How to Make Horses Drink Water?

It has been 20 years since I first visited the Msta, a river running through Novgorod district. I’ve never been to the place since then. But that visit was truly memorable. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that just being in the countryside might be so enjoyable. The events of those days came back to me at various times from then on so vividly that I seemed to be able to find the Msta River blindfolded. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the time I spent there left its mark on me for the rest of my life.
The story started when my friend Michael, a person who always came up with new ideas, invited me to go away with him and two friends of his. “Where to?” I asked.
“I suggest travelling by canoe. Presumably, our voyage will take place along quite an interesting river called Msta.” “You know,” he continued, “we are going to travel through two parts of the Msta River. The first one is rather slow and deep. The second is the opposite – quick, shallow, with numerous turns and, which is very important, with rapids, which are waiting for you at every turn in the river”. I had no objection, but I had to say: “By the way, I haven’t travelled by canoe yet. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to handle that boat”.
“There is nothing to be worried about. I’ll give you a captain, who is experienced in controlling the canoe and going through rapids – both small and big ones. I assure you that he knows the ropes. What’s more, he has his heart in the right place, so he will stand by you through thick and thin. I’m sure you will be a sailor as good as a tutor at the University”.
Our team numbered four men and two canoes. After travelling by train for a night, we got off at a tiny station called “Berezaika”. Then got onto our canoes and started to paddle down the river. The Msta is a really beautiful river and it is so serene that sometimes it seems to nearly stop. Have you ever been to that place? Never? For the first four days we sailed along the calm part of the Msta. Gradually, I managed to get used to handling the canoe and to my position as a sailor as well. I’ve forgotten to say a few words about a peculiarity of my captain’s behaviour – every time, after getting into the canoe, he began to sing. During the passage in the first half of the day or in the afternoon, various tunes resounded above the river.
He has quite a decent voice – neither beautiful nor disgusting. What did he sing? Obviously he preferred Italian to anything else. He kept singing “Bessamo mucho” without end and, which surprised me, he knew perfectly the lyrics of the songs he sang. We asked him to sing a Russian song for us to listen to but he put his foot down. “Don’t you like Russian songs? None of them?” I asked. He gave a noncommittal answer. By the evenings I got tired by hearing the daily concerts.
After having a meal and talking at a campfire I went into my tent and turned on the radio. We couldn’t buy any newspapers during our voyage, so I kept up to date with the news by listening to the portable radio. Then we went to sleep and got up bright and early – at 5.30.
Sometimes the bad weather really got me down. The sun was hidden behind the clouds. Each day started with a serene sky, but it became cloudy by midday. For the second and the third day it poured down with rain. Our canoe often advanced too far and it made the other pair move faster and faster. On the fourth day in the morning Michael said: “Today we are going to pass the last passage before reaching the most difficult stretch of our travel. I mean before passing the rapids. We should come to a small village late in the evening and early in the morning begin the second part of the travel.” All day we paddle hard, almost without resting or stopping for a meal. We had to reach our aim – the village before it got dark. It resulted in some haste. But we couldn’t ease up.
The only soothing thing was the captain’s continuous singing. Spanish songs were changed by Italian, French and English ones. No Russian song was heard again. “Why are you so reluctant to make our journey more enjoyable by singing a Russian song?” I asked. “Is it not enjoyable enough? Look around. What else could anyone wish for?” He took a hard line again. “Stop asking him”, Michael said. “You may ask him until you are blue in the face with the result that he won’t.”
In the meantime the other canoe overtook ours and was 20–25 meters ahead. All of a sudden we saw a terrifying scene: our friends’ canoe was being swamped with water and the fellows who had leaped out were holding onto both sides of the canoe, trying to keep it above the water. Without a second thought the captain and I hurried to come to their rescue. The damaged canoe was carried out of the water. It was getting dark. Having put up our tents, we tried to get to sleep as soon as possible.
The next day we got up at the crack of dawn and were anxious to find out what had happened to the damaged boat. We learned very quickly that Michael’s boat had crashed into a metallic bar. These bars had been hammered into the bottom by local people to net the river. We kept examining the damage to the canoe. Needless to say that we were terrified. The rubber bottom was slit from the nose to the middle. The second aluminium rib broke in two and could no longer hold the construction.
The whole matter seemed almost hopeless. Frankly speaking, we did not hold out much hope of being able to get out of the trouble. Our opinions were divided on the matter: “We’ll never solve our problems if we just bury our heads in the sand – we have to face up to them,” I said. “Nothing of the kind”, replied Michael, “you need your head examined. It’s easier said than done. Repairing the boat is no laughing matter. We are not in position to do the job by any stretch of imagination. I’m telling you this in all seriousness. Don’t get mixed up in repairing, if you don’t want to get stuck with the job for a month of Sundays. The stumbling block is that the job requires a lot of dexterity”.
So we would be hard pressed to find the solution to the problem. “Out of sight, out of mind,” he concluded. The captain looked a bit aloof and did not take sides in the conflict. He didn’t say a word. He just retired into himself. Outwardly, the expression on his face was a cross between aloofness and bewilderment. He looked closely at something deeply inside of him. Strangely enough he was completely unmoved with what was happening around him. After long deliberation we decided to give up travelling and return home by general consent. Nobody was satisfied with the decision, considering the fact that the captain, who was prepared to go to any length to get the job done, would be left totally unassisted. On the other hand, we saw no other way out. Heartbroken, we went to our tents.
