My Japanese Story Is a Bit Sweet

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Nine-year-old Vanka Zhukov was sent to the shoemaker Ariahine as an apprentice three months ago. He didn't lie down to sleep on Christmas Eve. He waited for the boss, his wife, and a few lads to go to church for worship, and took out a small bottle of ink from the boss’s closet, a pen with a rusty nib, flattened a piece of crumpled white paper, and wrote a letter. Come.

Before writing the first word, he glanced worriedly at the door and window, and then slanted at the dim idol. On either side of the idol were two rows of shelves full of lasts. He sighed, knelt in front of the work table, and spread the piece of paper on the work table.

"Dear Grandpa Konstantin Makaric," he wrote, "I am writing to you. I wish you a happy Christmas, and God bless you. I have no father or mother, only you are a relative Up."

Vanka looked at the dark window, and the faint shadow of a candle was reflected on the glass window; he imagined his grandfather Konstantin Macaric as if he was right in front of him. ——Grandpa is the night watchman in the house of Master Rifa Lviv. He is a very funny little old man, 65 years old, always blinking his eyes with a smile. During the day, he always sleeps in the big kitchen.

At night, he put on a wide sheepskin jacket, knocked on the clapper, and walked around the villa. The old **** Kaxidanka and the male dog Loach lowered their heads and followed him. Loach is a very obedient and very likable dog. It is black and long like a weasel, so it is called a loach.

Now Grandpa must be standing at the gate, squinting at the red window of the country church. He must be stomping his feet in high felt boots, his clapper hung on his belt, he shrank into a ball with cold, shrugging his shoulders...

The weather is really good, sunny, without a trace of wind, dry and cold. It was a moonless night, but the whole village—white roofs, wisps of smoke from the chimneys, silver trees covered in thick frost, snowdrifts, all visible. The sky was covered with stars blinking happily, and Tianhe seemed very clear, as if someone polished it up with snow for the holidays...

Vanka sighed, dipped the tip of the pen, and then wrote.

"I was beaten last night because I fell asleep unknowingly when I cradled their cubs. The boss grabbed my hair, dragged me into the yard, and beat me with a belt. This week, the lady boss asked me to pack up a herring. I picked it up from the tail, and she picked up the herring and poked the fish’s mouth into my face.

The guys teased me, they sent me to the hotel to get a drink, they told me to steal the boss’s cucumber, and the boss picked up a guy and beat me. There is nothing to eat. Eat a little bread in the morning, gruel for lunch, and a little bread in the evening; as for the dishes and tea, only the boss himself can eat and drink.

They told me to sleep in the aisle, and when their little boy cried, I didn't want to sleep, so I had to shake the cradle. Dear grandpa, be merciful, take me out of here and go back to our village! I can't stand it anymore! ...I knelt down for you, and I will always pray to God for you. Take me out of here, or I'm going to die! ..."

Fanka curled his mouth, rubbed his eyes with the back of his dirty hands, and choked.

"I will rub the tobacco leaves for you," he continued, "I will pray to God for you. If I do something wrong, you can beat me firmly. If you are afraid that I cannot find a job, I can go and ask the housekeeper, in the face of God, to let me shine my shoes; or else, I go and ask Figica to agree to help him herd the sheep.

Dear grandpa, I can't stand it anymore, there is only a dead end! ...I wanted to run back to our village, but I didn't have shoes and I was afraid of the cold. When I grow up, I will take care of you, and no one dares to bully you.

"Speaking of Moscow, this is a big city, the houses are all the masters, there are many horses, no sheep, and the dogs are not fierce at all. At Christmas, the children here don’t walk around with star lights, churches The choir here does not allow people to sing poems casually. Once, in the window of a shop, I saw a fishing hook sold with fishing rods and lines. It can catch all kinds of fish, which is very expensive.

There is a big catfish that can even afford a puddle weight. I also saw some shops selling all kinds of robs, just like our boss’s guns, I think a gun is sold for 100 rubles. There are sandpipers, partridges, and hares in the butcher shop... but the guy in the shop refused to say where those things came from.

"My dear grandpa, when the master hangs candies on the Christmas tree, please pick a golden walnut and hide it in my green box."

