Plays

by Anton Chekhov

  TROFIMOV: Isn’t it all the same whether the estate has been sold today or not? It’s long been over, there’s no turning back, the path’s got overgrown. Calm down, my dear. You mustn’t deceive yourself, for once in your life you must look the truth straight in the eye.

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: What truth? You can see where truth is and where falsehood is, but I have really lost my sight, I can’t see anything. You’re boldly solving all the important questions, but tell me, my dear, isn’t that because you are young, because you haven’t had time to suffer as a result of a single one of your questions? You look ahead boldly, and isn’t that because you don’t see and don’t expect anything terrifying, as life is still hidden from your young eyes? You’re bolder, more honest, you have greater depth than any of us, but just think, be generous just with the tip of a finger, spare me. After all I was born here, here lived my father and mother, my grandfather, I love this house, I can’t understand my life without the cherry orchard, and if it’s now so necessary to sell, then sell me along with the orchard ... [Embraces Trofimov, kisses him on the forehead.] And my son was drowned here ... [Weeps.] You good, kind man, have pity for me.

  TROFIMOV : You know I sympathize with you with all my soul.

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : But you must say it in other words, other words ... [Takes out her handkerchief, a telegram falls on the floor.] You can’t imagine how heavy my heart is today. I find it noisy here, my spirit shudders at every sound, I shudder all over, but I can’t go to my room, I’m frightened alone in the silence. Don’t condemn me, Petya ... I love you like one of my family. I would gladly let Anya marry you, I swear it to you, only you must study, my dear, you must finish your degree. You don’t do anything, you’re just tossed from place to place by fate, it’s so strange ... Isn’t that the truth? Isn’t it? And you must do something about your beard so it somehow grows ... [Laughs.] You are a funny man!

  TROFIMOV [picking up the telegram]: I don’t want to be good-looking.

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: The telegram is from Paris. I get one every day. Yesterday and today. That wild man is ill again, again there’s something wrong with him ... He asks my forgiveness, begs me to come, and really I ought to travel to Paris, to be near him. You look stern, Petya, but what can I do, my dear, what can I do, he is ill, lonely, unhappy, and who is there to look after him, to keep him out of mischief, to give him his medicine on time? And why conceal things or say nothing, I love him, that’s obvious. I love him, love him ... It’s a stone round my neck, I’m going down with it to the bottom, but I love this stone and I can’t live without it. [Shakes Trofimov’s hand.] Petya, don’t think ill of me, don’t say anything to me, don’t say anything.

  TROFIMOV [with tears in his eyes]: Forgive my frankness, for God’s sake: but he robbed you!

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: No, no, no, you mustn’t say that ... [Blocks her ears.]

  TROFIMOV : But he’s a criminal, you’re the only one who doesn’t know that! He’s a petty criminal, a nothing ...

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA [getting angry, but controlling herself]: You’re twenty-six or twenty-seven, but you’re still a second-year schoolboy!

  TROFIMOV : Fine!

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : You must be a man, at your age you should understand those who love. And you must yourself love ... you must fall in love! [Angrily] Yes, yes! And you’re not pure, you just like being clean, you’re a ridiculous character, a freak ...

  TROFIMOV [appalled]: What is she saying?

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : ‘I am above love.’ You’re not above love, but simply a big booby, as our Firs says. At your age, not to have a mistress! ...

  TROFIMOV [appalled]: This is dreadful! What is she saying? [Walks quickly into the ballroom, clutching his head.] This is dreadful ... I can’t bear it, I’m leaving ... [Goes out, but comes back at once.] It’s all over between us! [Goes out into the hall.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA [calling after him]: Petya, wait a minute! You funny man, I was joking! Petya!

  [There is the sound of someone in the hall running down the stairs and suddenly falling down with a crash. ANY A and VARY A shriek, but immediately laughter is heard.]

  What’s happening out there?

  [ANYA runsin.]

  ANYA [laughing]: Petya fell down the stairs! [Runs out.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : What a strange man Petya is ...

