| 词源 |
Chekhov’s seagull. The image of the seagull brought down by a thoughtless hunter, so central to Chekhov’s classic The Seagull, was suggested by a woodcock winged by the play- wright’s friend Isaak Levitan while they were hunting together. Levitan could not finish off the bird staring at them with bright black eyes and begged Chekhov to do so. Chekhov finally agreed and smashed its head with the butt of his rifle. Later he wrote to a friend: “And while two idiots went home and sat down to dinner, there was one less beautiful, infatuated crea- ture in the world.” |