Vanka sighed sadly, then stared at the window blankly. He wanted to go to the woods to cut the Christmas tree, Grandpa always took him. What a happy day! The frozen mountains creaked, grandpa coughed with the cold, and he coughed along with him...It was about to cut the Christmas tree. Grandpa smoked a pipe first, snuffed for a while, and talked to the frozen Xiaofan. Card laughed for a while.

Many small fir trees were draped in heavy frost and stood motionless, waiting to see which one was damned. Suddenly a hare jumped out of nowhere, and ran through the snowdrift like an arrow. Grandpa couldn't help but yelled, "Catch it, catch it, catch it! Hey, short-tailed ghost!"

Grandpa dragged the cut tree back to the master's house, and everyone started to dress up the tree.

"Come on, dear grandpa," Vanka continued, "I beg you to see Christ and take me out of here. Have mercy on me, an unfortunate orphan. Everyone here beats me. I'm hungry. It was terrible, and lonely, too uncomfortable to say. I kept crying. One day, the boss hit me on the head with a last, and I fainted, and finally woke up.

There is no hope in my life, not even a dog! ... I greet Alona, ​​I greet the one-eyed Aigor, and the coachman. Don't let others take my small organ. Your grandson Ivan Zhukov. Dear grandpa, come on! "

Vanka folds the full-filled paper into quarters and puts it in an envelope that he bought for a kopek the night before. He thought about it, dipped it in ink, and wrote the address.

The cold wind was blowing, and the people on the street were all wrapped in thick cotton-padded jackets, while Fanka wore a thin, torn clothes with 5 or 6 patches; the pants, only half of them. Because the boss felt that Fanka was sometimes too disobedient and couldn't calm down when hitting him, he asked his beloved dog to pull Fanka's trousers. Over time, Fanka's trousers were only torn by half.

Vanka had no socks or shoes, so he could only walk on the icy street with bare feet that were red from the snow. Every now and then, Fanka has to tighten his belt...

Suddenly, a carriage flew across from Fanka. Fanka didn't pay attention and fell in a pool of blood. "Woo-" The carriage stopped. It turned out that it was a drunk postman who ran into Vanka in a carriage. Instead of getting out of the carriage to save Vanka, the postman said to Vanka contemptuously: "Poor boy, deserve it! Write a letter-no stamps, no Write the recipient's address, who will send it to you!"

After speaking, I tore it with my hands, then tore again, and then tore, and then tore... With a hand up, and the wind blowing, Fanka’s letter to Grandpa turned into thousands of butterflies, flying all over the sky... Fanka used leftovers In the last breath, he yelled softly: "Master...Master..." With the last remaining strength~www.ltnovel.com~ I picked up a piece of debris, placed it on my chest, and died slowly Up...

The sun rose, and the soft sunlight shone on Fanka's thin body. His lips were white, but there was a smile on the corners of his mouth: He might be thinking that Grandpa will definitely come and pick him out of the sea of ​​suffering.

Source: From the short story "Fanka" written by Russian writer Chekhov.

Extended information:

Artistic features:

The opening of the novel is a statement sentence, explaining the time, place, characters and events. There is no ups and downs in the whole story, and there is no gorgeous and dazzling protagonist. Throughout the story, Fanka's mouth is used to describe the process of Fanka writing to the grandfather in the countryside, and to examine the world from Fanka's perspective.

From the narrative, we learn that Xiao Fanka was beaten by the boss because she fell asleep accidentally; we saw Fanka being poked badly in the face with herring by the boss’s wife; we also saw those guys who instigated Fanka to steal the boss’s cucumber and became hungry Belly scene.

In order to present the plot to be realistic and touching, the author made careful and meticulous artistic conceptions. Because Fanka is a nine-year-old child, the author interspersed letters and narratives with each other to make the two blend together and truly moving.

This novel completely adopts the letter style. Vanka’s tragic circumstances, his nostalgia for his hometown life, and his hopes are all written by him in letters. Then the letter must be written very long and organized. This It is hard to believe that a nine-year-old child will have such great abilities.

What's more, he still has no conditions to enjoy formal cultural education, but his mother taught him to read and write when his mother was a maid at the old man’s house. The young lady taught him to read and write when he had nothing to do. Now he can pick up a pen to write to his grandfather. An orderly belief is even more impossible.

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Fanka