el encanto ortodoxo de chejov que influyó en mi vida
CHEJOV CHARM AND H
IS CRISTIANITY
Chejov was part of my life. I remember in the school I taught Spanish and French the professor of Russian language reciting part of a short story by the master. He said brevity is a signal of genius and that concision made him a modern writer apt to the new formulas of communication as a twitter facebook and other means of Internet. I remember that morning 30th May 1976 I was waiting the birth of my daughter in Princess Beatrice Hospital in London I was reading Chejov ´Opera Omnia on a lavish edition bought in Madrid Feria del Libro left in a bench when the matron called to attend the birth of Almudena. It was a long labor. The poor infant was nearly choked the umbilical cord twisting her neck could not breath. However I saw an angel of seven wings invisible presence coming out and forth the stretcher of the paritorium. It was a miracle that poor Almu survived its difficult birth. It was the angel of Chejov aiding at my side. I saw his holy presence many a time during difficulties. Somebody took the book I was reading by waiting to Heavens in the attendance of God. By irony of Destiny that hospital of London was situated in front of a cemetery. We saw secular graveyards from the windows of the Labour Room. In the third floor the new mothers were breastfeeding their newborns. About of the patients were Russian women, attached to the Soviet Union Embassy located in the district. One of them Ludmila was reading The cherry orchard. What a coincidence I thought. Anton Pavlovich Chejov (1860-1904) was born in Tangeog the son of a deacon.
His father took little Anton to church to attend the long and beautiful liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Masses might be tedious and boring attended standing up, but concealed the mystery of the inner self and the attachment with Divinity. Congregations lack chairs.
However the music of the litanies the light of the ikons, candles burning in the angles, the scent of incense fuming, the golden lights of chasubles and tiaras wearing the popes embroidered, the stole of the deacon proclaiming the Evangel under the Sabaoth dome and the atmosphere of beauty of heavens in the ceremonial somewhat imprinted the style of the prose of Chejov transmitting the excellences of the believers.
His prose carries on like the stances of the hymnody. Anton Pavlovich Chejov is a big troparios
1876 the family moved to Moscow. Anton took the degree in Medicine he became the breadwinner as a surgeon and as a casual writer in the local papers. In the period of 188l-1887 he published an amount of seven hundred “sdachi” (short stories) full of sound Russian humor and compassion scenes of quotidian lives of the Muscovites. Following Pushkin advice you must write in brevity and exactness he became very popular among the readers.
Those venial sdachi were the preparation for his major masterpieces in the Theater Uncle Vania, Cherry Orchard, Room number six, The Sea gull, Three Sisters. “Brevity is the sister of Talent”. An old Spanish adagio “If short twice good” (si breve dos veces bueno)
J Lain Entralgo a Russophile and translator of Pushkin Gogol and Tolstoi writes that Chejov was influenced by Tolstoi theory of no resistance to Evil in the world but since his visit to Sajalin in Siberia that attitude changed: “The old world is crumbling down we must change look at life with different eyes. To think highly and breed noble ideals is not enough, the utopia is worthless. We must do something to change the rotten Russian system into a garden”. Gorki a friend and admirer of his books said that Chekov reminded him of a doctor ambling the gangways of a big hospital but he lacked medicines and also did not know if the medicines will cure his patients. For me Chejov is liturgy full of beauty amplitude, the chants of the choir big pomp and ceremonial. In that sense Literature reflects the possibility of cure of our remorse and maladies. We must dream of the Cherry Orchad as the possibility of building a paradise on Earth. We know that is a quixotic ideal a simple dream but we must endeavor to attain it. The Seraphim of the vision I have in the labour room of Princess Beatrice Hospital where my second daughter was born always walks side by side with me
