Page Menu (Choose one below)
Summary: Main character fairy tale wise gudgeon trying to save his existence and his life at any, all possible cost. He is afraid of everything in the world, hiding from everyone, from large and small fish, colorful crayfish, tiny water fleas and, of course, from humans. From his very young age, he often listened to stories from his father about the cruelty and deceit of man. They can put a worm, a fly or other bait on their line, or they can stretch a large and long seine all over the river, thereby raking in it all the living things that fall into these nets.
For a long time, the gudgeon compiled and wrote for himself how it is possible to avoid this or that trick and danger. He made such a narrow hole for himself that no one but himself could get into it. I decided to go out of the hole and look for food only at night or during the day, when life near the river freezes a little and calms down. Often he dreamed that he had won a lot of money and had grown very much, that even the insidious and big toothed pike was not terrible and dangerous for him. And so a hundred years passed. By his old age he did not start a family, he had no friends, no kids. The author censures this main character, since his whole life was useless and could not bring any benefit to anyone and could not make minnows his kind a little more perfect. You can read the fairy tale The Wise Minnow online for free on our website here. You can listen to it on audio. Leave your feedback and comments.
The text of the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon
There lived a gudgeon. Both his father and mother were smart; Little by little, the Arid eyelids lived in the river and didn’t get into the ear or the pike in the haylo. Ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to live life, then look at both!”
And the young scribbler had a mind. He began to scatter with this mind and sees: no matter where he turns, he is cursed everywhere. All around, in the water, everything big fish swim, and he is the smallest of all; any fish can swallow him, but he cannot swallow anyone. Yes, and does not understand: why swallow? Cancer can cut it in half with a claw, a water flea can bite into the spine and torture to death. Even his brother minnow - and he, as soon as he sees that he has caught a mosquito, will rush to take it away with a whole herd. They will take it away and start fighting with each other, only they will ruffle a mosquito for free.
And the man? What kind of wicked creature is this! What tricks he invented, so that he, a scribbler, would be destroyed by a vain death! And seine, and nets, and administer, and norota, and, finally ... I will fish! It seems that it can be more stupid than oud? A thread, a hook on a thread, a worm or a fly on the hook are put on ... Yes, and how are they put on? In the most, one might say, unnatural position! And meanwhile, it is precisely on the hook of all that the gudgeon is caught!
The old father warned him more than once about oud. “Most of all, beware of the oud! - he said, - because even though it is the most stupid projectile, but with us, scribblers, what is more stupid is more true. They will throw us a fly, as if they want to take a nap on us; you cling to it - but death is in the fly!
The old man also told how one day he missed a little in the ear. At that time they were caught by a whole artel, they stretched a net over the entire width of the river, and so they dragged it about two miles along the bottom. Passion, how many fish then caught! And pikes, and perches, and chubs, and roaches, and loaches - even couch potato breams were raised from the mud from the bottom! And the scribblers lost count. And what fears he, the old gudgeon, had suffered while being dragged along the river, is neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen. He feels that he is being taken, but where he does not know. He sees that he has a pike on one side, and a perch on the other; he thinks: just about, now, either one or the other will eat him, but they don’t touch him ... “At that time, there was no time for food, brother, it was!” Everyone has one thing in mind: death has come! And how and why she came - no one understands.
Finally, they began to lower the wings of the seine, dragged it ashore and began to bring down the fish from the bobbin into the grass. It was then that he learned what an ear is. Something red flutters in the sand; gray clouds run up from him; and the heat is such that he immediately succumbed. Even without water, it's sickening, but here they still give in ... He hears - "bonfire", they say. And on the "bonfire" on this black something is laid, and in it the water, as if in a lake, during a storm, walks with a shaker. This is a "cauldron", they say. And in the end they began to say: put the fish into the “cauldron” - there will be an “ear”! And they started throwing our brother there. A fisherman will throw a fish - at first it will plunge, then, like a madman, it will jump out, then it will plunge again - and subside. "Uhi" means you've tasted it. They felled and felled at first indiscriminately, and then one old man looked at him and said: “What use is he, from the baby, for the fish soup! Let it grow in the river!” He took him under the gills, and let him into free water. And he, do not be stupid, in all the shoulder blades - home! He ran, and his squeaker peeped out of the hole neither alive nor dead ...
And what! no matter how much the old man explained at that time what an ear is and what it consists of, however, even if you raise it in the river, rarely does anyone have a sound idea about the ear!
