Piotr sat down on his bed without removing his cap. He was exhausted and very hungry. Magda cleared out the ash that had been piled up on the hearth since before the war had started, chopped some wood and lit the fire. She had thoughtfully brought with her milk, bread and potatoes. They remained silent for some time. The heat from the fire in the kitchen slowly began to reach the couple.
Magda was the first to speak.
“You’re off, then?”
Although for four years Magda had been to Piotr what polite people called his “beloved”, she had not ventured to address him accordingly except at moments of greatest intimacy. Once these moments were over, she was again separated from Piotr by a barrier created by respect and by the seventeen-year age difference between them. He always addressed her as he would a spouse, but she did so only when she was serving him in the role of Venus. Otherwise, she existed only as a humble orphan, who was not permitted to forget her own low status.
“Yes,” he replied.
And they fell silent again. Piotr did not speak to her again until they were having supper, the last time they would do so together.
“Look after Bass—make sure the Muscovites don’t take him. Everyone is after a dog.”
He stroked Bass, and then took hold of his muzzle with both hands so tightly that the dog yelped.
Magda was hurt; he had always taken better care of the dog than of her. But she said nothing, because even orphans have their pride. After supper, Piotr went outside and lit his pipe.
He sat down on the threshold and looked up at the stars. One of the stars broke away from its flock, crossed the entire breadth of the horizon and disappeared into the river Prut. Piotr paused for thought. He had heard that falling stars were seen when someone was going to die. He laughed out loud—if a star fell for every peasant who snuffed it in the war, they would have to fall incessantly like a hailstorm. Soon there would be not a single one left in the sky.
He did not know that there were more flaring and extinct worlds than there were soldiers in the service of His Imperial and Royal Majesty.
When he had finished smoking his pipe, he stood up heavily and went into the orchard. All the trees looked amazingly dark in the milky glow of the hidden moon. Neither of the apple trees had borne fruit that year, and the plums were still small and green. Still, he picked one and slipped it into his pocket. Then he walked all the way round the house, probably for the hundredth time feeling sorry about the state it was in. This house could do with being repaired.
Beneath the thatched roof hung cobs of maize. They were drying out for seeding. In the dull light, they looked like sleeping bats hanging from nails.
Piotr went back to Magda, and their night of love-making began.
The girl had washed the dishes and scoured the pans. She had fed Bass on the leftovers from their supper. The well-fed dog ran out into the yard, but straight away he returned, looking despondent; evidently, he could not find a suitable place to lie down, so he began to settle underneath the bed. A cricket was chirruping, hidden in a crack in the floor by the hearth. Magda kneeled before the image of the Immaculate Mother, closed her eyes and prayed for a long time in impassioned whispers. Then she took off her shawl and her apron, removed her skirt, untied her two thin plaits and made one thick one. Then she extinguished the lamp and lay down beside Piotr.
At that point Bass stirred uneasily, reminding them of his presence. Piotr was embarrassed about it; this live witness made him uneasy. He had to be sent out. Piotr leapt out of bed, opened the door and tried to get Bass to go out into the hallway, at least. But the dog stubbornly refused to obey; he was unwilling to abandon his master on this last night. Piotr, humiliated, used force and with a stick, of all things, drove his only love out into the yard. The banished love howled piteously.
Piotr had never loved Magda; he just “lived” with her. Was he capable of love, anyway? Who knows, perhaps love is a luxury only privileged souls can afford. How did his love for Bass manifest itself, for example? It may have been the total trust of a downtrodden man in a downtrodden animal, a comradeship in their shared dog’s life on this earth, where they went around together with a hang-dog appearance, or something else besides. Perhaps this love was concealed beneath a dull mutual submissiveness. For Piotr would often give in to Bass against his own better judgement, and senseless submission to a weaker creature sometimes passes for love. It was probably only in really serious cases, for example when the dog was in danger, that Piotr imposed his will. Apart from that, he rarely displayed his superiority. What did a Hutsul know about dogs? Piotr attributed great intelligence to Bass. He felt that the old hound could see everything, sense and understand every human gesture. For that reason, he found Bass’s presence embarrassing when Magda stayed overnight, which often meant that no intimacy occurred between Piotr and Magda. The dog could not bear anyone to touch his master; it seemed to make him jealous. He would throw himself at the foreign body in an attempt to drag it away from Piotr. But even when Bass remained calm, Piotr felt his movements were restricted. This time, however, passion prevailed, enhanced by the day’s events and by a vague sense that this would be his last night with Magda. He was unwilling to abandon it, but he could not see it through when Bass was there. He chased him out.
The altercation with the dog cooled his ardour and held back his advances. It was somehow silly to restart the foreplay interrupted by the dog’s stubbornness. Besides, even when he closed his eyes the war was there, like an annoying insect oppressing him with persistent thoughts about the following day. He had to stir up his passion once more, shutting out logic and overcoming his fears. Eventually, victory was on the side of Venus.
No, Piotr did not love Magda. He possessed her body as one drinks vodka or takes a bath for vital health reasons. But it was not an addiction. Piotr had no addictions. Magda’s slim, firm tiny body was always cool. Even at moments of most intense rapture it did not perspire. It gave Piotr the pleasure of its gentle, obedient submissiveness, which is what appealed to him. In the orphan’s embrace he simultaneously experienced the sense of relief, the dulling of consciousness and the awareness of his own powers dear to every man. And finally, Magda’s body was the only terrain where he felt victorious. This is something male self-love cannot easily do without. Piotr vanquished Magda without resistance, but also effortlessly, and the sterility of the insemination was the only thing that mitigated his brief pleasure. It robbed the joining of their bodies of its deeper meaning, depriving it of its dignity. But it also guarded against excess. In any case, Magda’s sensuality was kept in check by other restraints—her religious faith and Piotr’s age. A younger man might have succeeded in taking Magda’s body to the most consummate passion and overcoming her sense of sin. “Living” with Piotr, she never forgot that she was sinning, so she attempted at least to sin in moderation. That was probably why she prayed so fervently before entering his bed. As though she wanted to beg forgiveness in advance.
Nor did Piotr become intoxicated with Magda; he always remained in control of his instincts. It was as though he was subconsciously fulfilling an obligation inherited from his unknown Polish father, Niewiadomski—Incognito.
The nights with Magda afforded him a momentary enjoyment of life, which he never experienced otherwise. For him, the orphan’s body represented cafés, opera and long voyages, everything that music, sport and intellectual pleasures mean to other people. But it held no surprises—it was as commonplace as his daily bread. Piotr found in it relaxation and tenderness and for a few seconds he was transported beyond the confines of his own existence. Women, vodka and religion are the three delights that rescue the souls of the benighted Hutsul from despair and hell on earth.