Maksim Gorky
In memory of the great Russian writer Maksim Gorky
Based on M. Gorky's works Screenplay by I. GRUZDEV
Directed by M.S. DONSKOY
Director of Photography P. YERMOLOV
Production Designer I. STEPANOV
Music by L. SHVARTS
Cast :
Akulina Ivanovna V. MASSALITINOVA
Grandfather Kashirin M. TROYANOVSKY
Aleksey Peshkov Aleksey LYARSKY
Sergeyev, the draughtsman I. KUDRYAVTSEV
Sergeyeva N. BEREZOVSKAYA
Matryona Ivanovna Ye. LILINA
Viktorushka F. SELEZNYOV
Natalya, the laundress I. ZARUBINA
Queen Margot D. ZERKALOVA
Smury, the cook L. TIMONTAYEV
Sergey, the waiter M. POVOLOTSKY
Icon painters :
Zhikharev N. PLOTNIKOV
Sitanov I. CHUVELEV
Ivan Larionych K. CHUGUNOV
Kapendyukhin V. TERENTYEV
Shop assistant N. GORLOV
Yakov Kashirin V. NOVIKOV
Mitropolsky V. MARUTA
A SOYUZDETFILM Studio Production
Part Two of the Trilogy
Maksim Gorky MY APPRENTICESHIP
And if I finally
ended up lying crippled in the earth,
then I would proudly announce, when my last hour arrived,
that those good people had been trying very hard, for forty years,
to corrupt my soul,
but for their persistence they had not been very successful.
M. Gorky
Good morning, Father Dorimedont.
Good morning, Natalya!
Good morning, Your Excellency.
You fool.
Attention!
Alexei, you damned devil, where are you?
Put the samovar on, start the stove!
You damned devil, may you burst!
Good Lord, I ask for nothing. I need nothing.
Only punish my daughter-in-law.
And open my son Vasily's eyes, so he'll see her in her true colors.
Punish her, Lord, for my sake.
And send to my son Viktorushka
a beautiful bride,
noble and rich,
a merchant's daughter.
And may all his enemies die before being born.
Mother, you're bawling again at this time of the morning.
I can't stand it!
All right then, go back to sleep.
May they be smitten with the plague,
and have no roof over their heads, oh Lord!
To hell with you, mother!
Sniffing right into my face. It's just impossible here!
What? Tell your own mother to go to hell, you son of a bitch!
Bane of my life!
You should have rotted away in my womb!
What is it? Put the samovar on!
Didrt you cut the kindling wood yesterday?
Clean all the pots and pans. Peel the potatoes.
And scrub all the floors today.
All right.
Remember, we've taken you in
from a family of beggars!
I gave your mother a cloak.
It was as good as new.
A silk one with beads on it.
Remember, we took you in after you'd been collecting rags.
You're living with good people now.
- Good people... - Good people.
I gave your mother a cloak.
The cloak was as good as new. With glass beads.
So you gave her a present! Stop boasting about it.
What? Who do you think you're talking to? I'll pluck your ears!
How can you say such things?
You can pluck flowers, nuts and herbs. But not ears!
I'll show you that ears could be plucked as well.
What? See now how ears can be plucked?
But my ears are still there!
A corrosive, exasperating boredom enveloped everything in this house.
Alyoshka, where have you been?
Was there a piece to make up the weight?
Open your mouth.
He's eaten it. Just look at the crumbs between his teeth!
I didn't eat it. I don't need it.
What are you saying? Remember where we took you in from.
I gave your mother a cloak.
Do I have to work myself to the bone because of that cloak?
He might set the house on fire!
He might as well kill us, it looks like it's coming to it!
You little devil, see what a row you've caused?
I'll send you back to your grandfather, and you'll be collecting rags again.
I'd rather do that than stay here.
You took me as an apprentice, but only teach me how to empty the slopbucket.
Why, you're cheeky.
Yes...
Here's a pair of dividers.
Measure all the lines.
Mark them on the paper with dots.
Then use your pencil and ruler to join them up.
First you start across, horizontally,
then downwards, those are the verticals.
Got it? Now get on with it!
Look what our fool has gotten to!
Some kin. Taken from a beggar family, and he...
Want to draw, do you?