But he, the minnow-son, perfectly remembered the teachings of the scribbler-father, and he wound it around his mustache. He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and he very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl. “You have to live in such a way that no one notices,” he said to himself, “otherwise you will just disappear!” - and began to settle down. First of all, he invented such a hole for himself, so that he could climb into it, but no one else could get in! He hollowed out this hole with his nose whole year, and how much fear he took at that time, sleeping either in silt, or under water burdock, or in sedge. Finally, however, hollowed out for glory. Clean, tidy - just one fit just right. The second thing, about his life, he decided this: at night, when people, animals, birds and fish are sleeping, he will exercise, and during the day he will sit in a hole and tremble. But since he still needs to drink and eat, and he does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, he will run out of the hole around noon, when all the fish are already full, and, God willing, maybe a booger or two and hunt. And if he doesn’t provide, the hungry one will lie down in a hole, and will tremble again. For it is better not to eat, not to drink, than to lose life with a full stomach.
And so he did. Did exercise at night, in moonlight bathed, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something - but what can you do at noon! At this time, the mosquito hides under the leaf from the heat, and the insect buries itself under the bark. Swallows water - and the coven!
He lies day and day in a hole, does not sleep at night, does not eat a piece, and still thinks: “It seems that I am alive? Oh, what will happen tomorrow?
Doze off, a sinful deed, and in a dream he dreams that he has winning ticket and he won two hundred thousand on it. Beside himself with delight, he will roll over to the other side - lo and behold, he has a whole half of his snout sticking out of the hole ... What if at that time there was a baby bee nearby! after all, he would have pulled him out of the hole!
One day he woke up and sees: right in front of his hole is a cancer. He stands motionless, as if bewitched, staring at him with bone eyes. Only the whiskers move with the flow of water. That's when he got scared! And for half a day, until it got completely dark, this cancer was waiting for him, and in the meantime he was trembling, trembling all the time.
Another time, just before dawn he had time to return to the hole, he just yawned sweetly, in anticipation of sleep, - he looks out of nowhere, at the very hole, the pike is standing and clapping his teeth. And she, too, guarded him all day, as if she were fed up with the sight of him alone. And he blew a pike: he did not come out of the bark, and the Sabbath.
And not once, not twice, this happened to him, but almost every day. And every day he, trembling, won victories and overcomings, every day he exclaimed: “Glory to you, Lord! Alive!
But this is not enough: he did not marry and had no children, although his father had big family. He reasoned like this: “Father could have lived jokingly! At that time, the pikes were kinder, and perches did not covet us, small fry. And although once he was in the ear, and then there was an old man who rescued him! And now, as the fish have hatched in the rivers, and squeakers have hit in honor. So it’s not up to the family here, but how to live on your own!”
And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, he doesn’t drink wine, he doesn’t smoke tobacco, he doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! Seems to be alive!
Even the pikes, in the end, and they began to praise him: “Now, if everyone lived like that, then it would be quiet in the river!” Yes, but they said it on purpose; they thought that he would introduce himself for praise - here, they say, I am! Here it and clap! But he did not succumb to this thing either, and once again defeated the intrigues of his enemies with his wisdom.
How many years have passed after a hundred years is unknown, only the wise gudgeon began to die. He lies in a hole and thinks: “Thank God, I am dying of my own death, just like my mother and father died.” And then he remembered the pike words: “Now, if everyone lived like this wise gudgeon lives ...” Come on, really, what would happen then?
He began to scatter the mind, which he had a ward, and suddenly, as if someone whispered to him: “After all, that way, perhaps, the entire squeaky family would have died long ago!”
Because, in order to continue the minnow family, first of all, a family is needed, but he does not have one. But this is not enough: in order for the minnow family to strengthen and prosper, for its members to be healthy and vigorous, it is necessary that they be brought up in their native element, and not in a hole where he was almost blind from eternal twilight. It is necessary that the scribblers receive sufficient food, that they do not alienate themselves from the public, that they share bread and salt with each other and borrow virtues and other excellent qualities from each other. For only such a life can perfect the minnow breed and will not allow it to be crushed and degenerate into a smelt.
Those who think that only those scribblers can be considered worthy citizens who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless scribblers. No one is warm or cold from them, no honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.
All this presented itself so distinctly and clearly that suddenly a passionate desire came to him: “I’ll get out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he was frightened again. And began, trembling, to die. Lived - trembled, and died - trembled.
His whole life flashed before him in an instant. What were his joys? Who did he console? To whom did you give good advice? To whom good word said? Who sheltered, warmed, protected? Who heard about it? Who remembers its existence?
