"MOSFILM" "AN UNFINISHED PIECE FOR THE PLAYER PIANO" "Based on the works by A.P. Chekhov" "Written by A. ADABASHIAN, N. MIKHALKOV" "Directed by Nikita MIKHALKOV" "Director of Photography Pavel LEBESHEV" "Production Designers:" "Alexander ADABASHIAN Alexander SAMULEKIN" "Music by Eduard ARTEMYEV Sound by Valentin BOBROVSKY" "English Subtitles by T. Kameneva" "Cast:" "Mikhail Vassilyevich Platonov - Alexander KALYAGIN" "Sophia Yegorovna" " Yelena SOLOVEY Sashenka" " Yevgenia GLUSHENKO" "Anna Petrovna Voinitseva - Antonina SHURANOVA" "Sergey Pavlovich Voinitsev - Yuri BOGATYRYOV" "Pavel Petrovich Shcherbuk - Oleg TABAKOV" "Porfiry Semyonovich Glagolyev - Nikolai PASTUKHOV" "Ivan Ivanovich Triletsky - Pavel KADOCHNIKOV" "Nikolai Ivanovich Triletsky - Nikita MIKHALKOV" "Gerasim Kuzmich Petrin - Anatoly ROMASHIN" "Verochka" " Natalya NAZAROVA Lizochka" " Xenia MININA" "Yakov" " Sergey NIKONENKO Petechka" " Seryozha GURYEV" "Do you remember the Kalitins?" "Ksyusha Kalitina, that plump girl..." "I had an affair with her which was even more annoying." "I kept calling on them, putting her mother to great expenses in terms of coffee." "We took walks on shady paths." "I was young and timid then." "So once they made me stay for the night." "Well, I stayed for the night." "I went to bed." "And in the middle of the night, you know..." "The door opens, and an old woman appears in my room." "She was about eighty, absolutely deaf, and with an enema bag in her hands." "And, pardon me, she gave me an enema." "I didn't resist." "I decided it was a custom at their house." "And in the morning I found out that she just got the wrong room." "After that, of course, I stopped visiting them as a suitor." " And what's even more funny..." " It's neither funny, nor proper!" "Thank you!" "My flesh is yearning for a smoke." "I haven't smoked today yet." "Last winter at the opera" "I saw a young man cry under the impact of beautiful music." " Do you think it's good?" " It's very good." "Then tell me, please, why the ladies and gentlemen around him were smiling?" "Smiling at what?" " Porfiry Semyonovich." " I'm listening." "It's them, simple people like him, are the keepers of morality." "In them is the salvation of our idea." "You're stepping on his foot." "In our time people lived differently, they loved differently." "We loved women like gallant knights." "We treated them differently, we saw in them the best person." "And the woman, Sergey Pavlovich, is the best person." "Why cheat?" "How did that pawn get here?" "You put that pawn here." " Oh, yes, pardon." " That's right, pardon." "In our time one was ready to go into fire for one's friends." "And what do we have now?" "Now we have firemen to go into fire." "Let's get serious, however." "What I was talking about the other day..." "I see the national idea as a kind of cloud filled with a life-giving moisture ready to irrigate the fields of culture sown with the seeds of progress." "Maman doesn't like it..." "Poor Russia, our kind country." "Come here, nice dog." "Come here, my little doggie." "Oh, how she whistles, my God!" "Just like a mouzhik." "An amazing woman." "Are you going to make your move?" "I'm bored, let's finish it later." "When she's winning, she wouldn't budge." "As soon as she begins to lose, she's bored." "Anna Petrovna, it's not fair, let's continue." "Or I'll consider you the loser." "Well, you may consider so." "In that case, you owe me 3 rubles." "With your previous debt, 10." "When may I have the honor of collecting that money, good woman?" "When will the Gypsies be here at last?" "Nikolai Ivanovich, I..." "I don't like it!" "Maman, tell him!" "Shall I consider you my debtor or you'll pay right away?" "Sergel, give to this God's fool ten rubles." "But, maman..." "I don't know..." "When father was alive..." "I don't know..." "I'd better go and drink some wine." "The gentry!" "They're worse than paisants." "No hygiene!" "Drowning a chair!" "So the woman is the best person, Porfiry Semyonovich?" "The best." "You're a great lover of women, Porfiry Semyonovich." "Yes, I love women." "I worship them." "It's