Tsitsikar: A city in northeast China
Masha, come to tea, my dear: Lit, Mataushka, come to tea
minister was condemned for the Panama affair: Baihot, French minister of public works, was sent to prison in 1893 for accepting a bribe from developers who hoped to build a canal in Panama
Je vous prie...: I beg of you, excuse me, Masha, but your manners are a little unrefined (Natasha consistently uses clumsy French)
Il paraît...: It seems my Bobik is no longer asleep
I am strange, who is not strange: From the play Woe from Wit by A. S. Griboyedov (1795-1829)
Be not wrath, Aleko!: From Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies" (1824); Aleko is the hero, but the exact words that Solyony quotes do not occur in the poem
temperament of Lermontov: Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) was a poet who was sometimes called the Russian Byron; Lermontov was killed in a duel
Oh my porch, oh my new porch: A popular Russian folk song; Paul Schmidt prints the music and words in the notes to his translation of the play (The Plays of Anton Chekhov, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 321)
Petty, vulgar creature: Lit., Meshchanka!, a female member of the petty bourgeoisie; since Andrey (and his sisters) are members of the gentry, Andrey has married beneath his class
three-horse sleigh: a troika
O fallacem...: O delusive hope of man! Act III
Act III: Bristow suggests the act begins between 2 and 3 a.m. during the summer of 1900
Behind the scenes a bell is ringing: A jarring noise made by a provincial church bell; Chekhov was particularly concerned with the sounds in Act III; in a letter he wrote that the only noise is off in the distance, off stage, vague and muffled, and everyone on stage is tired and sleepy
know where father is: Lit., Papasha, an affectionate form of address to an elderly man
In 1812 Moscow was burnt too: When the French under Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the people of Moscow burned the city rather than let it fall into enemy hands
baby Sophie: Lit., Sofochka, Natasha's second child
The vulgarity!: The Russian word used here is poshlost', which has no English equivalent; Nabokov has suggested that it is "not only the obviously trashy but also the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive."
In vino veritas: There is truth in wine
May I offer you this fig?: In a letter Chekhov wrote that the song was from an operetta he once heard, but he could not recall its name
Young and old are bound by love, and precious are its pangs: An aria sung by Prince Gremin in Act III of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin
Tram-tam-tam: In a letter Chekhov wrote that Vershinin says the words "Tram-tam-tam" as a kind of question and Masha answers in kind; Masha should say "tram-tam" and start to laugh, but not loud, just a little, almost to herself
I may provoke the geese: Refers to Krylov's fable "The Geese"
Amo, amas...: Masha declines the Latin verb "love"
Omnia mea mecum porto: All I own is what I carry with me
Gogol's madman: Memoirs of a Madman (1835)
your honour, to you: Lit., "your worship"; Andrey wants to be addressed according to his rank, but Ferapont responds with a title of a higher rank
Zemstvo: A local council
you get a pension: A military pension because of their father's service Act IV
Act IV: Bristow suggests that this act begins at noon in the autumn of 1900
kochany: Polish for sweetheart
modus vivendi: mode of living
thinking it was a Latin word: The joke is that the Russian word for nonsense, chepukha, when written in Cyrillic cursive can be read as renixa in Latin
My heart of gold: In later editions Chekhov replaced this with: You've gone on far ahead, I won't catch up with you. I'm left behind like a migrant bird grown old and unable to fly. Fly, my dear, fly, and God be with you! [a pause] It's a pity you shaved your moustache, Fyodor Ilyich.
KULYGIN. Oh, drop it! [sighs]
ut consecutivum: A Latin grammar term
order of the Stanislav of the second degree: A civil service decoration
Maiden's Prayer: A parlour piano favourite written by Baranowski
with a repeater: his pocket watch strikes the hours
put an extinguisher over it: an extinguisher was a bell-shaped device that was used to put out candles
having to challenge him: to a duel
And the farther you go, the better: In the first version of the play Chekhov added: [a pause]. But do as you like! It doesn't matter. . .
And, restless, seeks the stormy ocean...: Solyony misquotes slightly from Lermontov's "The Sail"
ANDREY and FERAPONT come in]: Note that there is no previous stage direction for Andrey to exit
kvass: a homemade beer
baby Sophie: Lit., Sofochka
Il ne faut pas faire du bruit...: Stop making noise, Sophie is asleep already. You are a bear (once again Natasha uses awkward French)
* * *
The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov, 1904
Translated by Julius West, 1916
CHARACTERS
LUBOV ANDREYEVNA RANEVSKY (Mme. RANEVSKY), a landowner
ANYA, her daughter, aged seventeen
VARYA (BARBARA), her adopted daughter, aged twenty-seven
LEONID ANDREYEVITCH GAEV, Mme. Ranevsky's brother
ERMOLAI ALEXEYEVITCH LOPAKHIN, a merchant
PETER SERGEYEVITCH TROFIMOV, a student
BORIS BORISOVITCH SIMEONOV-PISCHIN, a landowner
CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA, a governess
SIMEON PANTELEYEVITCH EPIKHODOV, a clerk
DUNYASHA (AVDOTYA FEDOROVNA), a maidservant
FIERS, an old footman, aged eighty-seven
YASHA, a young footman
A TRAMP
A STATION-MASTER
POST-OFFICE CLERK
GUESTS
A SERVANT
The action takes place on Mme. RANEVSKY'S estate
ACT ONE
A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads into ANYA'S room. It is close on sunrise. It is May. The cherry-trees are in flower but it is chilly in the garden. There is an early frost. The windows of the room are shut. DUNYASHA comes in with a candle, and LOPAKHIN with a book in his hand.
LOPAKHIN. The train's arrived, thank God. What's the time?
DUNYASHA. It will soon be two. [Blows out candle] It is light already.
LOPAKHIN. How much was the train late? Two hours at least. [Yawns and stretches himself] I have made a rotten mess of it! I came here on purpose to meet them at the station, and then overslept myself . . . in my chair. It's a pity. I wish you'd wakened me.
DUNYASHA. I thought you'd gone away. [Listening] I think I hear them coming.
LOPAKHIN. [Listens] No. . . . They've got to collect their luggage and so on. . . . [Pause] Lubov Andreyevna has been living abroad for five years; I don't know what she'll be like now. . . . She's a good sort--an easy, simple person. I remember when I was a boy of fifteen, my father, who is dead--he used to keep a shop in the village here--hit me on the face with his fist, and my nose bled. . . . We had gone into the yard together for something or other, and he was a little drunk. Lubov Andreyevna, as I remember her now, was still young, and very thin, and she took me to the washstand here in this very room, the nursery. She said, "Don't cry, little man, it'll be all right in time for your wedding." [Pause] "Little man". . . . My father was a peasant, it's true, but here I am in a white waistcoat and yellow shoes . . . a pearl out of an oyster. I'm rich now, with lots of money, but just think about it and examine me, and you'll find I'm still a peasant down to the marrow of my bones. [Turns over the pages of his book] Here I've been reading this book, but I understood nothing. I read and fell asleep. [Pause.]