself does not want to learn, because "everyone learns by himself." He answers a question with a question to his interlocutor: “Can you learn how to make people happy? No you can not".

Next to Makar there is an image of the listener, on whose behalf the narration is being conducted. This hero does not take up much space in the story, but for understanding the author's position, intent and creative method, his significance is great. He is a dreamer, a romantic, feeling the beauty of the world around him. His vision of the world brings a romantic beginning, joy, boldness, an abundance of colors into the story: “A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes; ... the darkness of the autumn night surrounding us shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea ... ".

Of course, the romantic beginning lies in the heroes of a beautiful legend - young gypsies, who absorbed the spirit of a free life with their mother's milk. For Loiko, freedom, frankness and kindness are the highest value: “He loved only horses and nothing else, and even then not for long - he will ride, and he will sell, and whoever wants, take the money. He didn’t have a cherished one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest, and he would give it to you, if only you would feel good about it. Radda is so proud that her love for Loiko cannot break her: “I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you. The irresolvable contradiction between Radda and Loiko - love and pride, according to Makar Chudra, can only be resolved by death. And the heroes refuse love, happiness and prefer to die in the name of will and absolute freedom.

Plot and composition

The traveler meets the old gypsy Makar Chudra on the seashore. In a conversation about freedom, the meaning of life, Makar Chudra tells a beautiful legend about the love of a young gypsy couple. Loiko Zobar and Radda love each other. But both have a desire for personal freedom above all else. This leads to a tense conflict, ending in the death of the heroes. Loiko yields to Radda, kneels in front of her in front of everyone, which is considered a terrible humiliation among the gypsies, and at the same moment kills her. And he himself dies at the hands of her father.

A feature of the composition of this story is its construction on the principle of "a story within a story": the author puts a romantic legend into the mouth of the protagonist. It helps to better understand his inner world and value system. For Makar, Loiko and Rudd are the ideals of love of freedom. He is sure that two wonderful feelings, pride and love, brought to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled.

Another feature of the composition of this story is the presence of the image of the narrator. It is almost imperceptible, but the author himself is easily guessed in it.

Artistic originality

In romantic works, Gorky turns to romantic poetics. First of all, it concerns the genre. Legends and fairy tales become the favorite genre of the writer during this period of creativity.

The palette of visual means used by the writer in the story is diverse. "Makar Chudra" is full of figurative comparisons that accurately convey the feelings and mood of the characters: "... a smile is a whole sun", "Loiko stands in the fire of a fire, as if in blood", "... she said that she threw snow at us" , “He looked like an old oak tree, burned by lightning ...”, “... staggered like a broken tree”, etc. A feature of the story is the unusual form of dialogue between Makar Chudra and the narrator. Only one voice is heard in it - the voice of the protagonist, and only from the replicas of this one speaker do we guess the reaction and replies of his interlocutor: “Learn and teach, you say?” This peculiar form of phrases serves the author to make his presence in the story less noticeable.

Gorky pays great attention to the speech of his heroes. So, for example, Makar Chudra, according to the gypsy tradition, interrupts his story with an appeal to the interlocutor, calling him a falcon: “- Ege! It was, a falcon ...”, “- There he was, a falcon! ..”, “- Here she is what Radda was like, a falcon! ..”, “That's right, a falcon! ..” In circulation “falcon” we see an image close to the gypsy spirit, the image of a free and bold bird. Chudra freely modifies some of the geographical names of the places where the gypsies roamed: "Galicia" - instead of Galicia, "Slavonia" - instead of Slovakia. In his story, the word “steppe” is often repeated, since the steppe was the main place of life for the gypsies: “The girl is crying, seeing off the good fellow! A good fellow calls the girl to the steppe...”, “The night is bright, the moon flooded the whole steppe with silver...”, “Loiko barked all over the steppe...”.

The author widely uses the technique of landscape sketches. The seascape is a kind of frame for the entire storyline of the story. The sea is closely connected with the state of mind of the characters: at first it is calm, only a "wet, cold wind" carries "across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes." But now it began to rain, the wind grew stronger, and the sea rumbles muffled and angrily and sings a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud pair of handsome gypsies. In general, in nature, Gorky loves everything strong, impetuous, boundless: the boundless expanse of the sea and the steppe; a bottomless blue sky, now playful, now angry waves, a whirlwind, a thunderstorm with its rolling roar, with its sparkling brilliance.

A characteristic feature of this story is its musicality. Music accompanies the whole story about the fate of lovers. “You can’t say anything about her, this Rudd, in words. Perhaps her beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin as his soul.

The meaning of the work

The role of M. Gorky in the literature of the XX century. hard to overestimate. He was immediately noticed by JI.H. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov, V.G. Korolenko, endowing the young author with his friendly disposition. The value of the innovative artist was recognized by the new generation of writers, the general readership, and criticism. Gorky's works have always been at the center of controversy between supporters of different aesthetic trends. Gorky was loved by people whose names are included in the sacred list of the creators of Russian culture.

The origins of romantic works seem to be clear. What is absent in reality is sung in legends. Not certainly in that way. In them, the writer did not at all abandon his main sphere of observation - the contradictory human soul. The romantic hero is included in the environment of imperfect, and even cowardly, miserable people. This motive is strengthened on behalf of the storytellers whom the author listens to: the gypsy Makar Chudra, the Bessarabian Izergil, the old Tatar man, who conveys the legend "Khan and his son", the Crimean shepherd, singing "The Song of the Falcon".

The romantic hero was conceived for the first time as a savior of people from their own weakness, worthlessness, and sleepy vegetation. It is said about Zobar: “With such a person, you yourself become better.” That is why there are images-symbols of the "fiery heart", flight, battle. Majestic in themselves, they are further enlarged by the "participation of mother nature." She decorates the world with blue sparks in memory of Danko. The real sea listens to the "lion's roar" of the legendary waves that carry the call of the Falcon.

Meeting with an unprecedented harmony of feelings and deeds calls for the comprehension of things in some new dimensions. Such is the true influence of the legendary hero on the individual. This must be remembered and not replaced by the content of Gorky's romantic works with an unequivocal call for social protest. In the images of Danko, the Falcon, as well as in the proud lovers, the young Izergil, the spiritual impulse, the thirst for beauty are embodied.

Gorky was more concerned with reflections on what a person is and what a person should become than on the real path that lies to the future. The future was depicted as a complete overcoming of primordial spiritual contradictions. “I believe,” Gorky wrote to I.E. Repin in 1899 - into the infinity of life, and I understand life as a movement towards the improvement of the spirit. It is necessary that intellect and instinct merge in harmonious harmony ... ”Life phenomena were perceived from the height of universal ideals. Therefore, apparently, Gorky said in the same letter: “... I see that I don’t belong anywhere yet, to any of our “parties”. I am glad about this, because this is freedom.

A damp, cold wind was blowing from the sea, spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splashing of a wave running ashore and the rustling of coastal bushes. Occasionally his impulses brought with them shriveled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment to the left - the boundless steppe, to the right - the endless sea, and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy - he was guarding the horses of his camp, spread out fifty paces from us.

Not paying attention to the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened his chekmen, exposed his hairy chest and beat it mercilessly, he reclined in a beautiful, strong pose, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe, blew thick clouds of smoke from his mouth and nose and, fixing his eyes somewhere over my head into the deadly silent darkness of the steppe, he spoke to me without stopping and without making a single movement to protect himself from sharp blows of the wind.

- So you go? This is good! You have chosen a glorious fate for yourself, falcon. That's the way it should be: go and look, you've seen enough, lie down and die - that's all!

Life? Other people? - he continued, skeptically listening to my objection to his "That's right." - Ege! And what's up to you? Aren't you your own life? Other people live without you and will live without you. Do you think that someone needs you? You are not bread, not a stick, and no one needs you.

Learn and teach, you say? Can you learn how to make people happy? No you can not. You turn gray first, and say what you need to learn. What to teach? Everyone knows what he needs. Who are smarter, they take what they have, who are dumber - they don’t get anything, and everyone learns by himself ...

They are funny, those people of yours. They huddle together and crush each other, and there are so many places on earth, - he waved his hand wide towards the steppe. - And everyone works. For what? To whom? No one knows. You see how a man plows, and you think: here he is, drop by drop with sweat, exudes his strength on the ground, and then lies down in it and rots in it. There will be nothing left for him, he sees nothing from his field and dies as he was born - a fool.

Well, - he was born then, perhaps, to dig the earth, and to die, without even having time to dig out his own graves? Does he have a will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it! What can he do with himself? Only to strangle himself, if he grows a little wiser.

And look, at the age of fifty-eight I saw so much that if you write it all down on paper, you can’t put it in a thousand sacks like yours. Come on, tell me, in what regions have I not been? And you won't say. You don't even know the places I've been. This is how you need to live: go, go - and that's it. Do not stand in one place for a long time - what is in it? Look how day and night run, chasing each other, around the earth, so you run away from thoughts about life, so as not to stop loving it. And when you think about it, you fall out of love with life, it always happens that way. And it was with me. Hey! It was, falcon.