enough to know only one woman, you, to worship all of them." "Oh, God!" "The Platonovs are coming!" "Well, at last!" " By the way, what do you think of him?" " Michel is a clever man." "I lost my cuff-link while mowing." "Where on earth could I lose it?" "I'll go look for it." "One cannot but respect Michel." "Talking to him is a pleasure." "He's a nice man." "Though too hot and captious..." "Too young." "God gracious, our Mikhail has swollen like a devil!" "A real bull!" "His wife has put on weight, too." "Small and round, like a bun!" "Would you like some tea?" "Come to the table, please." "At long last we're not at home." "This winter has been endless!" "For 6 months we haven't seen parquet, or high ceilings, or even people." "How are you?" "Are you good to your stepson?" "Of course, I am!" "He's calling me maman now, instead of stepmother." "And we were so much bored throughout the winter." "We ate, we slept, and read to each other..." "Too bad..." "Why bad?" "It was a little dull, but we lived well." "My goodness, they both grew so stout!" "Happy people!" "We're having Gypsies today, and a wonderful surprise." "Porfiry Semyonovich, I can see you!" "Hello!" "But Sergel!" "Is that really him?" "Where's your long hair, your blouse, your small tenor?" "Say something!" " I'm a nincompoop!" " A basso!" "A perfect basso!" " It's so stuffy!" " I guess there will be a rain." "Misha!" "Mishenka!" "Dammit, Sergey Pavlovich!" "Why didn't you tell me, my dear?" "You've got married, and not saying it!" "Well, how do you like me?" "I did it fast and neat!" "I fell in love and got married." "Congratulations!" "I wish you all the best!" "Now you'll know the best side of life." "She wouldn't be pleased until you marry." "She's crazy about weddings." "It's not weddings, I just like everything to be right." "I'm so pleased!" "Thank you!" "I'm happy, very happy!" "What?" "What?" "What?" "Oh, no, nothing." " What is it?" " I just wanted some milk." "You know, in Syzran a blue-eyed raven was caught by maiden Tereshchuk." "In Syzran!" "But where's Sophie?" "Sophie and Porfiry Semyonovich went to the pond." "They'll be back soon." "I'm not some Oriental sovereign to hide my wife from you." "Salute to the enlightened Slavs!" "Long live the relatives!" "Hurray to the General's wife!" "Ah, the lousy physician, good to see you!" "Hale and healthy, shining and ruddy, reeking of wine from early morning!" "Trying to be clever?" "Don't bother." "Who was it shooting?" "Kolka?" " At whom?" " At me." " Did he miss?" " No, on the spot!" "Oh, my dear!" "Papa, you're already here!" "Colonel Triletsky's lucky constellation!" "How are you, my dear?" "You're saluted from a Krupp cannon!" "Oh God, it's too bad." "Sashenka, my darling!" "I haven't beholden you for ages." "Sit down!" "Sit down, I said!" "I order you!" "Are you in good health, Sashenka?" "Me, I have never been ill in my life." "Though my heart sometimes ached on the account of the weaker sex, but that ailment is delightful, no need for pharmacopoeia." "Who put the broom here?" "Was it Mitka?" "Stupid." " How is my grandson?" " He's fine." "He bows his regards." "He already knows how to bow?" " That should be taken figuratively." " Yes, of course, figuratively!" "Anna Petrovna, my dear!" "You know, I..." "Leave me alone!" "You know, I bought a new double-barrel." "We'll go and hunt snipes!" "My divine Diana!" "I adore such creatures." "That's what women's emancipation is all about." "You kiss her shoulder, and it smells of gun-powder." "Your Excellency!" "Alexandra of Macedonia!" "You've already had a shot in the morning, Colonel?" "Now I see why you're clucking so boisterously." "I was here as early as 8 o'clock." "Everybody was still asleep when I came here and began stomping my feet." "Then she appeared, laughing." "We split a bottle of madeira." "Diana had 3 glasses, and I, the rest." "Is it necessary to tell about it?" "And here I am!" "Hello!" "Hello, sis!" "What is it?" "A hat?" "And this?" "And who is that over there?" "How are you, Your Excellency?" "Well, how you doing, Michel?" "It's a long