graf Leo Tolstoy

“ ANÍSYA [still excited] He's trampled on me ... he and his slut! But it's enough! I'm not going to be the only one! Let him also be a murderer! Then he'll know how it feels!
MATRYÓNA. There, there! How she flares up! Don't you be cross, lass, but do things quietly little by little, as it's best. You go to the girl, and he'll do the work. [Follows Nikíta to the cellar with a lantern. He descends into the cellar] .
ANÍSYA. And I'll make him strangle his dirty brat! [Still excited] I've worried myself to death all alone, with Peter's bones weighing on my mind! Let him feel it too! ”

“ AKOULÍNA. She's dirtied my new shawl. If that bitch hadn't gone away, I'd have torn her eyes out!
NIKÍTA. That's enough. Why should you be angry? Now if I loved her ...
AKOULÍNA. Loved her? She's worth loving, with her fat mug! If you'd have given her up, then nothing would have happened. You should have sent her to the devil. And the house was mine all the same, and the money was mine! Says she is the mistress, but what sort of mistress is she to her husband? She's a murderess, that's what she is! She'll serve you the same way!
NIKÍTA. Oh dear, how's one to stop a woman's jaw? ”

“ NIKÍTA. Where's the good of making plans? What do I care? I work as hard as if I were doing it for myself. My master loves me, and his missus loves me. And if the wenches run after me, it's not my fault, that's flat.
ANÍSYA. And you'll love me?
NIKÍTA [embracing her] There, as you have ever been in my heart ...
MATRYÓNA [enters, and crosses herself a long time before the icón. Nikíta and Anísya step apart] What I saw I didn't perceive, what I heard I didn't hearken to. Playing with the lass, eh? Well,—even a calf will play. Why shouldn't one have some fun when one's young? ”

“ MATRYÓNA. Why, if it's money, or something, you can leave orders.
PETER [to Anísya inside the house] Has Nan gone?
MATRYÓNA [aside] There now, he's remembered!
ANÍSYA [from inside] She went then and there. Come inside, won't you? I'll help you in.
PETER. Let me sit here a bit for the last time. The air's so stuffy inside. Oh, how bad I feel! Oh, my heart's burning.... Oh, if death would only come.
MATRYÓNA. If God don't take a soul, the soul can't go out. Death and life are in God's will, Peter Ignátitch. You can't be sure of death either. Maybe you'll recover yet. ”

“ NIKÍTA [catches it] It's alive! Gracious me, it's moving! It's alive! What am I to ...
ANÍSYA [snatches the baby from him and throws it into the cellar] Be quick and smother it, and then it won't be alive! [Pushes Nikíta down] It's your doing, and you must finish it.
MATRYÓNA [sits on the doorstep of the hut] He's tender-hearted. It's hard on him, poor dear. Well, what of that? Isn't it also his sin?
Anísya stands by the cellar.
MATRYÓNA [sits looking at her and discourses] Oh, oh, oh! How frightened he was: well, but what of that? If it is hard, it's the only thing to be done. ”

“ Why, you don't think him such a fool, that he should go and care for a homeless baggage like that? Nikíta is a sensible fellow, you see. He knows whom to love. So don't you go and fret, my jewel. We'll not take him away, and we won't marry him. No, we'll let him stay on, if you'll only oblige us with a little money.
ANÍSYA. All I know is, that I could not live if Nikíta went away.
MATRYÓNA. Naturally, when one's young it's no easy matter! You, a wench in full bloom, to be living with the dregs of a man like that husband of yours.
ANÍSYA. Mother Matryóna, would you believe it? ”

“ ANÍSYA. He doesn't let out. And I can't find out in any way. He hides it now here, now there, and I can't do anything because of Akoulína. Idiot though she is, she keeps watch, and is always about. Oh my poor head! I'm bothered to death.
MATRYÓNA. Oh, my jewel, if he gives the money to any one but you, you'll never cease regretting it as long as you live! They'll turn you out of house and home without anything. You've been worriting, and worriting all your life with one you don't love, and will have to go a-begging when you are a widow. ”

“ MATRYÓNA. Eh! One only wears out one's tongue with you.
AKÍM. The lass is hard-working and spruce, and keeps everything round herself ... what d'you call it. And in our poverty, you know, it's a pair of hands, I mean; and the wedding needn't cost much. But the chief thing's the offence, the offence to the lass, and she's a what d'you call it, an orphan, you know; that's what she is, and there's the offence.
MATRYÓNA. Eh! they'll all tell you a tale of that sort ...
ANÍSYA. Daddy Akím, you'd better listen to us women ”

