Zhivoy trup Page #3

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All the abominations layers,

proofs of guilt. It is all disgusting!

Mother, this is cruel of you!

Are we really so immaculate that

we must always be perfectly consistent

when life is so complex?

Mother, why are you so cruel to me?

I love you. I desire your happiness.

Sergej Dmitrievich!

Of course you desire his happiness.

But it is not easy for us, with our

grey hairs, to understand the young.

Even so for a mother, grown accustomed

to her own idea of her son's happiness.

Women are all like that.

You may do it, of course. You are of age.

But you will kill me!

You are not yourself.

This is worse than cruelty!

Be quiet, Victor. Your mother's words

are always worse than her deeds.

Yelizaveta Andreyevna Protasova.

I shall tell her how I think and feel,

but I'll do it without offending her.

I am going. Please, Mother!

Ask her in.

No, you must please stay here!

I thought you'd find

en tete-a-tete easier.

No, I fear it. If I want en tete-a-tete,

I will nod to you.

It will depend. To be left alone with her

may make it difficult for me.

But I'll do like that if

My niece Nelly has often

mentioned you to me.

Yes, she and I were great friends,

and we are still friendly.

I never expected that

you would wish to see me.

I knew your husband well.

He was friendly with Victor,

and used to come to our house

before he left for Tambov.

I think it was there you married?

Yes, it was there we married.

But after his return to St. Petersburg

he never visited us.

Yes, he hardly went out anywhere.

And he never introduced you to me.

The last time I met you was

at the theatricals at the Denisovs'

They went off very well;

and you were acting.

No Yes Of course I did act.

Anna Dmitrievna, forgive me if what

I am going to say displeases you,

but I can't and don't know

how to dissemble!

I have come because

Victor Mikhaylovich said

because he, I mean,

because you wished to see me

But it is better to speak out

It is very hard for me

But you are kind.

I'd better go.

Yes, do.

Listen, Liza

I don't know your patronymic name,

and it doesn't matter

Andreyevna.

Well, Liza still.

I am very sorry for you, and I like you.

But I love Victor.

I know his soul as I know my own.

It is a proud soul.

He was proud as a boy of seven.

Not proud of his name or wealth,

but proud of his character and innocence,

He is as pure as a maiden.

I know.

He has never loved any woman.

You are the first.

I do not say I am not jealous.

I am jealous. But we mothers

your son is still a baby,

and it is too soon for you

we are prepared for that.

I was prepared to give him up to his wife

and not to be jealous,

but to a wife as pure as himself

Forgive me!

I know it was not your fault,

but you are unfortunate.

Liza, my dear,

you are a wise and good woman.

If you love him you must desire

his happiness more than your own.

And you will not wish to bind him

and give him cause to repent

though he would never say a word,

but he would suffer.

I know he wouldn't.

I have spoken of it to him,

I have thought of it.

I said to him:
"Let us be friends,

do not spoil your life;

do not bind your pure life

to my unfortunate one!"

But he does not wish for that.

You've ruined our daughter for nothing,

our only daughter, our priceless jewel

No! I don't gallivant!

I love this gentleman, that's all.

I've not left the choir.

I'll go on singing, and what

Say another word, and I'll pull

the hair off your head, slut!

It's bad, sir! We were fond of you

we sang to you without pay. We pitied you.

And what have you done?

You're doing a dirty deed.

I came to him myself, and if you take me

away now, I'll come back again.

I love him, and there's an end of it!

My love is stronger than all your locks.

Gallivanting with whom? With a beggar

what can you get out of him?

You've done wrong,

and now come along.

But you didn't love her

when you had money!

If you'd then subscribed

ten thousand roubles to the choir,

you might have had her honourably.

My respects to you, sir!

Excuse me. I've been an unwilling witness

of an unpleasant scene.

Whom have I the honour?

Prince Sergej Dmitrievich!

A witness of an unpleasant scene.

I should have been glad not to hear,

but having overheard it,

I consider it my duty to tell you so.

Yes yes, yes.

Please take a seat.

Thank you for telling me.

It gives me the right

to explain that scene to you.

I don't mind what you may think of me.

I should like to tell you that

the reproaches you heard,

addressed to that girl,

that gypsy singer, were unjust.

That is what I wished to tell you;

but what is it you want of me?

In what way can I be of service?

In the first place, I

Forgive me, Prince.

My present social standing is such,

that our former slight acquaintance

does not entitle me to a visit from you,

unless you have some business with me.

What is it?

I have business with you;

but I beg you to believe

that the alteration in your position in

no wise affects my attitude towards you.

I am sure of it.

My business is this. The son of my friend,

Anna Dmitrievna Karenina, and she herself,

have asked me to ascertain directly

from you what are your relations

May I speak out?

Your relations with your wife,

Yelizaveta Andreyevna Protasova.

My relations with my wife,

or rather with her who was my wife,

are entirely at an end.

Well then, but Victor Karenin,

or rather his mother, asked me to find out

what your intentions are.

What intentions? I have none.

I set her quite free!

Moreover, I will never disturb her peace.

I know she loves Victor Karenin.

Well, let her!

I consider him a very dull,

but very good and honourable man,

I think that she will, as the phrase goes,

be happy with him;

May God bless them! That's all.

And don't suppose that I feel

the least bit jealous.

If I said that Victor is dull,

I withdraw the remark.

He is an excellent, honourable, moral man:

almost the direct opposite of myself.

And he has loved her from childhood.

Perhaps she too may have loved him when

she married me that happens sometimes!

The very best love

is unconscious love.

I believe she always loved him;

but she didn't confess it even to herself.

But a shadow of some kind

always laid across our family life.

But why am I confessing to you?

Please do!

I understand that the shadow,

as you so well express it,

may have been

Yes, it was.

and perhaps that's why I couldn't find

satisfaction in our family life,

but was always seeking something,

and being carried away.

However, that sounds like excusing myself.

I don't want to, and can't, excuse myself.

I was I say with assurance

was a bad husband.

That's because in my mind, I am not,

and have long not been, her husband.

So there you have my answer

to your question.

Yes, but you know Victor's family,

and himself too.

His relation to Yelizavata Andreyevna is,

and has been all through,

most respectful and distant.

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