by Henrik Ibsen
MAJA [rolls over on to her side, turning her back to him]: There’s not a whiff of the artist about him.
RUBEK [attentive]: Who’s not an artist?
MAJA [again in a sleepy voice]: You know – him, of course.
RUBEK: Oh, the bear shooter, you mean?
MAJA: Yes. Not a whiff of the artist there. Not a whiff!
RUBEK [smiles]: Yes, I do believe you are absolutely right there.
MAJA [vehemently, without moving]: Oh, and he’s so ugly! [Tears up a clump of heather and tosses it away.] So ugly, so ugly! Eugh!
RUBEK: Is that why you feel so safe running off with him – out into the wilderness?
MAJA [curt]: I don’t know. [Turns to face him] You’re ugly too, Rubek.
RUBEK: And you’ve only just discovered this?
MAJA: No, I’ve been aware of it for a long time.
RUBEK [shrugs his shoulders]: People get old. People get old, Maja.
MAJA: That’s not what I meant. You’ve got this look in your eyes now, something so tired, so resigned – when you actually deign to glance in my direction, that is – every once in a while.
RUBEK: So that is what you’ve noticed, you think?
MAJA [nods]: Little by little you’ve acquired this evil look in your eyes. It’s almost as if you were secretly plotting some treachery against me.
RUBEK: Oh? [Friendly but serious] Come here, Maja, and sit with me. Let’s have a little chat.
MAJA [stands up, halfway]: Will you let me sit on your knee, then? Like in the early years?
RUBEK: No, you mustn’t do that. People down at the hotel can see us. [Shifts along a little.] But you can sit here on the bench – next to me.
MAJA: No, thanks; in that case I’d rather go on lying where I am. I can hear you perfectly well from here. [Looks inquiringly at him.] So, what did you want to talk about?
RUBEK [begins slowly]: Why do you think it really was that I suggested we take this trip this summer?
MAJA: Well – you insisted that among other things it would do me an amazing lot of good. But –
RUBEK: But –?
MAJA: But I no longer believe that was the reason – not a bit.
RUBEK: So why do you think it was, then?
MAJA: I now think it was because of this pale lady.
RUBEK: Because of Frau von Satow –!
MAJA: Yes, her, the one who’s been at our heels. She turned up here yesterday evening as well.
RUBEK: But what on earth –!
MAJA: Well, you did know her extremely well once. Long before you met me.
RUBEK: And had forgotten her too – long before I met you.
MAJA [sits up]: Do you forget so easily, Rubek?
RUBEK [curtly]: Yes, extremely easily. [Adds brusquely] When I want to.
MAJA: Even a woman who’s been your model?
RUBEK [dismissively]: When I no longer have any use for her, then –
MAJA: Someone who has stripped naked for you?
RUBEK: Means nothing. Not to us artists. [Continues in a different tone] So how – if I may ask – was I supposed to know she was in the country?
MAJA: You might have seen her name on the visitors’ list.2 In one of our newspapers.
RUBEK: Yes, but I wouldn’t have recognized the name she now uses. I’d never heard of any Herr von Satow.
MAJA [feigns weariness]: Oh God, then you must have wanted to come here for some other reason.
RUBEK [serious]: Yes, Maja – there was another reason. A completely different one. And that is what we will have to discuss at some point.
MAJA [with a suppressed fit of laughter]: Lord, how solemn you look!
RUBEK [probing suspiciously]: Yes, perhaps slightly more solemn than necessary.
MAJA: How so –?
RUBEK: And that’s just as well, for both of us.
MAJA: You’re beginning to make me curious, Rubek.
RUBEK: Only curious? Not even a tiny bit worried?
MAJA [shakes her head]: Not a bit.
RUBEK: Good. Then listen. – That day down at the spa you said that you thought I’d become very nervy of late –
MAJA: Yes well, you have.
RUBEK: And why do you suppose that might be?
MAJA: How would I know –? [Hurriedly] Maybe you’ve grown weary of our life together, being with me incessantly.
RUBEK: Incessantly –? You might as well say ‘eternally’.
MAJA: Day in and day out then. We’ve been down there together now, just the two of us, for a good four-five years; we’ve barely been apart for an hour. – The two of us, quite on our own.
