The White Steamship
5 hrs. 54 min.
Language
Russian
Author
Chingiz Aitmatov
Author
Chingiz Aitmatov
Narrator
Aleksey Kovalenok
Narrator
Aleksey Kovalenok
Description
The White Sailboat (“Akeme” (Kyrgyz), another name “After the Fairy Tale”) is a novella by Chingiz Aitmatov.
First published in 1970 in the magazine “Novy Mir” (No. 1).
The First Teacher. At the beginning of 1924, returning to a remote aul, the young Red Army soldier Dyüşen creates the first rural school—he will teach the children. Mockery, ridicule, and open hostility greet the young enthusiast from a poor background.
First published in 1970 in the magazine “Novy Mir” (No. 1).
The First Teacher. At the beginning of 1924, returning to a remote aul, the young Red Army soldier Dyüşen creates the first rural school—he will teach the children. Mockery, ridicule, and open hostility greet the young enthusiast from a poor background.
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The White Sailboat.
The novella takes place in Kyrgyzstan. The main character is an unnamed seven-year-old orphan boy who lives on a protected cordon on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. The boy is of no interest to the gamekeeper Orozkul and his wife Bekeĭ (the boy’s biological aunt). The only person who cares about his fate is Grandpa Momun, an assistant gamekeeper in the reserve.
The boy has few joys in life. He has no one to talk to; his thoughts he trusts only to lifeless objects: the stones around him, a binocular, a school satchel. The boy decides that his father, who disappeared many years ago, serves as a sailor on a beautiful white sailboat that appears on the waves of the lake from time to time. The boy imagines himself turning into a fish and swimming out to meet the white sailboat.
He had two fairy tales. One was his own, which no one knew about. The other was told by Grandpa. Then none remained. This is what [1] is about.
Another story that the boy believes in is the fairy tale of the doe-mother protector of the clan. But the marals—animals that Kyrgyz people have revered as sacred since ancient times—become in the 20th century an object of poaching exploitation. For offerings, the gamekeeper in the reserve, Orozkul, allows cutting ancient pine trees. One fine day, Orozkul, after giving Momun vodka and threatening him with dismissal, forced him to shoot the female maral. The boy cannot watch this—he feels sick; he starts to burn with fever. The end of the novella is tragic. Trying to escape the terrible sight, he goes down into the river. He imagines that he has turned into a fish and swims away toward the lake. No one in the yard notices the boy’s disappearance.
But you’ve sailed away. Did you know you would never turn into a fish? That you would never reach Issyk-Kul, never see the white sailboat, and never be able to say to it: “Hello, white sailboat, it’s me!”… And that also—that a child’s conscience in a person is like a seed germ in grain; without the germ, the grain does not sprout. And whatever awaits us in this world, truth will endure forever—while people are born and die… Saying goodbye to you, I repeat the boy’s words: “Hello, white sailboat, it’s me!”
Contents:
The White Sailboat — read by Alexei Kovalenok
The First Teacher — read by Alexei Kovalenok
The novella takes place in Kyrgyzstan. The main character is an unnamed seven-year-old orphan boy who lives on a protected cordon on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. The boy is of no interest to the gamekeeper Orozkul and his wife Bekeĭ (the boy’s biological aunt). The only person who cares about his fate is Grandpa Momun, an assistant gamekeeper in the reserve.
The boy has few joys in life. He has no one to talk to; his thoughts he trusts only to lifeless objects: the stones around him, a binocular, a school satchel. The boy decides that his father, who disappeared many years ago, serves as a sailor on a beautiful white sailboat that appears on the waves of the lake from time to time. The boy imagines himself turning into a fish and swimming out to meet the white sailboat.
He had two fairy tales. One was his own, which no one knew about. The other was told by Grandpa. Then none remained. This is what [1] is about.
Another story that the boy believes in is the fairy tale of the doe-mother protector of the clan. But the marals—animals that Kyrgyz people have revered as sacred since ancient times—become in the 20th century an object of poaching exploitation. For offerings, the gamekeeper in the reserve, Orozkul, allows cutting ancient pine trees. One fine day, Orozkul, after giving Momun vodka and threatening him with dismissal, forced him to shoot the female maral. The boy cannot watch this—he feels sick; he starts to burn with fever. The end of the novella is tragic. Trying to escape the terrible sight, he goes down into the river. He imagines that he has turned into a fish and swims away toward the lake. No one in the yard notices the boy’s disappearance.
But you’ve sailed away. Did you know you would never turn into a fish? That you would never reach Issyk-Kul, never see the white sailboat, and never be able to say to it: “Hello, white sailboat, it’s me!”… And that also—that a child’s conscience in a person is like a seed germ in grain; without the germ, the grain does not sprout. And whatever awaits us in this world, truth will endure forever—while people are born and die… Saying goodbye to you, I repeat the boy’s words: “Hello, white sailboat, it’s me!”
Contents:
The White Sailboat — read by Alexei Kovalenok
The First Teacher — read by Alexei Kovalenok