  [The STATION-MASTER stands inthemiddle of the ballroom and starts reciting A. Tolstoy’s ‘The woman who was a sinner’.8People listen to him but after only a few lines the sounds of a waltʐ come from the hall and his recitation is interrupted. Everyone dances. TROFIMOV, ANYA, VARYA and LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA come in from the hall.]

  There, Petya ... there, pure spirit ... I ask your forgiveness ... Let’s go and dance ... [Dances with Petya.]

  [ANYA and VARYA dance. FIRS comes in and places his stick by the side door. YASHA too has come in from the drawing-room and is watching the dancing.]

  YASHA : What is it, old man?

  FIRS: I don’t feel well. In the old days we had generals, barons, admirals dancing at our balls, but now we send out for a Post Office clerk and the station-master, and even they don’t come very willingly. I somehow feel weaker. The late master, the grandfather, used to treat everyone with sealing wax, for every illness. I’ve been taking sealing wax every day for twenty years, and more; perhaps that’s why I’m still alive.

  YASHA: I’ve had enough of you, old man. [Yawning.] The quicker you drop dead ...

  FIRS: You ... big booby! [Mumbles.]

  [TROFIMOV and LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA are dancing in the ballroom, then in the drawing-room.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : Merci. I’m going to sit down a moment ... [Sits down.] I’m tired.

  [Enter ANYA.]

  ANYA [agitatedly]: Just now in the kitchen some man was saying that the cherry orchard was sold today.

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : Who to?

  ANYA : He didn’t say who to. He’s left. [Dances with Trofimov, both go out into the ballroom.]

  YASHA : It was just some old man drivelling. No one from here.

  FIRS: And there’s still no Leonid Andreich, he hasn’t come. He’s wearing his light autumn coat, he’s going to catch a chill. Oh, young people!

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : I’m going to die, right now. Yasha, go and find out who it’s been sold to.

  YASHA : But the old man went off a long time ago. [Laughs.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA [with slight irritation]: Well, what are you laughing at? What do you find to make you cheerful?

  YASHA : It’s Yepikhodov, he’s very funny. Not a serious person. The Walking Accident!

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : Firs, if they sell the estate, where will you go?

  FIRS: I’ll go where you tell me to.

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : Why are you looking like that? Are you unwell? You know, you should go to bed ...

  FIRS: Yes ... [With a wry smile] I’ll go to bed, but without me here who will serve, who will look after things? There’s just the one me for the whole house.

  YASHA [to Lyubov Andreyevna]: Lyubov Andreyevna! May I come to you with a request, please! If you go to Paris again, take me with you, do me the favour. It is positively impossible for me to stay here. [Looking round, in a low voice] I don’t need to say it, you can see yourself, this is a country without education, a people without morals, and there’s the boredom, the food in the kitchen is disgusting, and then that Firs goes round here, mumbling all sorts of words that make no sense. Take me with you, please!

  [Enter PISHCHIK.]

  PISHCHIK: May I ask you ... for a little waltz, fair one ... [LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA goes off with him.] Enchantress, I’m still going to take a hundred and eighty roubles off you ... I am ... [Dances.] A hundred and eighty roubles ...

  [They have moved off into the ballroom.]

  YASHA [singing softly]: ‘Can you see my soul’s agitation ...’

  [In the ballroom a figure wearing a grey top-hat and checked trousers is waving arms and jumping about; there are shouts of ‘Br
avo, Charlotta Ivanovna!’]

  DUNYASHA [stopping to powder herface]: Miss Anya told me to dance — there are a lot of gentlemen but too few ladies — but the dancing has made me giddy, my heart is beating, and just now the clerk from the Post Office said something that took my breath away.

  [The music dies down.]

  FIRS: What did he say to you?

  DUNYASHA : He said, you are like a flower.

  YASHA [yawning]: What ignorance ... [Exit.]

  DUNYASHA : Like a flower ... I’m such a sensitive girl, I’m terribly fond of tender words.

  FIRS: Your head’ll be turned.

  [Enter YEPIKHODOV.]

  YEPIKHODOV : Avdotya Fyodorovna, you don’t want to see me ... it’s as if I were some kind of insect. [Sighs.] Ah, life!

