""TIMES OF PEACE"" "BASED ON HIS PLAY:" ""NEW DIRECTIVES FOR PEACETIMES"" ""I know there is a happy man in the world, they say he is in Brazil."" "Are you Polish too?" "No." "What did you say?" "No." ""Now?"" "No..." "But I know you..." "I just can't remember where from." "I have no idea what you are talking about." "Excuse me." "I am positive I've seen you before." "Who are you?" "How could you possibly know who I am?" "If now I am no one." "Look how beautiful it is!" "Segismundo, phone call for you, straight from "high-up"." "Things are getting hairy here now." "Here is your National Correspondent bringing you the news:" "and crowning his birthday celebration," "His Excellency the president, Mr. Getulio Vargas, confirms the pardon to several convicts who qualify to receive it." "Sources from..." "We'll have communists in our midst!" "This has been a special edition of the National Correspondent!" "Get a move on, Ratinho!" "We must get rid of these files today!" "Hello." "I thought you'd be far away by now." "What are you still doing there?" "I'm waiting for new arrivals." "I see, but I wasn't expecting this." "It's been a while since you last called, Godfather." "I know, you have a lot of responsibilities, of course." "Is there anything I can still do for you?" "Yes..." "Yes, I'm listening." "Is that an order?" "Honorio!" "I need you and Barbosa." "We must get hold of some paperwork..." "What do you mean?" "Times have changed." "What has happened?" "These are times of peace!" "AMNESTY!" "What a nice gift from the president, huh?" "A hair cut, a shave, a shower... and fresh air." "And you guys wanted to overthrow the president." "Here's your release warrant." "You're free." "It's the president's birthday, and you get the gift." "Go." "Go!" "Or would you like to stay here another 6 years?" "Next!" "I'm going..." "There's someone waiting for me." "Why don't you come with me?" "I'd like you to meet my wife." "Where are you going to go now?" "Wait!" "Think it through before you do you want to do." "We're all human, we all make mistakes." "After these years here I've learnt that hands can save lives... and also destroy them." "Forget all that." "You still have a life ahead of you." "A life." "Not this one." "You stay here, understand?" "You stay here." "What is he saying?" "I think." "He won't let you stay." "Why?" "You don't understand, I can't let my grandfather go without me." "Oh, dear God!" "He stays here, do you understand?" "Go!" "You stay here." "You stay here!" "Next!" ""Now"." ""No"." ""Now"." ""No"." "I'll never understand this crazy language." "You'll have to learn Portuguese." "You are going to live here." "I'll never learn it." "You're right." "Now no one will ever say "no" again." "Segismundo!" "This is quite heavy, isn't it, Mr. Segismundo?" "Segismundo!" "Go, go." "Segismundo!" "You are acting strange, didn't you hear me calling?" "What are you doing here at this hour?" "Nothing, I came to see you." "Where are you taking all that?" "It's best to go home." "Godfather talked to you." "I just came to see you, what harm can it do?" "He talked to you, didn't he?" "You shouldn't stay here." "What did he say to you?" "Clausewitz, yes." "Yes, Sir." "Farmer?" ""I won't be the poet of a decrepit world." "Neither will I praise the world of the future." "I'm bound to life, and I look at my friends." "They are morose, but they nurture great hopes."" "Carlos Drummond de Andrade!" ""I won't be the poet of a decrepit world." "Neither will I praise..."" "Oh dear, another wacko!" ""...acts committed in the dead of night..."" "It's him !" "I'll handle this." "Come with me." "Stay here." "Keep an eye on him until my guys get here." "Right." "I have absolutely no regrets." "Let's talk at home." "Will you listen to me?" "No, no I won't!" "Segismundo!" "What is it?" "Got a visa?" "Is it here?" "Right, here it is." "Take this, and leave it in my office." "I'll go check it." "Go, go." "I'll deal with it in a moment." "Get in the car." "Aren't you coming?" "I have things to do." "What?" "Get in the car!" "Why won't you look me in the eyes anymore, brother?" "I told you, get in the car, go on!" "All right." "It's a man's world." "You always have things to do." "Where do I leave this?" "You've dismantled your office." "Leave it in the warehouse." "I think it will be a conversation that might require