For two hours or so we tossed about unable to sleep. We had to resign ourselves with the fact that we were not going to have a wink of sleep that night. We felt miserable and tense. Suddenly, the still of the night was disturbed by the captain’s singing. Those were Russian songs. The best ones. “Let’s shake hands with each other and go on a lifelong tour together”, he sang. That was the Russian song I was very fond of. He sang one Russian song after another. We gave a gasp and caught our breath listening to the songs. No foreign song was heard that time. He sang on and on and held all of us, even nature itself, spellbound for a long time. The restless feeling inside us faded away. We came to feel a glimmer of hope. No sooner had he finished than we fell asleep.
We got up at crack of dawn. The captain wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Thinking that he was fast asleep we rushed to the damaged boat. We didn’t even know what for. By some magic it attracted us like a sick child attracts its mother’s attention. When we were half way to the boat I said: “We should get there before the captain arrives”. It turned out the other way around. The captain was already there and the job was in full swing. We might as well join him. All our attempts did not come off at first, but we did the job to the best of our ability and eventually pulled it off.
In the meantime, the weather cleared up gradually. A strikingly blue sky, a shining sun and a faint breath of wind resulted in a good mood of all the members of our team. The Msta seemed to be so shallow and clean, that if you looked down, you could count the stones on the bottom, but sometimes the dimensions of the stones suddenly rose, the water speed increased greatly and the canoe began to rock from side to side looking for a way round the next obstacle.
This race with a lot of obstacles to surmount continued for two days. Sometimes there were so many rapids that you couldn’t distinguish a narrow way among seething whirlpools. Presently all obstacles were overcome. In front of us we could see vast expanses of water stretched out and somewhere in the distance we saw the contours of what we had been aiming at – Borovichi. At that moment the captain began to sing again. Latin, the Beetles, German, Spanish songs were mixed. We asked him for a Russian song. He answered in a roundabout way: “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it”.
The town of Borovichi was so close that we could see some unattractive buildings and vague outlines of the local railway station. Soon our voyage was over. We had to wait for the other canoe to arrive, and then we dried off and packed the boat, our bits and pieces including cooking utensils and walked to the station.
Years elapsed. I carried on hearing my favourite song wherever I was and whatever I did. I heard it while giving a lecture, walking along deserted streets or sitting in my dimly lit kitchen. In the course of time it occurred to me more and more often. Some time later, our mutual friend had told me that the captain was ill, in hospital.
I pictured visiting him with a fragrant bouquet of flowers, but I never got round to it. Under the pretext of being tied up I put off going to the hospital day after day. At that time the song occurred to me so frequently that I thought it had become a fixed idea with me.
Then, at night I had a dream. I was somewhere I had never been before. In the long distance below I saw a round blue object full of sunlight and vegetation. The object was so marvellous, so impressive that it took my breath away. I stared into the distance and could make out outlines of oceans, rivers and seas. I saw snow – topped mountains and seething waterfalls. The whole picture was so unspeakably perfect that I gasped with surprise: “What is it, over there?”
“That’s the world you lived in for many years,” – I heard a gentle voice.
I looked around. There was nobody besides me.
“How strange!” I thought.
“Do you remember anything?” The voice continued.
“Yes”, I exclaimed, “that’s a song, my favourite song. It is about…” I paused. I racked my brain for remembering the lyrics or tune, but to no avail.
“Leave the song alone. You no longer need it,” the gentle voice said.
“Why?”
“What’s done can’t be undone,” was the answer.
“Why did the song haunt me like a dog during my lifetime?”
“Because the main purpose you were sent to that world for was to learn to love”.
“Why didn’t you make us love?”
“I’m willing to take my horses to water but I am reluctant to make them drink”.
“Did I drink any water?”
My question was left into the air. I woke up, jumped out of the bed, walked across the room and picked up the telephone. The only question I was in a fever of impatience to get an answer to was “what hospital is the captain in?”

QUESTIONS:
1. Have you ever read a story similar to this one? If so, can you draw both a distinction and a parallel between them?
2. If you were asked to describe the main points of the story in pictures, which ones would you consider to be worthy of description and which images and colours would be appropriate?
3. Why did the captain change from singing European songs to Russian ones when the team got into trouble?
4. Are you of the opinion that your lifetime is like a train which you should get off from time to time to think it over whether or not you are traveling in the right direction?

GLOSSARY:
1. If you know the ropes, you know how to do all the parts of a job, because you have a lot of experience of it.
2. If you have your heart in the right place you have true or kind feelings.
3. If you stand by somebody through thick and thin you stay loyal to them and support them in spite of any difficulties and problems.
4. If you give a noncommittal answer, you do not express a definite opinion or intention.
5. To get up bright and early means getting up very early in the morning.
6. If you do something until you are blue in the face, you do something a lot but without achieving what you want.
7. If you face up to a difficult situation, you accept responsibility and deal with it.
8. If something is a cross between one thing and another, it is a mixture of two things, breeds, qualities etc.
9. If an event or action comes off it is successful and effective.
10. If you pull something off, you succeed in doing something which is very difficult to achieve.