  DUNYASHA : What do you want?

  YEPIKHODOV: Doubtless, you’re perhaps right. [Sighs.] But of course if one takes a point of view, you, if I may say so, excuse my frankness, you have completely brought me to a state of mind. I know my fortune, every day I have an accident, and I’ve long got accustomed to that so I regard my fate with a smile. You gave me your word and although I ...

  DUNYASHA : Please let’s talk later but now leave me in peace. I’m having a reverie now. [Plays with herfan.]

  YEPIKHODOV : I have an accident every day and if I may say so, I only smile, I even laugh.

  [VARYA comes in from the ballroom.]

  VARYA : You still haven’t gone, Semyon? You really are a man with no sense of respect. [To Dunyasha] Get out of here, Dunyasha. [To Yepikhodov] One moment you’re playing billiards and breaking a cue, now you’re pacing the drawing-room like a guest.

  YEPIKHODOV : If I may say so to you, you can’t take it out on me.

  VARYA: I’m not taking it out on you, I’m telling you. You do nothing but go about from place to place and you don’t get on with your work. We keep an office clerk but I don’t know why.

  YEPIKHODOV [offended]: Whether I work or go about or eat or play billiards are matters to be discussed only by persons of understanding and seniority.

  VARYA : You dare say that to me! [Losing her temper] You dare? So I have no understanding? Get out of here! This minute!

  YEPIKHODOV [taking fright]: I must ask you to use nicer expressions.

  VARYA [beside herself]: Out of here this minute! Out!

  [YEPIKHODOV goes to the door, she follows him.]

  The Walking Accident! Don’t set foot in here again! Get out of my sight!

  [YEPIKHODOV has gone out; his voice outside the door: ‘I’m going to make a complaint about you. ’]

  Ah, are you coming back? [Takes the stick which Firs has put by the door.] Come on ... Come on ... Come, I’ll show you ...

  Ah, are you coming? Coming in? Take that ... [Brings down the stick at the moment LOPAKHIN enters.]

  LOPAKHIN: My humble thanks.

  VARYA [with angry sarcasm]: I beg your pardon!

  LOPAKHIN: Not at all. My humble thanks for the pleasant welcome.

  VARYA: It’s not worth the thanks. [Walks away, then looks round and asks gently] Did I hurt you?

  LOPAKHIN: No, it’s nothing. However, a huge bump’ll come up.

  [Voices in the ballroom: ‘Lopakhin has come! Yermolay Alekseich!’]

  PISHCHIK: My eyes have seen, my ears have heard ... [He and LOPAKHIN kiss.] There’s a little smell of brandy about you, my dear fellow, friend of my heart. And we’re having a good time here too.

  [Enter LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: Is that you, Yermolay Alekseich? Why have you been so long? Where’s Leonid?

  LOPAKHIN: Leonid Andreich came with me, he’s coming ...

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA [getting agitated]: Well, what happened? Was there an auction? Tell us!

  LOPAKHIN [with embarrassment, afraid of showing his happiness]: The auction ended towards four o’clock ... We were late for the train, we had to wait till half past nine. [With a heavy sigh] Ouf! My head is going round a bit ...

  [Enter GAYEV; in his right hand are parcels, with his left he is wiping away tears.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA : Lyonya, what happened? Well, Lyonya? [Impatiently, with tears in her eyes] Quickly, for God’s sake ...

  GAYEV [doesn’t answer her, only waves his hand; weeping, to Firs]: Take them ... I’ve got some anchovies and Kerch herrings ... I haven’t had anything to eat today ... I’ve been through so much!

  [The door to the billiard-room is open; the click of balls is heard, and YASHA‘s voice, ‘Seven and eighteen.’ Gayev’s expression changes, he is no longer crying.]

  I’m terribly tired. Firs, get me a change of clothes. [Crosses the ballroom to his own room followed by FIRS.]

  PISHCHIK: What happened at the auction? Tell us!

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: Is the cherry orchard sold?

  LOPAKHIN: It’s sold.

  LYUBOVANDREYEVNA: Who bought it?

