The Essential Russian Plays & Short Stories. Максим Горький
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eyes fixed on Lipa)
LIPA
I guessed a little something long ago—that day when you spoke to me—only I didn't know exactly what it was. And I saw the little machine too. I have another key to the trunk.
SAVVA
Evidently you have been cut out for a spy. Go on!
LIPA
I am not afraid of insults.
SAVVA
Never mind, never mind—go on.
LIPA
Then I saw that you had frequent talks with that fellow—Kondraty.
Yesterday I looked in the trunk again, and the machine wasn't there.
So I understood.
SAVVA
You say you have another key?
LIPA
Yes. The trunk is mine, you know. Well, and to-day—
SAVVA
When to-day?
LIPA
Toward evening—I couldn't find Kondraty anywhere—I told him that I knew all. He got very much frightened and told me the rest.
SAVVA
A worthy pair—spy and traitor.
LIPA
If you are going to insult me, I won't say another word.
SAVVA
Never mind, never mind—go on.
LIPA
He was going to tell the Father Superior, but I didn't let him. I didn't want to ruin you.
SAVVA
No?
LIPA
When it was, all over, I understood what a crazy scheme it was—so crazy that I simply can't think of it as real. It must have been a nightmare. It's quite impossible. And I began to feel sorry for you—
SAVVA
Yes.
LIPA
I am sorry for you now too. (With tears) Savva, darling, you are my brother. I have rocked your cradle. My dear angel, what idea is this you have got into your mind? Why, it's terrible—it's madness. I understand how hard it must be for you to see how people live, and so you have resolved on a desperate deed. You have always been good and kind, and so I can understand you. Don't you think it's hard for me to see this life? Don't you think I suffer myself? Give me your hand.
SAVVA (pushing her hand away)
He told you he would go to the Superior?
LIPA
But I didn't let him.
SAVVA
Has he got the machine?
LIPA
He'll give it back to you to-morrow. He was afraid to give it to me. Savva dear, don't look at me like that. I know it's unpleasant for you, but you have a lot of common sense. You can't help seeing that what you wanted to do was an absurdity, a piece of lunacy, a vagary that can come to one only in one's dreams at night. Don't I understand that life is hard? Am I not suffering from it myself? I understand even your comrades, the anarchists. It's not right to kill anybody; but still I understand them. They kill the bad.
SAVVA
They are not my comrades. I have no comrades.
LIPA
Aren't you an anarchist?
SAVVA
No.
LIPA
What are you then?
TONY (raising his head)
They are going, they are going. Do you hear?
SAVVA (quietly, but ominously)
They are going.
LIPA
There, you see. Who is going? Think of it. It's human misery that's going. And you wanted to take away from them their last hope, their last consolation. And to what purpose? In the name of what? In the name of some wild, ghastly dream about a "naked earth." (Peers with terror into the darkness of the room) A naked earth! It's terrible to think of it. A naked earth! How could a man, a human being, ever conceive such an idea? A naked earth! Nothing, nothing! Everything laid bare, everything annihilated. Everything that people worked for through all the years; everything they have created with so much toil, with so much pain. Unhappy people! There is among you a man who says that all this must be burned, must be consumed with fire.
SAVVA
You remember my words to perfection.
LIPA
You awakened me, Savva. When you told me all that, my eyes were suddenly opened, and I began to love everything. Do you understand? I began to love it all. These walls—formerly I didn't notice them; now I am sorry for them—so sorry, I could cry. And the books and everything—each brick, each piece of wood to which man has applied his labor. Let's admit that it's poor stuff. Who says it's good? But that's why I love it—for its defects, its imperfections, its crooked lines, its unfulfilled hopes. For the labor and the tears. And all who hear you talking, Savva, will feel as I do, and will begin to love all that is old and dear and human.
SAVVA
I have nothing to do with you.
LIPA
Nothing to do with us? With whom then have you to do? No, Savva, you don't love anyone. You love only yourself and your dreams. He who loves men will not take away from them all they have. He will not regard his own wishes more than their lives. Destroy everything! Destroy Golgotha! Consider: (with terror) destroy Golgotha! The brightest, the most glorious hope that ever was on earth! All right, you don't believe in Christ. But if you have a single drop of nobility in your nature, you must respect and honor His noble memory. He was also unhappy. He was crucified—crucified, Savva. You are silent? Have you nothing to say?
SAVVA
Nothing.
LIPA
I thought—I thought—if you succeeded in carrying out your plot—I thought I'd kill you—that I'd poison you like some noxious beast.
SAVVA
And if I don't succeed—
LIPA
You are still hoping?
SAVVA
And if I don't succeed, I'll kill you.
LIPA (advancing a step toward him)
Kill me! Kill me! Give me a chance to suffer for the sake of Christ.
For the sake of Christ and for the sake of the people.
SAVVA
Yes. I'll kill you.
LIPA
Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Oh, Lord, to suffer for Thee! Is there higher happiness than that?
SAVVA (with a contemptuous gesture, pointing at Lipa)
And that's a human being! That's one counted among the best! That's the kind in which they take pride! Ah me, how poor you are in good people!
LIPA
Insult! Mock! That's the way it has always been. They have always heaped insults upon us before they killed us.
SAVVA
No, I don't mean to insult you. How can I insult you? You are simply a silly woman. There have been many such