Translating from Russian: Dr.
Valentin Voroshilov
Editor of the translation:
(here could be your name! :) )
Foreword.
Many many years ago (there was a time when I was really young), I have
become a founding member of a “Moscow – Perm Socratic group” (a.k.a. “Maieutics school”) – a
collaboration of educators dedicated to promoting the Socratic Method of
teaching.
One summer our team ran a
summer camp for middle and high school students and their teachers.
That camp was the
culmination of a yearlong work.
During a year our team
visited 7 or 8 middle or high school, where teams of teachers have been developing
their projects to
improve their own teaching. We have met each team about three or four times
before the all arrived to the camp for the final intensive “training while
teaching”.
Every member of our team was
professionally teaching some school subject (physics, math, chemistry, chess,
music, informatics, history, reading and writing), so in the camp we also were
giving some lessons, videotaped them, and then had an analytical discussion. To
keep ourselves on the topes we have been inventing various assignments for each
other. One day everyone had to write a fairy tale!
This is the one I wrote.
A Fairy tale about Small Umbrella and Big White Bird
I do not know.
Maybe, it would be better to let alone some of the old
feelings which rise again sometimes from some of the childhood the memories.
But, who would really care, for what reasons would an
adult rationalist need to find in this world just something simply light,
bright, even foolish?
So...
There was the City of Umbrellas, in which lived many
Umbrellas.
Many different Umbrellas lived in there: some were Big
and Black, very important and serious. They walked slowly on the streets and bow
to each other when they passed one another. Others were Light and Silly. They had
no work to do and were having fun all day long, flying over the streets in
small flocks, rushing through the City, flying out of it and then back again. There
were many other Umbrellas in this City, which were busy doing their everyday errands
and cared only about one thing - that the Strong Wind would not take them away
from the City.
Light Small Umbrella lived in this City too. He was
very young and all other Umbrellas considered him silly because he liked to
bother them with very silly questions. Well what you think may be sillier than
a question “Who lives far, very far from our City of Umbrellas?”, or “Can the
Strong Wind lift me up and carry me above the whole World, and bring me then
back home?”, well and many other nonsenses.
He liked to go out of the City and watch clouds. He
was frequently looking in the Sky trying to imagine what he would see, if he
were to made a flight in this light blue Height?
And because he did not look where he was walking very
often he was bumping in other Umbrellas, which were busy doing their errands,
were returning after work to home to get some rest.
Certainly, he annoyed very much all other Umbrellas
with all his foolishness. So, other Umbrellas frequently scolded him for his empty
and useless imagination. “Become engaged in something useful”, other Umbrellas told
him, “or you will grow up with just useless pictures in your head, and no respectable
Umbrella will ever give you a bow”.
Days
were passing by, Small Umbrella looked at the Sky and dreamed, but nothing has
changed in his life.
Once upon a time, when Small Umbrella has again left
City to get to his dreams, he noticed in the Sky several small black dots.
“What are those black dots?!”, he wanted to ask other Umbrellas, and even
almost ran back to City to ask this question, but then he stopped. “Why would I
annoy Big Umbrellas with another silly question?”, he thought and decided to
stay. When he looked up again, he saw that the black dots became closer, and
then even closer, and Small Umbrella suddenly understood, that those dots are
flying on the Sky, and flying directly to him!
Ah, how strong he wished to be such Black Dot and to
fly, fly, fly above the World!
Small Umbrella closed his eyes trying to imagine
himself as a Black Dot flying in the Sky.
And when he opened his eyes again, there was something
strange in the row of flying Dots. All Dots but one were flying forward in a
straight line keeping the same distance from each other. But the last Dot for
some reason was slightly lagging behind the others. The longer he was looking
at the Dots, the clearer it was to him, that last Dot really flew slower and
slower, becoming more and more away from the other Dots. Suddenly Small
Umbrella realized, that this last Dot was not only lagging behind the others,
but also was becoming bigger and bigger.
“She is falling!”, suddenly Small Umbrella understood.
“She is falling directly over the City! If I wait a little bit longer, the Black
Dot will fall on the other side of my City!”
Never in his life Small Umbrella ran so fast as that
day.
He was flying so fast like he had strong wings.
Probably, on his run through the City he was bumping
many times into Big and Important Umbrellas who were strolling the streets, or knocking
off Light Umbrellas joyfully fluttering here and there. Probably, many angry
words were following him on his run. But he did not see and did not hear
anything. He ran so quickly, he ran as fast as he could, and only one thought
was flashing in his mind “The Citizen of the Sky is flying to me! The Citizen
of the Sky is flying to me! The Citizen of the Sky is flying to me!”