Go on, draw! No, I won't have it!
I'll draw lines on you!
Come! Come!
I'll get you all painted! I'll teach you!
To have a stranger working here and your brother making room for him?
Stop it, you stupid ninnies!
It's a madhouse!
Come on, mother, about face and march!
His own flesh and blood, Viktorushka!
It's uneard of!
You'd better chuck it in.
You won't learn anything here. You can see for yourself what happens.
- So there'll be no teaching? - Maybe later.
If Yakov was a little pup,
His howls would wake the neighbors up.
If I were a little pup,
Wherever I liked I would run.
Now everyone yells: Shut up,
Keep quiet, you son of a gun,
Keep quiet before you're done.
Look at you making up verses!
You should study to be a poet.
What?
It's hard, is it?
Yes, hard.
Oh, boy, it's just the right time for you to go to school.
Look, I'm just a laundress, yet I sent my daughter to a gymnasium,
She's 14, my daughter.
- They may make a lady out of her. - That's why I sent her to study.
And where do you think ladies come from with their faces all tarted up?
From us, the scum of the earth.
The more you know, the longer your hands grow.
Let me pass. Come on.
Let me pass.
Take me.
A town on the Kama, very fair,
But we don't know where.
A town on the Kama River.
Here or there,
Or up in the air...
What's going on? Is she sleeping?
Yes.
Really?
Give her to me.
- I'll put her to bed myself. - No!
Come quick, our girl wants to say goodnight to you.
She won't go to bed without it. Come on.
He will come.
Well, so he's arrived, that monster.
He's not a monster. He's my boy.
Really? Very well then.
Let's give your boy a present.
- Would you like that? - Yes, I would.
Fine. You go to bed and I'll give him one.
Goodbye until tomorrow.
Well, what shall we give you?
I don't want any presents.
Just give me a book to read.
Oh, really? So you like reading?
All right, I'll lend you some books.
But I haven't many just now.
However, you can start with this one.
Alexandre Dumas "Queen Margot"
Been snoozing again?
See, Vasya? He's got completely out of hand.
You devil!
Why have you burnt a candle?
What were you doing with a candle? What were you doing, you cursed devil?
You see, he's burnt a whole candle! And he'll burn the whole house next!
Flog him, Vasya! He needs a flogging!
You better hide the candles from him, mother.
Look at him, the little devil.
Well, what did you like about it?
My life is so boring, hurtful.
They beat and scold me.
But when I read the book, I forgot about everything.
What a strange boy you are!
You, my dear little savage, must go to school.
You must study, study.
You must read Russian books.
You must know your own Russian way of life,
Russian writers.
Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol.
Gogol.
Now I'm going to give you the best Russian book.
You will like it.
You must come here more often. Whenever you have the chance.
Collected Works A.S. Pushkin
Queen Margot!
On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound...
On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound...
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round...
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round...
What marvels there! A mermaid sitting...
There, on unknown paths,
A trail of beasts never seen by man...
The ways and deeds of days gone by,
A narrative on legend founded.
The ways and deeds of days gone by...
A narrative on legend founded...
On legend founded...
Sleeping again? Fetch the firewood! Put the samovar on! Sweep the floor!
Or I'll give you a good thrashing!
Oh, so it's you, Akulina.
Grandma!
What's the matter?
Why are you sitting there?
You keep your mouth shut, you're not the boss here!
Go into the dining room. It's all right, go on.
Wipe your feet,
you old tree stump rotting in a swamp!
My dear beloved's ring...
Well, how's my clever old Akulina? Is old man Kashirin still alive?
Still working your fingers to the bone?
Yes, still working like a convict.
What's the reason for your visit, clever Akulina?
I came to see my grandson, Varvara Vasilyevna's son.
Yes, Varvara Vasilyevna.
What a woman she was! A heroine!
Remember how I gave her a cloak?
A black silk one, with glass beads.
It was good as new.
How could I ever forget?
Cloak, shmoak, our life is just a joke.
What did you say?
Me? Nothing.
The good times are passing, and so are people.
Sometimes I don't understand you. Come on, Akulina Ivanovna.
And with that ring
I lost all chance of happiness.
A fine woman, your grandmother.
