Uncle Vanya

here! It’s a picture of our district as it was fifty years ago. The dark and light green stands for forest; half of the whole area was covered with forest. Where there is a network of red over the green, elks and wild goats were common.⁠ ⁠… I show both the flora and the fauna here. On this lake there were swans, geese and ducks, and the old people tell us there were “a power” of birds of all sorts, no end of them; they flew in clouds. Besides the villages and hamlets, you see scattered here and there all sorts of settlements⁠—little farms, monasteries of Old Believers, water-mills.⁠ ⁠… Horned cattle and horses were numerous. That is shown by the blue colour. For instance, the blue colour lies thick on this neighbourhood. Here there were regular droves of horses, and every homestead had three on an average a pause. Now look lower down. That’s how it was twenty-five years ago. Already, you see, only a third of the area is under forest. There are no goats left, but there are elks. Both the green and the blue are paler. And so it goes on and on. Let us pass to the third part⁠—a map of the district as it is at present. There is green here and there, but only in patches; all the elks have vanished, and the swans and the capercailzies too.⁠ ⁠… Of the old settlements and farms and monasteries and mills there is not a trace. In fact, it’s a picture of gradual and unmistakable degeneration which will, apparently, in another ten or fifteen years be complete. You will say that it is the influence of civilisation⁠—that the old life must naturally give way to the new. Yes, I understand that. If there were highroads and railways on the site of these ruined forests, if there were works and factories and schools, the peasants would be healthier, better off, more intelligent; but, you see, there is nothing of the sort! There are still the same swamps and mosquitoes, the same lack of roads, and poverty, and typhus and diphtheria and fires in the district.⁠ ⁠… We have here a degeneration that is the result of too severe a struggle for existence. This degeneration is due to inertia, ignorance, to the complete lack of understanding, when a man, cold, hungry and sick, simply to save what is left of life, to keep his children alive, instinctively, unconsciously clutches at anything to satisfy his hunger and warm himself and destroys everything heedless of the morrow.⁠ ⁠… Almost everything has been destroyed already, but nothing as yet has been created to take its place. Coldly. I see from your face that it doesn’t interest you. Yelena But I understand so little about all that. Astrov There’s nothing to understand in it; it simply doesn’t interest you. Yelena To speak frankly, I am thinking of something else. Forgive me. I want to put you through a little examination, and I am troubled and don’t know how to begin. Astrov An examination? Yelena Yes, an examination⁠ ⁠… but not a very formidable one. Let us sit down. They sit down. It concerns a certain young lady. We will talk like honest people, like friends, without beating about the bush. Let us talk and forget all about it afterwards. Yes? Astrov Yes. Yelena It concerns my stepdaughter Sonya. You like her, don’t you? Astrov Yes, I have a respect for her. Yelena Does she attract you as a woman? Astrov After a pause. No. Yelena A few words more, and I have done. Have you noticed nothing? Astrov Nothing. Yelena Taking him by the hand. You do not love her⁠ ⁠… I see it from your eyes.⁠ ⁠… She is unhappy.⁠ ⁠… Understand that and⁠ ⁠… give up coming here. Astrov Gets up. My day is over. Besides, I have too much to do shrugging his shoulders. What time have I for such things? He is confused. Yelena Ough! What an unpleasant conversation! I am trembling as though I’d been carrying a ton weight. Well, thank God, that’s over! Let us forget it. Let it be as though we had not spoken at all, and⁠ ⁠… and go away. You are an intelligent man⁠ ⁠… you’ll understand a pause. I feel hot all over. Astrov If you had spoken a month or two ago I might, perhaps, have considered it; but now⁠ ⁠… he shrugs his shoulders. And if she is unhappy, then of course⁠ ⁠… There’s only one thing I can’t understand: what induced you to go into it? Looks into her eyes and shakes his finger at her. You are a sly one! Yelena What does that mean? Astrov Laughs. Sly! Suppose Sonya is unhappy⁠—I am quite ready to admit it⁠—but why need you go into it? Preventing her from speaking, eagerly. Please don’t try to look astonished. You know perfectly well what brings me here every day.⁠ ⁠… Why, and on whose account, I am here, you know perfectly well. You charming bird of prey, don’t look at me like that, I am an old sparrow.⁠ ⁠… Yelena Perplexed. Bird of prey! I don’t understand. Astrov A beautiful, fluffy weasel.⁠ ⁠… You must have a victim! Here I have been doing nothing for a whole month. I have dropped everything. I seek you greedily⁠—and you are awfully pleased at it, awfully.⁠ ⁠… Well, I am conquered; you knew that before your examination folding his arms and bowing his head. I submit. Come and devour me! Yelena You are mad! Astrov Laughs through his teeth. You⁠—diffident.⁠ ⁠… Yelena Oh, I am not so bad and so mean as you think! I swear I’m not! Tries to go out. Astrov Barring the way. I am going away today. I won’t come here again, but⁠ ⁠… takes her hand and looks round where shall we see each other? Tell me quickly, where? Someone may come in; tell me quickly.⁠ ⁠… Passionately. How wonderful, how magnificent you are! One kiss.⁠ ⁠… If I could only kiss your fragrant hair.⁠ ⁠… Yelena I assure you⁠ ⁠… Astrov Preventing her from speaking. Why