...
It’s been a long time since Small Umbrella found the Citizen
of the Sky. He was standing afar and looking at the Big White Citizen of the
Sky who was lying on the ground, motionless, and only light breathing would
show that she was a living being and not a big white fluffy stone.
At last Small Umbrella dared to make a small step
forward, then one more, and still more, and finally Small Umbrella has quietly
approached to the Fallen Dot. “Hi, Big White Citizen of the Sky”, said Small
Umbrella. “I am Small Umbrella, I live in this City of Umbrellas. Did you fly here
to visit me?”
The big White Citizen of the Sky slowly lifted her
head and looked at Small Umbrella with her big deep eyes.
After waiting for a while, she took a deep breath and she
said slowly in her quiet voice: “No, Small Umbrella, I didn’t. I didn’t fly here
to visit you. And I am not the big white citizen of the sky. I am a bird. I was
fling with my drove to reach Distant Edges. But I have become too weak, and
could not fly as fast as other birds of my drove. My energy began to leave me,
and I began to fall”, the Big White Citizen of the Sky sighed and lowered the
head back on the ground. “If I wasn’t ill and had some rest, I could catch up with
my drove. But the Strong Wind flies right behind us. He will catch me here very
soon and will bring cold and rain, and I will become even weaker than I am now”.
What she said was the truth.
Small Umbrella was already feeling the approach of the
Strong Wind. Small Pushes, harbingers of the Strong Wind, have already begun touching
him with their cold hands and to push him to his house, and to splash on him small
droplets of water, showing the beginning of rain. But that did not make him run
away.
“I shall help you, Big White Bird!”, proudly said Small
Umbrella.
“I shall close you from the Strong Wind!”. Shivering,
whether because of the coming cold wet strong wind, or because of his fear he
would be blown away, he covered the Bird with himself.
Soon Small Pushes have moved away, the air has
stiffened, motionlessly and threateningly enveloping all around. “Dear Mom,
help me”, Small Umbrella thought, and at this moment the Strong Wind struck him
giving the first strong punch in his back. Then again, and again. The Strong
Wind blustered and howled, and it was just a miracle that Small Umbrella kept
himself in his place, covering a motionless Bird from the Shrieking Enemy. “I must
do it, I must do it” – that was the only though Small Umbrella could think off,
and kept standing on his legs. The Strong Rain struck Small Umbrella, and he
did not know and any more, whether these those tiny drops running down his
cheeks were his tears, or it was the Rain which tried to get to his new Friend.
...
This time the Strong Wind made a bigger racket in City
of Umbrellas than it usually did. After the Strong Wind moved away, flew toward
other Cities to bring a havoc to their Citizens, many Umbrellas who were caught
in the streets had to treat their bent spokes.
“I am tired, I am so tired”, Small Umbrella quietly
said to himself and sit on the ground. It was difficult for him to keep
standing. He covered his small dome. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
When he woken up, the Sun has already dried up his
clothes.
He opened his eyes, and saw Big White Bird, here she
was, sitting by him, big, white, and strong again.
“You helped me, lovely Small Umbrella”, she said. “You
saved me from the Wind and the Rain. I had my rest and gained my strength and
shall manage to catch up my drove. You are very brave, courageous and strong,
Small Umbrella. And kind. Thank you, my Friend. And now I should be hurry up”,
and Big White Bird spread her wings, waved them and flew up in the Sky.
“Good-bye, Small Umbrella!”, those were the last words falling the blue Height.
Soon the Bird has turned to a small dot, and then she
disappeared.
...
Many days and night have passed since the day when Small
Umbrella met Big White Bird. The Citizens of the City of Umbrellas have
forgotten the day when Small Umbrella has suddenly gone crazy and ran through the
City like a mad mugger fleeing the law.
Once in a while Small Umbrella still looked in the Sky,
sometimes he still dreamed about how it would be great to flying in that deep blue
Height. But he was remembering his Big White Bird visitor less and less often,
and by some reason, every time when he remembered her, together with this
memory and with the feeling of pride for some reason he also had any strange
feeling of sadness and melancholy.
Because of this feeling every next day he thought
about the Sky even less than before.
“Look at our Small Umbrella”, told Big Umbrellas to each
other, “he stopped bothering us with silly questions and almost never bumps
into as any more when we walk. Soon he will grow up and will mature and will becomes
absolutely normal regular average Umbrella”, they were saying to each other with
a deep satisfaction.