RUBEK [interested]: Yes. And –?
MAJA [slightly depressed]: You’re not a sociable man, Rubek. You’d sooner be off on your own, in your own thoughts. And I can’t really talk to you about your affairs. All that stuff about art and things like that – [makes a gesture with her hand] And I don’t really care that much about it either!
RUBEK: No, no; that’s why we usually sit by the fire talking about things that concern you.
MAJA: Oh, Lord – but I don’t have anything to talk about.
RUBEK: Only trivial things, perhaps. But at least it helps us pass the time, Maja.
MAJA: You’re right about that. Time is passing. It’s passing you by, Rubek! – And that’s really what’s making you so uneasy –
RUBEK [nods energetically]: And so restless! [Moves about on the bench.] No, I can’t stand this wretched life any longer!
MAJA [gets to her feet, stands a short while and looks at him]: If you want to get rid of me, you only have to say so.
RUBEK: What sort of talk is that? Get rid of you?
MAJA: Yes, if you want to throw me out, all you have to do is come out and say it. And I’ll be gone in an instant.
RUBEK [smiles almost imperceptibly]: Is that supposed to be a threat, Maja?
MAJA: What I said cannot possibly be any threat to you.
RUBEK [gets to his feet]: No, I don’t suppose it can. [Adds soon afterwards] It’s just not possible for you and me to go on living together like this –
MAJA: So –?
RUBEK: There’s no so about it. [With emphasis] Just because the two of us cannot go on living together alone – it doesn’t follow we have to divorce3 for that reason.
MAJA [smiles contemptuously]: Just separate for a little bit, you mean?
RUBEK [shakes his head]: Not necessary either.
MAJA: No? Spit it out: what do you want to do with me?
RUBEK [somewhat uncertain]: What I now feel so vividly – and so painfully – that I need, is to have someone around me who is genuinely close to me –
MAJA [interrupts him tensely]: Aren’t I, Rubek?
RUBEK [dismissively]: Not in that sense. I need to live with another human being who can complement me – complete me – be one with me in everything I do.
MAJA [slowly]: Yes, I wouldn’t be much help to you with those difficult things.
RUBEK: No, you’d make sure you weren’t, Maja.
MAJA [in an outburst]: God knows, I wouldn’t really want to be!
RUBEK: I am keenly aware of that. – I certainly wasn’t seeking that kind of help when I bound you to me.
MAJA [observing him]: I can see it: you’re sitting there thinking of someone else.
RUBEK: Am I? I’d never had you down as a mind reader. You can actually see that?
MAJA: Yes, I can. Oh, I know you so well, so well, Rubek!
RUBEK: In that case, perhaps you can also see who it is I’m thinking of?
MAJA: Yes, I most definitely can.
RUBEK: Can you? If you’d be so kind –?
MAJA: You’re thinking about that – that model you once used to – [Suddenly losing the thread] Did you know that people down in the hotel think she’s mad?
RUBEK: So? And what do you imagine the people down at the hotel think of you and your bear killer?
MAJA: That’s beside the point. [Picks up where she left off] But it wa
s that pale lady you were thinking about.
RUBEK [unabashed]: Exactly. About her –. When I no longer had any use for her –. And moreover, when she left me – vanished – just like that without any –
MAJA: So you took me in as a sort of waif and stray,4 perhaps?
RUBEK [more reckless]: To be honest, little Maja, it was something like that. I’d been alone, going about brooding for a year, a year and a half after that, adding the final – the finishing touches to my work. Resurrection Day was shown all over the world and brought me fame – and many other glories besides. [Warmer] But I no longer loved my own work. Those public homages and those bouquets left me nauseated and desperate, and nearly drove me deep into the darkest forests. [Looks at her.] So, mind reader – can you guess what occurred to me then?
MAJA [casually]: Yes, it occurred to you that you should produce portrait busts of gentlemen and of ladies.
RUBEK [nods]: Yes, on commission. With animal faces behind the masks. At no extra cost; thrown in for free, you see. [Smiling] But it wasn’t really that I was thinking about.
MAJA: What then?