Why do you come here?
Don't you see what they're like?
Ah, Alyosha, I can see everything.
I wouldn't have come if you hadrt been here.
They don't mean anything to me.
Grandfather's been ill. I've been busy looking after him.
I couldn't do any work, we don't have any money, but I have to feed him.
They promised to pay six rubles a year for you.
So I thought they might give one out of that lot.
You've been here six months already.
They told me to give you a good telling-off.
They say you don't do what you're told.
But you must stick it out, dear,
for two years until you can stand on your own feet.
- You'll do that, won't you? - No, I won't.
They're sending me off to church.
Go there, my dear.
Your sins are forgiven. Now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Next please.
Down on your knees!
Now get up.
- Do you do what your elders tell you? - No.
Then say you have sinned, stupid boy.
I have sinned.
You are forgiven. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
What else have you to confess?
I threw stones at your summerhouse.
That's a sin as well.
And at your dog.
You stupid boy.
I stole apples from your garden.
Say: I have sinned.
I have sinned.
Your sins are forgiven. Now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Have you been reading any underground books?
- What? - Any forbidden books?
No, none at all.
Your sins are forgiven. Now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Next please.
- I've read. - What?
I've read books. "The Battle between the Russians and the Kabardinians".
Off with you! Next please.
"The Beautiful Mohammedan".
Off you go! Off!
Next please.
"Yepancha, the Tartar Horseman".
Off with you!
Next please.
Our pranks and games, our youth's brief story
Like sleep or morning mist are fled;
And yet, within, desires still quicken,
Our souls impatient for their hour,
While yoked beneath a fateful power
Our country calls to us, heart-stricken.
We wait now, wearied-out with yearning
Lest sacred freedom come too late,
As some young lover, too, might wait
The tryst for which his heart is burning.
So while for freedom's flame we live
And honor in our breast we treasure,
Friend, let us to our homeland give
The noblest that our souls can measure.
My comrade, trust: It will yet rise,
That star of captivating splendor,
The sleep will leave our country's eyes
And on the shards of tsardom's grandeur
All our names will be incised!
Lyoshka, clean it.
What did the priest ask you during at confession?
Did you tell him about your outrages?
Did he scold you for all your sins?
- How much did you give the priest? - Five kopecks.
Three kopecks would've been quite enough for him, you stupid.
What did the priest ask you?
He asked what books I read.
Look, Peshkov, you'd better keep away from books.
They're harmful and dangerous.
You know who writes them books? Fools and heretics.
Back home in Grebeshki,
one girl kept reading books, and fell in love with a deacon.
- Have they burgled the cathedral? - That's enough, mother.
The Bishop must have died then.
Don't go! Don't go, Vasya!
Stop your nonsense!
Well? What? What?
The Tsar's been assassinated.
Assassinated!
That's those readers for you.
Listen...
What's going to happen now? Oh, I'm so scared.
Don't be scared.
What was the Tsar assassinated for?
It's forbidden to talk about such things.
It was a holiday...
No, the Governor isn't above the Bishop.
Only God is above the Bishop.
And the Tsar?
Isn't the Tsar above the Bishop?
The Tsar is no boss to the Bishop. God is the boss to the Bishop.
Oh, God, God!
What do you know about God?
I know a lot!
You scribe, the tobacco censer. I say God is above!
- No, Tsar! - No, God!
- Tsar! - God!
- And I say, Tsar! - God!
- No, Tsar! - God!
Tsar!
God!
Tsar!
You idiots, he's alive! Get some water!
- Don't poke your nose in it. - I said get some water!
Pour it over his head.
Now don't pour any over me, I've got to go out this evening.
My little sister...
My sister...
He's alive, the devil.
Keep wetting the rag and hold it to his head.
I'll go and find that fool.
Those stupid devils will drink themselves into hard labor.
Who hit me?
Yermokhin?
A fine friend!
Come on, old horse, go and thank your God.
He's alive.
Yermokhin!
A fine friend you are!
Sidorov, my dear buddy, I didn't mean to.
Come on, come on.
Why aren't you afraid of drunks?
And I'm not afraid of sober men either.
I've got them here, under control.
You're a strong woman.
A woman needs more strength than a man.
She needs enough for two.
