From Gorky's "The Petrels".
Originally
Seagulls?
Gorky
On the vast sea, the wind rolls in dark clouds. Between the dark clouds and the sea the petrels, like black lightning, were flying high and proud.
At one time its wings touched the waves, at another time it arrowed straight toward the dark clouds, and it cried out,--and in the brave cry of the bird the dark clouds heard joy.
In this cry -- full of longing for the storm! In this cry, the dark clouds heard the strength of anger, the fire of passion and the confidence of victory.
The seagulls moaned before the storm,--groaned, as they scuttled across the sea, trying to hide their fear of the storm, in the depths of the sea.
The sea-ducks groaned too, - they, the sea-ducks, could not enjoy the joys of life's battles: the rumble of thunder frightened them.
The stupid penguins, timidly hiding their fat bodies under the cliffs,...... only the proud petrels, bravely, freely, fly over the foaming sea!
The clouds grew darker and lower, and pressed straight down toward the sea, while the waves sang and rushed high into the air to meet the thunder.
The thunder boomed. The waves called in angry spray, and fought with the gale. And behold, the gale clutched up layers of huge waves, and flung them viciously against the cliffs, and dashed these great chunks of emerald into dust and mist and splinters.
The petrels shrieked and soared, like black lightning, arrowing through the dark clouds, their wings skimming the foam of the waves.
Behold, it fluttered, like a spirit,--a high, black spirit of the storm,--and it laughed, and it trumpeted ...... It laughed at those dark clouds, and it trumpeted for joy!
The sensitive spirit,--which had long heard the sleepiness in the thunder's fury,--was convinced that the clouds could not hide the sun,--yes, they could not!
The wind roared ...... and the thunder boomed ......
A heap of dark clouds, like green flames, burned on the bottomless sea. The sea seizes the arrowy lights of lightning and extinguishes them in its own abyss. The shadows of these flashes of lightning, living like a fiery serpent, slithered through the sea and disappeared in a flash.
--The storm! The storm is coming!
It is the brave petrel, soaring high above the roaring sea, among the lightning; it is the victorious prophet shouting:
--Let the storm come harder!
Extended Information
Background
"The Petrels" is the final chapter of "The Melody of Spring", a short story with symbolic meaning written in March 1901 by Gorky.
As the industrial crisis that broke out in Europe in the 19th century soon spread to Russia, more than 3,000 large and small enterprises were closed down and more than 100,000 workers were dismissed during the years of crisis from 1900 to 1903, coupled with the growing darkness of the Tsarist rule, the masses of the people could not bear it, and the mood of revolt was growing, and revolutionary struggles flourished.
The Russian workers' movement began to shift from economic strikes to political strikes and demonstrations, putting forward political demands for democracy and freedom, and putting forward the political slogan of "Down with the Tsarist Dictatorship", which shook the foundation of the Tsarist rule.
The revolutionary movement of the masses was in full swing at the time, while the tsarist government stepped up its repression of the people, and it was a time of intense struggle between the revolution and the counter-revolution.
Gorky traveled from Nizhny Novgorod (renamed Gorky during the Soviet period, and returned to its original name after the dissolution of the USSR) to Petersburg on February 19, 1901, where he attended a special meeting of the Russian Writers' Guild commemorating the 40th anniversary of the emancipation of the serfs and delivered a poignant speech criticizing the czarist government, and then participated in a student demonstration near Petersburg's Kazan Cathedral on March 4, where he personally witnessed the czarist gendarmes and the czarist government's efforts to protect the people.
He witnessed the bloody repression of the students by the tsarist gendarmes.
He also signed an open letter written by a group of writers and social activists protesting against the atrocities of the tsarist government, and on March 12, he returned to Nizhny Novgorod.
After personally feeling the majesty of the workers' and students' movements and witnessing the brutal crimes of the tsarist government's suppression of the students' movement, Gorky, who came from the bottom of the social ladder and understood the sufferings of the people at the bottom of the ladder, in order to enthusiastically glorify the forerunners of the proletarian revolution, expose the reactionary government of the tsarist government, attack the opportunists, and expose the ugly face of the bourgeois liberals, signed the letter of protest to the tsarist government.
Based on the situation of the struggle and the feeling of participating in the demonstration, he wrote a symbolic short story "Fantasia" "The Melody of Spring". It concludes with the famous prose poem "Haiyan" (which is estimated to have been written no earlier than March 14th and no later than March 24th).
In "The Melody of Spring" Gorky "personifies" birds, and to some of them he adds official titles and designations, which he used to satirize the representatives of the various classes of Russian society and to attack the tsarist rule, which at that time could not be published. Gorky wanted to publish it in the Moscow Courier, but the censorship authorities rejected it.
Gorky immediately sent the novel to St. Petersburg's Life magazine, which was also rejected by the censors, but its conclusion, "The Song of the Petrels," was published separately in the April issue of Life magazine. This was due to an "oversight of omission" on the part of the tsarist censors.
Posse, the editor-in-chief of Life, recalled, "Haiyan was published after prior censorship by the censor Yelagan, but he did not see anything revolutionary in it." The censorship authorities soon realized the serious error caused by the "negligence of omission" and ordered the closure of Life magazine.