But one day, when Small Umbrella looked in the Sky, just
because it still was his habit, he suddenly saw there one small black dot. It was
coming closer and closer to the City and becoming bigger and bigger. “Big White
Bird falls again near our City!”, thought Small Umbrella, and rushed through
the City. “Lunatic!”, shouted again Big Umbrellas, “never come to us again!”
But Small Umbrella saw nothing and did not hear a thing.
He was running again as fast as he could.
He had to help his Friend!
“Hi, Big White Bird!”, he started to cry to her from
afar. “I shall again help you and I shall close you from the Strong Wind!”
But for some reason, this time Big White Bird did not
lay on the ground, she stood calmly and her smiling eyes looked at Small
Umbrella.
“Hi, Small Umbrella”, said the Bird joyfully. “You do
not have to help me this time, because I am strong and healthy and not looking
for help at all. I flew here to see you. You see, on that terrible day you
became my Friend, and I wanted to see you again”.
Small Umbrella burst in a laugh, but that because he
felt himself very happy. He has a Friend - the Citizen of the Sky is his Friend!
He has never could even dream about that to happen!
And Big White Bird continued to speak.
“I want to show you my World, Lovely Small Umbrella.
If you are not afraid, get on my back, and I shall rise you in the Sky, and we
shall fly together all around the World and we shall see how big and beautiful
it is”.
“Thank you, Big White Bird”, that was all Small
Umbrella could just manage to say because he was overwhelmed with the feeling
of happiness and joy, so strong that all the words have been feeing his mind,
as if they blown away by the Strong Wind and were washed out by the Strong
Rain. He walked to Big White Bird, stroked her fluffy feathers and cautiously climbed
on her back. Big White Bird spread her wings, waved them and soared up in the
Sky.
They
flew above the World and laughed in happiness. Rivers and seas, fields and
forest, Cities and mountains had been laying down under them. The glorious
beauty of the World opened to Small Umbrella. He felt, like he himself was
flying in the deep blue Height, and his Friend was by his side, the Friend who will
always help him if he gets in troubles, and the Friend who he, Small Umbrella, will
always cover even from the Most Strongest Wind.
When they returned to the City, there was night. No one
noticed that Small Umbrella was not in the City a long time.
When they were again on the ground they didn’t say
much to each other.
“Thank you, Big White Bird”, whispered Small Umbrella to
Big White Bird.
“Thank you, Small Umbrella”, whispered Big White Bird
to Small Umbrella.
And with one strong move of her wings, she rose in the
Sky and flew away.
The Bird has flown away.
But the feeling of joy, pride and happiness staid with
Small Umbrella because he knew - they will meet again.
You see, true friends will never abandon each other.
The End
___________________
Appendix
This poem was written relative soon after I moved to
the U.S. (3 to 5 years after?). Once, one of my students found it on the Internet
and asked me why did I want to pass away? I said to her what I say to you, this
poem was just an exercise in English. I was not working double shifts as a
janitor at a Shaw’s Supermarket any more. I had a good stable job; my son has
become a university student, everything was good.
But as someone with the experience in student theater,
I was just using my imagination (plus, I am an atheist, the one who does not believe in the existence of a supreme leader of the World, but just believes in World).
So, don't read too much into it.
“I wanna pass away”
I
wanna pass away
I
do not like this world.
I
wanna pass away
in world without gold.
I
wanna pass away
where
people are never sad,
where
women valued same as men
and
kids have mom and dad.
I
wanna pass away
where
money don’t exist.
I
wanna pass away
or
far away at least.
I
wanna pass away
where
people do not lie,
where
women happy with one man
and
kids fly in the sky.
I
wanna pass away
from
world that’s ruled by sword.
I
wanna pass away
where
“war”‘s forgotten word.
I
wanna pass away
and
live in happy world,
Where
women live without war,
where
children live without war,
where
people live without war,
Where
all are blessed by “Lord”.
To learn more about my professional experience:
The voices of my students
"The Backpack Full of Cahs": pointing at a problem, not offering a solution
Essentials of Teaching Science
Dear Visitor, please, feel free to use the buttons below to share your feelings (ANY!) about this post to your Twitter of Facebook followers.
The voices of my students
"The Backpack Full of Cahs": pointing at a problem, not offering a solution
Essentials of Teaching Science
Dear Visitor, please, feel free to use the buttons below to share your feelings (ANY!) about this post to your Twitter of Facebook followers.
No comments:
Post a Comment