The Drowned Man
Children running into izba,
Calling father, dripping sweat:
"Daddy, daddy! come -- there is a
Deadman caught inside our net."
"Fancy, fancy fabrication..."
Grumbled off their weary Pa,
"Have these imps imagination!
Deadman, really! ya-ha-ha...
"Well... the court may come to bother -
What'll I say before the judge?
Hey you brats, go have your mother
Bring my coat; I better trudge...
Show me, where?" -- "Right there, Dad, farther!"
On the sand where netting ropes
Lay spread out, the peasant father
Saw the veritable corpse.
Badly mangled, ugly, frightening,
Blue and swollen on each side...
Has he fished in storm and lightning,
Or committed suicide?
Could this be a careless drunkard,
Or a mermaid-seeking monk,
Or a merchandizer, conquered
By some bandits, robbed and sunk?
To the peasant, what's it matter!
Quick: he grabs the dead man's hair,
Drags his body to the water,
Looks around: nobody's there:
Good... relieved of the concern he
Shoves his paddle at a loss,
While the stiff resumes his journey
Down the stream for grave and cross.
Long the dead man as one living
Rocked on waves amid the foam...
Surly as he watched him leaving,
Soon our peasant headed home.
"Come you pups! let's go, don't scatter.
Each of you will get his bun.
But remember: just you chatter --
And I'll whip you, every one."
Dark and stormy it was turning.
High the river ran in gloom.
Now the torch has finished burning
In the peasant's smoky room.
Kids asleep, the wife aslumber,
He lies listening to the rain...
Bang! he hears a sudden comer
Knocking on the window-pane.
"What the..." -- "Let me in there, master!"
"Damn, you found the time to roam!
Well, what is it, your disaster?
Let you in? It's dark at home,
Dark and crowded... What a pest you are!
Where'd I put you in my cot..."
Slowly, with a lazy gesture,
He lifts up the pane and - what?
Through the clouds, the moon was showing...
Well? the naked man was there,
Down his hair the water flowing,
Wide his eyes, unmoved the stare;
Numb the dreadful-looking body,
Arms were hanging feeble, thin;
Crabs and cancers, black and bloody,
Sucked into the swollen skin.
As the peasant slammed the shutter
(Recognized his visitant)
Horror-struck he could but mutter
"Blast you!" and began to pant.
He was shuddering, awful chaos
All night through stirred in his brain,
While the knocking shook the house
By the gates and at the pane.
People tell a dreadful rumor:
Every year the peasant, say,
Waiting in the worst of humor
For his visitor that day;
As the rainstorm is increasing,
Nightfall brings a hurricane -
And the drowned man knocks, unceasing,
By the gates and at the pane.
Translated by: Genia Gurarie, 11/95
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: [email protected]
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator.
Literary Analysis
This literary analysis was generated with AI and may contain interpretive differences. Provide your analysis in the comments section.
Summary
At first, the poem presents a rough village scene in which a peasant family discovers a dead man tangled in their fishing net. The father's first response is not pity but irritation and practical fear: he worries about trouble with the authorities, then quietly removes the body by dragging it back into the river. That act of callous convenience becomes the poem's moral pivot. What looks like a simple refusal to be burdened by the dead turns into an act that cannot be escaped.
The poem then shifts from everyday realism into the realm of haunting repetition. A storm gathers, night closes in, and the drowned man returns to the peasant's window as if the river itself has come back to demand an answer. The final effect is both supernatural and ethical: the peasant's attempt to erase responsibility fails, and the world of consequence follows him home. The tension between comic earthiness and terrifying punishment gives the poem its force, making the ghostly ending feel like a judgment on indifference as much as a tale of a haunting.
Theme
- Responsibility and moral reckoning - The peasant treats the dead body as a nuisance to be disposed of, but the poem shows that such choices do not disappear; they return as fear, memory, or punishment.
- Supernatural justice - The drowned man's repeated appearances suggest a universe where wrongdoing summons its own retribution, even if no human court witnesses it.
- Indifference to suffering - The father's blunt practicality and impatience with the corpse reveal how easily compassion can give way to self-protection.
- Everyday life invaded by dread - Ordinary domestic details, such as the izba, the family, and the stormy evening, are overtaken by the uncanny, making terror feel close to home.
- Guilt and psychological fear - Whether the haunting is literal or partly inward, the peasant's terror suggests that guilt can turn into a relentless inner pursuit.
- Nature as a threatening force - The river, rain, and storm do more than set the scene; they mirror the instability and violence surrounding the drowned man's return.
Literary Devices
- Ballad structure - The poem uses a compact narrative with rising suspense, a supernatural return, and a grim closing effect typical of traditional ballad storytelling.
- Repetition - The recurring knocking at the window and gates creates a rhythm of return, emphasizing that the dead cannot be kept away.
- Irony - The peasant assumes he has solved a problem by throwing the body back into the water, only to discover that the problem has only deepened.
- Imagery - The swollen body, storm-dark river, and moonlit window produce vivid physical details that make the ghostly encounter feel tangible.
- Direct dialogue - The lively, colloquial speech of the father and children adds realism and sharpens the contrast with the later supernatural events.
- Suspenseful pacing - The poem delays the haunting and then reveals it suddenly, heightening the shock when the drowned man appears.
- Contrast - The playful children, practical peasant life, and frightening apparition are set against one another to intensify the poem's emotional range.
Symbolism
- The net - The fishing net is the accidental means by which the dead man enters the peasant's world, symbolizing the unexpected capture of guilt and consequence.
- The river - The river stands for both concealment and return; it seems to swallow the body, but it also sends the dead man back.
- The window-pane - The window marks the fragile boundary between domestic safety and the outside world of judgment and dread.
- The storm and rain - The worsening weather mirrors the peasant's growing fear and suggests a disturbed moral atmosphere.
- The drowned man's body - The corpse is a stark reminder of human vulnerability and of the dignity denied by the peasant's treatment of it.
Tone
Pushkin's tone shifts with striking speed from brisk, almost playful narration to dark moral irony and then to outright menace. The opening feels rough-hewn and colloquial, as if the story were being told by someone familiar with village life, but that plainness only makes the later apparition more disturbing. For the reader, the mood moves from amused disbelief to unease and then to dread, ending in a feeling that the natural world itself has become charged with accusation.
Historical Context
Pushkin helped shape Russian literary language by blending elevated narrative art with the rhythms of spoken speech, folklore, and popular storytelling. Ballads and ghost tales were a familiar part of European Romantic literature, and this poem draws on that tradition while giving it a distinctly Russian setting of river, village hut, and peasant life.
The poem also reflects a Romantic interest in the uncanny, in moral haunting, and in the uneasy boundary between everyday reality and supernatural judgment. Its plain social world and sudden ghostly turn are characteristic of a period when Russian writers were developing national themes from local life rather than relying only on classical or courtly subjects.