And he had to answer all these questions: "No one, no one."
He lived and trembled, that was all. Even now: death is on his nose, and he is trembling, he himself does not know why. It is dark and cramped in his hole, there is nowhere to turn around, neither a ray of sunlight will look into it, nor does it smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, of no use to anyone, lies and waits: when will starvation finally free him from a useless existence?
He can hear other fish darting past his hole - perhaps, like him, piskari - and not one of them will take an interest in him. Not a single thought will come: “Let me ask you wise scribbler, in what manner did he manage to live with more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the cancer of the claws, nor the fisherman caught him on the hook? They swim past, or maybe they don’t know that in this hole the wise minnow life process completes!
And what is most offensive of all: not even to hear anyone call him wise. They just say: “Have you heard about the dumbass who doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, doesn’t see anyone, doesn’t take bread and salt with anyone, but only saves his hateful life?” And many even simply call him a fool and a shame and wonder how the water tolerates such idols.
He scattered in this way with his mind and dozed. That is, not that he was dozing, but he began to forget. Death whispers rang out in his ears, languor spread throughout his body. And then he dreamed of the former seductive dream. He allegedly won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.
And while he was dreaming about it, his snout, little by little and gently, completely poked out of the hole.
And suddenly he disappeared. What happened here - whether the pike swallowed him, whether the crayfish was killed by claws, or whether he himself died of his own death and surfaced - there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying squeaker, and besides, also a “wise one”?
Listen to the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon online
Watch the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon online
The fairy tales of M. Saltykov-Shchedrin are addressed primarily to adults, because under the mask of his characters the author skillfully concealed the vices of society. Nevertheless, the works of Mikhail Evgrafovich are also interesting for children of middle age. school age. They teach teenagers to analyze their behavior, suggest the “right way”. The fairy tale "The Wise Minnow" is studied by schoolchildren in the 7th grade. Getting to know her, you need to consider historical and cultural context her creation. We offer brief analysis fairy tales, which will facilitate the search for what is hidden between the lines, and will also become an assistant in preparing for the exam.
Brief analysis
History of creation- Socio-political events prompted the creation of the fairy tale by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Liberal-minded intellectuals tried to "hide" from the reaction of the authorities, so as not to risk their lives. The analyzed work is a criticism of such a position.
Topic- You can perceive a fairy tale both in direct and in figuratively, therefore, several topics can be distinguished in it: the life of a wise minnow; inaction due to fear of danger.
Composition- Both the semantic and formal organization of the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" is simple. The author begins her traditional "Once upon a time", introduces the fish family and gradually moves on to the story of the main events. The work ends with a rhetorical question that encourages the reader to think about what was said.
Genre- Story.
Direction- Satire.
History of creation
The history of the creation of the work is closely connected with the socio-political situation of the second half of XIX century. In 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya organization attempted to assassinate Alexander II. The death of the emperor intensified the persecution of the intellectuals. Liberal intellectuals decided to take a passive position so as not to risk their freedom and life. Mikhail Evgrafovich did not share this opinion, but he could not openly criticize the liberals. This is how the tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin "The Wise Gudgeon" appeared. Years of writing - December 1882 - January 1883.
For a long time, Russian censorship did not allow Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" to be published, so it was first published in 1883 in the émigré newspaper Common Cause in Geneva. “The wise minnow was placed under the heading “Tales for children fair age”, as if hinting that it is not at all childish motives that are revealed in it. In Russia, the Geneva newspaper with the analyzed work was distributed by members of the People's Will". In 1884, the tale was published by the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski.
Topic
For a better understanding of the meaning of the fairy tale "The Wise Minnow", its analysis should begin with a description of the motives.
There are many works in literature in which topics forbidden by the authorities are developed in a veiled manner. M. Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of the most famous Russian writers who worked with allegorical images. His fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" can be read both superficially, without thinking about the figurative meaning, and taking into account allegorical meaning, so it develops two main themes: the life of a minnow and inaction, the cause of which is fear.
In the context of these topics, a issues. The work raises such problems: parental education and its influence on the fate of children, fear, the meaning of life, man and society, etc.
To create allegories, the author immerses the reader in undersea world, that's why the main characters of the story- fish. However, there is a place for images of people. The work begins with a story about a family of minnows. The head of the family taught the children to be extremely careful, as danger lurks at every turn for small fish. Main character, after listening to these instructions, he decided to hide from the world in order to live to old age and die a natural death.