You can never trust men.
Where's my purse? It's been stolen!
One ruble thirty! My sister's sent me a ruble!
- You stole it! - It lay beside, when you were drunk.
Let's go.
- Come on. - I didn't take it!
Let go of me, I didn't steal!
I didn't steal! Let go!
I didn't steal it!
- He stole a purse. - I didn't steal it!
That's all his books! They teach stealing and debauchery!
You fools!
Take that, you accursed one!
Take that! Take that!
Take that! I'll teach you!
Come on, go! Why should I keep my mouth shut?
Who stole your purse?
I just dropped it.
A hole in my pocket, I swear!
You blackened the boy's name and got him a flogging!
The boy was beaten for swearing.
No one accused him of being a thief, except you, you slut!
My dear lady, you're a slut yourself,
and a cow if I may be permitted to say so.
And he had left...
Watch out!
Go away, boy.
Uncle, can I work here?
What can you do here?
Each load weighs over 5 poods.
Go to the Dobry.
See the steamship over there? They need a washer-up.
What are you staring at? You think I'm a paper?
No.
Are you a schoolboy?
No.
- Working? - No.
- Stealing? - No.
Am I supposed to shout? Come here.
What kind of template are you?
- Who are you? - I'm hungry.
Here.
Eat.
Eat, little puppy.
So Alexei Peshkov became a dishwasher on the Dobry steamship.
Here you will wash the dishes.
Here's the hot water, you open it with this tap.
And here're towels for you.
If you break a glass, 20 kopecks written off your pay.
Got it?
Listen to what I'll tell you!
Bring all clean crockery to me, to this counter.
And nowhere else, you got it?
Never give the crockery past me to the waiter, got it?
If you two connive to steal, you'll be the first thrown off the ship.
Don't you listen to his lies.
We'll do it togetherjust great. You and I, and Saint Ilya.
What is it we'll do?
You'll give me one set of crockery from your table,
and I'll give you 3 kopecks for that.
Three.
Is it a deal?
Go to hell, I won't give you anything.
So you want 5 kopecks?
You better first wipe off your snivel.
I don't want your kopecks. Leave me alone!
Just look at him! A saint, all in black paint.
- So you don't want to? - No, I don't.
Watch out, I'll scrub you off the ship.
Give me a glass!
Port the helm, you bastard.
The cook Smury became Alexei's best friend on the ship.
- Did you finish washing, Peshkov? - I did.
Quick march!
Lift it on the left! Come on!
There you go!
Who are they?
In the cage? Convicts.
Sent to hard labor.
What for?
Go on, read.
"Concerning
that pernicious insect the bedbug,
and its extermination".
Put it aside. There're too many of them here.
Sergey the waiter, for one, can't be exterminated even with turpentine.
Gogol.
"Taras Bulba"?
You haven't read it? Try it.
"Turn round, my boy!
How ridiculous you look!
What sort of a priest cassock have you got on?
Does everybody at the academy dress like that?"
With such words did old Bulba greet
his two sons who had attended the Kiev Seminary.
"Don't laugh, don't laugh, Father!" - said the eldest lad.
"If you laugh, by heavens, I will strike you."
"What kind of son are you?" Exclaimed Taras Bulba in amazement.
"So you want to fight me?
With your fist, eh? Well, let it be fisticuffs.
I'll see what sort of a man you are with your fists."
That's right. You have brains, and I have brawn.
Camels, the things they print!
Go on, read.
Come on, pile them up. Are you working for him?
I'm not working for him, I'm...
Suddenly, a powerful hand seized his horse's bridle.
Andrei looked: Before him stood Taras.
"Well, son,
did your Lyakhs help you?
Dismount from your horse!
I gave you life, I will also kill you!" -
said Taras, and brought his gun up to his shoulder.
That's a fine son for you!
And just because of a woman. Ugh...
Carry on.
Ostap endured the torture like a giant.
But when they took him to the last deadly tortures,
it seemed as though his strength was failing.
And he cried: "Father!
Where are you? Do you hear?"
"I hear, son, I hear."
I hear, son, I hear.
But can any power be found on earth
which is capable of overpowering Russian strength?
No, son!
It cannot be found!
Is it the end already?
A good book is like a holiday!
Well, son, did your Lyakhs help you?
It's my fault. I'll pay for it.
This pigsty'll be the ruination of you.
I feel sorry for you, little puppy.
And I feel sorry for everyone. Sometimes I don't know what to do.
I could even go down on my knees and say to people:
"What are you doing with your lives, you bastards?
Are you blind, just like stupid camels?"
Is Peshkov here?
The steward wants him.
Did you give Sergey any crockery?
No.
- You're stealing together! - I'm not stealing.
- He's lying! Lying! - I know, I can see. You thief!
He takes them when I'm not looking.
You don't see a thing, but you know everything? Out!
Wait.
You can always throw him out.
- Did Sergey give you any money? - No.
- Never? - Never.
He wouldn't lie.
He's fired all the same.
You fool.
And I'm a fool, too. I should've watched you.
I'm not guilty!
It was Alyoshka!
Forgive me! Forgive me!
Forgive me, please!
There're such people too.
I'll never be like him!
Good.
Tell me, what are people really like?
Are they good or wicked?
Why do they endure everything?
Is that what's eating you?
People... are just people.
One's clever, the next's a fool.
And there're some who even wouldn't want to understand.
Don't talk so much and stick to your books.
The books must tell you what's wrong.
You'll find all the answers there.
Providing you read the right ones.
I know.
There are forbidden books.
People read them at nighttime.
What's that? Lying again?
I'm not lying.
The priest asked me about them at confession.
I've even seen people reading them.
And crying.
Who was crying? Who was reading?
A longhaired man.
Wake up, you must be delirious.
Of course, there's some things that are hidden away.
The right things.
There must be some.
There must be.
Must be.
And again he went out in the world.
Well?
Who's that?
- And what saint is this? - Panteleimon the Healer.
- And this? - Saint Nicholas.
Saint Nicholas!
Do you know the Virgins?
Look here then.
There's the Virgin of the Sorrows. Where are you looking? There!
The Kazan Virgin. Do not Mourn for Me.
Soothe my Grief.
Semistrelnaya.
First of all, remember what saint helps against what illness.
Vonifaty guards against drunkenness.
Varvara the Martyr against toothache.
Vassily the Blessed against fevers.
Who helps with a difficult birth?
What have you got a head for, you loafer?
And at the icon workshop Alexei was learning the art.
Oh, what boredom.
Just like convicts.
Kapendyukhin, would you ever learn?
You're an icon painter,
which means you must paint gaily,
like the Italians.
And you used too much white,
so the Virgirs eyes turned out cold and wintry.
And her face looks cunning.
You don't think about what you're doing, Kapendyukhin!
Ivan Larionych, that's not my business painting Virgins.
I was born a musician
and they sent me off to be a monk.
I should have been a troika driver!
Oh, I will harness a troika
Of swift dark hazel horses.
Oh, I will tear off into the frosty night,
Straight into my beloved's arms!
Oh, you, my dear friends,
Go run quick, my falcons dear...
Where are you going?
You know where.
He'll come back all plastered again.
Let's sing some psalms.
Let us praise the Lord,
Let us praise the name of the Lord...
Oh, you, my dear friends,
Go run quick, my falcons dear,
Don't lose the golden days,
They're not many in our life here.
Let me read "The Demon" to you here among the saints.
About the demon?
Stop joking, Maximych.
It'll be just like it's written.
His way above the sinful earth
The melancholy Demon winged,
And memories of happier days
About his exiled spirit thronged...
Oh, hell! That's right, the demon.
Quiet, folks. Quiet.
Read louder, Maximych, and slower. There's no hurry.
Among the eternal nebulae,
With eager mind and quick surmise,
He'd trace the caravanserai
Of luminaries thrown into space...
How he put it...
The caravanserai
Of luminaries thrown into space.
I can never remember any of the words.
I can't remember them, but I can see that demon!
I can even paint him.
His dark, hairy body,
fiery red wings, done in red lead,
and the face, arms, feet,
I'd paint them as white as white,
like snow
on a moonlit night.
And you will come to look on earth
Without regret, without compassion...
That's so true!
Oh, he knows the truth so well!
Ivan Larionych,
isn't it amazing that a man could make you feel sorry for a demon!
