Vladimir Nabokov - The Tragedy of Mister Morn

since you left Venice?

GANUS:

Leave me, I beg you…

[DANDILIO moves into the salon . GANUS is left hunched at a table .]

ELLA [ enters briskly ]:

Is there anyone here?

GANUS:

Ella, this is

hard on me…

ELLA:

What is wrong, my dear?

GANUS:

There is something I don’t understand.

This suffocating make-up feels like

it’s straining my heart…

ELLA:

My poor Moor…

GANUS:

Before, you said… I felt so happy…

You were telling the truth, weren’t you?

ELLA:

Come on,

smile… Listen, the violin bows are

sparkling from the hall!

GANUS:

Will it end soon?

This heavy, mottled dream…

ELLA:

Yes, soon, soon…

[GANUS moves into the salon .]

ELLA [ alone ]:

How strange… my heart suddenly sang out:

I would give my whole life for this man

to be happy… a kind of light breeze

has passed by, and now I feel capable

of the most humble feat. My poor Moor!

I’m such a fool, why did I bring him with me?

I never noticed before—only just now,

in feeling jealousy on his behalf,

did I at long last see that some secret

reverberating sound connects Midia

to swift Morn… All this is strange…

DANDILIO [ comes out, looking for someone ]:

Did

you see? Did that Foreigner come past here?

ELLA:

I didn’t see him…

DANDILIO:

What a curious fellow!

He slipped away like a shadow… We were

just having a conversation with him…

[ELLA and DANDILIO pass on .]

EDMIN [ leads MIDIA to a chair ]:

You do not dance tonight, Midia?

MIDIA:

While you,

as always, are mysteriously silent—

perhaps you would like to tell me what

Morn does all day?

EDMIN:

What does it matter?

Whether he’s a businessman, a scholar,

an artist, a warrior, or just an impassioned man—

isn’t it all the same to you?

MIDIA:

And what

is it you do yourself? Stop it—stop shrugging

your shoulders! Conversation with you

is such a bore, Edmin…

EDMIN:

I know…

MIDIA:

Tell me, when Morn is here, you guard, alone

beneath the window, and after leave with him.

Friendship is friendship, but this…

EDMIN:

I like it this way.

MIDIA:

Is there not a woman—unknown to us—

with whom you would more pleasantly spend

the nights, while Morn is here, than with the spectre

of someone else’s happiness?… How foolish—

you’ve grown pale…

[MORN enters, wiping his brow .]

MORN:

What is happiness?

Klian ran past me and, like the wind,

took Ella from me…

[ to EDMIN]

Friend, brighten up!

Your face is painfully contorted, as though

you were about to sneeze… Go dance…

[EDMIN exits .]

… Oh, my Midia, how you do resemble

happiness! No, do not move, do not spoil

your splendour… I am cold from happiness.

We are on the crest of a wave of music… Wait,

don’t speak. This very moment is the peak of two eternities…

MIDIA:

A mere two moons

have rolled by since that vivid day, when

mysterious Edmin brought you to me. That day

you conquered me with the piercing glance

of your deep eyes. In them, an intense force

sparkles around the pupils with a yellow light…

Sometimes it seems to me that, walking

down the street, you could, with the even breath

of your eyes alone, inspire in passers-by

whatever you wanted: happiness, wisdom,

the heat of passion… I’ll put it this way—

but don’t laugh: my soul has fixed itself

to your eyes, as when in childhood

one’s tongue sticks to cloudy metal if,

for a lark, you lick it in the flaring frost…

Now tell me, what do you do all day?

MORN:

And your eyes—no, show me—are

slightly slanted, satin-like… Oh, my dear…

May I kiss the rays of your collarbone?

MIDIA:

Wait, be careful—that black tragedian

is watching us… soon the guests will leave…

Be patient!

MORN [ laughing ]:

Well, that should not be hard:

A whole night will make me tire of you

yet…

MIDIA:

Don’t joke like that, I don’t like it…

[ The music dies down. The GUESTS exit the salon .]

DANDILIO [ to the FOREIGNER]:

Wherever did you disappear to?

FOREIGNER:

I had woken up. The wind roused me.

It rattled the window frame. I barely

fell back asleep…

DANDILIO:

People here will find

that hard to believe.

MORN:

Ah, Dandilio…

I haven’t had a chance to talk with you…

What new things have you collected? What

rusty screws, what bracelets of pearl?

DANDILIO:

Things

are bad. Recently I found a fiery parrot—

huge and sleepy, with a crimson feather

in his tail—I found him in a little shop,

where he sits remembering the tunnel

of a smoking tropical river… I would have

bought him but I have a cat—these two

divine, mysterious creatures could not live

together… Each day I go and admire him:

he is a sacred parrot, he does not speak.

FIRST GUEST [ to the SECOND GUEST]:

Time to go home. Take a look at Midia,

I think her smile is a suppressed yawn.

SECOND GUEST:

No, wait, they’re bringing more wine. Let’s drink.

FIRST GUEST:

But it’s getting rather dull…

MORN [ opening a bottle ]:

Here! Fly,

you cosmic cork, into the stuccoed heavens!

Burst forth, foam, like chaos, gushing, welling…

whoa… between the fingers of the Creator.

GUESTS:

To the King! To the King!

DANDILIO:

How about you, Morn?

Will you not drink?

MORN:

Certainly not. One gives

one’s life to the King, but drink—why

on earth drink?

FOREIGNER:

To this happy kingdom.

KLIAN:

To the Milky Way!

DANDILIO:

This wine will make

the stars flow in our heads…

ELLA:

Down in one,

to the fiery parrot!

KLIAN:

Ella, to our “tomorrow”!

MORN:

To the mistress of the house!

GANUS:

I want to ask…

It is unclear to me… Can we not toast

the previous master of the house?

MIDIA [ dropping her glass ]:

There.

All over my dress.

[ Pause .]

FIRST GUEST:

Put salt on it.

DANDILIO:

There is

a saying: with the tears of happiness, any stain

immediately disappears…

MIDIA [ to ELLA, quietly ]:

Listen, your actor

is drunk, I think…

[ Wipes her dress .]

MORN:

I read in a rare treatise—

here, Dandilio, you are a man of books—

that, while creating the world, God made a joke

at just the wrong moment…

DANDILIO:

In that same book,

I remember, it is also said that a guest

is as necessary to a house as air,

but if the breath drawn in is not released—

you will turn blue and die. So, Midia…

MIDIA:

What! So early?

DANDILIO:

It’s time, it’s time. My cat is waiting…

MIDIA:

Do come again…

FIRST GUEST:

It’s also time

for me, lovely Midia.

MIDIA:

That’s terrible!

You should stay…

ELLA [ to GANUS, quietly ]:

I beg you, please

also leave… You can visit her tomorrow