The minnow dug a hole for himself, where he hid during the day. He even went out to eat at night. So alone and constantly trembling with fear, he lived for more than a hundred years. And, indeed, he died a natural death. The hero did not understand that the essence of life is in the struggle for your happiness, in the joy that you feel in the circle of friends and relatives, in simple fun.
Only after reading the story to the end, you can understand "meaning of name". Calling the minnow wise, Mikhail Evgrafovich, in fact, hints at the stupidity of the hero. The prefix pre- in this case is a synonym for the word “too much”, because the gudgeon was too afraid for his life and therefore thought too much about how to save himself.
In order to hint to the reader that there are such minnows among people, the author introduces human realities into the story about the fish: “He doesn’t play cards, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t chase red girls”; “It’s as if he won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half a yard and swallows the pike himself.”
Composition
The features of the composition of the work are the same as those of folk tales. Its organization is extremely simple, the text begins with a traditional introduction. All plot elements are arranged in a logical sequence.
On display the reader gets acquainted with the main character of the tale and his family, learns about the dangers that lie in wait for small fish. After reading this part, one gets the first impression of the gudgeon. tie- stories and instructions minnow-father. The development of events is a story about the life of a minnow-son after the death of his parents, thoughts of a fish, how his life would have turned out if he had lived differently.
Pronounced climax not in the fairy tale, however, episodes where cancer and pike lie in wait for the minnow can be considered culminating points. denouement works - the death of a gudgeon.
It is noteworthy that the tale ends with a rhetorical question that suggests what the writer is teaching.
Genre
Genre "The Wise Gudgeon" by Saltykov-Shchedrin - satirical tale . There are real and fantastic events in the work, and human qualities and the author hides the characters under the images of fish. At the same time, the writer used satirical devices to expose the liberals. He ridicules the minnow by describing his character and behaviour, artistic means, for example, the constant repetition of the epithet "wise".
The tale The Wise Gudgeon (in the original - "piskar") reveals life philosophy a layman and a coward who was considered wise, but his whole life turned out to be worthless. The tale is intended for adult readers. She will interest older students with a witty name and an unusual plot.
Fairy tale The wise gudgeon read
The minnow had smart and careful parents, they managed to avoid all dangers and were proud that they lived to a ripe old age. And the son, remembering all the warnings of his father and thinking well, decided to arrange his life in such a way as to avoid all dangers. He lived in such a way that no one noticed him, did not associate with anyone, did not invite anyone to visit. The gudgeon trembled all day. And he had to starve, because he was afraid of leaning out of the hole during the day. He only went out at night to exercise. He hollowed out a hole for himself such that he alone could fit in it. He did not marry and had no children, fearing unnecessary problems. The minnow considered himself smart, because he managed to live for more than a hundred years and died a natural death. Only lived - trembled and died - trembled. No one called the old, useless and forgotten minnow a wise one. Many, on the contrary, considered him a fool. When the time came for him to die, he realized all the futility and futility of his life. And the gudgeon died a natural death. What predator would think of swallowing an old sick minnow? You can read the story online on our website.
Analysis of the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon
In an ironic tale, the author reveals a topic that is very topical for any society - the topic of a person's life position. The protagonist is a cowardly, always trembling, lived a miserable and insignificant life. He did not know any joys, because the fear of death prevented him from living fully. The coward's wisdom consisted in a cowardly flight from life. What does the tale of the Wise Gudgeon teach? occupy an active life position, to live a full life, not being afraid to make a mistake or stumble. And remember that you only live once: not later, but now.
Moral of the tale The wise minnow
Each person should live his life with dignity, leaving behind good deeds or good memories. In youth, it is very important to choose the right life path and set the right priorities in order to live a meaningful and beautiful life- such is the main idea fairy tales.
Proverbs, sayings and expressions of a fairy tale
- The life of life is different.
- He has a mind.
- Life is given for good deeds.
Satirical tale The Wise Gudgeon wonderful writer Saltykov-Shchedrin will tell the children about how one cowardly gudgeon lived in the world. He was very afraid of being eaten by fish or getting hooked. To avoid death, the minnow dug a hole for himself and did not come out of it.
Read the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon online
There lived a gudgeon. Both his father and mother were smart; Little by little, the Arid eyelids lived in the river and didn’t get into the ear or the pike in the haylo. Ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to live life, then look at both!”