- You feel sorry for him, don't you? - Yes, I do.
Maximych, don't tell anybody about that book.
It must be a banned one.
Tidy up the workshop in the evening.
We'll make merry!
Hey, God-daubers!
We'll be making merry!
Give us our Russian dance!
Go on, play!
So that all hell broke loose!
Yes, we'll sing, we'll make merry!
When our hour comes, we'll go to a cemetery!
You, a human...
Just like a pig.
Don't worry, Maximych, there're good ones as well.
Oh yes!
We're living like blind puppies.
What's the matter with you?
Is all life like that?
And we will be living like that.
And we'll see nothing better.
No, I'll never submit to it! Never!
Oh, Pashka...
Those copies you keep on making.
You'd better stop it! Do you hear?
That's what the police are interested in.
What about Sitanov? He copies things out, too.
He does?
That tall fool.
Listen. Let me see your book and Sitanov's as well.
I'll give you 50 kopecks for that.
But only do it when Sitanov's not around.
What?
Easy, easy.
You...
Easy, or I'll get my hands on that mad head of yours!
What's the matter with you?
I'll get you thrown out of here!
You bandit! Sponger!
What was all that racket about?
Kuzma told me to steal your notebook and give it to him.
He promised to give me 50 kopecks. Well, I showed him...
Peshkov, give me ochre.
Ochre, Peshkov!
- They'll throw you out, Maximych. - I'll go away myself!
You've got a nerve! You must grin and bear it.
I shall not bear it! I shall not! I shall not!
- What's the matter with you? - I shall not!
In the evening...
Lyoshka.
Where're you going?
Oh, Pashka, I can't bear it any longer. I can't.
- Are you leaving? - Yes, leaving.
Who do you think you are? A little boy, an orphan.
I'm almost four times as old as you.
But I admire you
and approve of you, because you face up everything squarely.
You'll get on if you always stand like that.
Stop singing a requiem for him!
What I also like about you is that you're so friendly to everyone -
that's good!
Kuzma.
And Alexei returned to where his childhood had been passed.
Good day.
Good day, your Reverence! Your Excellency!
Finished your apprenticeship?
Make your fortune, did you?
Whatever I've earned, I'm keeping!
So you're smoking that devil's poison?
They even gave me a tobacco pouch.
You having me on?
So you knocked me?
Me, your grandfather?
Your own mother's father!
You wild animal!
I've had enough of your flogging.
Alexei!
Mother, he hit me!
Yes, he did! Ask him yourself!
Take that for this, take that,
and that, and that!
Yes, that's the way!
Oh, what people!
Forgive me, don't be angry.
I didn't hurt you, did I?
But I had to do something. Grandfather's an old man.
He deserves some respect.
He's had some beatings in his time.
He's drunk a bitter cup of sorrow.
You're not a child anymore, Alyosha, you should understand these things.
What? You got it, you goat?
Will you butt me again, you bandit?
You take after your father, freemason!
Came into the house without even crossing yourself.
Ugh, you cheap little Bonaparte!
You better tell me about your life on the ship.
We sailed along the Volga, then we sailed on the Kama.
It's so beautiful!
There was a cook there.
Named Smury.
He taught me, and stood up for me.
Sounds like a good man. May the Blessed Virgin preserve him!
Don't ever forget him!
You should always remember the good things.
And what is bad, you just forget it.
How can I forget it?
Sergey was stealing, and blamed it on me.
And they gave me the sack.
They thought I was a thief.
You're still a young boy.
You don't know how to live.
That's what they all kept saying: You don't know how to live,
you must bear it, you can't do anything about it, it's your fate.
Why should I bear it? What is it I should know?
- Oh, don't ask me. - But you keep on saying it!
Now don't be angry. You're still a child.
You don't have to know yet.
And who really does? Only rogues.
Your grandfather's clever, and can read and write, but he knows nothing.
Oh Lord, spare me the fullness of my wrath...
He must bore God stiff!
Every evening he starts moaning. And why?
He's an old man and doesn't really need anything.
Yet he never stops complaining and working himself up.
Hey, you fools, you're going to catch a cold. It's not summer any longer.
Go to bed early tonight, Alexei. I'll wake you up at dawn.
