Wolves (Bunin)
Division into sections is editorial.
A Summer Night Journey
On a warm August night, a young lady who owned a small estate and a Gymnasium student traveled in a peasant wagon along a dusty road through fields. The darkness was occasionally illuminated by clouded summer lightning, revealing the work horses with tangled manes running in tandem, and the peasant boy sitting on the driver's seat. The lightning also briefly showed the distant fields and a mournful grove ahead.
The darkness of a warm August night. Dull stars barely visible, twinkling here and there in the cloudy sky. A soft road muffled by thick dust running through a field. Along the road a peasant wagon bounces as it carries two young passengers.
The Wolf Attack in the Village
The night before in the village, there had been commotion and noise. While peasants were eating dinner in their homes, a wolf had boldly attacked a sheep in one farmyard, cutting its throat and nearly carrying it away. The peasants had responded to the dogs' barking in time to club the wolf away from its already dead prey.
While peasants were still eating dinner in their izbas, a wolf had with amazing boldness cut a sheep's throat in one farmyard and nearly carried it away... peasants had jumped up in time and clubbed the sheep away from the wolf.
Flirtation in the Wagon
Now during their journey, the lady was laughing loudly, lighting wooden matches and throwing them into the darkness while playfully shouting that she was scared of wolves. She had tightly tied a red shawl over her head and wore a red cotton dress that exposed her round, firm neck. The flickering light from the matches illuminated the student's excited, broad-cheeked face that seemed to sulk.
As the wagon bounced along, the student hugged the lady and tried to kiss her neck, cheek, and lips. She pushed him away with her elbow. Knowing the peasant boy could hear him, the student loudly asked her to stop lighting matches, saying that smoking wasn't what he wanted. The lady continued to strike matches, making them flare up in the darkness.
Finally, she yielded to his prolonged kisses. Suddenly, the wagon hit something, jolting everyone. The peasant boy abruptly reined in the horses and cried out that there were wolves. A glowing fire far to the right caught his attention.
Encountering Wolves and Fire
The wagon had stopped across from the grove that had been revealed earlier by lightning flashes. Now the grove appeared black against the fire's glow. The entire field in front of them was quivering in the red trembling light of the fire that was greedily rising into the sky. Despite the distance, the blaze seemed to be getting hotter and more threatening, consuming the horizon higher and wider. The heat felt as if it was already reaching their faces and hands.
Through the darkness, they could see the red mesh of someone's burning roof. At the foot of the forest wall stood three great wolves, appearing scarlet gray in the firelight. Their eyes smoldered with brilliant green, then turned red-watery and bright, like hot jam made from red currants.
And at the foot of the forest wall stand three great wolves—a scarlet gray. Their eyes smolder with a brilliant green, then red-watery and bright, like hot jam made from red currants. The horses snort loudly and rush to the left in a wild gallop.
The horses snorted loudly and bolted to the left in a wild gallop across the pasture. The peasant boy leaned back on the reins, but the wagon hit the earth in leaps, reeling, rumbling, and rattling as it went. Somewhere near the edge of a ravine, the horses lunged even more violently.
The Rescue and the Scar
At that moment, the lady jumped up and managed to wrestle the reins from the confused boy. In one rapid motion, she flew onto the driver's seat, cutting her cheek against a sharp piece of iron. This incident left her with a small scar at the corner of her lips for the rest of her life.
Years later, whenever anyone would ask about the scar, she would smile with pleasure and say it was from "love affairs of long ago." She would then recall that distant summer, the dry days and dark nights of August, the threshing on the threshing floor, and the stacks of fresh-smelling straw where she lay with the unshaven student in the evenings, watching the bright, momentary arcs of falling stars. She would explain that the horses had been scared by wolves and bolted, but she, being a hot-blooded and desperate woman, had rushed to stop them.
Those who had not yet loved her said there was nothing sweeter than this scar, which resembled a thin, perpetual smile.