And the young scribbler had a mind. He began to scatter with this mind and sees: no matter where he turns, he is cursed everywhere. All around, in the water, all the big fish swim, and he is the smallest of all; any fish can swallow him, but he cannot swallow anyone. Yes, and does not understand: why swallow? A cancer can cut it in half with a claw, a water flea can bite into a ridge and torture to death. Even his brother minnow - and he, as soon as he sees that he has caught a mosquito, will rush to take it away with a whole herd. They will take it away and start fighting with each other, only they will ruffle a mosquito for free.
And the man? What kind of wicked creature is this! What tricks he invented, so that he, a scribbler, would be destroyed by a vain death! And the seine, and the net, and the lead, and the norota, and, finally ... I will fish! It seems that it can be more stupid than oud? A thread, a hook on a thread, a worm or a fly on the hook ... Yes, and how are they put on? In the most, one might say, unnatural position! And meanwhile, it is precisely on the hook of all that the gudgeon is caught!
The old father warned him more than once about oud. “Most of all, beware of the oud!” he said, “because even though it is the most stupid projectile, but with us, scribblers, what is more stupid is more true. is death!"
The old man also told how one day he missed a little in the ear. At that time they were caught by a whole artel, they stretched a net over the entire width of the river, and so they dragged it about two miles along the bottom. Passion, how many fish then caught! And pikes, and perches, and chubs, and roaches, and loaches - even couch potato breams were raised from the mud from the bottom! And the scribblers lost count. And what fears he, the old minnow, had suffered while they dragged him along the river - it is neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen. He feels that he is being taken, but he does not know where. He sees that he has a pike on one side, and a perch on the other; he thinks: just about, now, either one or the other will eat him, but they don’t touch him ... "At that time, there was no time for food, brother, it was!" Everyone has one thing in mind: death has come! And how and why she came - no one understands.
Finally, they began to lower the wings of the seine, dragged it ashore and began to bring down the fish from the bobbin into the grass. It was then that he learned what an ear is. Something red flutters in the sand; gray clouds run up from him; and the heat is such that he immediately succumbed. Even without water, it's nauseating, and then they give in ... He hears - "bonfire", they say. And on the "bonfire" on this black something is laid, and in it the water, as if in a lake, during a storm, walks with a shaker. This is a "cauldron", they say. And in the end they began to say: put the fish into the "cauldron" - there will be "ear"! And they started throwing our brother there. A fisherman will throw a fish - it will first plunge, then, like a madman, jump out, then plunge again - and calm down. "Uhi" means you tasted it. They felled, felled at first indiscriminately, and then one old man looked at him and said: "What use is he, from the baby, for the fish soup! Let him grow in the river!" He took him under the gills, and let him into free water. And he, do not be stupid, in all the shoulder blades - home! He came running, and his scribbler looked out of the hole neither alive nor dead ...
And what! no matter how much the old man explained at that time what an ear is and what it consists of, however, even if you raise it in the river, rarely does anyone have a sound idea about the ear!
But he, the minnow-son, perfectly remembered the teachings of the scribbler-father, and he wound it around his mustache. He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and he very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl. “You have to live in such a way that no one notices,” he said to himself, “otherwise you will just disappear!” - and began to settle down. First of all, he invented such a hole for himself, so that he could climb into it, but no one else could get into it! He pecked this hole with his nose for a whole year, and how much fear he took at that time, spending the night either in silt, or under water burdock, or in sedge. Finally, however, hollowed out for glory. Clean, tidy - just one fit just right. The second thing, about his life, he decided this: at night, when people, animals, birds and fish are sleeping, he will exercise, and during the day he will sit in a hole and tremble. But since he still needs to drink and eat, and he does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, he will run out of the hole around noon, when all the fish are already full, and, God willing, maybe a booger or two and hunt. And if he doesn’t provide, the hungry one will lie down in a hole, and will tremble again. For it is better not to eat, not to drink, than to lose life with a full stomach.
And so he did. At night he did exercise, bathed in the moonlight, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something - but what can you do at noon! At this time, the mosquito hides under the leaf from the heat, and the insect buries itself under the bark. Swallows water - and the Sabbath!
He lies all day long in a hole, he doesn’t sleep at night, he doesn’t eat a piece, and he still thinks: “It seems that I’m alive? Oh, will there be something tomorrow?”
He will doze off, a sinful thing, and in a dream he dreams that he has a winning ticket and he won two hundred thousand on it. Beside himself with delight, he will roll over to the other side - lo and behold, he has a whole half of his snout sticking out of the hole ... What if at that time there was a little pup nearby! after all, he would have pulled him out of the hole!