I was in prison, in Galicia. "Why do I live in the world?" - I thought out of boredom, - it's boring in prison, falcon, uh, how boring! - and melancholy took hold of my heart, as I looked out of the window at the field, took it and squeezed it with tongs. Who's to say why he lives? No one will say, falcon! And you don't have to ask yourself. Live and that's it! And walk around and look around you, and that longing will never take. I almost choked myself with my belt, that's how!

Heh! I spoke with one person. A strict man, one of your Russians. It is necessary, he says, to live not as you yourself want, but as it is said in God's word. Submit to God, and he will give you everything you ask of him. And he himself is full of holes, torn. I told him to ask God for new clothes. He got angry and drove me away, cursing. And before that he said that it is necessary to forgive people and love them. He would forgive me if my speech offended his grace. Also a teacher! They teach them to eat less, but they themselves eat ten times a day.

He spat into the fire and fell silent, filling his pipe again. The wind howled plaintively and quietly, horses neighed in the darkness, a tender and passionate song-dumka floated from the camp. It was sung by the beautiful Nonka, Makar's daughter. I knew her voice of a thick, chesty timbre, always somehow strange, displeased and demanding - whether she sang a song, whether she said "hello". On her swarthy, matte face, the arrogance of the queen froze, and in her dark brown eyes, covered with some kind of shadow, a consciousness of the irresistibility of her beauty and contempt for everything that was not herself flashed.

Makar gave me the phone.

Smoke! Does the girl sing well? That's it! Would you like to be loved like this? No? Fine! So be it - do not trust the girls and stay away from them further. Kissing a girl is better and more pleasant than smoking a pipe for me, but kissed her - and the will died in your heart. She will bind you to herself with something that is not visible, but it is impossible to break it, and you will give her all your soul. Right! Watch out girls! Lie always! I love, she says, more than anything in the world, come on, prick her with a pin, she will break your heart. I know! Hey, how much do I know! Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you one story? And you remember her and, as you remember, you will be a free bird for your life.

“There was Zobar in the world, a young gypsy, Loiko Zobar. All of Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and Slavonia, and everything around the sea, knew him - he was a daring fellow! There was not a village in those parts of the country in which a heel or two of the inhabitants would not give an oath to God to kill Loiko, but he lived for himself, and if he liked the horse, then at least put a regiment of soldiers to guard that horse - all the same, Zobar will prancing on it! Hey! who was he afraid of? Yes, if Satan came to him with all his retinue, if he didn’t put a knife into him, he would probably have a strong quarrel, and what the devil would give a kick in the snout - that’s just right!

And all the camps knew him or heard about him. He loved only horses and nothing more, and that was not for long - he would ride, and he would sell, and whoever wants, take the money. He didn’t have a cherished one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest, and he would give it to you, if only you would feel good about it. That's what he was, a falcon!

Our camp wandered around Bukovina at that time - this is about ten years ago. Once - at night in spring - we are sitting: I, Danilo the soldier, who fought together with Kossuth, and old Nur, and all the others, and Radda, Danilov's daughter.

Do you know my Nonka? Queen girl! Well, Radd cannot be compared with her - a lot of honor to Nonka! About her, this Rudd, you can’t say anything in words. Perhaps her beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin as his soul.

She dried a lot of brave hearts, wow, a lot! In Morava, a magnate, an old, forelock, saw her and was dumbfounded. He sits on a horse and looks, trembling, as if in a flame. He was handsome, like the devil on a holiday, a zhupan was sewn with gold, on his side a saber, like lightning, sparkles, a horse stomps a little with his foot, all this saber is in precious stones, and blue velvet on his hat, like a piece of the sky - the old ruler was important! He looked, looked, and said to Rudda: “Hey! Kiss, I'll give you a purse of money. And she turned away, and only! “Forgive me, if I offended you, look at least kindly,” the old magnate immediately lowered his arrogance and threw a purse at her feet - a big purse, brother! And she, as if by chance, kicked him in the dirt, and that's all.

Eh, girl! - he groaned, and with a whip on the horse - only dust rose in a cloud.

And the next day he showed up again. "Who is her father?" - Thunder rumbles on the camp. Danilo left. “Sell your daughter, take what you want!” And Danilo and tell him: “It’s only the pans who sell everything, from their pigs to their conscience, but I fought with Kossuth and don’t trade anything!” He roared, and even for a saber, but one of us put a lit tinder in the horse's ear, and he carried off the young man. And we took off, and went. Day we go and two, we look - caught up! “You are gay, he says, my conscience is clear before God and you, give the girl to me as a wife: I will share everything with you, I am very rich!” It burns all over and, like a feather grass in the wind, sways in the saddle. We thought.

Come on, daughter, speak up! Danilo said to himself.

If an eagle entered the raven's nest of her own free will, what would she become? Radda asked us. Danilo laughed, and all of us with him.

Nice, daughter! Did you hear, sir? It's not working! Look for a dove - those are more pliable. - And we went ahead.

And that ruler grabbed his hat, threw it on the ground and galloped so that the earth trembled. That's what Radda was like, the falcon!

Yes! So one night we sit and hear - the music floats across the steppe. Good music! The blood caught fire in her veins from her, and she called somewhere. All of us, we felt, from that music wanted something like that, after which it would not be necessary to live, or, if you live, so - kings over the whole earth, falcon!

Here a horse cut out of the darkness, and a man sits and plays on it, driving up to us. He stopped by the fire, stopped playing, smiling, looking at us.

Ege, Zobar, yes it's you! Danilo shouted joyfully to him. So here he is, Loiko Zobar!

The mustache lay on the shoulders and mingled with the curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is a whole sun, by golly! It was as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. It stands all, as if in blood, in the fire of a fire and sparkles with its teeth, laughing! Damn me if I didn't love him as much as myself, before he said a word to me or just noticed that I, too, live in this world!

Here, falcon, what kind of people there are! He will look into your eyes and fill your soul, and you are not at all ashamed of it, but also proud of you. With such a person, you yourself become better. Few, friend, such people! Well, okay, if not enough. There would be a lot of good things in the world, so they would not even consider it good. So that! And listen further.

Radda and says: “Well, Loiko, you are playing! Who made you such a sonorous and sensitive violin? And he laughs: “I did it myself! And I made it not from wood, but from the breast of a young girl whom I loved deeply, and I twisted the strings from her heart. The violin lies a little more, well, yes, I know how to hold a bow in my hands!

It is known that our brother tries to immediately cloud the eyes of the girl, so that they do not light his heart, but they themselves would be covered with sadness, that's Loiko too. But - not on that one. Radda turned away and, yawning, said: “They also said that Zobar is smart and dexterous - people lie!” - and walked away.

Hey, beauty, you have sharp teeth! Loiko flashed his eyes as he dismounted from his horse. - Hello, brothers! Here I am to you!

Please guest! Danilo said in response to him. We kissed, talked and went to bed ... We slept soundly. And in the morning, we look, Zobar's head is tied with a rag. What is this? And this horse hit him with a sleepy hoof.

Eh, eh, eh! We understood who that horse was, and smiled into his mustache, and Danilo smiled. Well, wasn't Loiko worth Radda? Well, I do not! No matter how good the girl is, but her soul is narrow and shallow, and even though you hang a pound of gold around her neck, all the same, it’s better than what she is, not to be her. Ah, okay!

We live and live in that place, things were good for us at that time, and Zobar is with us. It was a friend! And wise, like an old man, and knowledgeable in everything, and understood Russian and Magyar letters. It used to go to talk - a century would not sleep, listened to him! And he plays - kill me thunder, if in the world someone else played like that! He would draw a bow along the strings - and your heart would tremble, hold it again - and it would freeze, listening, and he would play and smile. And I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, listening to him. Now someone is moaning bitterly for you, asking for help and cutting your chest like a knife. But the steppe tells the sky tales, sad tales. The girl is crying, seeing off the good fellow! A good fellow calls the girl to the steppe. And suddenly - gay! A free, lively song rumbles like thunder, and the sun itself, just look, will dance across the sky to that song! That's it, falcon!

Every vein in your body understood that song, and all of you became a slave to it. And if then Loiko had shouted: “To the knives, comrades!” We would all have gone to the knives, with whom he would have indicated. He could do everything with a man, and everyone loved him, loved him deeply, only Radda alone does not look at the guy; and all right, if only this, otherwise he would make fun of him. She touched Zobar's heart hard, something hard! Grinding his teeth, pulling his mustache, Loiko, his eyes look darker than the abyss, and sometimes they sparkle so much that it becomes scary for the soul. Loiko will go far into the steppe at night, and his violin cries until the morning, cries, buries Zobar's will. And we lie and listen and think: what to do? And we know that if two stones roll at each other, it is impossible to stand between them - they will mutilate. And so it went.

Here we sat, all in the assembly, and talked about business. It got boring. Danilo asks Loiko: “Sing, Zobar, a song, make your soul happy!” He moved his eye to Radda, who was lying face up not far from him, looking at the sky, and struck the strings. So the violin spoke, as if it really was a girl's heart! And Loiko sang:

Gay gay! Fire burns in my chest
And the steppe is so wide!
Like the wind, my greyhound horse is fast,
My hand is strong!

She turned Rudd's head and, standing up, grinned in the eyes of the singer. It flared up like the dawn.

