Selected plays

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MASHA. I think man ought to have faith or ought to seek a faith, or else his life is empty, empty. . . . To live and not to understand why cranes fly; why children are born; why there are stars in the sky. . . . You've got to know what you're living for or else it's all nonsense and waste [a pause].

VERSHININ. And yet you're sorry when your youth is over, . . .

MASHA. Gogol says: it's dull living in this world, friends!

TUZENBAKH. And I say: it is difficult to argue with you, friends, Oh, well, I give up. . . .

CHEBUTYKIN [reading the newspaper]. Balzac was married at Berditchev.

[IRINA hums softly.]

CHEBUTYKIN. I really must put that down in my book [writes]. Balzac was married at Berditchev [reads the paper].

IRINA [lays out the cards for patience, dreamily]. Balzac was married at Berditchev.

TUZENBAKH. The die is cast. You know, Marya Sergeyevna, I've resigned my commission.

MASHA. So I hear. And I see nothing good in that. I don't like civilians.

TUZENBAKH. Never mind . . . [gets up]. I'm not good-looking enough for a soldier. But that doesn't matter, though . . . I'm going to work. If only for one day in my life, to work so that I come home at night tired out and fall asleep as soon as I get into bed . . . [going into the dining-room]. Workmen must sleep soundly!

FEDOTIK [to IRINA]. I bought these coloured pencils for you just now as I passed Pyzhikov's on Moscow Street. . . . And this penknife. . . .

IRINA. You've got used to treating me as though I were little, but I'm grown up, you know . . . [takes the coloured pencils and the penknife, joyfully]. How lovely!

FEDOTIK. And I bought a knife for myself . . . look . . . one blade, and another blade, a third, and this is for your ears, and here are scissors, and that's for cleaning your nails . . . .

RODE [loudly]. Doctor, how old are you?

CHEBUTYKIN. Me? Thirty-two [laughter].

FEDOTIK. I'll show you another kind of patience . . . [lays out the cards] .

[The samovar is brought in; ANFISA is at the samovar; a little later NATASHA comes in and is also busy at the table; SOLYONY comes in, and after greeting the others sits down at the table.]

VERSHININ. What a wind there is!

MASHA. Yes. I'm sick of the winter. I've already forgotten what summer is like.

IRINA. The game is working out right, I see. We shall go to Moscow.

FEDOTIK. No, it's not working out. You see, the eight is over the two of spades [laughs]. So that means you won't go to Moscow.

CHEBUTYKIN [reads from the newspaper]. Tsitsikar. Smallpox is raging here.

ANFISA [going up to MASHA]. Masha, come to tea, my dear. [To VERSHININ] Come, your