story, and not very interesting." "Excuse me..." "Nikolai Ivanovich, I don't like yourjokes!" "Maman, tell him!" "Nikolai Ivanovich, I don't like..." " Is your Kolka all right?" " Yes, he's all right." " Has he grown a big boy?" " A big boy." " Very, very big?" " Very, very big." "Father!" "Colonel!" "Nowadays they give only Greek names." "Don't sleep, Colonel!" "Don't sleep, I said!" "I'm awake." "Stop it, I beg you." "Papa, you mustn't sleep here." "I'm not sleeping, daughter." "Everything's all right, thank God..." "A comic, a clown, an ataman." "He's all that." "Once he sewed up the pockets of his tunic..." "Then he filled his snuff-box with salt..." "Ladies and gentlemen, this is my wife, Sophia Yegorovna!" "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" "You've stolen my wife, haven't you?" "Porfiry Semyonovich showed me around." "What a wonderful fresh air!" "Yes, it's not Petersburg." "Pure ozone." " How long have you been here?" " We came two days ago." "I'm delighted with our garden." "Marvelous garden!" "Sophia Yegorovna promised that Thursday you'd come to my place." "Yes, our whole bunch will come." "My garden's even better than yours, the river's deep, the horses are fine." "Which way should we go?" "Through Yasnovka?" " Through Platonovka." " That'll be a detour." "Platonovka?" "I used to know the owner." "Perhaps he's not Misha any longer, but Mikhail..." " Vassilyevich." " That's right." "Look at him!" "Michel never goes anywhere, yet he knows everyone." "Sophie, there he is!" "Come on, don't you recognize him?" "I don't believe it!" "It has been seven years, Sophia Yegorovna." "A dog gets old in that time, and a horse, too." "Horses live as long as 18 years." "On the average, of course." "Well..." "Mikhail Vassilyevich and I have known each other long ago." "He was a student at that time, and I..." "We all thought he'd become Minister of some special affairs, another Byron." "And I was preparing to be a Yermolova, do you remember?" "Yes, seven years have passed..." "How are you?" "What are you doing now?" "I'm a school teacher, nothing more." "What?" "You?" "Yes, me." "Unbelievable!" "But why nothing more?" "One phrase wouldn't suffice to answer your question." "Well, have you finished university at least?" "No, I quit." "Just chucked it." "But it doesn't prevent you from being a man..." "Does it?" "Sorry, but I don't understand your question." "What do you mean?" "Yes, I didn't express myself clearly enough." "It doesn't prevent you from being a man working for the benefit of women's emancipation, universal education and progress." "It doesn't prevent you from serving the idea?" "Oh, no!" "On the contrary!" "For example, Ivan Ivanovich and I are working now for the benefit of emancipation and the idea, and quite successfully." "Mr. Triletsky here is a doctor, a Darwinist." "Porfiry Semyonovich can mow." "He's a hygienist!" "He shaves mouzhiks' beards." "And does it splendidly!" "His village looks like the Mariyinsky Theatre, everyone walks around bare-faced." "We subscribe to the capital's newspapers, and Mister Petrin reads them to us." "So we do work for various benefits, we work a lot." "And this is my wife!" "I almost forgot!" "Alexandra!" "Stay put." "Say hello, Sashenka." "My wife, a civil duty, the prolongation of a family line." "We breed..." "I have a son, the heir to the idea." "Lacking means, ladies and gentlemen, we inherit ideas." "Ladies and gentlemen, what's going on?" "Isn't it a holiday today?" "Isn't it summertime?" "And you sit here, like at a funeral service." "Sophia Yegorovna and I just played out a comedy for you." "And nobody even smiled." "Just look at them, they're as boring as a choir of Moravian teachers." "He can't stand it when people sit quietly." "Michel is right!" "He's absolutely right!" "We've deserved it!" "We've deserved even more!" "He's the only one among us who lives and breathes at his full potential!" "If it were not for him, we would have withered altogether." "You're such a clever man, Sergey Pavlovich." "What do you think, ladies and gentlemen, is there any hope that we'd be given something to eat today?" "Yes, Anna Petrovna, really?" "I'm so tired of him!" "He's outrageously cheeky!" "Everyone is being patient and waits, so you wait too!" "Do you ever happen not to be hungry?" "He eats and eats, there's no end of it." "I made a point of watching him, and was amazed." "Two cups of tea, a piece of beef that big, then five eggs, after which he returned to his room and finished half a pie!" "Why's everybody shouting, quarrelling, stamping their feet?" "No peace all day!" "What's that racket?" "Stop it now!" "What is it?" "Aha!" "Hurray!" "My admirer's coming!