Gay hop, gay! Well, my friend!
Let's jump ahead, shall we?
The steppe is dressed in a harsh haze,
And there the dawn awaits us!
Gay gay! Let's fly and meet the day.
Rise to the top!
Yes, just do not touch the mane
Beautiful moon!

Here he sang! Nobody sings like that anymore! And Radda says, as if sipping water:

You wouldn’t fly so high, Loiko, you’ll fall unevenly, yes - into a puddle with your nose, you’ll stain your mustache, look. - Loiko looked at her like a beast, but did not say anything - the guy endured and sings to himself:

Gay goop! Suddenly the day will come here
And we sleep with you.
Hey gay! After all, we are with you then
We will burn in the fire of shame!

Is a song! Danilo said. - Never heard such a song; Let Satan make his own pipe out of me, if I'm lying!

Old Nur wiggled his mustache and shrugged his shoulders, and we all liked Zobar's dashing song! Only Radda didn't like it.

That's how once a mosquito buzzed, mimicking the scream of an eagle, - she said, as if she had thrown snow at us.

Maybe you, Radda, want a whip? - Danilo reached out to her, and Zobar threw his hat on the ground, and he says, all black as earth:

Stop, Danilo! Hot horse - steel bit! Give me your daughter in marriage!

Here's the speech! Danilo smiled. - Take it if you can!

Good! - said Loiko and said to Radda: - Well, girl, listen to me a little, but don't boast! I saw a lot of your sister, ege, a lot! None of them touched my heart like you did. Oh, Radda, you filled my soul! Well? What will be, it will be so, and ... there is no such horse on which one could ride away from oneself! .. I take you as a wife before God, my honor, your father and all these people. But look, do not stop my will - I am a free man and I will live the way I want! He approached her, clenching his teeth, his eyes flashing. We look, he extended his hand to her, - here, we think, and put a bridle on the steppe horse Rudd! Suddenly we see, he waved his hands and hit the back of his head - a bang! ..

What a wonder? Like a bullet hit the little one in the heart. And it was Radda who swept the belt whip around his legs, and pulled him towards her - that's why Loiko fell.

And again the girl lies without moving and smiles silently. We are watching what will happen, but Loiko is sitting on the ground and clutching his head with his hands, as if he is afraid that it will burst. And then he got up quietly, and went into the steppe, not looking at anyone. Noor whispered to me, "Watch him!" And I crawled after Zobar across the steppe in the darkness of the night. So, falcon!

Makar knocked the ashes out of his pipe and started stuffing it again. I wrapped myself more tightly in my overcoat and, lying down, looked into his old face, black from sunburn and wind. Shaking his head severely and sternly, he whispered something to himself; his gray mustache moved, and the wind tousled his hair on his head. It looked like an old oak, burned by lightning, but still powerful, strong and proud of its strength. The sea whispered as before with the shore, and the wind still carried its whisper across the steppe. Nonka no longer sang, and the clouds gathered in the sky made the autumn night even darker.

“Loiko walked leg by leg, hanging his head and lowering his hands like whips, and, having come to the beam to the stream, he sat down on a stone and groaned. He gasped so much that my heart bled with pity, but still he did not go up to him. Words can't help grief, right? That's it! He sits for an hour, another sits and the third does not move - he sits.

And I lie nearby. The night is bright, the moon flooded the entire steppe with silver, and everything is visible far away.

Suddenly I see: Radda is hurrying away from the camp.

I got fun! "Oh, it's important! - I think - the daring girl Rudd! So she came up to him, he did not hear. She put her hand on his shoulder; Loiko shuddered, unclenched his hands and raised his head. And how he jumps up, yes for the knife! Wow, she will cut the girl, I see, and I was about to shout to the camp and run to them, suddenly I hear:

Drop it! I'll break my head! - I look: Radda has a pistol in her hand, and she aims at Zobar's forehead. That's Satan girl! Well, I think they are now equal in strength, what will happen next?

Listen! - Radda stuck a pistol in her belt and says to Zobar: - I did not come to kill you, but to put up, drop the knife! - He threw and frowningly looks into her eyes. It was amazing, brother! Two people are standing and looking at each other like animals, and both are such good, daring people. The clear moon looks at them and I - and that's it.

Well, listen to me, Loiko: I love you! Radda says. He only shrugged his shoulders, as if bound hand and foot.

I saw good fellows, and you are removed and more beautiful than their soul and face. Each of them would have shaved off his mustache - if I blinked an eye at him, they would all fall at my feet if I wanted to. But what's the point? They don't hurt too much anyway, and I would beat them all. There are few daring gypsies left in the world, few, Loiko. I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will then, Loiko, I love more than you. And I can't live without you, just as you can't live without me. So I want you to be mine, body and soul, do you hear? - He chuckled.

I hear! It's fun for the heart to listen to your speech! Come on, say more!

And one more thing, Loiko: no matter how you turn around, I will defeat you, you will be mine. So don’t waste your time - my kisses and caresses are waiting for you ahead ... I will kiss you hard, Loiko! Under my kiss, you will forget your daring life ... and your living songs, which so delight the young gypsies, will no longer sound across the steppes - you will sing love, tender songs to me, Radda ... So do not waste time, - I said this, it means , tomorrow you will submit to me as a senior comrade young man. You will bow at my feet in front of the whole camp and kiss my right hand - and then I will be your wife.

That's what the damn girl wanted! This was never heard of; only in the old days it was like this among the Montenegrins, the old people said, but never among the gypsies! Come on, falcon, come up with something funnier? You’ll break your head for a year, you won’t invent it!

Loiko sprang to the side and shouted to the whole steppe, as if he had been wounded in the chest. Radda trembled, but did not betray herself.

Well, goodbye until tomorrow, and tomorrow you will do what I told you. Do you hear, Loiko?

I hear! I'll do it, - Zobar groaned and held out his hands to her. She didn't even look back at him, but he staggered like a tree broken by the wind and fell to the ground, weeping and laughing.

That's how the damned Radda lured the young man. By force I brought him to myself.

Ehe! What devil needs people to grieve? Who loves to listen to how the human heart groans, bursting with grief? Think here!

I returned to the camp and told the old people about everything. We thought about it and decided to wait and see what will happen from this. And there was this. When we all gathered around the fire in the evening, Loiko also came. He was confused and lost terribly weight during the night, his eyes were sunken; he lowered them and, without raising them, said to us:

That's the thing, comrades: I looked into my heart that night and did not find a place in it for my old free life. Radda only lives there - and that's it! Here she is, the beautiful Radda, smiling like a queen! She loves her will more than me, and I love her more than my will, and I decided to bow at Radda's feet, so she ordered everyone to see how her beauty conquered the daring Loiko Zobar, who before her played with girls, like a gyrfalcon with ducks . And then she will become my wife and will caress and kiss me, so that I won’t even want to sing songs to you, and I won’t regret my will! Is that right, Radda? He lifted his eyes and looked at her vaguely. She silently and sternly nodded her head and pointed to her feet with her hand. And we looked and did not understand anything. I even wanted to go somewhere, just not to see Loiko Zobar fall at the feet of a girl - even if this girl and Radda. It was something ashamed, and pitiful, and sad.

Well! Radda called to Zobar.

Ege, take your time, you'll have time, you'll get bored more ... - he laughed. Like steel rang, - he laughed.

So that's the whole point, comrades! What's left? All that remains is to try whether my Radda has such a strong heart as she showed it to me. I'll try - forgive me, brothers!

We didn’t have time to guess what Zobar wanted to do, and even Radda was lying on the ground, and Zobar’s curved knife was sticking up to the hilt in her chest. We are numb.

And Radda pulled out the knife, threw it aside, and, holding the wound with a strand of her black hair, smiling, said loudly and distinctly:

Farewell, Loiko! I knew that you would do that! .. - and she died ...

Did you understand the girl, falcon ?! That's what, damn me for all eternity, the devilish girl was!

Eh! Yes, and I will bow at your feet, proud queen! - Loiko barked all over the steppe and, throwing himself to the ground, pressed his lips to the feet of the dead Radda and froze. We took off our hats and stood in silence.

What do you say in such a case, falcon? That's it! Nur said: "We must tie him up! .." If Loiko Zobar's hands had not risen to knit, no one would have risen, and Nur knew this. He waved his hand and stepped aside. And Danilo picked up the knife thrown aside by Radda, and looked at him for a long time, moving his gray mustache, Radda's blood had not yet frozen on that knife, and it was so crooked and sharp. And then Danilo came up to Zobar and thrust a knife into his back, just against the heart. The old soldier Danilo was also Radda's father!

Like this! - Turning to Danila, Loiko said clearly and left to catch up with Radd.

And we watched. Radda was lying, her hand with a lock of hair pressed to her chest, and her open eyes were in the blue sky, and at her feet lay the daring Loiko Zobar. Curls fell over his face, and his face was not visible.

We stood and thought. Old Danila's mustache trembled, and his thick eyebrows scowled. He looked at the sky and was silent, and Nur, gray as a harrier, lay face down on the ground and began to cry so that his old man's shoulders shook.

There was something to cry about, falcon!

... You go, well, go your own way, without turning to the side. Go straight ahead. Maybe you won't die in vain. That's it, falcon!"