“ Then I'd make a noose and stretch it out, and I'd climb on to that rafter and jump down with my head in the noose! That's what my life is!
MARÍNA. That's enough! Lord help you!
NIKÍTA. You think I'm joking? You think I'm drunk? I'm not drunk! To-day even drink takes no hold on me! I'm devoured by misery! Misery is eating me up completely, so that I care for nothing! Oh, little Marína, it's only with you I ever lived! Do you remember how we used to while away the nights together at the railway?
MARÍNA. Don't you rub the sores, Nikíta! ”

“ NIKÍTA. Marína? What's she to me? Much I care about her!... Plenty of them buzzing around.
ANÍSYA. Then what has made your father come here? It's you have told him to. You've gone and deceived me. [Cries] .
NIKÍTA. Anísya, do you believe in a God or not? I never so much as dreamt of it. I know nothing at all about it. I never even dreamt of it—that's flat! My old dad has got it all out of his own pate.
ANÍSYA. If you don't wish it yourself who can force you? He can't drive you like an ass.
NIKÍTA. Well, I reckon it's not possible to go against one's parent. ”

“ One would be glad not to sin, but what's one to do?
Re-enter Nikíta from cellar, trembling all over.
NIKÍTA. It's still alive! I can't! It's alive!
ANÍSYA. If it's alive, where are you off to? [Tries to stop him] .
NIKÍTA [rushes at her] Go away! I'll kill you! [Catches hold of her arms; she escapes, he runs after her with the spade. Matryóna runs towards him and stops him. Anísya runs into the porch. Matryóna tries to wrench the spade from him. To his mother] I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Go away! [Matryóna runs to Anísya in the porch. Nikíta stops] I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! ”

“ PETER. Wait a bit, Daddy Akím. One can't believe all these girls say, either. The lad's alive, and not far away; send for him, and find out straight from him if it's true. He won't wish to lose his soul. Go and call the fellow, [Anísya rises] and tell him his father wants him. [Exit Anísya] .
MATRYÓNA. That's right, dear friend; you've cleared the way clean, as with water. Yes, let the lad speak for himself. Nowadays, you know, they'll not let you force a son to marry; one must first of all ask the lad. He'll never consent to marry her and disgrace himself, not for all the world. ”

“ NIKÍTA. Is it dead then?
MATRYÓNA. Of course it is. Only you must be quick, or else people will notice! They'll see or they'll hear! The rascals must needs know everything. And the policeman went by this evening. Well then, you see [gives him the spade] , you get down into the cellar and dig a hole right in the corner; the earth is soft there, and you'll smooth it over. Mother earth will not blab to any one; she'll keep it close. Go then; go, dear.
NIKÍTA. You'll get me into a mess, bother you! I'll go away! You do it alone as best you can!
ANÍSYA [through the doorway] Well? ”

“ PETER [holding on to the wall, creeps out into the porch and calls with a faint voice] How's it one can't make you hear? Oh, oh, Anísya! Who's there? [Drops on the bench] .
ANÍSYA [steps from behind the corner] Why have you come out? You should have stayed where you were lying.
PETER. Has the girl gone for Martha? It's very hard.... Oh, if only death would come quicker!
ANÍSYA. She had no time. I sent her to the river. Wait a bit, I'll go myself when I'm ready.
PETER. Send Nan. Where's she? Oh, I'm that bad! Oh, death's at hand!
ANÍSYA. I've sent for her already.
PETER. Oh dear! ”

“ Because it's no easy matter to get 'em, you know. I paid him, dearie, out of my own money. If she takes them, thinks I, it's all right; if she don't, I can let old Michael's daughter have them.
ANÍSYA. O-o-oh! But mayn't some evil come of them? I'm frightened!
MATRYÓNA. What evil, my jewel? If your old man was hale and hearty, 'twould be a different matter, but he's neither alive nor dead as it is. He's not for this world. Such things often happen.
ANÍSYA. O-o-oh, my poor head! I'm afeared, Mother Matryóna, lest some evil come of them. No. ”

“ NIKÍTA. And what's it you've been bothering about?
MATRYÓNA. About your affairs, about your future. If you don't take trouble in good time you'll get nothing. You know Iván Moséitch? Well, I've been to him too. I went there the other day. I had something else to settle, you know. Well, so I sat and chatted awhile and then came to the point. “Tell me, Iván Moséitch,” says I, “how's one to manage an affair of this kind? Supposing,” says I, “a peasant as is a widower married a second wife, and supposing all the children he has is a daughter by the first wife, and a daughter by the second. ”