more freedom." "Shall we?" "Sir!" "Sir!" "Sir!" "Where are you taking him?" "Sir!" "I want to know!" "You've been discharged, ma'am !" "Next, please!" "Up." "Here." "Here!" "There." "It must be in here somewhere." "What is this a mess?" "You may sit down." "Sit..." "Sit down." "Sit down!" "You may." "On the chair." "Sit..." "What a pain in the neck!" "How am I going to talk to the subject." "Subject, predicate, object." "Objects." "Do you speak Portuguese?" "I see." "A little." "That's better." "Look, we'll have to fill these forms." "Why have they changed the statement form again?" "These people don't know what it is they want." "Federal District..." "What is today's date?" "April the 1 8th, 1 945." "You speak Portuguese well, then?" "Right, let's get this over with." "Federal District, today's date..." "April the 1 8th, 1 945." "Deponent's name..." "Your name?" "Pardon?" "Your name." "Segismundo." "Segismundo?" "I was still a baby when my parents died." "I'll never know why I got this name." "Segismundo." "You know, that the name..." "No, you won't be interested." "I'm not interested in it myself." "You really do speak Portuguese." "I do." "Have you been here before?" "No, never." "I see." "And how did you learn Portuguese?" "I studied..." "by myself." "After everything I went through... during the war... studying such an unusual language was good for me, it made me forget." "I'm grateful to the "x"." "I spent a lot of time studying the values of "x"" "in Portuguese." "How can you use in so many different ways such a simple little letter?" "Studying the "x"" "sometimes I could almost forget the war." "I could almost forget the cruelty." "And of course, an employee from your Consulate in Manchester lent me some books." "He also said "no" to me many times." "Now I say it, "no"." "It was his job." "To say "no"?" "We can't issue an entrance visa to just anyone." "I was referring to the pronunciation." ""No"." "It's hard to say "no"." "These nasal sounds in your language..." "Did you say Nazis?" "No, please!" "Nasal!" "Nasal..." ""No."" ""Hand."" ""Summer."" ""So..."" "You have learnt with this employee from the Consulate." "What is his name?" "I had already studied a little at the seminary." "Because of my Latin teacher." "Professor Cracowiack..." ""Docta ignorantia."" "You have heard it before, right?" "No." "What does it mean?" "Latin." "I've never had Latin." "Haven't you ever been to mass?" "No." "As you know, my country is a Catholic country, as is yours..." "I was raised in a Lutheran orphanage." "I'm..." "I'm sorry." "So... you learnt Portuguese in the seminary?" "No, Latin, with professor Cracowiack, as I said before." "Professor Cracowiack loved the Neolatin languages." "Professor Cracowiack spoke 1 7 languages!" "He had a copy of a magazine with modern Brazilian poetry." "Have you ever heard of Carlos Drummond de Andrade?" "He's the strong man of the Minister of Education and Health." "I know he writes in a newspaper, it seems he is a writer." "Are you a writer as well?" "No, I'm a farmer." "And you have learnt to speak Portuguese on your own..." "Right." "It's not everyday foreigners arrive here speaking Portuguese." "It's good to be in Brazil." "It must be." "Listen, you have arrived on a very hectic day." "We must sort this out quickly." "You know that according to the law, we're still at war." "I know, I know, in Europe it's over, the armistice will come shortly." "But for us here at Immigration everything remains the same." "We're waiting for new guidelines for peacetimes, in the meantime, everything remains the same." "If you want to stay here as a foreigner you need a safe-conduct." "Do you want to stay here?" "I do." "I see." "Then we'll need to clear up some doubts we have about you." "If we are unable do this, you'll have to go back on the freighter and be on your way." "I do have the visa." "An entrance visa, this paper here." "Issued by the Brazilian Consulate in Manchester, right?" "Now, do you see your passport?" "Is there a stamp on this page?" "Huh?" "No." "So." "I'm the person who stamps it." "You haven't entered Brazil yet." "You haven't entered any country, you've entered my office." "I determine whether you stay or go." "But the freighter is going to the Falkland Islands." "What am I going to do there?" "What are you going to do here?" "Here in Brazil?" "Work." "It