RUBEK [serious again]: The thing was that all this business about my artistic calling and my task as an artist – and all that – began to strike me as something that at heart was so empty and so hollow and so meaningless.
MAJA: What would you replace it with?
RUBEK: Life, Maja.
MAJA: Life?
RUBEK: Yes. Doesn’t life in sunshine and beauty have a value of an entirely different kind from going about until the end of your days in a cold, damp hole, pounding away at lumps of clay and blocks of stone till you’re near dead with exhaustion?
MAJA [with a small sigh]: Well, yes, I always thought so.
RUBEK: And then I became wealthy enough to live in luxury and in idle, quivering sunlight. Was able to build myself the villa on Taunitzer See, and the mansion in the capital. And all the rest of it.
MAJA [assumes the same tone as his]: And eventually you were able to afford me too. And you let me spend some of all that treasure of yours.
RUBEK [jokes, as a distraction]: Didn’t I promise to take you up on a high mountain and show you all the glory of the world?
MAJA [with a mild expression]: You may have taken me up a fairly high mountain, Rubek – but you haven’t shown me all the glory of the world.
RUBEK [laughs, irritated]: How impossible you are, Maja! So utterly impossible to please. [In a vehement outburst] But do you know what the most desperate thing is? Can you guess what it is?
MAJA [with quiet defiance]: Well, it must be the fact that you went and took me on – for life.
RUBEK: I wouldn’t put it quite so heartlessly myself.
MAJA: But your meaning is just as heartless all the same.
RUBEK: You have no real concept of what an artistic nature looks like from the inside.
MAJA [smiles and shakes her head]: Lord, I haven’t any concept of what I look like from the inside.
RUBEK [continues undeterred]: I live life at such a pace, Maja. That’s how we live, we artists. For my part, in the few years we’ve known each other, I’ve lived an entire lifetime. I’ve come to see that trying to find happiness in idle pleasure is not for me. Life isn’t like that for me and my kind. I must keep working – creating work after work – until my dying day. [Forcing himself] That is why I can no longer live like this with you, Maja. – Not with just you any more.
MAJA [calm]: Does this mean, in plain and simple words, that you’re bored of me?
RUBEK [flares up]: Yes, it does! I am bored – intolerably bored and tired and weary of my life with you! Now you know. [Composes himself] These are hard, ugly words I’m using. I feel it myself so keenly. And none of it’s your fault – I freely admit that. It’s I, and I alone, who yet again have undergone an upheaval – [Half to himself] An awakening into my real life.
MAJA [involuntarily folds her hands]: But why on earth don’t we go our separate ways then?
RUBEK [looks at her in astonishment]: Would you want that?
MAJA [shrugs her shoulders]: Yes – if that’s the only way, then –
RUBEK [eager]: But there is another way. There is a way out –
MAJA [raises her forefinger]: You’re thinking about the pale lady again!
RUBEK: To be honest, I think about her incessantly. Ever since I met her all over again. [A step closer] Because now I want to confess something to you, Maja.
MAJA: Oh yes?
RUBEK [thumps his chest]: You see, in here – I have a tiny little casket, with an unpickable lock. All my visions are kept in that casket. But when she went away, vanished quite without trace, the lock jammed shut. She had the key – and she took it with her. – You, little Maja, you didn’t have any keys, did you? That’s why everything is lying unused inside there. And the years are passing! And it’s impossible for me to get at the treasure.
MAJA [holding back a cunning smile]: Get her to reopen it for you then –
RUBEK [uncomprehending]: Maja –?
MAJA: –she’s here now. Surely it must be on account of that casket that she’s come.
RUBEK: I haven’t said a word to her about this!
MAJA [looks at him innocently]: Rubek, my dear – is it really worth grumbling and making all this fuss about something so straightforward?
RUBEK: Do you think it’s so straightforward?
MAJA: Yes, I certainly do. Just attach yourself to the one you have greater need of. [Nods to him] I shall always find a place for myself.
RUBEK: Where, do you suppose?
MAJA [carefree, evasive]: Well – I can just move out to the villa, if it becomes necessary. But it won’t. Because in town – in the whole of that big house of ours – with a little goodwill – there could be room for three.
