The Essential Russian Plays & Short Stories. Максим Горький
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MONK
That's from the refectory.
KING HEROD
You are on the run, fast as your feet can carry you! Ah! but where to? Everywhere is hell, everywhere is fire. You refused to hearken unto me, my pet; now you shall hearken unto the fire. Won't I be glad, won't I rejoice! I'll take off my chains so that I can catch them and present them to the devil—first one, then the other. Here, take him. And the howl they'll set up, and the weeping and lamentation. "I am not guilty." Not guilty? Who, then, is—who? To gehenna with you! Burn, you damned hypocrites, until the second Advent. And then we'll build a new fire, then we'll build a new fire.
GRAY MONK
Isn't it time for us to go, Father Kirill?
FAT MONK
Yes, we had better be moving along. It's getting dark, and it's time to retire.
KING HEROD
Aha! You don't like to hear the truth. It isn't pleasant, is it?
FAT MONK
Hee-hee, brother, talk is cheap. A barking dog doesn't bite. Scold away, scold away. We are listening. God in heaven will decide who is to go to hell and who elsewhere. "The meek, shall inherit the earth," says the Gospel. Good-bye, young gentlemen.
GRAY MONK (to King Herod)
Let me give you a piece of advice, however. Talk, but don't talk too much. Don't go too far. We are only tolerating you because you are a pitiful creature and because you are foolish. But if you give your tongue too free a rein, we can stop it, you know. Yes, indeed.
KING HEROD
All right, try—try to stop me.
FAT MONK
What's the use, Father Vissarion? Let him talk. It doesn't do any harm. Listen, listen, young gentlemen. He is an interesting fellow. Good night.
[They go. The Fat Monk is heard laughing heartily.
KING HEROD (to Savva)
Fine specimens. I can't stand them.
SAVVA
I like you, uncle.
KING HEROD
Do you? So you don't like their kind either?
SAVVA
No, I don't.
KING HEROD
Well, I'll sit down for a while. My legs are swollen. Have you got a cigarette?
SAVVA (handing him a cigarette)
Do you smoke?
KING HEROD
Sometimes. Excuse me for having talked to you the way I did before. You are a good fellow. But why did you lie and say you understood? No one can understand it. Who is this with you?
SAVVA
Oh, he just happened along.
KING HEROD
Well, brother, feeling bad, down in the mouth?
SPERANSKY
Yes, I feel blue.
KING HEROD
Keep still, keep still, I don't want to listen. You are suffering? Keep still. I am a man too, brother, so I don't understand. I'll insult you if you don't look out. (Throws away the cigarette) No, I can't. As long as I keep standing or walking I manage somehow. The moment I sit down, it's hell. Oh! Ow-w! (Writhing in agony) I simply can't catch my breath. Oh, God, do you see my torture? Eh? Well, well, it's nothing. It's gone. Oh! Ow-w!
[The sky has become overcast with clouds. It turns dark quickly. Now and then there are flashes of lightning.
SAVVA (quietly)
One must try to stifle one's grief, old man. Fight it. Say to yourself firmly and resolutely: "I don't want it." And it will cease to be. You seem to be a good, strong man.
KING HEROD
No, friend, my grief is such that even death won't remove it. What is death? It is little, insignificant, and my grief is great. No, death won't end my grief. There was Cain. Even when he died, his sorrow remained.
SPERANSKY
The dead do not grieve. They are serene. They know the truth.
KING HEROD
But they don't tell it to anybody. What's the good of such truth? Here am I alive, and yet I know the truth. Here am I with my sorrow. You see what it is—there is no greater on earth. And yet if God spoke to me and said, "Yeremey, I will give you the whole earth if you give me your grief," I wouldn't give it away. I will not give it away, friend. It is sweeter to me than honey; it is stronger than the strongest drink. Through it I have learned the truth.
SAVVA
God?
KING HEROD
Christ—that's the one! He alone can understand the sorrow that is in me. He sees and understands. "Yes, Yeremey, I see how you suffer." That's all. "I see." And I answer Him: "Yes, O Lord, behold my sorrow!" That's all. No more is necessary.
SAVVA
What you value in Christ is His suffering for the people, is that it?
KING HEROD
You mean his crucifixion? No, brother, that suffering was a trifle. They crucified Him—what did that matter? The important point was that thereby He came to know the truth. As long as He walked the earth, He was—well—a man, rather a good man—talking here and there about this and that. When He met someone, He would talk to him about this and that, teach him, and tell him a few good things to put him on the right track. But when these same fellows carried Him off to the cross and went at Him with knouts, whips, and lashes, then His eyes were opened. "Aha!" He said, "so that's what it is!" And He prayed: "I cannot endure such suffering. I thought it would be a simple crucifixion; but, O Father in Heaven, what is this?" And the Father said to Him: "Never mind, never mind, Son! Know the truth, know what it is." And from then on, He fell to sorrowing, and has been sorrowing to this day.
SAVVA
Sorrowing?
KING HEROD
Yes, friend, he is sorrowing. (Pause. Lightning)
SPERANSKY
It looks like rain, and I am without rubbers and umbrella.
KING HEROD
And everywhere, wheresoever I go, wheresoever I turn, I see before me His pure visage. "Do you understand my suffering, O Lord?" "I understand, Yeremey, I understand everything. Go your way in peace." I am to Him like a transparent crystal with a tear inside. "You understand, Lord?" "I understand, Yeremey." "Well, and I understand you too." So we live together. He with me, I with Him. I am sorry for Him also. When I die, I will transmit my sorrow to Him. "Take it, Lord."
SAVVA
But after all, you are not quite right in running down the people the way you do. There are some good men also—very few—but there are some. Otherwise it wouldn't be of any use to live.
KING HEROD
No, friend, there are none. I don't want to fool you—there are none.
You know, it was they who christened me with the name of King Herod.
SAVVA
Who?
KING HEROD
Why, your people. There is no beast more cruel than man. I killed my boy, so I am King Herod to them. Damn them, it never enters their minds how terrible it is for me to be burdened with such a nick-name. Herod! If they only called me so out of spite! But not at all.
SAVVA
What