says in your passport that you are a farmer." "And your country needs arms for its agriculture." "My country needs an awful lot of things." "An awful lot of things..." "Come with me, come with me." "Come with me!" "Sir..." "Sir, where are we going?" "Mr. Segismundo, please..." "Where are we going?" "To the heart of this country." "Are you celebrating the president's birthday?" "I didn't know what they did in there, I swear." "I only did what I was told to do." "I'm not interested in you." "I just want to know about him." "I don't know..." "I don't know anything." "Yes, yes you do." "But don't worry." "Do you think I can actually do anything?" "I just want to look him in the eye." "That's all." "To look him in the eye." "What is this place?" "I told you, the heart of this country." "The center of the Earth!" "And this... is the salt of the Earth." "Or perhaps the compost of Brazil's fertile soil." "Why have you brought me here?" "May I see your hands?" "I don't understand." "I want to see your hands." "You want to see my hands?" "That's right, now, show me your hands." "The palms of your hands, please." "You have never held a hoe in your life." "You know, Mister..." "Clausewitz." "Clausewitz." "So, here's what caught my attention, more than anything else." "A farmer..." "I thought to myself:" "what does a farmer do in Europe these days?" "What did you do there?" "Nothing." "I see." "And what do you want to do here?" "Brazil needs arms for its agriculture." "Brazil always needs something." "At one moment, it needs to plant;" "at another, to temper steel;" "at another, Brazil needs us;" "at yet another, it doesn't need us anymore!" "Haven't you brought any luggage?" "What I am is all I have." "No luggage then?" "No." "I left my belongings along the way..." "From Polsh..." "Poland!" "Say it:" "Poland!" "Poland." "That's right, Poland!" "Poland." "You went onboard in England, right?" "And you didn't have anything?" "No." "That's what is so odd." "Almost everyone who has been arriving here lately bring with them furniture, rugs, pianos..." "Some even bring cars." "I know, I know." "Later they'll sell those items to pay for a new life." "They've told me about building factories, buying farms." "And afterwards they'll buy new objects." "It's almost as if they're getting ready to flee again." "When that happens they'll need to have objects to sell." "But you haven't brought anything?" "My arms!" "I know, Brazil needs arms for its agriculture." "Your boat is about to weigh anchor." "Won't I stay?" "Ma'am, what are you doing here?" "Haven't I already told you to go?" "What are you doing to that man?" "The one with the beard." "It's no good talking to me, I don't understand zilch." "You are making a mistake." "He is a great man in Poland." "Clausewitz." "Go home, all right?" "Wherever it may be." "I saw him in the theater." "He had a great role in a play." "Strong, evil, very evil." "He carried the heads of two children, he'd ripped their heads off, the children's heads." "He'd even chopped their tongues off." "He told two men to rape a young girl, they threw her on the floor and abused her." "They chopped off her hands so she wouldn't be able to point." "Does she know that man." "They chopped off her hands!" "Mr. Segismundo, please." "Won't I be able to stay?" "I can't take that chance." "There are too many discrepancies in your statement." "Discrepancies?" "You say there are discrepancies." "Where are these discrepancies?" "Everywhere." "You say you're a farmer, but your hands have no calluses;" "you've never been to Brazil, but you speak Portuguese well." "Do you think I'm a spy?" "No, I think you're a Nazi trying to enter Brazil." "Nazi?" "Nazi, me?" "Please." "I don't have anything against you." "But now we have just won a war against Nazi Fascism, so they say." "You have no idea how chaotic these past few years have been." "First, they tell us to bar the Jews, then, bar the Germans." "Arrest the communists, now release the communists!" "While we don't receive the new directives for times of peace" "I have to decide everything on my own!" "It's a mix up." "It's a mix up!" "Take him back to the freighter." "He won't stay here in Brazil!" "Go, take him quickly, before I..." "Move it, move it!" "Here's his passport." "Sir." "Sir!" "Sir!" "No, please." "Please!" "Please, Sir!" "It's a