I’m Back – Also, Gooseberries

After 716 days, the blog is back. I’m settled into life as a journalist but missed this blog as a space for all the miscellanea that don’t fit neatly into daily news. Same drill as before, only I won’t be posting on weekends. Day of rest and all that.

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I finished “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” last week, a collection of seven Russian short stories interspersed with commentary from the author, George Saunders. His analysis was often more entertaining and thought provoking than the stories. Highly recommended.

One passage in Anton Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” has stuck with me. I’m not alone, the book’s epigraph is the same part.

Ivan Ivanych came out of the cabin, plunged into the water with a splash and swam in the rain, thrusting his arms out wide; he raised waves on which white lilies swayed. He swam out to the middle of the river and dived and a minute later came up in another spot and swam on and kept diving, trying to touch bottom. “By God!” he kept repeating delightedly, “by God!” He swam to the mill, spoke to the peasants there, and turned back and in the middle of the river lay floating, exposing his face to the rain. Burkin and Alyohin were already dressed and ready to leave, but he kept on swimming and diving. “By God!” he kept explaining. “Lord, have mercy on me.”

I live near the beach and went down for a swim on Sunday. Diving off the rocks into the clear sea, the passage kept running through my head and I laughed and laughed. Do read it.

Compare the above passage to a different translation I found online. Delight become tomfoolery because of words like “delicious” and “flapping”. Or the difference between “swam in the rain” and “swam about in the rain”. Ivan sounds like an idiot below, not someone overwhelmed with joy.

Ivan Ivanich came out of the shed, plunged into the water with a splash, and swam about in the rain, flapping his arms, and sending waves back, and on the waves tossed white lilies; he swam out to the middle of the pool and dived, and in a minute came up again in another place and kept on swimming and diving, trying to reach the bottom. “Ah! how delicious!” he shouted in his glee. “How delicious!” He swam to the mill, spoke to the peasants, and came back, and in the middle of the pool he lay on his back to let the rain fall on his face. Bourkin and Aliokin were already dressed and ready to go, but he kept on swimming and diving. “Delicious,” he said. “Too delicious!’