Rooks

Rooks are recurring birds in the garden where Vladimir Petrovitch spends his summer, first as the elusive quarry of his evening patrols and later as part of the quiet landscape surrounding his lovesickness. Their wary distance frustrates his pursuit, while their intermittent calls mark the garden’s return in a later, more inward scene.

Identity and Behavior

Vladimir describes the rooks as wary, sly, and rapacious, and says he has long hated them. They are difficult to approach: they recognize him and respond to his presence by cawing spasmodically from a distance rather than allowing him to get close. The birds’ caution gives his regular search its particular obstacle; he patrols the garden walks looking for them without success.

The Evening Patrol

Watching for rooks is part of Vladimir’s usual evening routine. On the day he first sees Zinaïda, he goes into the garden as usual, searches the walks, and finds none. Near the low fence dividing his family’s grounds from the strip of garden belonging to the lodge, he hears a voice and looks across. The encounter with Zinaïda and the young men immediately displaces the purpose of his walk: his gun slips onto the grass, and he forgets the birds and everything else.

Return in the Garden Landscape

The rooks reappear in the account of Vladimir’s lovesick isolation. After being driven away from the lodge, he sometimes retreats to the ruined stone greenhouse at the far end of the garden and sits on its wall, gazing without seeing. In that still setting, rooks caw from high on the bare top of a birch tree; their calls mingle with the sparrow’s restless twitter and the distant bells of the Don monastery. They remain wary, as Vladimir has already characterized them, but here they are no longer objects of pursuit. Their occasional calls belong to the background of a scene in which he is absorbed in a nameless mixture of sadness, joy, anticipation, desire, and dread, which he understands only by giving it Zinaïda’s name.

Narrative Significance

The rooks connect Vladimir’s ordinary habits to the altered attention brought on by first love. At the start, he watches for them with deliberate hostility, and their evasiveness frustrates him; when Zinaïda appears, the hunt vanishes from his awareness. Later, the same birds are heard rather than pursued, absorbed into the garden’s quieter atmosphere as he sits alone with feelings he cannot yet interpret. Their small, recurring presence thus helps register a change in what commands his attention, without making the birds themselves more than a persistent part of the setting.