The Cherry Orchard

Epihodov here, and I’ve taken him on. Varya Really! Lopahin This time last year we had snow already, if you remember; but now it’s so fine and sunny. Though it’s cold, to be sure⁠—three degrees of frost. Varya I haven’t looked a pause. And besides, our thermometer’s broken a pause. Voice at the door from the yard: “Yermolay Alexeyevitch!” Lopahin As though he had long been expecting this summons. This minute! Lopahin goes out quickly. Varya sitting on the floor and laying her head on a bag full of clothes, sobs quietly. The door opens. Lyubov Andreyevna comes in cautiously. Lyubov Well? A pause. We must be going. Varya Has wiped her eyes and is no longer crying. Yes, mamma, it’s time to start. I shall have time to get to the Ragulins today, if only you’re not late for the train. Lyubov In the doorway. Anya, put your things on. Enter Anya, then Gaev and Charlotta Ivanovna. Gaev has on a warm coat with a hood. Servants and cabmen come in. Epihodov bustles about the luggage. Lyubov Now we can start on our travels. Anya Joyfully. On our travels! Gaev My friends⁠—my dear, my precious friends! Leaving this house forever, can I be silent? Can I refrain from giving utterance at leave-taking to those emotions which now flood all my being? Anya Supplicatingly. Uncle! Varya Uncle, you mustn’t! Gaev Dejectedly. Cannon and into the pocket⁠ ⁠… I’ll be quiet.⁠ ⁠… Enter Trofimov and afterwards Lopahin. Trofimov Well, ladies and gentlemen, we must start. Lopahin Epihodov, my coat! Lyubov I’ll stay just one minute. It seems as though I have never seen before what the walls, what the ceilings in this house were like, and now I look at them with greediness, with such tender love. Gaev I remember when I was six years old sitting in that window on Trinity Day watching my father going to church. Lyubov Have all the things been taken? Lopahin I think all. Putting on overcoat, to Epihodov. You, Epihodov, mind you see everything is right. Epihodov In a husky voice. Don’t you trouble, Yermolay Alexeyevitch. Lopahin Why, what’s wrong with your voice? Epihodov I’ve just had a drink of water, and I choked over something. Yasha Contemptuously. The ignorance! Lyubov We are going⁠—and not a soul will be left here. Lopahin Not till the spring. Varya Pulls a parasol out of a bundle, as though about to hit someone with it. Lopahin makes a gesture as though alarmed. What is it? I didn’t mean anything. Trofimov Ladies and gentlemen, let us get into the carriage. It’s time. The train will be in directly. Varya Petya, here they are, your goloshes, by that box. With tears. And what dirty old things they are! Trofimov Putting on his goloshes. Let us go, friends! Gaev Greatly agitated, afraid of weeping. The train⁠—the station! Double baulk, ah! Lyubov Let us go! Lopahin Are we all here? Locks the side-door on left. The things are all here. We must lock up. Let us go! Anya Goodbye, home! Goodbye to the old life! Trofimov Welcome to the new life! Trofimov goes out with Anya. Varya looks round the room and goes out slowly. Yasha and Charlotta Ivanovna, with her dog, go out. Lopahin Till the spring, then! Come, friends, till we meet! Goes out. Lyubov Andreyevna and Gaev remain alone. As though they had been waiting for this, they throw themselves on each other’s necks, and break into subdued smothered sobbing, afraid of being overheard. Gaev In despair. Sister, my sister! Lyubov Oh, my orchard!⁠—my sweet, beautiful orchard! My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! goodbye! Voice of Anya Calling gaily. Mamma! Voice of Trofimov Gaily, excitedly. Aa‑oo! Lyubov One last look at the walls, at the windows. My dear mother loved to walk about this room. Gaev Sister, sister! Voice of Anya Mamma! Voice of Trofimov Aa‑oo! Lyubov We are coming. They go out. The stage is empty. There is the sound of the doors being locked up, then of the carriages driving away. There is silence. In the stillness there is the dull stroke of an axe in a tree, clanging with a mournful lonely sound. Footsteps are heard. Firs appears in the doorway on the right. He is dressed as always⁠—in a pea-jacket and white waistcoat, with slippers on his feet. He is ill. Firs Goes up to the doors, and tries the handles. Locked! They have gone⁠ ⁠… sits down on sofa. They have forgotten me.⁠ ⁠… Never mind⁠ ⁠… I’ll sit here a bit.⁠ ⁠… I’ll be bound Leonid Andreyevitch hasn’t put his fur coat on and has gone off in his thin overcoat sighs anxiously. I didn’t see after him.⁠ ⁠… These young people⁠ ⁠… mutters something that can’t be distinguished. Life has slipped by as though I hadn’t lived. Lies down. I’ll lie down a bit.⁠ ⁠… There’s no strength in you, nothing left you⁠—all gone! Ech! I’m good for nothing lies motionless. A sound is heard that seems to come from the sky, like a breaking harp-string, dying away mournfully. All is still again, and there is heard nothing but the strokes of the axe far away in the orchard. Curtain.

Colophon

The Cherry Orchard
was published in 1904 by
Anton Chekhov.
It was translated from Russian in 1923 by
Constance Garnett.

This ebook was transcribed and produced in 2025 for
Standard Ebooks
by
Devin O’Bannon,
and is based on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey,
a painting completed in 1891 by
George Inness.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
September 25, 2025, 8:55 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/anton-chekhov/the-cherry-orchard/constance-garnett.

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