Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883; Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883 -- Criticism and interpretation
"This girl alone has eyes that see; she resists, turns round, lifts
fair, delicate hands; her face full of life, shows impatience and
daring.... She wants not to obey, she wants not to go, where they are
driving her ... but, still, she has to yield and go.
"_Necessitas-vis-Libertas!_
"Who will, may translate."
* * * * *
"THE SPARROW
"I was returning from hunting, and walking along an avenue of the
garden, my dog running in front of me. Suddenly he took shorter
steps, and began to steal along as though tracking game.
"I looked along the avenue and saw a young sparrow, with yellow about
its beak and down on its head. It had fallen out of the nest (the
wind was violently shaking the birch-trees in the avenue) and sat
unable to move, helplessly fluffing its half-grown wings.
"My dog was slowly approaching it, when, suddenly darting down from
a tree close by, an old dark-throated sparrow fell like a stone right
before its nose, and all ruffled up, terrified, with despairing and
pitiful cheeps, it flung itself twice toward the open jaws of shining
teeth.
"It sprang to save; it cast itself before its nestling ... but
all its tiny body was shaking with terror; its note was harsh and
strange. Swooning with fear it offered itself up!
"What a huge monster must the dog have seemed to it! And yet it could
not stay on its high branch out of danger.... A force stronger than
its will flung it down.
"My Trésor stood still, drew back.... Clearly he, too, recognized
this force.
"I hastened to call off the disconcerted dog, and went away, full of
reverence.
"Yes; do not laugh. I felt reverence for that tiny, heroic bird, for
its impulse of love.
"Love, I thought, is stronger than death, or the fear of death. Only
by it, by love, life holds together and advances."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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