mix up." "It's a mix up..." "Yes, no one would know of my whereabouts..." "Segismundo?" "What now, Honorio?" "There's something you need to know." "I don't want to go..." "It's a mix up!" "You are a communist!" "A Nazi!" "No, no, I'm from Poland!" "I know, Poland is your homeland, so what?" "You don't understand!" "Please..." "I do understand, so what?" "You don't understand..." "Ah, I'm the one who doesn't understand..." "Mr. Clausewitz, then help me understand all of this." "A woman who was on the boat said she knew you." "She didn't speak Portuguese, so we couldn't understand her very well..." "But it seems she saw you doing... doing some evil things." "I'm not sure if that is the right word." "Evil things?" "No..." "You chopped off a girl's tongue!" "Was it a redheaded woman who said that?" "Do you know her?" "She knew me." "She knew me from the stage." "Stage." "In the theater." "Is that clear?" "In the theater." "I used to be an actor." "Didn't you say you are a farmer?" "I used to be an actor, now I'm a farmer." "Give me his passport." "Come with me." "Come on, come on!" "Is Segismundo in, please?" "Has something happened to my brother?" "No, nothing has happened, and nothing will happen." "I know you." "I'd better leave." "No!" "You are a friend of my brother's aren't you?" "Aren't you?" "You must help Segismundo." "He won't leave Customs!" "You do know where it is, right?" "At the port." "At the port, of course." "Dock 22." "Tell him to come home." "Right now, for the love of God!" "Where do I know you from?" "You are walking well..." "You look pretty, it's almost impossible to tell." "Dock 22." "When did you become a farmer?" "1 5 months ago." "When I gave up being an actor" "I had to pick an occupation." "I'm a farmer now." "But you've never planted anything?" "Europe was at war." "Brazil needs arms for its agriculture." "Sit." "Are you an actor or a farmer?" "I've decided to become a farmer." "I've no interest in the theater anymore." "Do you think there's a place for the theater in the world after this war?" "I've never been to the theater." "I've heard a play on the radio once." "It was a story about a woman who signed some promissory notes, and then left home." "I didn't understand it very well, I couldn't relate to it." "That's what I was saying." "The world I have seen..." "The theater will never talk about the world I have seen." "You have no idea what a war is like inside your own house." "You all say that." ""You all?"" "You, foreigners." "But I've seen things, Sir." "Things you can't even imagine." "Listen." "If..." "If you had any luggage, something to give to the boys at Customs..." "I don't know..." "A gift." "Right?" "Something." "Then it would be much easier." "But you haven't got anything." "I have my memories." "That's not going to help you." "Your war means nothing to me." "You all want to make me cry." ""You?" The foreigners?" "The foreigners want to make you cry?" "It's a waste of time." "What can you tell me that may evoke a different emotion in me?" "It's like the play I heard on the radio..." "The theater can't touch you." "I agree, not after this war." "But I have memories, my memories." "I have lived these memories!" "It was a very hard time." "Brazil sent troops." "There was such commotion in the streets that our president sent troops!" "He did!" "He had to!" "We owe nothing!" "I'm not talking about the soldiers' war," "I'm talking about the war that entered my house!" "You have no idea what one person can do to another!" "I know!" "You've killed, you've raped virgins!" "You've eaten flesh from the dead, I know!" "You all tell me the same thing!" "And I say, "So what?"" "That happened in Europe." "Why should that have anything to do with me?" "Because you're a person too!" "You are a "subject"." "We still have about 1 0 minutes before your boat weighs anchor," "I'm already late, it's all the same if I run into one of those..." "Let's make a deal." "You have 1 0 minutes to make me cry." "To make you cry?" "That's right!" "If I don't cry within the next 1 0 minutes because of your memories about your war, you'll board the boat." "If I cry..." "Can you see this safe-conduct?" "It's yours." "Is that in the statute?" "To you now, I am the statute." "If you cry, I stay in Brazil?" "That's right." "The boat is getting ready to weigh anchor." "If you want