Пастух и пастушка

by Victor Astafiev, Виктор Астафьев

Russian Book. EKSMO, M. 752 pages. Year 2004. Krasnaia kniga russkoi prozy

Genres: Russia

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Виктор Астафьев
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev also spelled Astafiev or Astaf'ev (Russian: Виктор Петрович Астафьев; 1 May 1924 – 29 November 2001), was a prominent Soviet and Russian writer.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco]

This duskily poetic novel is preceded with a beautiful epigraph:
“You, before whom I tremble and burn,
What wave, what pediment, what rose,
What dome knew us, what pearl, or urn,
Flower, marble, or dove: who knows?”
Théophile Gautier – Secret Affinities
A Shepherd and a Shepherdess… War and love… They seem to be incompatible… But love comes without asking…

She wandered across a quiet field – unploughed, untrodden, untouched by the scythe. Grass seeds spilled into her sandals, and burrs clung to her old-fashioned coat, which was trimmed with greyish fur at the sleeves.
Stumbling and slipping – as if on a patch of ice – she climbed up to the railway line and hurried along the sleepers with a nervous, faltering gait.

Sorrow… She goes to the grave of her beloved…
Retreat into the past… The end of the war is already in sight… But unleashed dogs of war are still hungry… The pandemonium and madness of combat…

Starving and demoralized by the encirclement and the bitter cold, the Germans surged forward blindly, in a frenzy. They were quickly finished off with bayonets and sapper shovels. But hard on the heels of the first wave came a second, then a third. Everything dissolved into chaos in the darkness: the roar of battle, gunfire, obscene swearing, the screams of the wounded, the trembling earth, and the shrieking recoil of artillery pieces – firing indiscriminately at friend and foe alike, unable to distinguish one from the other. Indeed, telling them apart was no longer possible.

The gory battle is over… The platoon stays for a night in a village hut… The lieutenant and the young mistress of the house feel mutual affinity… Wartime love is a black pearl…

Where her robe parted, the swell of her breasts began. A living rivulet cascaded swiftly downward, widening into a torrent. Somewhere in the distance, framed by those soft curves, her luminous body shimmered mysteriously, radiating a wave of heat. Yet right beside him was her face, with its wide, darting, agitated eyes. He could actually feel the tips of her doll-like, upturned lashes tickling the skin of his cheek. The platoon leader’s heart began to pound, racing wildly as if tumbling downhill. Swallowing hard, he tried to stifle the thudding that was growing ever louder and faster within his chest.

But the insatiable war takes love away along with life.

[Даша Совина]

Моя любимая книга, прочитанная не раз.

[Kristiāna K.]

Pērle padomju literatūras biežņā. Cilvēks un viņa emocijas karā - skaudri, dvēseliski attēlotas. Un mīlestība - vienīgā dzīvotjēga.