RUBEK [uncertain]: And do you think that will work in the long term?
MAJA [in a light tone]: Oh, Lord – if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. There’s no point discussing it.
RUBEK: So what do we do then, Maja – if it doesn’t?
MAJA [unconcerned]: Then we’ll simply go our separate ways. Far away. I’ll always find something new somewhere in the world. Something free! Free! Free! – No need to worry about that now, Professor Rubek! [Suddenly points out to the right.] Look! There she comes.
RUBEK [turns]: Where?
MAJA: Out on the plateau. Gliding – like a marble statue. She’s coming over.
RUBEK [stands and stares with his hand over his eyes]: Doesn’t she look like the living resurrection? [To himself] And to think I moved her –. Moved her into the shade! Turned her into something else. – What a fool!
MAJA: What’s that supposed to mean?
RUBEK [evasive]: Nothing. Nothing you’ll be able to understand.
IRENE enters from the right, across the plateau. The playing children have already caught sight of her and run to meet her. She is now encircled by the throng of children; some seem happy and trusting, others shy and timid. She speaks to them quietly and suggests they go down to the sanatorium; she herself wants to rest awhile next to the stream. The children run off down the slope to the left in the middle ground. IRENE goes across to the rock face and lets the cooling trickles of water run over her hands.
MAJA [muted]: Rubek, go down and talk to her, just the two of you.
RUBEK: And where will you go, meanwhile?
MAJA [gives him a meaningful look]: From today, I’ll be going my own way. [She goes down over the hillside, vaulting across the running stream with her long mountain staff. She stops beside IRENE.] Professor Rubek is up there waiting for you, Frau von Satow.
IRENE: What does he want?
MAJA: He wants to get you to help him with a casket; the lock’s gone and jammed on him.
IRENE: Can I help him with that?
MAJA: He believes you’re the only one who can.
IRENE: I’d better try then.
MAJA: You really must, Frau von Satow.
She takes the path dow
n to the sanatorium.
Shortly afterwards, RUBEK comes down to IRENE, so that the stream lies between them
IRENE [after a short pause]: The other one – she said you were waiting for me.
RUBEK: Yes, I have been waiting for you, year in and year out – without realizing it myself.
IRENE: Couldn’t come to you, Arnold. Lay down there sleeping that long, deep, dream-filled sleep.
RUBEK: But now you are awakened, Irene!
IRENE [shakes her head]: I still have that deep, heavy sleep in my eyes.
RUBEK: You’ll see, the day will dawn and brighten for us both.
IRENE: Don’t ever believe that.
RUBEK [urgently]: I do believe it! And I know it! Now that I’ve found you again –
IRENE: Risen.
RUBEK: Transfigured!
IRENE: Only risen, Arnold. But not transfigured.
He crosses over to her by balancing on the stones under the waterfall.
RUBEK: Where have you been all day, Irene?
IRENE [pointing]: Deep, deep inside death’s vast territories –
RUBEK [changing the subject]: You haven’t got your – your friend with you today, I see.
IRENE [smiles]: My friend keeps a close eye on me even so.
RUBEK: Can she do that?
IRENE [glances around]: Believe me, she can. Wherever I am, wherever I go. She’ll never lose sight of me – [whispers] until one fine sunny morning I kill her.
RUBEK: Would you like to?
IRENE: With all my heart. If only I could.
RUBEK: Why would you?
IRENE: Because she goes around practising witchcraft. [Confidingly] Imagine, Arnold, she has transformed herself into my shadow.
RUBEK [tries to calm her]: There, there, there – we all have to have a shadow.
IRENE: I am my own shadow. [In an outburst] Don’t you understand that?
RUBEK [heavily]: Yes, yes, Irene – I do understand.
He sits down on a stone by the stream. She stands behind him, leaning against the rock wall.
IRENE [after a short pause]: Why are you sitting there turning your eyes away from me?
RUBEK [softly, shaking his head]: Don’t dare – don’t dare look at you.
IRENE: Why don’t you dare to any longer?
RUBEK: You have a shadow that torments you. I have my heavy conscience.
IRENE [with a joyfully liberating scream]: At last!