to give up you can board it now." "No, no, no, I'll tell you my memories!" "Look at this desk, what a mess..." "Please, I need to think!" "Think about what?" "Just tell me what you lived." "I don't know the words," "I don't know how to put it into words." "It's hard to tell you this in Portuguese." "I only speak Portuguese, you speak Portuguese as well." "It's not the same thing!" "I'm waiting." "All right." "I'll tell you." "Near my town..." "Near my town there was a smell of flesh..." "I see." "Human flesh, burning." "No, I won't be able to tell this, not in Portuguese!" "Do you want to give up?" "Another memory..." "They arrested professor Cracowiack, the Germans arrested him." "The Latin teacher?" "Yes, the Latin teacher." "Did they take him to be interrogated?" "Yes." "I was in the same room..." "Right, right." "And then what?" "They tied him to a chair..." "like the one you're sitting on." "Right, right." "And then they started hitting him." "I see, I got it." "They were hitting him with a..." "I got it." "With a what?" "I don't know!" "I don't have the words, Sir!" "I'll lend you some." "When..." "Well..." "Long before I was transferred here" "I used to do some jobs for the political police." "You?" "My Godfather got me the job." "He was one of the bosses there." "He brought me from Rio Grande because he trusted no one else." "He knew I could handle the job." "I don't understand." "Someone had to get the job done." "What job?" "To make those people talk." "Sometimes they didn't even want them to talk." "They just wanted to scare them." "I've always enjoyed giving people... a good fright!" "Haven't you ever enjoyed frightening others, not even as a child, Mr. Clausewitz?" "Yes..." "While they needed me," "I did many things for them." "Many a time I've seen a guy arrive in my office after 50 days without seeing the sun, pissing in the same pot the whole time, and still have to endure another 20 hours on his knees." "My boys would shave all the hairs from the man's body, pinch him, and have some fun shooting a can off his head." "When he fell face down on the floor it was time to start." "I'd drag him by the hair and wouldn't let him sleep." "I'd burn his whole body with cigarettes, even his balls." "Then I'd pour castor oil all over the guy." "I'd hit him with the nightstick until I couldn't see his face." ""Nightstick..."" "That's the word you were missing, Mr. Clausewitz." "Does it sound like good Portuguese to you?" "Does it come from the Latin?" "What's its origin?" "I suppose your teacher would know the answer, right?" "But afterwards..." "I'd..." "I'd shove pepper sauce up the guy's asshole with a clyster this big." "Afterwards he'd have to clean all the shit from the floor, or else I'd hit him some more with the nightstick." "For the more difficult ones I had a different method :" "I'd shove, up his cock, up his penis, a wire." "Then I'd light the tip on the outside with a blowtorch." "The guy was like a stuck pig at slaughter." "When he'd come to, he'd ask to sign the statement." "In Brazil everything must end with a signed statement." "Like this one here." "I'm astonished." "Astonished?" "But you came from the war!" "No..." "I'm astonished because I've never imagined that those things could be said in your language." "To me, Portuguese was a Latin spoken by babies, old people, people with no teeth." "Had they had any teeth, how could have they lost so many consonants?" "We'd also pull the guy's teeth, of course." "What did this man do to you?" "What man?" "The one I was talking about?" "Nothing." "I did what I was told to do, it's always been like that, since the orphanage." "I was strong for my age." "I was no good for the choir, but to snap chickens' necks I was good enough." "At least they allowed me to stay with my sister." "I've always done everything I was told to do." "Why do you people do everything you're told?" ""You people?"" "Men like you." "Men like you made me start to hate the German language." "I used to love Goethe!" "Now I can't hear a single line from "Faust"." "Who?" "What are you talking about?" "The theater." "I thought you were a farmer now!" "I am a farmer, but I'm a farmer in Brazil." "I must speak the language that is spoken here, and you are making me hate Portuguese!" "In Brazil we speak Portuguese!" "My Latin teacher used to say that Portuguese