“ ANÍSYA. Oh dear yes, the priest was here yesterday.
NEIGHBOUR. I had a look at him yesterday. Dearie me! one wonders his body and soul keep together. And, O Lord, the other day he seemed just at his last gasp, so that they laid him under the holy icóns. [1] They started lamenting and got ready to lay him out.
ANÍSYA. He came to, and creeps about again.
MATRYÓNA. Well, and is he to have extreme unction?
ANÍSYA. The neighbours advise it. If he lives till to-morrow we'll send for the priest.
NEIGHBOUR. Oh, Anísya dear, I should think your heart must be heavy. ”

“ MATRYÓNA. So my old man—the old blockhead—off he goes: “Marry, marry,” he says, “he must marry her and cover the sin,” he says. “We must take the lad home,” he says, “and he shall marry,” he says. Well, I did my best to make him change his mind, but, dear me, no. So, all right, thinks I,—I'll try another dodge. One always has to entice them fools in this way, just pretend to be of their mind, and when it comes to the point one goes and turns it all one's own way. You know, a woman has time to think seventy-and-seven thoughts while falling off the oven, so how's such as he to see through it? ”

“ AKOULÍNA. Nan? Minding the calves.
ANÍSYA. Send her here. I dare say they'll not run away. [Akoulína collects the clothes, and exit] .
ANÍSYA. If one doesn't go he'll scold. If one goes he'll give the money to his sister. All my trouble will be wasted. I don't myself know what I'm to do. My poor head's splitting. [Continues to work] .
Enter Matryóna, with a stick and a bundle, in outdoor clothes.
MATRYÓNA. May the Lord help you, honey.
ANÍSYA [looks round, stops working, and claps her hands with joy] Well, I never expected this! Mother Matryóna, God has sent the right guest at the right time. ”

“ You think about yourself, lass. Why, we were talking about you the other day. “Poor thing, what torture she endures. The step-daughter an idiot; the old man rotten, sucking her life-blood. What wouldn't one be ready to do in such a case!”
ANÍSYA. I'm not going to deny it. A life such as mine could make one do worse than that. It could make you hang yourself or throttle him. Is this a life?
MATRYÓNA. That's just it. There's no time to stand gaping; the money must be found one way or other, and then he must have his tea. ”

“ Even if she does get the money, is she capable of arranging it all? One knows what a woman is! You're a man anyhow. You can hide it, and all that. You see, you've after all got more sense, in case of anything happening.
NIKÍTA. Oh, your woman's notions are all so inexpedient!
MATRYÓNA. Why inexpedient? You just collar the money, and the woman's in your hands. And then should she ever turn snappish you'd be able to tighten the reins!
NIKÍTA. Bother you all,—I'm going.
ANÍSYA [quite pale, runs out of the hut and round the corner to Matryóna] So it was, it was on him! ”

“ AKÍM. Ah, tea! yes, I do sin that way. Yes, tea's the thing.
PETER. And the women will also have some tea. Come. And you, Nikíta, go and drive the sheep in and clear away the straw.
NIKÍTA. All right. [Exeunt all but Nikíta. Nikíta lights a cigarette. It grows darker] Just see how they bother one. Want a fellow to tell 'em how he larks about with the wenches! It would take long to tell 'em all those stories—“Marry her,” he says. Marry them all! One would have a good lot of wives! And what need have I to marry? Am as good as married now! There's many a chap as envies me. ”

“ Peter Ignátitch, don't listen to me, but go yourself and ask any one you like about the girl, everybody will say the same. She's just a homeless good-for-nothing.
PETER. You know, Daddy Akím, if that's how things are, there's no reason for him to marry her. A daughter-in-law's not like a shoe, you can't kick her off.
AKÍM [excitedly] It's false, old woman, it's what d'you call it, false; I mean, about the girl; false! 'Cos why? The lass is a good lass, a very good lass, you know. ”

“ Who wants to marry where there are children? There now, there's our Michael. He's such a fellow, dear me ...
PEASANT'S VOICE. Hullo, Mávra. Where the devil are you? Go and drive the cow in.
Exit Neighbour.
MATRYÓNA [while the Neighbour is within hearing speaks in her ordinary voice] Yes, lass, thank goodness, she's married. At any rate my old fool won't go bothering about Nikíta. Now [suddenly changing her tone] , she's gone! [Whispers] I say, did you give him the tea?
ANÍSYA. Don't speak about it. He'd better die of himself. It's no use—he doesn't die, and I have only taken a sin on my soul. ”