Makar fell silent and, hiding his pipe in a pouch, wrapped his chekmen around his chest. It was raining, the wind became stronger, the sea rumbled dull and angry. One by one, the horses approached the dying fire and, having examined us with large intelligent eyes, stopped motionlessly, surrounding us in a dense ring.

Hop, hop, whoa! - Shouted to them affectionately Makar and, patting the neck of his beloved black horse with his palm, said, turning to me: - It's time to sleep! - Then he wrapped himself in a chekmen and, powerfully stretched out on the ground, fell silent.

I didn't want to sleep. I looked into the darkness of the steppe, and in the air before my eyes floated the regally beautiful and proud figure of Radda. She pressed her hand with a lock of black hair to the wound on her chest, and through her swarthy, thin fingers blood oozed drop by drop, falling to the ground in fiery red stars.

And behind her, the daring fellow Loyko Zobar swam on her heels; his face was covered with locks of thick black curls, and frequent, cold and large tears dripped from under them ...

The rain intensified, and the sea sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud pair of handsome gypsies - Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of an old soldier Danila.

And they both circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda.

A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, spreading a thoughtful melody across the steppe.
the splash of a wave running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes. Occasionally it
gusts brought with them shriveled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire,
fanning the flame; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us quivered and, timidly
moving away, opened for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right -
the endless sea and right in front of me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy,
- he guarded the horses of his camp, spread out fifty paces from us.
Not paying attention to the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened the chekmen,
exposed his hairy chest and mercilessly beat it, he was reclining in a beautiful,
in a strong pose, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe,
blew thick clouds of smoke from his mouth and nose and fixed his eyes
somewhere over my head into the deadly silent darkness of the steppe, talking to
me, without stopping and without making a single movement to protect against sharp blows
wind.
- So you go? This is good! You have chosen a glorious fate for yourself, falcon. So and
you have to: go and see, you've seen enough, lie down and die - that's all!
- Life? Other people? he continued, listening skeptically to my objection.
to his "That's right." - Ege! And what's up to you? Aren't you your own life?
Other people live without you and will live without you. Do you think that you
does anyone need it? You are not bread, not a stick, and no one needs you.
- Learn and teach, you say? And you can learn to make people
happy? No you can not. You turn gray first, and say what you need
learn. What to teach? Everyone knows what he needs. Those who are smarter take what
there are those who are dumber - they don’t get anything, and everyone learns by himself ...
- Funny they, those your people. Huddled together and crush each other, and places
there are so many on the ground,” he waved his hand broadly towards the steppe. - And they all work.
For what? To whom? No one knows. You see how a man plows, and you think: here he is
drop with sweat will exude his strength on the ground, and then lie down in it and rot in
her. There will be nothing left for him, he sees nothing from his field and dies,
how he was born - a fool.
- Well, - he was born then, or something, to dig the earth, and die,
not even having time to dig out his own graves? Does he have a will? Steppe expanse
clear? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as
was born, a slave all his life, and that's it! What can he do with himself? Only
strangle yourself if he gets a little smarter.
- And I, look, at fifty-eight I saw so much that if
write all this on paper, so in a thousand such sacks, like yours, do not
put. Come on, tell me, in what regions have I not been? And you won't say. You and not
You know the places where I've been. This is how you need to live: go, go - and that's it. For a long time
do not stand in one place - what is in it? Look how day and night they run, chasing
one after another, around the earth, so you run away from thoughts about life, so as not to
fall out of love with her. And when you think about it, you fall out of love with life, it always happens that way. And with
it was me. Hey! It was, falcon.
- I was in prison, in Galicia. "Why do I live in the world?" I thought with
boredom - boring in prison, falcon, uh, how boring! - and longing took me for
heart, as I looked out of the window at the field, took it and squeezed it with tongs. Who
say why he lives? No one will say, falcon! And asking yourself about it
necessary. Live, and that's it! And walk around and look around yourself, that's melancholy
will never take. I almost choked myself with my belt, that's how!
- Heh! I spoke with one person. A strict man, one of your Russians.
It is necessary, he says, to live not as you yourself want, but as it is said in
God's word. Submit to God, and he will give you everything you ask of him. A
he himself is full of holes, torn. I told him to get himself some new clothes
asked God. He got angry and drove me away, cursing. And before that he said
that it is necessary to forgive people and love them. That would forgive me if my speech
offended by his mercy. Also a teacher! They teach to eat less, but they themselves eat according to
ten times a day.
He spat into the fire and fell silent, filling his pipe again. The wind howled plaintively and
horses neighed quietly in the darkness, a tender and passionate song-dumka floated from the camp.
It was sung by the beautiful Nonka, Makar's daughter. I knew her deep, chesty voice
timbre, always somehow strange, displeased and demanding sounding - she sang
whether she was a song, whether she said "hello." On her swarthy, matte face froze
arrogance of the queen, and in dark brown eyes covered with some kind of shadow
the consciousness of the irresistibility of her beauty and contempt for everything that was not her sparkled.
herself.
Makar gave me the phone.
- Smoke! Does the girl sing well? That's it! Would you like to be loved like this?
No? Fine! So be it - do not trust the girls and stay away from them further. Devke
kissing is better and more pleasant than smoking a pipe for me, but kissed her - and
the will in your heart has died. She will bind you to herself with something that is not visible,
but you can’t break it, and you will give her your whole soul. Right! Watch out girls! lie
Always! I love you, he says, more than anything in the world, come on, prick her with a pin,
she will break your heart. I know! Hey, how much do I know! Well, falcon, do you want
I will tell one true story? And you remember her and, as you remember, you will be your age
free bird.
"There was Zobar in the world, a young gypsy, Loiko Zobar. All Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and
Slavonia, and everything around the sea, knew him - he was a daring fellow! It wasn't by
those parts of the village, in which a heel or two of the inhabitants would not swear an oath to God
kill Loiko, but he lived for himself, and if he liked the horse, then at least the regiment
put a soldier to guard that horse - all the same, Zobar prancing on it
will become! Hey! who was he afraid of? Yes, Satan come to him with all his
retinue, so he would, if he had not put a knife into him, he would probably have
quarreled, and what the devil would give a kick in the snout - that's just right!
And all the camps knew him or heard about him. He only loved horses and nothing
more, and then not for long - he will train, and he will sell, and whoever wants the money
take it. He did not have a cherished - you need his heart, he would have pulled out
from his chest, and gave it to you, if only you would feel good from it. Here he is
what was, a falcon!
Our camp wandered around Bukovina at that time - this is about ten years ago.
Once - at night in spring - we are sitting: I, Danilo the soldier, who fought with Kossuth
together, and old Nur, and all the others, and Radda, Danilov's daughter.
Do you know my Nonka? Queen girl! Well, Radd can not be compared with her -
much honor to Nonke! About her, this Rudd, you can’t say anything in words. Maybe
maybe her beauty could be played on the violin, and even then to the one who this violin,
like his soul, he knows.
She dried a lot of brave hearts, wow, a lot! There is one magnate in Morava,
the old, forelock, saw her and was dumbfounded. He sits on a horse and looks, trembling, as
in the fire. He was handsome as hell on a holiday, zhupan was sewn with gold on his side
the saber, like lightning, sparkles, the horse stamps its foot a little, this whole saber is in stones
precious, and blue velvet on the hat, like a piece of the sky, - it was important
old master! He looked, looked, and said to Rudda: "Hey! Kiss,
I'll give you a purse of money." And she turned away, and that's all! "Forgive me if
offended, look at least kindly, "- the old magnate immediately lowered his arrogance and
threw a purse at her feet - a big purse, brother! And she seemed to accidentally
kicked in the mud, and that's it.
- Oh, girl! - he groaned, and with a whip on the horse - only dust rose
cloud.
And the next day he showed up again. "Who is her father?" - Thunder rumbles on the camp.
Danilo left. "Sell your daughter, take what you want!" And Danilo and tell him: "This
only the gentlemen sell everything, from their pigs to their conscience, and I and Kossuth
I fought and do not trade in anything!" He roared, and for a saber, but one of us
put the lit tinder in the horse's ear, and he carried off the young man. And we took off, and
went. Day we go and two, we look - caught up! "Hey you, he says, before God and
my conscience is clear with you, give the girl to me as a wife: I will share everything with you, I am rich
strong!" It burns all over and, like a feather grass in the wind, sways in the saddle. We
thought.
- Come on, daughter, speak! Danilo said to himself.
- If an eagle voluntarily entered the nest of a raven, what would she become? -
Radda asked us. Danilo laughed, and all of us with him.
- Nice, daughter! Did you hear, sir? It's not working! Look for a dove - those
more pliable. - And we went ahead.
And that ruler grabbed his hat, threw it on the ground and galloped so that the earth
trembled. That's what Radda was like, the falcon!
- Yes! So one night we sit and hear - the music floats across the steppe.
Good music! The blood caught fire in her veins from her, and she called somewhere. Everyone
we, we felt, from that music wanted something like that, after which we would live
it was no longer necessary, or, if you live, so - kings over the whole earth, falcon!
Here a horse cut out of the darkness, and a man sits and plays on it, driving up
to us. He stopped by the fire, stopped playing, smiling, looking at us.
- Hey, Zobar, yes it's you! Danilo shouted joyfully to him. So here it is, Loiko
Zobar!
The mustache lay on the shoulders and mingled with the curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and
smile - the whole sun, by golly! As if it was forged from one piece of iron
along with the horse. It stands all, as if in blood, in the fire of a fire and sparkles with teeth,
laughing! I'll be damned if I didn't love him as much as myself before he did.
he said a word to me or simply noticed that I also live in this world!
Here, falcon, what kind of people there are! He will look into your eyes and fill your
soul, and you are not at all ashamed of it, but also proud of you. With such a person
you yourself become better. Few, friend, such people! Well, okay, if
few. There would be a lot of good things in the world, so they would not even consider it good.
So that! And listen further.
Radda and says: "Well, Loiko, you play! Who made you the violin
so sonorous and sensitive?" And he laughs: "I did it myself! And made her not out
tree, but from the breast of a young girl whom he loved deeply, and the strings from her
the hearts of my retinue. The violin lies a little more, well, yes, I know how to hold a bow in my hands
hold!"
It is known that our brother tries to immediately cloud the eyes of the girl so that they do not
set fire to his hearts, and they themselves would be filled with sadness for you, and that's Loiko too.
But - not on that one. Radda turned away and, with a yawn, said: "And also
they said that Zobar was smart and dexterous—people are lying!” and walked away.
- Hey, beauty, you have sharp teeth! Loiko flashed his eyes, climbing down from
horse. - Hello, brothers! Here I am to you!
- We ask the guest! Danilo said in response to him. Kissed and talked
went to bed... slept soundly. And in the morning, we look, Zobar's head is tied
rag. What is this? And this horse hit him with a sleepy hoof.
Eh, eh, eh! We understood who that horse was, and smiled into his mustache, and Danilo smiled.
Well, wasn't Loiko worth Radda? Well, I do not! The girl, no matter how good, but she has
the soul is narrow and shallow, and even if you hang a pood of gold around her neck, it's still better
what she is, not to be her. Ah, okay!
We live and live in that place, we had good things about that time, and
Zobar is with us. It was a friend! And wise as an old man, and versed in everything, and
I understood Russian and Magyar letters. It used to go to say - a century would not
slept, listened to him! And he plays - kill me thunder, if there is someone else in the world
so played! It used to run along the strings with a bow - and your heart would tremble,
will hold it again - and it will freeze, listening, and he plays and smiles. And cry
and I wanted to laugh at the same time, listening to him. Now someone is moaning for you
bitterly, asks for help and cuts your chest like a knife. But the steppe says
sky tales, sad tales. The girl is crying, seeing off the good fellow!
A good fellow calls the girl to the steppe. And suddenly - gay! Thunder rumbles free,
a living song, and the sun itself, just look, will dance across the sky to that song!
That's it, falcon!
Every vein in your body understood that song, and all of you became a slave
her. And if Loiko would have shouted then: "To the knives, comrades!" - then we would go
all in knives, with whom he would point. Everything he could do with a man and everyone loved
he was deeply loved, only Radda alone does not look at the guy; and okay if
only this, and then he also makes fun of him. She firmly touched the heart
Zobara, something strong! He grinds his teeth, pulling his mustache, Loiko, his eyes are darker
the abysses look, and sometimes it sparkles in them, which is scary for the soul
becomes. Loiko will go far into the steppe at night, and his violin cries until the morning,
cries, buries Zobar's will. And we lie and listen and think: what to do? AND
we know that if two stones roll at each other, to stand between them
it is impossible - they will mutilate. And so it went.
Here we sat, all in the assembly, and talked about business. It got boring. Danilo and
asks Loiko: "Sing, Zobar, a song, make your soul happy!" He glanced at
Radd, who was not far from him, lay face up, looking at the sky, and hit on
strings. So the violin spoke, as if it really was a girl's heart!
And Loiko sang:

Gay gay! Fire burns in my chest
And the steppe is so wide!
Like the wind, my greyhound horse is fast,
My hand is strong!

She turned Rudd's head and, standing up, grinned in the eyes of the singer. flared up
like the dawn, he.

Gay hop, gay! Well, my friend!
Let's jump, eh, forward!?
The steppe is dressed in a harsh haze,
And there the dawn awaits us!
Gay gay! Let's fly and meet the day.
Rise to the top!
Yes, just do not touch the mane
Beautiful moon!

Here he sang! Nobody sings like that anymore! And Radda says like water
sips:
- You wouldn’t fly so high, Loiko, you’ll fall unevenly, yes - into a puddle with your nose,
you will stain your mustache, look. Loiko looked at her like a beast, but said nothing.
- the guy endured and sings to himself:

Gay goop! Suddenly the day will come here
And we sleep with you.
Hey gay! After all, we are with you then
We will burn in the fire of shame!

Is a song! Danilo said. - Never heard such a song; let out
Satan will make me a pipe if I'm lying!
Old Nur wiggled his mustache and shrugged his shoulders, and we all liked the
daring Zobarova song! Only Radda didn't like it.
“That’s how one mosquito hummed, mimicking the scream of an eagle,” said
She seemed to throw snow at us.
- Maybe you, Radda, want a whip? - Danilo reached out to her, and Zobar
threw his hat on the ground, and he says, all black as earth:
- Stop, Danilo! Hot horse - steel bit! Give me your daughter in marriage!
- Here's the speech! Danilo smiled. - Take it if you can!
- Welcome! - said Loiko and said to Radda: - Well, girl, listen to me
a little, but do not boast! I saw a lot of your sister, ege, a lot! And none
touched my heart the way you did. Oh, Radda, you filled my soul! Well?
What will be, it will be so, and ... there is no such horse on which from oneself
it would be possible to ride away! .. I take you as a wife before God, my honor, your
father and all these people. But look, do not stop my will - I'm free
man and I will live the way I want! - And approached her, gritting his teeth,
sparkling eyes. We are watching, he held out his hand to her, - here, we think, and put on
a bridle on the steppe horse Rudd! Suddenly we see, he waved his hands and fell to the ground
back of the head - roar! ..
What a wonder? Like a bullet hit the little one in the heart. And this Radda swept
he had a belt whip on his legs, and she pulled him towards her - that's why he fell
Loiko.
And again the girl lies without moving and smiles silently. We're looking at what
will, but Loiko is sitting on the ground and clutching his head in his hands, as if he is afraid that she
it will burst. And then he got up quietly, and went into the steppe, not looking at anyone.
Nur whispered to me, "Watch him!" And I crawled after Zobar across the steppe in the dark
night. That's right, falcon!"
Makar knocked the ashes out of his pipe and started stuffing it again. I wrapped myself up
tighter in his overcoat and, lying down, looked into his old face, black from sunburn and
wind. Shaking his head severely and sternly, he whispered something to himself; gray mustache
moving, and the wind tousled his hair on his head. He looked like an old oak
burned by lightning, but still powerful, strong and proud of his strength. Sea
whispered as before with the shore, and the wind still carried his whisper along
steppes. Nonka no longer sang, and the clouds gathered in the sky made the autumn night
even darker.
Loiko walked leg by leg, hanging his head and lowering his arms like lashes, and,
having come to the beam to the stream, he sat down on a stone and groaned. So groaned that my heart
he bled with pity, but still did not go up to him. In a word, I'm not burning
help, right? That's it! He sits for an hour, another sits and the third does not move
- is sitting.
And I lie nearby. The night is bright, the moon filled the whole steppe with silver, and
everything is visible from far away.
Suddenly I see: Radda is hurrying away from the camp.
I got fun! "Oh, it's important! - I think - the daring girl Rudd!" Here she is
I went up to him, he did not hear. She put her hand on his shoulder; Loiko shuddered,
unclasped his hands and raised his head. And how he jumps up, yes for the knife! Uh, cut the girl
I see, and I already wanted to, shouting to the camp, run to them, suddenly I hear:
- Drop it! I'll break my head! - I look: Radda has a pistol in her hand, and she
Zobaru heals. That's Satan girl! Well, I think they are now equal in strength, which
will be next?
- Listen! - Radda stuck a pistol in her belt and says to Zobar: - I will not kill
you came, but put up, throw the knife! - He threw and frowningly looks into her eyes.
It was amazing, brother! Two people stand and look at each other like animals, and
both are such good, daring people. The clear moon looks at them and I - and that's it.
- Well, listen to me, Loiko: I love you! Radda says. The only one
shrugged his shoulders, as if bound hand and foot.
- I saw good fellows, and you are removed and more beautiful than their soul and face. Each of them
I would shave off my mustache - blink my eye at him, they all would fall at my feet, if you want
I of that. But what's the point? They don't hurt too much anyway, and I would beat them all.
There are few daring gypsies left in the world, few, Loiko. I never have anyone
I loved, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love
more than you. And I can't live without you, just as you can't live without me. So
so I want you to be mine and soul and body, do you hear? - He chuckled.
- I hear! It's fun for the heart to listen to your speech! Come on, say more!
- And here's another thing, Loiko: no matter how you turn around, I will defeat you, my
you will. So don't waste your time - ahead of you are waiting for my kisses yes
caresses... I'll kiss you hard, Loiko! Under my kiss you will forget
your daring life ... and your living songs, which so delight the young gypsies, do not
will sound more across the steppes - you will sing love, tender songs to me,
Radde ... So don't waste your time, - I said this, it means you are tomorrow
submit to me as a senior comrade young man. Bow down at my feet before
with the whole camp and kiss my right hand - and then I will be your wife.
That's what the damn girl wanted! This was never heard of; only in
old time Montenegrins used to say so, but the gypsies - never!
Come on, falcon, come up with something funnier? Break your head for a year, don't
make up!
Loiko sprang to the side and shouted to the whole steppe, as if he had been wounded in the chest.
Radda trembled, but did not betray herself.
- Well, goodbye until tomorrow, and tomorrow you will do what I told you.
Do you hear, Loiko?
- I hear! I'll do it, - Zobar groaned and held out his hands to her. She doesn't
looked back at him, and he staggered like a tree broken by the wind, and fell on
earth, weeping and laughing.
That's how the damned Radda lured the young man. By force I brought him to myself.
Ehe! What devil needs people to grieve? Who loves it
to listen to how the human heart groans, torn from grief? So think
here!..
I returned to the camp and told the old people about everything. thought and decided
wait and see what will come of it. And there was this. When
we all gathered around the fire in the evening, Loiko came too. He was confused and
lost weight terribly overnight, his eyes sunk in; he lowered them and, without raising,
told us:
- Here's the thing, comrades: I looked into my heart this night and did not find
places in it of my old free life. Radda lives there only - and that's it!
Here she is, the beautiful Radda, smiling like a queen! She loves her will more
me, and I love her more than my will, and I decided to bow at the feet of Radda,
so she ordered that everyone should see how her beauty conquered the daring Loiko
Zobara, who played with girls before her, is like a gyrfalcon with ducks. And then she
will become my wife and will caress and kiss me, so that already me and songs
you will not want to sing, and I will not regret my will! Is that right, Radda? - He lifted
eyes and looked at her vaguely. She silently and sternly nodded her head and hand.
pointed to her feet. And we looked and did not understand anything. Even go somewhere
I wanted, just not to see Loiko Zobar fall at the feet of a girl - let this
girl and Radda. It was something ashamed, and pitiful, and sad.
- Well! Radda called to Zobar.
