Through Russia
by
Maxim Gorky
Translated by C. J. Hogarth
CONTENTS
[THE BIRTH OF A MAN]
[THE ICEBREAKER]
[GUBIN]
[NILUSHKA]
[THE CEMETERY]
[ON A RIVER STEAMER]
[A WOMAN]
[IN A MOUNTAIN DEFILE]
[KALININ]
[THE DEAD MAN]
THE BIRTH OF A MAN
The year was the year '92—the year of leanness—the scene a spot between Sukhum and Otchenchiri, on the river Kodor, a spot so near to the sea that amid the joyous babble of a sparkling rivulet the ocean's deep-voiced thunder was plainly distinguishable.
Also, the season being autumn, leaves of wild laurel were glistening and gyrating on the white foam of the Kodor like a quantity of mercurial salmon fry. And as I sat on some rocks overlooking the river there occurred to me the thought that, as likely as not, the cause of the gulls' and cormorants' fretful cries where the surf lay moaning behind a belt of trees to the right was that, like myself, they kept mistaking the leaves for fish, and as often finding themselves disappointed.