was a language spoken by birds." "So sweet, so joyful..." "You've never received an order in Portuguese." "That's why you have that notion." "When my Godfather gives me an order," "I obey." "You have your memories, and I have mine." "Do you know what was the first job I did for him?" "I dug up a month old corpse and left it at the widow's door!" "Titus..." "Titus Andronicus!" "Don't you know it?" "There you go again with your theater." "No, that was Aaron's monologue!" "That redheaded lady... she saw me playing the role of Aaron!" "Sir, I'd speak every night of death, rape, carnage..." ""Acts committed in the dead of night!"" "The widow was a rancher who was making trouble for my Godfather!" "They had already had her husband killed, but the widow persisted!" "My Godfather told me to give her a good fright!" "It actually happened!" "I was on stage when the Germans crossed my country's border," "as I was every night." "The company decided not to interrupt the play, but on the next day the theater was closed." "I stayed home." "It was... the first time in 1 0 years that I spent a night off the stage." "So many things had happened in Poland, so many things had happened in Europe, and I was on the stage throughout it all." "For that reason I think it was a sort of relief when I didn't have to put on my makeup that night." "I think I truly thought that at last... the time had come to live life." "Life..." "The days went by, and I didn't go out in the streets." "I'd watch everything from the window." "I didn't know what to do amidst that pandemonium." "I was an actor." "I couldn't load a gun," "I couldn't heal a wound..." "Staying at home was the best I could do." "Until the day they came for me." "I didn't feel fear." "No..." "I thought, again, that I was living somehow." "Living... while I witnessed all the horror." "Because that was the only thing I could actually do:" "to be present, and to keep it in my memory." "I was present when they killed professor Cracowiack." "I was present when they found my father's body, he had killed himself with a wire around his neck." "I was present when my friends were shot down as they tried to escape over the border." "I was present when I left my wife in a hospital in Paris waiting to die." "I haven't lived, I've collected memories." "They are late." "I thought I wouldn't be able to tell you my memories, but now I think it wouldn't make any difference." "The stakes are your safe-conduct and your new life in Brazil." "Have you given up?" "I've given up so much already." "I've given up my country, my family..." "I've given up my occupation, I've given up the theatre." "Have you given up on Brazil, then?" "I had no idea that people also obeyed orders in Brazil." "That's right, Brazilians obey orders." "I'd just like to understand why you people obey orders!" ""You people?" Brazilians?" "You people!" ""You people!" Men like me!" "You don't obey orders, do you?" "You think you are better than me!" "No, I know I'm worse than you!" "I've escaped." "I'm alive!" "And everyone else is dead :" "my friends, my parents, my country... my wife!" "If I'm alive it's because I was worse than them," "I am worse than you, I'm sure of it!" "It must be hard to think that we are equals." "You can accept you are worse than me, but you cannot accept we are equals." "I've committed a crime, a heinous crime." "I was there, and I didn't do anything." "I survived." "So did I!" "So did I." "That's why my Godfather has removed me to this post." "He told me we must wait for things to quiet down a bit." "Soon we'll have the armistice, and soon we'll have new directives for times of peace!" "All I know is that no one wants to have anything to do with me!" "I did what they told me to do!" "And they want to forget they told me to do what I did!" "And you obeyed orders?" "With no hesitation!" "Without even covering my face!" "Just once..." "Yes, once I did cover my face with a mask." "My sister is my family." "You must leave now, you can't be here!" "You can't let my sister die!" "Keep calm !" "You can't let my sister die!" "Be very careful, doctor, you don't understand..." "My sister is very fragile, she is like a bird..." "Take it easy, please." "Don't worry." "I will save your sister." "Stay calm." "Don't worry, she is in good hands." "He did everything to save my sister... and he saved