Dragon Seed Page #4

Did you see...?

Did you see those merchants

turn away from me as from a bad odor?

- They are of my own kind.

- Be of stout heart, my brother. It will pass.

No, no, I do not think it will

and I'm not a stupid man.

I must turn this thing over in my mind.

Decide what to do in the days I see ahead.

I must think and weigh what comes out.

And think again.

And then this strange young man

jumped down, ran away and was gone.

- Was he a bandit, then?

- No, it was said he was a student.

First you encounter this trouble

and then you buy a book.

This book that Jade now has, what is it?

- Books have names.

- So has this one.

- It is called All Men Are Brothers.

- All Men Are Brothers?

What of the stranger who lives

on the other side of the earth...

...and reaps his grain on my land?

Is he my brother? I think not.

Today I pulled a turnip.

They grow small this year.

Can it be this strange brother is

pulling at the roots to plague us?

It's good to have him to blame.

A book. And Jade can read in it.

You see? An idea spreads. A book.

I have said and say again it is wrong

to give a woman such a dangerous thing.

It is unnatural

and mine will never have one.

What if a child comes? What will your

woman do if she has not finished the book?

Will she read on

and let the child be born anyhow?

She will manage.

The day has been full.

There's work tomorrow.

Yes, my son.

Your eyes are heavy with weariness.

Your wife waits for you, brother,

with a book in her hands.

Even a book can be closed

and put away.

It is but a book,

and yet it keeps your eyes from me.

Come sit beside me.

I will tell you what I have read.

How shall I know if you read truly?

You will know I could not make up

such things.

In this place, it tells what happens

when men know only greed.

It tells how peace is then lost,

and what men may do to each other.

It is magic.

Your eyes pick up those bird tracks

and your eyes give them to your voice...

...and your voice gives them to my ears.

And here,

it tells how then there is killing...

...and fighting and even torture.

Oh, it is wrong to torture.

- That is what it says.

- It is magic.

You do not listen.

I try.

You must try harder.

Money was spent for this book.

We must not waste it.

We must waste nothing

that is given to us.

Neither money,

nor the hours we have together.

I cannot read

when you keep watching me.

Since I cannot look at the book

and know what it means...

...I must look at you...

...so the money will not be wasted,

and nothing else.

Then I will teach you to read.

There is word here...

...of how men must rise up and resist

the things that make them weak.

That is advice I cannot take.

Can you?

Well, you will not listen.

And now you place the book

where my hand cannot reach it.

- Shall I put it back within your grasp?

- Yes.

No.

I will rest my eyes now.

I will teach you to read another time.

I will remind you

when I'm ready for reading.

Let the gods forgive me for saying this

but I am wicked.

I love you more than I love my father

and my mother.

I am more wicked than you.

I want to hear you tell me this.

If there were food enough

only for them or for you...

...I would give it to you

and let them starve.

You turn to me of your own will,

and it is the first time this has been so.

Yes, for this night, you have told me

the thing my heart needed to hear.

Now I know that you'll care

what I think and feel, and what I am.

Not only that I give you children

and make your food.

I know that I'm not only to belong

to your house...

...but I am to be yours.

And I am content.

You're late.

Did you once more have trouble...

...escaping my mother's eyes?

From this day on,

I will come to you openly.

She will say nothing.

I cannot believe my mother

will change that much.

No. But I have changed.

Do you not see it?

Your eyes are as soft.

Your hair as pleasant to my touch.

No, I cannot see this change...

...and I do not wish a change.

It is within me.

But it is so great

I thought it must show on my face.

What is the cause of this great difference?

And when did it begin?

On the night we first opened our hearts

to each other, my husband.

Even if it is only a girl,

I shall be very happy.

We shall be ancestors?

- Oh, it will be a son.

- I shall ask the gods for one.

But if it is only a girl,

she still will be welcome?

If you're her mother,

she will be welcome.

And she will be taught to read...

...even if her father is always too busy

with lesser things.

Where would this upstart daughter be...

...if I did not busy myself

with those lesser things?

Oh, this is a good moment.

The best in my life so far.

- Something falls.

- It shines like silver.

Look at the earth. It's a black fountain.

A hole big enough to bury 50 men.

And smokes still comes from it.

If one of us had stood near here,

he would no longer live.

I've wanted to dig a pond on my land

for 10 years, and here it is.

It would be better if the barbarians

did use the sky ships...

...to dig ponds and wells.

- Maybe it is an idea.

- Look. Look, rolling smoke.

It was the same in the magic pictures.

There are many fires over the city wall

and small ones outside.

- Flying ships come out of the smoke.

- What shall we do?

Someone of us should go to the city.

My... My wife thinks of our elder sister

and what happens to her.

We should all think of that. I'll go.

I would not be hasty, cousin.

If it is good news, it will not spoil.

The more slowly one hears bad news,

the better.

My woman wouldn't let me rest

if I didn't go, nor could I rest.

- Let me go in your place.

- All right, go quickly.

Do what you can. The rest of us

should go back to our work.

Can it be our son at last?

I'm afraid to believe it is.

We're all but dead. We're all but dead.

We might have been killed

had we been 10 feet nearer to street.

There was such noise.

There was such noise.

The shop half gone.

We have nothing

but our bare lives in our hands.

We're lost. All is lost. All.

All day the flying ships came.

And everywhere the silver eggs dropped,

they burst the buildings into dust.

And the shops

and all the goods within are waste.

- But what of the people?

- The people...

Into pieces,

as if they were made of clay.

- Here an arm, there a head, there a piece...

- But why? Why?

How can men do this to other men?

The sky is over us all.

Our own servants

and the clerks are dead.

And one such an honest young man.

Where shall we find one like him again?

What is the use, even of an honest man,

if there's no shop to put him in?

Our shops, our goods, gone, all gone.

I'm a man who can prosper only in peace.

Can it be those students who cried out

spoke the truth?

The truth? Now, what is the truth?

Each men sees it differently.

The truth I see

is that the East Ocean people will come...

...and enter the city, and the city will fall.

- Yes, and so will the nation.

- Can that be?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes