VOINITSKY. As you like.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. Ah!
SONYA. What’s the matter, Granny?
MARIYA VASILYEVNA (to Serebryakov). I beg your pardon, Aleksandr . . . I forgot to tell you . . . I must be losing my memory . . . today I got a letter from Kharkov from Pavel Alekseevich . . . He sent his regards . . .
SEREBRYAKOV. Thank you, delighted.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. He sent his new pamphlet and asked me to show it you.
SEREBRYAKOV. Interesting?
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. Interesting, but rather peculiar. He opposes the very thing he was defending seven years ago. It’s very, very typical of our times. Never have people betrayed their convictions as frivolously as they do now.
ZHELTUKHIN. No ideals!
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. Somehow the pieces on the board have been moved around, and it’s positively difficult to figure out nowadays who belongs to which faction and where their sympathies lie. It’s appalling!
VOINITSKY. It’s not at all appalling. Have some carp, maman.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. But I want to talk!
VOINITSKY. For fifty years now we’ve been talking about sympathies and factions, it’s high time we stopped.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. For some reason you don’t like to listen when I talk. Pardon me, Georges, but this last year you have changed so much that I utterly fail to recognize you . . . You used to be a man of steadfast convictions, a shining light . . .
VOINITSKY. Oh yes! I was a shining light but no one ever basked in my rays. May I leave the table? I was a shining light . . . Don’t rub salt in my wounds! Now I’m forty-seven. Before last year I was the same as you, deliberately trying to cloud my vision with all these abstractions to keep from seeing real life — and I thought I was doing the right thing. I never fell in love, wasn’t loved, had no family, didn’t drink wine, didn’t enjoy myself, because I was trying to consider all that as vulgar! And now, if you only knew how I hate myself for having wasted my time so stupidly when I could have had everything that’s withheld from me now by my old age! I’ve wasted my life stupidly, and the awareness of that is gnawing at my heart now.
SEREBRYAKOV. Hold on . . . Georges, you seem to be blaming your former convictions for something . . .
SONYA. That’s enough, Papa! It’s boring!
SEREBRYAKOV. Hold on . . . You are indeed blaming your former convictions for something. But they aren’t to blame, you are. You have forgotten that convictions without deeds are a dead letter. One must take action.
VOINITSKY. Take action? Not everyone is capable of being a perpetual-motion writing machine.
SEREBRYAKOV. What do you mean by that?
VOINITSKY. Nothing. Let’s change the subject. We’re not at home.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. I really am losing my memory . . . . I forgot to remind you, Aleksandr, to take your drops before lunch. I brought them along, but I forgot to remind you . . .
SEREBRYAKOV. You needn’t have.
MARIYA VASILYEVNA. But after all you’re a sick man, Aleksandr! You’re a very sick man!
SEREBRYAKOV. Why shout it from the rooftops? Old, sick, old, sick . . . that’s all I ever hear! (To Zheltukhin.) Leonid Stepanych, may I leave the table and go inside? It’s rather hot here and the mosquitoes are ferocious.
ZHELTUKHIN. Please be so kind. Lunch is over.
SEREBRYAKOV. Thank you. (Exits into the house, followed by MARIYA VASILYEVNA.)
YULYA (to her brother). Go after the Professor! It’s impolite!
ZHELTUKHIN (to her). The hell with him! (Exits.)
DYADIN. Yuliya Stepanovna, may I thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Kisses her hand.)
YULYA. Don’t mention it, Ilya Ilyich! You’ve eaten so little . . .
They thank her.
Don’t mention it, gentlemen! You all ate so little!
FYODOR IVANOVICH. Well, gents, what shall we do now? Let’s go right now to the croquet lawn and settle our wager . . . and after that?
YULYA. After that we’ll have dinner.
FYODOR IVANOVICH. And after that?
KHRUSHCHOV. After that you can all come to my place. In the evening we’ll arrange a fishing party on the lake.
FYODOR IVANOVICH. Excellent.
DYADIN. Fascinating.
KHRUSHCHOV. It’s really nice at my place, gentlemen! You sit at home in the evening or at night you go out on the lake in a boat; the sky is reflected in the water so that there’s one sky full of stars over head, and another down below under the boat. Two skies, two moons . . . It’s awe-inspiring!
SONYA. Let me get this straight, gentlemen. That means, right now we’re going to the croquet lawn to settle the wager . . . Then we’ll have an early dinner with Yulya and about seven we’ll drive over to the Woo . . . I mean, to Mikhail Lvovich’s. Wonderful. Let’s go, Yulechka, and get the balls.
She and YULYA exit into the house.
FYODOR IVANOVICH. Vasily, bring the wine to the croquet lawn! We’ll drink to the health of the winner. Well, my old progenitor, let’s take part in this noble game.
ORLOVSKY. Wait, my own dear boy, I have to sit with the Professor for about five minutes, otherwise it would be impolite. One has to observe etiquette. Meanwhile play my ball, and I’ll be there soon . . . (Exits into the house.)
DYADIN. I shall go at once and listen to the most learned Aleksandr Vladi-mirovich. I anticipate a sublime pleasure, whi . . .
VOINITSKY. I’m sick to death of you, Waffles. Go on.
DYADIN. I’m going, sir. (Exits into the house.)
FYODOR IVANOVICH (going into the garden, sings). “And thou shalt be queen of the world, my love for all eternity . . .”(Exits.)
KHRUSHCHOV. I’m going to leave nice and quietly. (To Voinitsky.) Yegor Petrovich, I beg you most sincerely, let’s never talk about forests or medicine again. I don’t know why, but when you launch into that sort of talk, all day long I have the feeling I’ve eaten my dinner out of a rusty pot. My respects!
YELENA ANDREEVNA. Sorry . . . Just now you invited everyone to your home . . . Am I included?
KHRUSHCHOV (embarrassed). I mean . . . Of course, of course! I’d be very pleased. However it’s going on four o’clock . . . My respects . . . (Exits.)
page 608 / After: life, my youth! . . . — Love for you has made me a different man . . .
ACT TWO
page 623 / Before: You’re angry with me — Let’s talk frankly, like friends.
ACT THREE
page 626 / Replace: Yes . . . a fine piece . . . it’s ever been so boring around here as it is now . . .
with: I don’t think it’s ever been so boring around here, you walk from room to room, you sit, you stand, as if waiting for something.