her." "A few years later" "I was ordered to break the bones... in a prisoner's hand." "It was the only time I hid my face." "Silly." "But I think the doctor did recognize me." "I broke every bone in the hands of the doctor who had saved my sister's life." "Why did you do something like that?" "Because I am worse than you." "I was obeying orders!" "Orders!" "All political prisoners in Rio have been released today." "I've dealt with a bunch of them." "My Godfather hadn't called me in months, and he called today." "He told me to go home early, and to take a few days off." "Someone may want to settle the score with me." "I asked him if that was an order." "And he told me I could take it as I pleased." "He had never given me an order before, and that was the last thing he said before he hung up." "For some time now..." "I can't bear to look at my sister, because I see that doctor's eyes in her eyes." "I feel so angry at him, Mr. Clausewitz, so angry!" "All right." "Let's go." "Is our deal still on?" "Your boat is about to weigh anchor." "But I haven't told you how professor Cracowiack died." "The Nazis beat him to death in your presence." "No, he died before my eyes, but the Nazis didn't beat him." "The officer in charge was... he had worked the whole day, he was very tired." "He knew none of those tortured men had anything to say." "And he knew none of them could resist him, so to make things easier, he decided to shoot professor Cracowiack, and finish him off quickly." "But because he had beaten the other prisoners too much his hand was trembling, and he managed to hit the professor, but not in a place that would kill him immediately." "I think he was very tired indeed because he decided not to shoot him again." "He had someone throw me and the professor in a cell." "Professor Cracowiack bled for 1 5 hours." "I stood next to him until he died." "I could see his eyes turn glassy," "I felt the warmth and moisture of his last breath." "He died somewhat peacefully, after talking through most of the night..." "He recited the very first lesson I had had with him ;" "he recited the "Aeneid";" "he corrected my Latin..." "I watched him die little by little right before my eyes." "I was there." "He spoke 1 7 languages!" "And the last sound he made wasn't even a word." "It sounded more like a piece of furniture being dragged through the night." "It would have been beautiful if professor Cracowiack had died reciting "De Docta Ignorantia"..." "And then what?" "Professor Cracowiack started talking just before he died, without catching his breath, for a long period." "All of a sudden he turned his face, and meaningless words started to pour out..." "If I'm not mistaken :" ""Oh, wretch that I am !" "Oh, unfortunate!" "I try, oh heavens, to understand what crime I committed against You." "But if I was born, I already know the crime." "There's sufficient motive for your cruel justice." "For man's greatest crime is to have been born at all." "Still, I should like to know, to ease my anxiety, how I could offend You more, to deserve more punishment?" "Were not all other men born too?" "If so, why do they have blessings that I never enjoyed?" "The bird is born, with plumage that gives it unrivalled beauty;" "and it is nothing more than a feathered flower or a flowery winged branch, when it swiftly cuts the vaulted air, refusing the calm shelter of its nest." "But I, with more soul, have less liberty!" "The beast is born, too, with skin beautifully marked, like a cluster of stars." "Then stern necessity, cruel and savage, teaches it to be cruel also, and it reigns a monster in its labyrinth." "Yet I, with better instincts, have less liberty!" "The fish is born, breathless, spawned from eggs and seaweed, a scaly vessel in the waves when it darts... in all directions, measuring the vastness of the cold and deep." "And I, with more free will, I have less liberty!" "The stream is born, a snake uncoiling among the flowers, and barely does this serpent of silver break through the blossoms, when it celebrates their grace with music, and takes its passage through the majesty of the open plain." "Yet I, who have more life, have less liberty!" "So..." "As I reach this pitch of passion, like a volcano, an Aetna," "I could tear pieces of my heart from my own breast." "What law, justice or reason, can deny to men so sweet