One day he woke up and sees: right in front of his hole is a cancer. He stands motionless, as if bewitched, staring at him with bone eyes. Only the whiskers move with the flow of water. That's when he got scared! And for half a day, until it got completely dark, this cancer was waiting for him, and in the meantime he was trembling, trembling all the time.
Another time, he had just managed to return to the hole in front of the dawn, he had just yawned sweetly, in anticipation of sleep, - he was looking, out of nowhere, at the very hole, a pike was standing and clapping his teeth. And she, too, guarded him all day, as if she were fed up with the sight of him alone. And he blew a pike: he did not come out of the bark, and the Sabbath.
And not once, not twice, this happened to him, but almost every day. And every day he, trembling, won victories and overcomings, every day he exclaimed: "Glory to you, Lord! Alive!"
But this is not enough: he did not marry and had no children, although his father had a large family. He reasoned like this: “Father could have lived jokingly! At that time, the pikes were kinder, and the perches didn’t covet us, small fry. And although once he got into the ear, there was an old man who rescued him! now, as the fish have hatched in the rivers, and the piskars have hit in honor. So it’s not up to the family here, but how if only to live oneself!
And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! It seems he’s alive!”
Even the pikes, in the end, and they began to praise him: "Now, if everyone lived like that, then it would be quiet in the river!" Yes, but they said it on purpose; they thought that he would introduce himself for praise - here, they say, I am! Here it and clap! But he did not succumb to this thing either, and once again defeated the intrigues of his enemies with his wisdom.
How many years have passed after a hundred years - it is not known, only the wise minnow began to die. He lies in a hole and thinks: "Thank God, I'm dying my own death, just like my mother and father died." And then he remembered the pike words: "Now, if everyone lived like this wise gudgeon lives ..." Well, really, what would happen then?
He began to scatter the mind, which he had a ward, and suddenly, as if someone whispered to him: "After all, that way, perhaps, the whole piskary family would have died long ago!"
Because, in order to continue the minnow family, first of all, a family is needed, but he does not have one. But this is not enough: in order for the minnow family to strengthen and prosper, for its members to be healthy and vigorous, it is necessary that they be brought up in their native element, and not in a hole where he was almost blind from eternal twilight. It is necessary that the scribblers receive sufficient food, that they do not alienate themselves from the public, that they share bread and salt with each other and borrow virtues and other excellent qualities from each other. For only such a life can perfect the minnow breed and will not allow it to be crushed and degenerate into a smelt.
Those who think that only those scribblers can be considered worthy citizens who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless scribblers. No one is warm or cold from them, no honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.
All this presented itself so distinctly and clearly that suddenly a passionate desire came to him: "I'll get out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the river!" But as soon as he thought about it, he was frightened again. And began, trembling, to die. Lived - trembled, and died - trembled.
His whole life flashed before him in an instant. What were his joys? Who did he console? To whom did you give good advice? To whom did you say a kind word? Who sheltered, warmed, protected? Who heard about it? Who remembers its existence?
And he had to answer all these questions: "No one, no one."
He lived and trembled - that's all. Even now: death is on his nose, and he is trembling, he himself does not know why. It is dark and cramped in his hole, there is nowhere to turn around, neither a ray of sunlight will look into it, nor does it smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, of no use to anyone, lies and waits: when will starvation finally free him from a useless existence?
He hears how other fish darting past his hole - perhaps, like him, piskari - and not one of them will take an interest in him. Not a single thought will come to mind: "Let me ask the wise scribbler, in what manner did he manage to live for more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the cancer of the claws did not break, nor did the fisherman catch him on the hook?" They swim past, or maybe they don’t know that in this hole the wise gudgeon completes his life process!
And what is most offensive of all: not even to hear anyone call him wise. They just say: “Have you heard about the dumbass who doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, doesn’t see anyone, doesn’t take bread and salt with anyone, but only saves his hateful life?” And many even simply call him a fool and a shame and wonder how the water tolerates such idols.
He scattered in this way with his mind and dozed. That is, not that he was dozing, but he began to forget. Death whispers rang out in his ears, languor spread throughout his body. And then he dreamed of the former seductive dream. He allegedly won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.
And while he was dreaming about it, his snout, little by little and gently, completely poked out of the hole.
And suddenly he disappeared. What happened here - whether the pike swallowed him, whether the crayfish was killed by claws, or whether he himself died by his own death and surfaced - there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying scribbler, and besides, also a "wise one"?
There lived a gudgeon. Both his father and mother were smart; little by little, but gently arid eyelids ( long years. - Ed.) They lived in the river and did not get into the ear or the pike in the haylo. Ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to live life, then look at both!”
