The Seagull

write without thinking about forms at all, write because it springs freely from his soul. There is a tap at the window nearest to the table. What is that? Looks out of window. There is nothing to be seen⁠ ⁠… opens the glass door and looks out into the garden. Someone ran down the steps. Calls. Who is there? Goes out and can be heard walking rapidly along the verandah; returns half a minute later with Nina Zaretchny. Nina, Nina! Nina lays her head on his breast and weeps with subdued sobs. Treplev Moved. Nina! Nina! It’s you⁠ ⁠… you.⁠ ⁠… It’s as though I had foreseen it, all day long my heart has been aching and restless takes off her hat and cape. Oh, my sweet, my precious, she has come at last! Don’t let us cry, don’t let us! Nina There is someone here. Treplev No one. Nina Lock the doors, someone may come in. Treplev No one will come in. Nina I know Irina Nikolayevna is here. Lock the doors. Treplev Locks the door on right, goes to door on left. There is no lock on this one, I’ll put a chair against it puts an armchair against the door. Don’t be afraid, no one will come. Nina Looking intently into his face. Let me look at you. Looking round. It’s warm, it’s nice.⁠ ⁠… In old days this was the drawing-room. Am I very much changed? Treplev Yes.⁠ ⁠… You are thinner and your eyes are bigger. Nina, how strange it is that I should be seeing you. Why would not you let me see you? Why haven’t you come all this time? I know you have been here almost a week⁠ ⁠… I have been to you several times every day; I stood under your window like a beggar. Nina I was afraid that you might hate me. I dream every night that you look at me and don’t know me. If only you knew! Ever since I came I have been walking here⁠ ⁠… by the lake. I have been near your house many times and could not bring myself to enter it. Let us sit down. They sit down. Let us sit down and talk and talk. It’s nice here, it’s warm and snug. Do you hear the wind? There’s a passage in Turgenev, “Well for the man on such a night who sits under the shelter of home, who has a warm corner in safety.” I am a seagull.⁠ ⁠… No, that’s not it rubs her forehead. What was I saying? Yes⁠ ⁠… Turgenev⁠ ⁠… ”And the Lord help all homeless wanderers!”⁠ ⁠… It doesn’t matter sobs. Treplev Nina, you are crying again.⁠ ⁠… Nina! Nina Never mind, it does me good⁠ ⁠… I haven’t cried for two years. Yesterday, late in the evening, I came into the garden to see whether our stage was still there. It is still standing. I cried for the first time after two years and it eased the weight on my heart and made it lighter. You see, I am not crying now takes him by the hand. And so now you are an author.⁠ ⁠… You are an author, I am an actress.⁠ ⁠… We too have been drawn into the whirlpool. I lived joyously, like a child⁠—I woke up singing in the morning; I loved you and dreamed of fame, and now? Early tomorrow morning I must go to Yelets third-class⁠ ⁠… with peasants, and at Yelets the cultured tradesmen will pester me with attentions. Life is a coarse business! Treplev Why to Yelets? Nina I have taken an engagement for the whole winter. It is time to go. Treplev Nina, I cursed you, I hated you, I tore up your letters and photographs, but I was conscious every minute that my soul is bound to yours forever. It’s not in my power to leave off loving you, Nina. Ever since I lost you and began to get my work published my life has been unbearable⁠—I am wretched.⁠ ⁠… My youth was, as it were, torn away all at once and it seems to me as though I have lived for ninety years already. I call upon you, I kiss the earth on which you have walked; wherever I look I see your face, that tender smile that lighted up the best days of my life.⁠ ⁠… Nina Distractedly. Why does he talk like this, why does he talk like this? Treplev I am alone in the world, warmed by no affection. I am as cold as though I were in a cellar, and everything I write is dry, hard and gloomy. Stay here, Nina, I entreat you, or let me go with you! Nina rapidly puts on her hat and cape. Treplev Nina, why is this? For God’s sake, Nina! Looks at her as she puts her things on; a pause. Nina My horses are waiting at the gate. Don’t see me off, I’ll go alone.⁠ ⁠… Through her tears. Give me some water.⁠ ⁠… Treplev Gives her some water. Where are you going now? Nina To the town a pause. Is Irina Nikolayevna here? Treplev Yes.⁠ ⁠… Uncle was taken worse on Thursday and we telegraphed for her. Nina Why do you say that you kissed the earth on which I walked? I ought to be killed. Bends over the table. I am so tired! If I could rest⁠ ⁠… if I could rest! Raising her head. I am a seagull.⁠ ⁠… No, that’s not it. I am an actress. Oh, well! Hearing Madame Arkadin and Trigorin laughing, she listens, then runs to door on left and looks through the keyhole. He is here too.⁠ ⁠… Turning back to Treplev. Oh, well⁠ ⁠… it doesn’t matter⁠ ⁠… no.⁠ ⁠… He did not believe in the stage, he always laughed at my dreams and little by little I left off believing in it too, and lost heart.⁠ ⁠… And then I was fretted by love and jealousy, and continually anxious over my little one.⁠ ⁠… I grew petty and trivial, I acted stupidly.⁠ ⁠… I did