a privilege, so elementary a freedom, as God has given to a brook, a fish, a beast, and a bird?"" "Shit!" "I've smudged your safe-conduct." "Damn!" "My safe-conduct?" "What is worse, I didn't understand anything he said." "I didn't understand any of it!" "Here it is." "I keep my promises." "Here." "Here you go." "And you can forget about this..." "Today in Brazil, no one will sign any statements." "Right, you can go." "You won't take me back to the boat?" "Brazil needs arms for its agriculture!" "Leave!" "The freighter will leave." "I must tell you something." "Enough of your stories, Mr. Clausewitz." "It's about what I've just told you." "Speak already, Mr. Clausewitz." "Not all of it is true..." "Come again?" "I did see professor Cracowiack die, but he didn't say any of the things I said he had said." "Listen..." "He spent the last few hours of his life explaining to me how to prepare this porridge that is only made in the valley where he was born." "And what were all those words?" "Theater." "Theater?" "A monologue from a play by a Spanish author." "I've recited that monologue every night for one year." "This is not right!" "You're supposed to make me cry with your memories!" "I did try to remember things, but all I could remember were bits from plays I've acted on." "I remember the Germans crossing my country's border, but I also remember the first time I read a Spanish author." "This is not right!" "I shouldn't let you go!" "But I won the bet." "You cried, look, the safe-conduct smeared with your tears." "It was your damned theater that made me cry!" "Yes, it was, it was the theater." "And what do you think you have proved to me?" "To you I didn't prove anything." "I proved to myself." "Look, I know Brazil needs arms for its agriculture, but I am an actor." "That is my occupation." "I don't know what good is the theater in the world after this war." "All I know is that I must carry on doing what I know how to do." "Some day someone will figure out what good it is, right?" ""If" it's any good at all." "For me, it's enough to play it." "To play theater." "It's like professor Cracowiack's porridge recipe..." "Someone has to know how to make that porridge." "Get lost!" "You, the theater, and the porridge!" "Let the detainee go!" "This Clausewitz is clear to go." "Mr. Clausewitz." "I want to speak with you, Mr. Clausewitz." "Mr. Clausewitz!" "Wait a second." "Let him go." "Mr. Clausewitz, listen." "How does that story go?" "What story?" "I'm talking about that play by the Spanish author." "One day..." "No..." "As I was saying, one night, in the kingdom of Poland..." "So it's set in your homeland?" "Yes, it's set in my homeland." "Sit down." "Huh?" "Sit down." "Please." "What is this?" "Please." "Ladies and gentlemen, one night, in the kingdom of Poland," "Rosaura was arriving." "Disguised as a man, and followed by Clarin." "Determined to avenge her honor," "Rosaura was walking" "when she stumbled upon a strange tower." "From within the tower, a man emerged... wrapped in fur," "and in chains." "All of a sudden, this man, not having seen Rosaura, looks at the sky and says..." "Do you know what was this man's name?" "You won't believe it." "Segismundo!" "Are you serious?" "Of course I am." "Everyone imagines Clarin and Rosaura walking and walking in the starry, starry night, in my land Poland." "They came to a huge, huge tower." "From within the tower, a man emerged... wrapped in fur, and in chains who says:" ""Oh, wretch that I am !" "Oh, unfortunate!" "Oh, wretch that I am !" "Oh, unfortunate!" "I try, oh heavens, to understand what crime" "I committed against you." "But if I was born, I already know the crime." "Here's sufficient motive for your cruel justice." "For man's greatest crime is to have been born at all." "Still, I should like to know, to ease my anxiety, how I could offend You more, to deserve more punishment?" "Were not all other men born too?" "If so, why do they have blessings that I never enjoyed?" "The bird is born, with plumage that gives it unrivalled beauty;" "and it is nothing more than a feathered flower or a flowery winged branch, when it swiftly cuts the vaulted air, refusing the calm shelter of its nest." "But I, with more soul, have less liberty!" "The beast is born, too, with skin beautifully marked, like a cluster of stars..."" "ENGLISH VERSION DREI MARC"