Vladimir Nabokov - The Tragedy of Mister Morn

MIDIA:

Wait … I’m frightened …

What was the outcome?

MORN:

Nothing. We made up.

MIDIA:

Listen, take me away from here!…

MORN:

Your eyes

are like swallows in autumn, when they cry out:

“Southwards …” Let me go …

MIDIA:

Wait, wait…

You’re laughing through tears!…

MORN:

Through rainbows, Midia!

I am so happy that my happiness,

as it glimmers, overflows the brim.

Adieu—Edmin, let’s go. Adieu. All’s well…

[MORN and EDMIN leave. Pause .]

GANUS [ slowly approaches MIDIA]:

Midia, what is all this? Oh… say something—

my wife, my bliss, my madness—I am waiting…

Tell me all this is a joke, a motley, evil

masquerade, in which a gentleman in tails

strikes a painted Moor… do smile! For I

am laughing… I’m cheery…

MIDIA:

I don’t know what

to say to you…

GANUS:

Just say one word; I will

believe anything… anything… Empty jealousy

intoxicated me—is that not so?—

like wine drunk in port after one’s been

long tossed at sea. O, say something…

MIDIA:

Listen, I will explain… You left—that much

I remember. God saw how I grieved.

Your things spoke to me, they smelled of you…

I was unwell… But gradually my memory

of you lost its warmth… You grew cold

in me—you were still living and yet

already incorporeal. Then you became

transparent, a kind of familiar ghost;

and finally, faint and translucent, you left

my heart on tiptoe… I thought—forever…

I resigned myself. And then my heart

renewed itself and came alight. I wanted

so much to live, to breathe, to whirl about.

Oblivion granted me freedom… And now,

suddenly, you come back from the dead, now,

suddenly, you burst so violently into a life

that’s foreign to you… I don’t know what to say

to you… How do I talk to a ghost who has

come back to life? I just don’t know…

GANUS:

The last

time I saw your face was through bars.

You lifted up your veil, to dab your nose—

with a crumpled handkerchief—like this,

like this…

MIDIA:

Who is to blame? Why did you leave?

Why did you need to fight—against happiness,

against fire and truth, against the King? …

GANUS:

Ha-ha… The King… O, God… The King!…

This is madness… madness!…

MIDIA:

You frighten me—

don’t laugh like that…

GANUS:

It’s nothing. It has passed…

Three nights I have not slept… I’m rather tired.

All autumn-long I wandered lost. Understand,

Midia, that I fled: I could not stand

my punishment… I came to know the sleepless

sound of night pursuits. I starved.

I too cannot tell you…

MIDIA:

… And all this

just to paint your face, and afterwards…

GANUS:

But I wanted to please you!

MIDIA:

…and afterwards

to be beaten and to roll around

like a drunken fool in the corner,

and to forgive the wrongdoer everything,

and to turn the insult into a joke,

to humiliate yourself in front of me…

Disgusting! Take this pillow, smother me!

For I love another!… Smother me!… No,

all he can do is cry… Enough… I’m tired…

Go…

GANUS:

Forgive me, Midia… I didn’t know…

It is as though for four years I eavesdropped

at a door, entered it—and found no one.

I’ll leave. Just let me see you… Once a week,

no more… I will live at Tremens’s. Only

don’t go away…

MIDIA:

Let go of my knees!

Leave… do not torture me… Enough—

I will go mad!…

GANUS:

Farewell… Don’t be angry…

forgive me—for I did not know. Give me

your hand—no, just to say goodbye. I must

look funny—I’ve smudged my make-up… Well…

I’m leaving… Lie down… It’s getting light…

[ Leaves .]

MIDIA:

Fool!

CURTAIN

TREMENS’S room . TREMENS is in the same pose as in act I, scene i .

GANUS sits at the table, laying out playing cards .

TREMENS:

The bliss of emptiness… Non-existence…

So shall I keep repeating to you, until

with trembling hands you squeeze together

your exploding head; until I deafen your soul

with the thunders of my devastating dream!…

I am tormented by idleness, and yet I know

that my stifled will is like the water, which,

falling drop after drop upon the head

of a condemned man, gives birth to madness,

gnawing his skull and eating through his reason;

like water, which, seeping drop after drop

through stone, into the fiery bowels of the earth,

provokes the eruption of a volcano—

the madness of the earth… Non-existence…

Though I have fallen in love with twilight,

I must live on and suffer the stings of life,

that I may give the people the joy of eternal

death—yet my steadfast soul does not cry out,

crucified though it be on the bone cross

of the human skeleton, on the black thunderous

Golgotha of existence… You are pale, Ganus…

Stop laying out those cards, stop ruffling your

wild hair and glancing at the face of the clock…

What’s there to fear?

GANUS:

Be quiet, I beg you! It’s quarter to…

This is unbearable! The clock-hands move

like hunchbacks; like a widow and an orphan

behind a catafalque…

TREMENS:

Ella! My medicine!

GANUS:

Tremens… No, don’t let her come in!

O, God!

[ELLA enters lazily, dragging her shawl behind her .]

ELLA:

It’s cold in here… I’m not sure

that clock is right…

[ Looks at the wall-clock .]

TREMENS:

What’s it to you?

ELLA:

Nothing.

Strange: the fire is lit, but it’s cold…

TREMENS:

… My cold,

Ella, it’s my cold! I feel the chill of life,

but wait—soon I will let loose such fire…

GANUS:

This is unbearable! Ella, you’re jangling

the glass bottles… for God’s sake, don’t…

What was I about to say? Oh, yes:

the other day you promised to give me

an envelope and a stamp…

TREMENS:

… With a masked man…

ELLA:

I’ll fetch them. It’s cold here… Maybe I am

imagining it. I keep yawning all day…

[ Leaves .]

GANUS:

What did you say?

TREMENS:

I said that the stamp

depicts our noble…

GANUS:

Tremens, Tremens, O,

if you only knew! Not that. Listen, I

deliberately asked Ella… You must send

her away, somewhere, for an hour… They are

coming now: we decided on ten o’clock,

you checked the cartel yourself… I beg you,

give her an errand…

TREMENS:

On the contrary, Ganus.

Let her learn. Let her see fear and courage.

Death is a spectacle worthy of the gods.

GANUS:

You are a monster, Tremens! How can I,

under the gaze of her child-like eyes… O

Tremens, I beg you!…

TREMENS:

Enough. It’s part of my plan.

Today I shall unleash my monstrous carnival.

Your opponent—now what’s his name? I have

forgotten…

GANUS:

Tremens! My friend! Six minutes remain!

I implore you! They’re coming now… It’s Ella