- Ege, take your time, you'll have time, you'll get bored more ... - he laughed. Precisely steel
ringing, he laughed.
So that's the whole point, comrades! What remains? And it remains to try
whether my Radda has such a strong heart as she showed it to me. I'll try
Well, forgive me, brothers!
We didn’t even have time to guess what Zobar wanted to do, and Radda was lying
on the ground, and in her chest, up to the hilt, was the curved knife of Zobar. We are numb.
And Radda pulled out the knife, threw it aside and, holding the wound with a strand of her
black hair, smiling, said loudly and distinctly:
Farewell, Loiko! I knew that you would do that! .. - and she died ...
Did you understand the girl, falcon ?! That's what, I'll be damned for all eternity,
devilish girl!
- Eh! Yes, and I will bow at your feet, proud queen! - all over the steppe
barked Loiko yes, throwing himself to the ground, pressing his lips to the feet of the dead Radda and
froze. We took off our hats and stood in silence.
What do you say in such a case, falcon? That's it! Nur said: "We must tie
him!.." If Loiko Zobar's hands would not have been raised, no one would have been raised,
and Nur knew it. He waved his hand and stepped aside. And Danilo raised a knife,
thrown aside by Radda, and looked at him for a long time, moving his gray mustache, at
Radda's blood was still fresh on that knife, and it was so crooked and sharp. And then
Danilo went up to Zobar and thrust a knife into his back, right against his heart. Same
Radda's father was the old soldier Danilo!
- Like this! - turning to Danila, Loiko said clearly and went to catch up
Radd.
And we watched. Rudda was lying, her hand with a lock of hair pressed to her chest, and
her open eyes were in the blue sky, and at her feet lay the daring Loiko
Zobar. Curls fell over his face, and his face was not visible.
We stood and thought. Old Danila's mustache trembled, and his thick
brow him. He looked at the sky and was silent, and Nur, gray as a harrier, lay down on his face.
on the ground and wept so that his old man's shoulders shook.
There was something to cry about, falcon!
... You go, well, go your own way, without turning aside. Go straight ahead.
Maybe you won't die in vain. That's all, falcon!"
Makar fell silent and, hiding his pipe in a pouch, wrapped his chekmen around his chest.
It was raining, the wind became stronger, the sea rumbled dull and angry. one for
to others, horses approached the dying fire and, having examined us with big smart
eyes, motionless stopped, surrounding us in a dense ring.
- Hop, hop, ho! - Makar called affectionately to them and, patting his neck with his palm
his beloved black horse, he said, turning to me: - It's time to sleep! -
Then he wrapped himself up in a chekmen and, stretching mightily on the ground, fell silent.
I didn't want to sleep. I looked into the darkness of the steppe, and in the air in front of my
eyes floated regally beautiful and proud figure of Radda. She pressed her hand
with a strand of black hair to the wound on her chest, and through her swarthy, thin fingers
blood oozed drop by drop, falling to the ground like fiery red stars.
And behind her, the daring fellow Loyko Zobar swam on her heels; his face was covered
strands of thick black curls, and from under them dripped frequent, cold and large
tears...
The rain intensified, and the sea sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud
to a pair of handsome gypsies - Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of an old soldier Danila.
And they both circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and could not
handsome Loiko to catch up with proud Radda.

spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splashing of the waves running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes. Occasionally his impulses brought with them shriveled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames;

the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment to the left - the boundless steppe, to the right - the endless sea, and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy - he was guarding the horses of his camp, spread out fifty paces from us.

Ignoring the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened his chekmen, exposed his hairy chest and beat it mercilessly, he reclined in a beautiful, strong pose, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe, blew thick clouds of smoke from his mouth and nose and, fixing his eyes somewhere over my head into the deadly silent darkness of the steppe, he spoke to me without stopping and without making a single movement to protect himself from sharp blows of the wind.

So are you walking? This is good! You have chosen a glorious fate for yourself, falcon. That's how it should be: go and look, you've seen enough, lie down and die - that's all! - Life? Other people? - he continued, skeptically listening to my objection to his "That's right." - Ege! And what's up to you? Aren't you your own life? Other people live without you and will live without you. Do you think that someone needs you? You are not bread, not a stick, and no one needs you.

Learn and teach, you say? Can you learn how to make people happy? No you can not. You turn gray first, and say what you need to learn. What to teach? Everyone knows what he needs. Who are smarter, they take what they have, who are dumber - they get nothing, and everyone learns by himself ... - They are funny, those your people. They huddle together and crush each other, and there are so many places on earth, - he waved his hand wide towards the steppe.

And everyone works. For what? To whom? No one knows. You see how a man plows, and you think: here he is, drop by drop with sweat, exudes his strength on the ground, and then lies down in it and rots in it. There will be nothing left for him, he sees nothing from his field and dies as he was born - a fool.

Well, - he was born then, perhaps, to dig the earth, and to die, without even having time to dig out his own graves? Does he have a will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it! What can he do with himself? Only to strangle himself, if he grows a little wiser.

And I, look, at fifty-eight I saw so much that if you write all this on paper, you won’t put it in a thousand bags like yours. Come on, tell me, in what regions have I not been? And you won't say. You don't even know the places I've been. This is how you need to live: go, go - and that's it. Do not stand in one place for a long time - what is in it? Look how day and night run, chasing each other, around the earth, so you run away from thoughts about life, so as not to stop loving it.

And when you think about it, you fall out of love with life, it always happens that way. And it was with me. Hey! It was, falcon. - I was in prison, in Galicia. "Why do I live in the world?" - I thought out of boredom, - it's boring in prison, falcon, uh, how boring! - and melancholy took hold of my heart, as I looked out of the window at the field, took it and squeezed it with tongs. Who's to say why he lives? No one will say, falcon! And you don't have to ask yourself. Live, and that's it!

And walk around and look around you, and that longing will never take. I almost choked myself with my belt, that's how! - Heh! I spoke with one person. A strict man, one of your Russians. It is necessary, he says, to live not as you yourself want, but as it is said in God's word. Submit to God, and he will give you everything you ask of him. And he himself is full of holes, torn. I told him to ask God for new clothes. He got angry and drove me away, cursing.

And before that he said that it is necessary to forgive people and love them. He would forgive me if my speech offended his grace. Also a teacher! They teach them to eat less, but they themselves eat ten times a day. He spat into the fire and fell silent, filling his pipe again. The wind howled plaintively and quietly, horses neighed in the darkness, a tender and passionate song-dumka floated from the camp. It was sung by the beautiful Nonka, Makar's daughter. I knew her voice of a thick, chesty timbre, always somehow strange, displeased and demanding - whether she sang a song, whether she said "hello". On her swarthy, matte face, the arrogance of the queen froze, and in her dark brown eyes, covered with some kind of shadow, a consciousness of the irresistibility of her beauty and contempt for everything that was not herself flashed.

Makar gave me the phone. - Smoke! Does the girl sing well? That's it! Would you like to be loved like this? No? Fine! So be it - do not trust the girls and stay away from them further. Kissing a girl is better and more pleasant than smoking a pipe for me, but kissed her - and the will died in your heart. She will tie you to herself with something that is not visible, but it is impossible to break it, and you will give her all your soul. Right! Watch out girls! Lie always! I love you, he says, more than anything in the world, but come on, prick her with a pin, she will break your heart. I know! Hey, how much do I know! Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you one story? And you remember her and, as you remember, you will be a free bird for your life.

"There was a Zobar in the world, a young gypsy, Loiko Zobar. All Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and Slavonia, and everything around the sea, knew him - he was a daring fellow! There was no village on those edges in which there would be five or two inhabitants he did not take an oath to God to kill Loiko, but he lived for himself, and if he liked the horse, then at least put a regiment of soldiers to guard that horse - all the same, Zobar will prance on it! his retinue, so he would, if he had not put a knife into him, he would probably have had a strong quarrel, and what a kick in the snout he would give the devils - that's just right!

And all the camps knew him or heard about him. He loved only horses and nothing more, and that was not for long - he would ride, and he would sell, and whoever wants, take the money. He didn’t have a cherished one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest, and he would give it to you, if only you would feel good about it. That's what he was, a falcon! Our camp wandered around Bukovina at that time - this is about ten years ago.

Once - at night in spring - we are sitting: I, Danilo the soldier, who fought together with Kossuth, and old Nur, and all the others, and Radda, Danilov's daughter. Do you know my Nonka? Queen girl! Well, Radd cannot be compared with her - a lot of honor to Nonka! About her, this Rudd, you can’t say anything in words. Perhaps her beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin as his soul. She dried a lot of brave hearts, wow, a lot!

In Morava, a magnate, an old, forelock, saw her and was dumbfounded. He sits on a horse and looks, trembling, as if in a flame. He was handsome, like the devil on a holiday, a zhupan was sewn with gold, on his side a saber, like lightning, sparkles, a horse stomps a little with his foot, all this saber is in precious stones, and blue velvet on his hat, like a piece of the sky - the old ruler was important! I watched and watched, and said to Rudda: "Hey! Kiss, I'll give you a purse of money." And she turned away, and only! “Forgive me, if I offended you, at least look kindly,” the old magnate immediately lowered his arrogance and threw a purse at her feet - a big purse, brother!

And she, as if by chance, kicked him in the dirt, and that's all. - Oh, girl! - he groaned, and with a whip on the horse - only dust rose in a cloud. And the next day he showed up again. "Who is her father?" - Thunder rumbles on the camp. Danilo left. "Sell your daughter, take what you want!" And Danilo and tell him: "It's only the pans who sell everything, from their pigs to their conscience, but I fought with Kossuth and do not trade anything!" He roared, and even for a saber, but one of us put a lit tinder in the horse's ear, and he carried off the young man.

And we took off, and went. Day we go and two, we look - caught up! "You are gay, he says, my conscience is clear before God and you, give the girl to me as a wife: I will share everything with you, I am very rich!" It burns all over and, like a feather grass in the wind, sways in the saddle. We thought. - Come on, daughter, speak! Danilo said to himself. - If an eagle voluntarily entered the nest of a raven, what would she become? Radda asked us.

Danilo laughed, and all of us with him. - Nice, daughter! Did you hear, sir? It's not working! Look for a dove - those are more pliable. - And we went ahead. And that ruler grabbed his hat, threw it on the ground and galloped so that the earth trembled. That's what Radda was like, the falcon! - Yes! So one night we sit and hear - the music floats across the steppe. Good music! The blood caught fire in her veins from her, and she called somewhere. All of us, we felt, from that music wanted something like that, after which it would not be necessary to live, or, if you live, so - kings over the whole earth, falcon!

Here a horse cut out of the darkness, and a man sits and plays on it, driving up to us. He stopped by the fire, stopped playing, smiling, looking at us. - Hey, Zobar, yes it's you! Danilo shouted joyfully to him. So here he is, Loiko Zobar! The mustache lay on the shoulders and mingled with the curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is a whole sun, by golly! It was as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse.

It stands all, as if in blood, in the fire of a fire and sparkles with its teeth, laughing! Damn me if I didn't love him as much as myself, before he said a word to me or just noticed that I, too, live in this world! Here, falcon, what kind of people there are! He will look into your eyes and fill your soul, and you are not at all ashamed of it, but also proud of you. With such a person, you yourself become better. Few, friend, such people! Well, okay, if not enough. There would be a lot of good things in the world, so they would not even consider it good. So that! And listen further.

Radda says: "Well, Loiko, you play! Who made you such a sonorous and sensitive violin?" And he laughs: "I made it myself! And I made it not from wood, but from the chest of a young girl whom I loved deeply, and I twisted the strings from her heart. The violin lies a little more, well, yes, I know how to hold a bow in my hands!" It is known that our brother tries to immediately cloud the eyes of the girl, so that they do not light his heart, but they themselves would be covered with sadness, that's Loiko too. But - not on that one. Radda turned away and, yawning, said: "They also said that Zobar is smart and dexterous - people lie!" - and walked away.

Hey, beauty, you have sharp teeth! Loiko flashed his eyes as he dismounted from his horse. - Hello, brothers! Here I am to you! - We ask the guest! Danilo said in response to him. We kissed, talked and went to bed ... We slept soundly. And in the morning, we look, Zobar's head is tied with a rag. What is this? And this horse hit him with a sleepy hoof. Eh, eh, eh! We understood who that horse was, and smiled into his mustache, and Danilo smiled.

Well, wasn't Loiko worth Radda? Well, I do not! No matter how good the girl is, but her soul is narrow and shallow, and even though you hang a pound of gold around her neck, all the same, it’s better than what she is, not to be her. Ah, okay! We live and live in that place, things were good for us at that time, and Zobar is with us. It was a friend! And wise, like an old man, and knowledgeable in everything, and understood Russian and Magyar letters. It used to go to talk - a century would not sleep, listened to him!

And he plays - thunder kill me, if someone else in the world played like that! He would draw a bow along the strings - and your heart would tremble, hold it again - and it would freeze, listening, and he would play and smile. And I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, listening to him. Now someone is moaning bitterly for you, asking for help and cutting your chest like a knife. But the steppe tells the sky tales, sad tales. The girl is crying, seeing off the good fellow! A good fellow calls the girl to the steppe. And suddenly - gay!

A free, lively song rumbles like thunder, and the sun itself, just look, will dance across the sky to that song! That's it, falcon! Every vein in your body understood that song, and all of you became a slave to it. And if Loiko would have shouted then: "To the knives, comrades!" - then we would all go to the knives, with whom he would indicate. He could do everything with a man, and everyone loved him, loved him deeply, only Radda alone does not look at the guy; and all right, if only this, otherwise he would make fun of him.

She touched Zobar's heart hard, something hard! Grinding his teeth, pulling his mustache, Loiko, his eyes look darker than the abyss, and sometimes they sparkle so much that it becomes scary for the soul. Loiko will go far into the steppe at night, and his violin cries until the morning, cries, buries Zobar's will. And we lie and listen and think: what to do? And we know that if two stones roll at each other, it is impossible to stand between them - they will mutilate. And so it went. Here we sat, all in the assembly, and talked about business.

It got boring. Danilo asks Loiko: "Sing, Zobar, a song, make your soul happy!" He moved his eye to Radda, who lay face up not far from him, looking at the sky, and struck the strings. So the violin spoke, as if it really was a girl's heart! And Loiko sang: Hey, hey! A fire burns in the chest, And the steppe is so wide! Like the wind, my greyhound horse is fast, my hand is firm! She turned Rudd's head and, standing up, grinned in the eyes of the singer. It flared up like the dawn. Gay hop, gay! Well, my friend! Let's jump, eh, forward!?

The steppe is dressed in a harsh haze, And there the dawn awaits us! Gay gay! Let's fly and meet the day. Rise to the top! Yes, but do not hurt the beauty of the moon with a mane! Here he sang! Nobody sings like that anymore! And Radda says, as if sipping water: - You wouldn’t fly so high, Loiko, you’ll fall unevenly, yes - you’ll get your nose dirty in a puddle, look. - Loiko looked at her like a beast, but did not say anything - the guy endured and sings to himself: Gay-gop! Suddenly the day will come here, And we sleep with you. Hey gay! After all, then you and I will burn in the fire of shame!

Is a song! Danilo said. - Never heard such a song; Let Satan make his own pipe out of me, if I'm lying! Old Nur wiggled his mustache and shrugged his shoulders, and we all liked Zobar's dashing song! Only Radda didn't like it. “So once a mosquito buzzed, mimicking the cry of an eagle,” she said, as if throwing snow at us. - Maybe you, Radda, want a whip? - Danilo reached out to her, and Zobar threw his hat on the ground, and he says, all black as earth: - Stop, Danilo! Hot horse - steel bit! Give me your daughter in marriage!