We'll go collecting firewood in the forest.
I'll go too, picking some herbs and mushrooms.
Look, mother.
Forests are the gardens of God.
No one ever planted them. Just the wind.
When I was young and worked as a barge hauler in Zhiguli...
Ah, Alexei, will you ever
see and go through what I had gone?
Will you ever see our Mother Russia as I had seen her?
Those forests that stretch from Kasimov to Murom,
or those beyond the Volga,
right up to the Urals!
A miracle - without end!
Oh, what people!
Ah, grandfather, grandfather...
You're a very tiny speck in the eye of God.
Want me to tell you a tale?
Yes, I do.
Come on, tell me.
Listen, then.
Once there lived Yevstigney the deacon,
Thinks to himself he's as bright as a beacon,
Brighter than even the priest or the tsar,
And as for the merchant - brighter by far!
Says about everything he sees:
- I could have made it, if you please,
Infinitely better, but as you know,
My time cannot be wasted so.
That Yevstigney is very obstinate.
Like our grandfather.
Grandma, Grandma...
I'll go and put the traps. I'll be catching songbirds.
Isn't it a sin to capture birds?
Grandma!
I've written a song!
Really?
Listen.
Winter is drawing nearer and nearer.
Farewell, my summer sun, my dear!
There's already a song like that, and it's better than yours.
Oh, the summer sun is leaving us
For dark nights and distant forests!
And here am I, poor maiden,
Alone, without my joys of spring...
That's how a really sad song goes.
You can never describe truly what you've not been through yourself.
You must give that nonsense up.
Out of birds,
or out of songs, no one ever made a living.
I've never heard of it.
You must find your own place in life
and keep your brain working.
The world is like a dark night.
A man is the worst enemy of another.
How much fright he's got in him.
Poor man.
Get out!
Go, I said!
Get off now!
Lying here dead-drunk!
Why are lying here, you cow? Go!
Am I supposed to drag you?
Leave her alone!
- Do you feel sorry for her? - Yes, I do. She's a human being!
A human being!
Natalya?
I'll show you yet!
Some tea.
Good God! What are you doing here?
I'm not living here.
I just came to have a look around, and met you.
To have a look around?
What have you come to look at?
That's how it is.
My daughter is gone.
She left me for her rich friend.
She wants to study.
What kind of mother am I to her?
I'm a laundress.
And she's had education.
That's how it is.
You don't want a laundress?
Is it a tart you want?
Oh, boy.
I'm asking you, and that's my advice -
get out of here, or you're finished!
Worms!
And where's your daughter?
Go! Go to hell!
Lyoshka.
Uncle Yakov?
If Yakov was a little pup!
Yes, it's me, my boy. Come on, let's go.
Here's my nephew, my sister's son.
And this is a learned man, they turned him out of the seminary.
I saw you trying to defend that woman.
It's a noble thing to do.
And who are you?
The low bass of the Kazan Cathedral.
Why did they turn you out?
When I look at you, I really can't make you out.
What are you?
And what are you for?
What did they turn you out for?
For the truth.
What truth do you know?
If Yakov was a little pup...
O filth and scum of the earth! Let's get out of here.
His howls would wake the neighbors up!
You just get tense inside. Understand?
- Then you can bear it. - I already tried to.
- Have you ever been to the forest? - I have.
- Ever lost your way? - I did.
Well, if you lose your way completely
and grow tired of looking for the right path,
grit your teeth and go straight through thickets,
through rotting undergrowth, across swamps full of slippery clods of earth,
and you will always come out on the main road in the end.
That's it.
- That's right, I'll come out. - Go on.
Oh, how I want to give that earth a hard kick,
and myself as well,
so that everything, myself included, would spin round in a joyful whirlwind,
in a festive dance where people would be in love with each other,
in love with a life
which had been begun for the sake of another life,
which is beautiful,
cheerful
and honest!
Goodbye.
You're always so cross.
You've got stern and too demanding.
We won't meet again.
You, restless soul, will be moving farther and farther off.
And I'll be dying.
Oh, what people!
Oh, how good it is!
Into life... into life...
to make everything that is good and humane
in our hearts and minds part of it.
Maksim Gorky
THE END