James Baquet

“Rothschild’s Fiddle” is one of the best-known of Russian author Anton Chekhov’s nearly 600 short stories.

Yakov Ivanov was the coffin maker in a tiny town where people died so seldom that he couldn’t make a living: just enough to live with his wife Martha in a little one-room hut which also served as his workshop.

To make money he also played fiddle in a Jewish orchestra. He was good, but he could hardly bear the flute played by a Jew named Rothschild. He began to hate Rothschild, and eventually Jews in general.

One day Martha called out from her bed, “Yakov! I am dying!” So when the sun came up, he took her to the hospital. Along the way he recalled that in 50 years of marriage, he had never said a kind word to her or even bought her a small gift.

When at last the doctor saw her, he sent Yakov off with some ineffective powders. Angry at this dismissive treatment, Yakov tried to convince the doctor to do more, but could not change his mind.

As she lay dying, Martha reminded Yakov of the time they had had a baby who died young, and how they would sit on the riverbank under a willow tree. But Yakov couldn’t remember. In the end she died and Yakov made her coffin.

After the funeral he was wandering the streets in great distress when he ran into Rothschild. He treated the Jew very roughly and walked on until he came to a willow by the riverbank where he suddenly remembered his child.

Deeply feeling his loss, he went home, where he dreamed of the child, the willow tree, Martha — and Rothschild. The next day, feeling miserable, he went to the hospital where the doctor dismissed him as being at death’s door.

He was on his front step composing a heart-breaking tune on his fiddle when Rothschild appeared at his gate. This time Yakov spoke gently to the Jew, who invited Yakov to play at a wedding. But Yakov said he was ill. He began to play again, and the tune was so beautiful it caused Rothschild to weep.

At last Yakov, too, died, but before he did, he told the priest:

“Give my fiddle to Rothschild.”

The town wondered where Rothschild got such an instrument, and why he abandoned the flute for the fiddle. The tune he had heard from the dying Yakov was his most popular request.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. sorrow or pain

2. useless

3. not caring, turning away

4. walking aimlessly

5. writing, as a song

6. box for burying a person

7. song people ask for

8. violin

9. place where a craftsman works

10. instrumental band