Here's the speech! Danilo smiled. - Take it if you can! - Welcome! - said Loiko and said to Radda: - Well, girl, listen to me a little, but don't boast! I saw a lot of your sister, ege, a lot! None of them touched my heart like you did. Oh, Radda, you filled my soul! Well? What will be, it will be so, and ... there is no such horse on which it would be possible to ride away from oneself! .. I take you as a wife before God, my honor, your father and all these people. But look, do not stop my will - I am a free man and I will live the way I want! He approached her, clenching his teeth, his eyes flashing. We look, he extended his hand to her, - here, we think, and put a bridle on the steppe horse Rudd!

Suddenly we see, he waved his arms and hit the back of his head - bang! .. What a marvel! Like a bullet hit the little one in the heart. And it was Radda who swept the belt whip around his legs, and pulled him towards her - that's why Loiko fell. And again the girl lies without moving and smiles silently. We are watching what will happen, but Loiko is sitting on the ground and clutching his head with his hands, as if he is afraid that it will burst. And then he got up quietly, and went into the steppe, not looking at anyone. Nur whispered to me, "Watch him!" And I crawled after Zobar across the steppe in the darkness of the night.

That's right, falcon!" Makar knocked the ashes out of his pipe and began to stuff it again. I wrapped myself more tightly in my overcoat and, lying down, looked into his old face, black from sunburn and wind. whispered to himself, his gray mustache stirred, and the wind ruffled his hair on his head, he looked like an old oak, burned by lightning, but still powerful, strong and proud of his strength, the sea whispered with the shore, and the wind still his whisper carried across the steppe. Nonka no longer sang, and the clouds that had gathered in the sky made the autumn night even darker.

“Loiko walked leg by leg, hanging his head and lowering his arms like whips, and, having come to the beam to the stream, he sat down on a stone and gasped. He gasped so that my heart bled with pity, but still did not go up to him. You can’t help grief with a word - right?! That’s it! He sits for an hour, sits for another, and the third does not move - he sits. And I’m lying nearby. The night is bright, the moon flooded the whole steppe with silver, and everything is far away. Suddenly I see: from the camp in a hurry Radda is coming.

I got fun! "Oh, it's important! - I think - the daring girl Rudd!" So she came up to him, he did not hear. She put her hand on his shoulder; Loiko shuddered, unclenched his hands and raised his head. And how he jumps up, yes for the knife! Wow, she'll cut the girl, I see, and I already wanted to, shouting to the camp, run to them, suddenly I hear: - Drop it! I'll break my head! - I look: Radda has a pistol in her hand, and she aims at Zobar's forehead. That's Satan girl! Well, I think they are now equal in strength, what will happen next? - Listen! - Radda stuck a pistol in her belt and says to Zobar: - I did not come to kill you, but to put up, drop the knife!

He dropped it and frowns into her eyes. It was amazing, brother! Two people are standing and looking at each other like animals, and both are such good, daring people. The clear moon looks at them and I - and that's it. - Well, listen to me, Loiko: I love you! Radda says. He only shrugged his shoulders, as if bound hand and foot. - I saw good fellows, and you are removed and more beautiful than their soul and face. Each of them would have shaved off his mustache - if I blinked an eye at him, they would all fall at my feet if I wanted to. But what's the point? They don't hurt too much anyway, and I would beat them all. There are few daring gypsies left in the world, few, Loiko. I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you. And I can't live without you, just as you can't live without me. So I want you to be mine, body and soul, do you hear?

He chuckled. - I hear! It's fun for the heart to listen to your speech! Come on, say more! - And one more thing, Loiko: no matter how you turn around, I will defeat you, you will be mine. So don't waste your time - ahead of you are my kisses and caresses... I'll kiss you hard, Loiko! Under my kiss, you will forget your daring life ... and your living songs, which so delight the young gypsies, will no longer sound across the steppes - you will sing love, tender songs to me, Radda ... So do not waste your time, - said I am this, which means that tomorrow you will submit to me as a senior comrade young man. You will bow at my feet in front of the whole camp and kiss my right hand - and then I will be your wife. That's what the damn girl wanted! This was never heard of; only in the old days it was like this among the Montenegrins, the old people said, but never among the gypsies!

Come on, falcon, come up with something funnier? You’ll break your head for a year, you won’t invent it! Loiko sprang to the side and shouted to the whole steppe, as if he had been wounded in the chest. Radda trembled, but did not betray herself. - Well, goodbye until tomorrow, and tomorrow you will do what I told you. Do you hear, Loiko? - I hear! I'll do it, - Zobar groaned and held out his hands to her. She didn't even look back at him, but he staggered like a tree broken by the wind and fell to the ground, weeping and laughing. That's how the damned Radda lured the young man. By force I brought him to myself.

Ehe! What devil needs people to grieve? Who loves to listen to how the human heart groans, bursting with grief? So think here! .. I returned to the camp and told the old people about everything. We thought about it and decided to wait and see what will happen from this. And there was this. When we all gathered around the fire in the evening, Loiko also came. He was confused and lost terribly weight during the night, his eyes were sunken; he lowered them and, without raising them, said to us: “That's the thing, comrades: I looked into my heart this night and did not find a place in it for my old free life.

Radda lives there only - and that's it! Here she is, the beautiful Radda, smiling like a queen! She loves her will more than me, and I love her more than my will, and I decided to bow at Radda's feet, so she ordered everyone to see how her beauty conquered the daring Loiko Zobar, who before her played with girls, like a gyrfalcon with ducks . And then she will become my wife and will caress and kiss me, so that I won’t even want to sing songs to you, and I won’t regret my will! Is that right, Radda? He lifted his eyes and looked at her vaguely. She silently and sternly nodded her head and pointed to her feet with her hand.

And we looked and did not understand anything. I even wanted to go somewhere, just not to see Loiko Zobar fall at the feet of a girl - even if this girl and Radda. It was something ashamed, and pitiful, and sad. - Well! Radda called to Zobar. - Ege, take your time, you'll have time, you'll get bored more ... - he laughed. Like steel rang, - he laughed. So that's the whole point, comrades! What remains? All that remains is to try whether my Radda has such a strong heart as she showed it to me. I'll try - forgive me, brothers!

We didn't even have time to guess what Zobar wanted to do, and Radda was already lying on the ground, and Zobar's curved knife stuck in her chest up to the hilt. We are numb. And Radda pulled out the knife, threw it aside, and, holding the wound with a strand of her black hair, smiling, said loudly and distinctly: - Farewell, Loiko! I knew that you would do that! .. - Yes, and she died ... Did you understand the girl, falcon ?! That's what, damn me for all eternity, the devilish girl was!

Eh! Yes, and I will bow at your feet, proud queen! - Loiko barked all over the steppe and, throwing himself to the ground, pressed his lips to the feet of the dead Radda and froze. We took off our hats and stood in silence. What do you say in such a case, falcon? That's it! Nur said: "We must tie him up! .." If Loiko Zobar's hands had not risen to knit, no one would have risen, and Nur knew this. He waved his hand and stepped aside. And Danilo picked up the knife thrown aside by Radda, and looked at him for a long time, moving his gray mustache, Radda's blood had not yet frozen on that knife, and it was so crooked and sharp.

And then Danilo came up to Zobar and thrust a knife into his back, just against the heart. The old soldier Danilo was also Radda's father! - Like this! - Turning to Danila, Loiko said clearly and left to catch up with Radd. And we watched. Radda was lying, her hand with a lock of hair pressed to her chest, and her open eyes were in the blue sky, and at her feet lay the daring Loiko Zobar. Curls fell over his face, and his face was not visible. We stood and thought. Old Danila's mustache trembled, and his thick eyebrows scowled.

He looked at the sky and was silent, and Nur, gray as a harrier, lay face down on the ground and wept so that his old man's shoulders shook. There was something to cry about, falcon! ... You go, well, go your own way, without turning aside. Go straight ahead. Maybe you won't die in vain. That's all, falcon!" Makar fell silent and, hiding his pipe in a pouch, wrapped his chekmen around his chest.

It was raining, the wind became stronger, the sea rumbled dull and angry. One by one, the horses approached the dying fire and, having examined us with large intelligent eyes, stopped motionlessly, surrounding us in a dense ring. - Hop, hop, ho! - Shouted to them affectionately Makar and, patting the neck of his beloved black horse with his palm, said, turning to me: - It's time to sleep! - Then he wrapped himself in a chekmen and, powerfully stretched out on the ground, fell silent.

I didn't want to sleep. I looked into the darkness of the steppe, and in the air before my eyes floated the regally beautiful and proud figure of Radda. She pressed her hand with a lock of black hair to the wound on her chest, and through her swarthy, thin fingers blood oozed drop by drop, falling to the ground in fiery red stars. And behind her, the daring fellow Loyko Zobar swam on her heels; his face was covered with locks of thick black curls, and frequent, cold, large tears dripped from under them ...

The rain intensified, and the sea sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud pair of handsome gypsies - Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of an old soldier Danila. And they both circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda.

1892, Tiflis

Maxim Gorky is a colorful personality not only within the framework of literature, but also within the framework of history. The real name of the writer and playwright is Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov.
The well-known pseudonym "Gorky" appears only in 1892: this is how the work "Makar Chudra" was signed.

To view, you need to click the name in the upper corner, on the left.

The film is based on the early works of Maxim Gorky.

biography and works of M. Gorky here.