And the young minnow had a mind chamber. He began to scatter with this mind and sees: no matter where he turns, he is cursed everywhere. All around, in the water, all the big fish swim, and he is the smallest of all; any fish can swallow him, but he cannot swallow anyone. Yes, and does not understand: why swallow? A cancer can cut it in half with a claw, a water flea can bite into a ridge and torture to death. Even his brother minnow - and he, as soon as he sees that he has caught a mosquito, will rush to take it away with a whole herd. They will take it away and start fighting with each other, only they will ruffle a mosquito for free.
And the man? What kind of wicked creature is this! no matter what tricks he invented, so that he, the gudgeon, would be destroyed by a vain death! And seine, and nets, and administer, and norota, and, finally ... I will fish! It seems that it can be more stupid than oud? - A thread, a hook on a thread, a worm or a fly on the hook are put on ... Yes, and how are they put on? . in the most, one might say, unnatural position! And meanwhile, it is precisely on the hook of all that the gudgeon is caught!
The old father warned him more than once about oud. “Most of all, beware of the oud! - he said, - because even though it is the most stupid projectile, but with us minnows, what is more stupid is more true. They will throw us a fly, as if they want to take a nap on us; you cling to it - en death is in the fly!
The old man also told how one day he missed a little in the ear. At that time they were caught by a whole artel, they stretched a net over the entire width of the river, and so they dragged it about two miles along the bottom. Passion, how many fish then caught! And pikes, and perches, and chubs, and roaches, and loaches - even couch potato breams were raised from the mud from the bottom! And the minnows lost count. And what fears he, the old minnow, had suffered while they dragged him along the river - it is neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen. He feels that he is being taken, but he does not know where. He sees that he has a pike on one side, and a perch on the other; he thinks: just about, now, either one or the other will eat him, but they don’t touch him ... “At that time, there was no time for food, brother, it was!” Everyone has one thing in mind: death has come! and how and why she came - no one understands. . Finally, they began to lower the wings of the seine, dragged it ashore and began to bring down the fish from the bobbin into the grass. It was then that he learned what an ear is. Something red flutters in the sand; gray clouds run up from him; and the heat is such that he immediately succumbed. Even without water, it's sickening, and then they give in ... He hears - "fire", they say. And on the "bonfire" on this black something is laid, and in it the water, as if in a lake, during a storm, walks with a shaker. This is a "cauldron", they say. And in the end they began to say: put the fish into the “cauldron” - there will be an “ear”! And they started throwing our brother there. A fisherman will throw a fish - it will first plunge, then, like a madman, jump out, then plunge again - and calm down. "Uhi" means you've tasted it. They felled and felled at first indiscriminately, and then one old man looked at him and said: “What use is he, from the baby, for the fish soup! let it grow in the river!” He took him under the gills, and let him into free water. And he, do not be stupid, in all the shoulder blades - home! He ran, and his gudgeon peeps out of the hole neither alive nor dead ...
And what! no matter how much the old man explained at that time what an ear is and what it consists of, however, even if you raise it in the river, rarely does anyone have a sound idea about the ear!
But he, the minnow-son, perfectly remembered the teachings of the minnow-father, and he wound it around his mustache. He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and he very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl. “You have to live in such a way that no one notices,” he said to himself, “otherwise you’ll just disappear!” - and began to settle down. First of all, he invented such a hole for himself, so that he could climb into it, but no one else could get into it! He pecked this hole with his nose for a whole year, and how much fear he took at that time, spending the night either in silt, or under water burdock, or in sedge. Finally, however, hollowed out for glory. Clean, tidy - just one fit just right. The second thing, about his life, he decided this: at night, when people, animals, birds and fish are sleeping, he will exercise, and during the day he will sit in a hole and tremble. But since he still needs to drink and eat, and he does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, he will run out of the hole around noon, when all the fish are already full, and, God willing, maybe a booger or two and hunt. And if he doesn’t provide, the hungry one will lie down in a hole and will tremble again. For it is better not to eat, not to drink, than to lose life with a full stomach.
And so he did. At night he did exercise, bathed in the moonlight, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something - but what can you do at noon! At this time, the mosquito hides under the leaf from the heat, and the insect buries itself under the bark. Swallows water - and the Sabbath!
He lies day and day in a hole, does not sleep at night, does not eat a piece, and still thinks: “It seems that I am alive? ah, what will happen tomorrow?