  LOPAKHIN: I did.

  [A pause. LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA is overwhelmed; she would have fallen if she were not standing next to an armchair and table. VARYA takes the keys off her belt, throws them on the floor in the middle of the drawing-room and goes out.]

  I bought it! Wait a moment, my friends, if you please, my head is going round, I can’t speak ... [Laughs.] We arrived at the auction, Deriganov was already there. Leonid Andreich only had fifteen thousand but Deriganov put in thirty on top of the mortgage. I see how things are, so I take him on, I put in forty. He bid forty-five. I bid fifty-five. So he’s going up in fives and I in tens ... Well, it came to an end. I gave ninety over and above the mortgage, I got it. The cherry orchard is now mine! Mine! [Laughs loudly.] My God, Lord above, the cherry orchard is mine! Tell me I’m drunk, out of my mind, that all this is my imagination ... [Stamps his feet.] Don’t laugh at me! If only my father and grandfather could rise from their graves and see all that has come to pass, see their Yermolay, their beaten, barely literate Yermolay, who used to run about in winter barefoot, see that same Yermolay buy the estate, the fairest thing on earth. I have bought the estate where my grandfather and father were slaves, where they weren’t even allowed into the kitchen. I am asleep, I’m only dreaming this, it’s only illusion ... It’s the fruit of your imagination, shrouded in a mist of uncertainty ... [Picks up the keys, with a tender smile.] She threw down the keys to show that she’s no longer the mistress here ... [Jiggles the keys.] Well, it doesn’t matter.

  [The sound of the band tuning up.]

  Hey, band, play, I want to listen to you! Everyone come and watch Yermolay Lopakhin bringing the axe to the cherry orchard and the trees falling to the ground! We’ll build the dachas, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will see a new life here ... Band, play!

  [The band plays. LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA has fallen into a chair and is weeping bitterly.]

  [Reproachfully] Why, why didn’t you listen to me? My poor, good friend, you won’t get it back. [In tears] Oh, if only all this could quickly pass, if only our incoherent, unhappy life could somehow be transformed.

  PISHCHIK [taking him by the arm, in a low voice]: She’s crying. Let’s go into the ballroom, let her be on her own ... Let’s go ... [Takes him by the arm and leads him into the ballroom.]

  LOPAKHIN: What’s going on? Band, play up! Everything is going to be as I want it! [With irony] Here comes the new squire, the owner of the cherry orchard! [Accidentally bumps into a small table and almost upsets a candelabrum.] I can pay for everything! [He and PISHCHIK go out.]

  [In the ballroom and drawing-room there is no one apart from LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA, who is sitting all huddled up, crying bitterly. The band isplayingsoftly. ANYA and TROFIMOV hurry in. ANYA goes up to her mother and kneels before her. TROFIMOV stays by the entrance to the ballroom.]

  ANYA : Mama! ... Mama, are you crying? My darling, kind, good Mama, my beautiful Mama, I love you, I bless you. The cherry orchard is sold, it’s no longer there, that’s the truth, the truth, but don’t cry, Mama, you have your life ahead of you, you still have your good,
pure spirit ... Come with me, come away from here, darling, come! ... We will plant a new orchard, more splendid than this one, you will see it, you will understand, and joy, a quiet, deep joy, will settle on your spirit like the sun in the evening, and Mama, you will smile! Come, darling! Come! ...

  [Curtain.]

  Act Four

  The set of Act One. There are no curtains on the windows or pictures, a little furniture remains piled up in one corner as if to be sold. The emptiness is palpable. By the entrance door and backstage are piles of suitcases, travelling bundles, etc.

  [On the left a door is open and through it comes the sound of the voices of ANYA and VARYA. LOPAKHIN isstanding,waiting. YASHA is holding a tray of small glasses filled with champagne. In the hall YEPIKHODOV is tying up a chest. Offstage there is a distance hum. It is the peasants who have come to say goodbye. GAYEV‘s voice: ‘Thankyou,my men, thank you.’]

  YASHA: The village has come to say goodbye. If you ask me, Yermolay Alekseich, the people mean well but don’t understand much.