He will doze off, a sinful thing, and in a dream he dreams that he has a winning ticket and he won two hundred thousand on it. Beside himself with delight, he will roll over to the other side - lo and behold, he has a whole half of his snout sticking out of the hole ... What if at that time there was a little pup nearby! after all, he would have pulled him out of the hole!
One day he woke up and sees: right in front of his hole is a cancer. He stands motionless, as if bewitched, staring at him with bone eyes. Only the whiskers move with the flow of water. That's when he got scared! And for half a day, until it got completely dark, this cancer was waiting for him, and in the meantime he was trembling, trembling all the time.
Another time, he had just managed to return to the hole in front of the dawn, he had just yawned sweetly, in anticipation of sleep, - he was looking, out of nowhere, at the very hole, a pike was standing and clapping his teeth. And she, too, guarded him all day, as if she were fed up with the sight of him alone. And he blew a pike: he did not come out of the hole, and the coven.
And not once, not twice, this happened to him, but almost every day. And every day he, trembling, won victories and overcomings, every day he exclaimed: “Glory to you, Lord! alive!"
But this is not enough: he did not marry and had no children, although his father had a large family. He reasoned like this:
“Father jokingly could live! At that time, the pikes were kinder, and perches did not covet us, small fry. And although once he was in the ear, and then there was an old man who rescued him! And now, as the fish have hatched in the rivers, and the minnows have hit in honor. So it’s not up to the family here, but how to live on your own!”
And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! seems to be alive!
Even the pikes, in the end, and they began to praise him: “Now, if everyone lived like that, then it would be quiet in the river!” Yes, but they said it on purpose; they thought that he would introduce himself for praise - so, they say, I’m here and bang him! But he did not succumb to this thing either, and once again defeated the intrigues of his enemies with his wisdom.
How many years have passed after a hundred years - it is not known, only the wise minnow began to die. He lies in a hole and thinks: “Thank God, I am dying of my own death, just like my mother and father died.” And then he remembered the pike words: “Now, if everyone lived like this wise minnow lives ...” Come on, really, what would happen then?
He began to scatter the mind, which he had a ward, and suddenly, as if someone whispered to him: “After all, that way, perhaps, the entire minnow family would have been transferred long ago!”
Because in order to continue the minnow family, first of all, a family is needed, but he does not have one. But this is not enough: in order for the minnow family to strengthen and prosper, for its members to be healthy and vigorous, it is necessary that they be brought up in their native element, and not in a hole where he was almost blind from eternal twilight. It is necessary that minnows receive sufficient food, that they do not alienate themselves from the public, that they bring bread and salt with each other and borrow virtues and other excellent qualities from each other. For only such a life can perfect the minnow breed and will not allow it to be crushed and degenerate into a smelt.
Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens, who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows. No one is warm or cold from them, no honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.
All this presented itself so distinctly and clearly that suddenly a passionate desire came to him: “I’ll get out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he was frightened again. And began, trembling, to die. Lived - trembled, and died - trembled.
His whole life flashed before him in an instant. What were his joys? who did he comfort? who gave good advice? to whom did he say a kind word? who sheltered, warmed, protected? who heard about it? who remembers its existence?
And he had to answer all these questions: "No one, no one."
He lived and trembled - that's all. Even now: death is on his nose, and he is trembling, he himself does not know why. In his hole it is dark, cramped, there is nowhere to turn around; not a ray of sunshine will look there, nor will it smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, of no use to anyone, lies and waits: when will starvation finally free him from a useless existence?
He hears how other fish darting past his hole - perhaps minnows, like him - and not one of them will take an interest in him. Not a single thought will come: come on, I’ll ask the wise minnow, in what manner did he manage to live for more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the cancer of the claws did not break, nor did the fisherman catch him on the hook? They swim past, or maybe they don’t know that in this hole the wise gudgeon completes his life process!
And what is most offensive of all: not even to hear anyone call him wise. They just say: “Have you heard about the dumbass who doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, doesn’t see anyone, doesn’t take bread and salt with anyone, but only saves his hateful life?” And many even simply call him a fool and a shame and wonder how the water tolerates such idols.
He scattered in this way with his mind and dozed. That is, not that he was dozing, but he began to forget. Death whispers rang out in his ears, languor spread throughout his body. And then he dreamed of the former seductive dream. He allegedly won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.
And while he was dreaming about it, his snout, little by little and gently, completely poked out of the hole.
And suddenly he disappeared. What happened here - whether the pike swallowed him, whether the crayfish was killed by claws, or whether he himself died by his own death and surfaced - there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying minnow, and besides, a wise one?