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "And I'll repeat it:" "You're toads!" "They tagged after their father here, just to make a show of disobedience, and they put on those green dresses to boot!" "Just look at them, Christian people!" "Green lizards!" "Stupid girls!" "You could leave your rudeness at home, father." " And they dragged my nephew along!" " There's no one to leave him with!" "You should've taken your mother, too, you fools!" "This is a real gentleman, unlike all of you!" "Congratulations on your lawful wedlock, Your Excellency!" "You should congratulate Sophia Yegorovna, not me." "This is our cousin, Petechka." "There's no one at home to look after him." " Is the doctor here?" " Yes, he's here." "Tell him not to make fun of us." "He won't touch you." "Pavel Petrovich, my dear, how are you?" "Well, my friends, where's the lady whom my heart so yearns to see?" "I have a suspicion, and even think that she is that lady." "Pavel Petrovich Shcherbuk, our neighbor, cavalier, guest and creditor." "Yes, a close friend of the late general." " Your hand... may I?" " Please don't." "We believe that the kissing of hands humiliates women." "You wouldn't kiss a man's hand, would you?" "We deplore any form of inequality, for at the bottom of any inequality there's a sprout of humiliation..." "Young man, you're a lawyer, you haven't partaken any other sciences but the humanities." "So you may harbor the illusions of freedom, equality, brotherhood, and so on." "As for me, I'm an incorrigible Darwinist." "To me, "blue blood", "pure breed" are nothing but empty words." "But it wasn't the cook's son who'd given us sciences, literature, art!" "Don't touch it!" "In the village of Kostovaty there was a hail the size of a chicken egg." " Gerasim Kuzmich!" " Pavel Petrovich, how are you?" "We're having a conversation here, and you read aloud." "It's undelicate." "By not having the cook's son sitting at my table," "I'm protecting the best there is on the earth," "I'm participating in the historical process of natural selection." "She forgot about humiliation!" "She forgot it!" "What is permitted to Jupiter, is not permitted to a steer." "Very interesting ideas." "Come visit us, and we can argue." "And while arguing, we'll arrive at the truth together." "By the way, the Kalitins' dog sneezes while pointing." "Disgusting." "Papa, don't sleep." "It's embarrassing!" "I'm not sleeping, daughter." "I'm awake." "Awake." "Come on, stop it, I'm awake." "Mikhail Vassilyevich!" "Mikhail Vassilyevich, I was looking for you." "I came to apologize." "That silly interrogation and the tone of it..." "You're not angry, are you?" "I'm not angry at you." "I was, but no more." "Where does that door lead to?" "To Heaven." "To the Garden of Eden." "Pardon me, it was a stupid thing to say." "I don't know where that door leads." "I'm leaving!" "And don't try to stop me!" "I can't stand those jokes!" "And you!" "You want me to tell them how old you are?" "Shut up!" "Then I'll tell them about you and Mitya Kalezin!" " And don't drink any more!" " I'm leaving right this minute!" "It's so awkward." "We were eavesdropping." " I didn't hear anything." " Let's get out of here." " Do you remember the wharf?" " What?" "That boat in the evening..." "What was its name?" "Why did we get so scared?" "Its name was "Samara"." "Why did you come here?" "Why were you looking for me?" "What do you want from me?" "Don't you remember the lake?" "And the dog under the bench?" "Mikhail Vassilyevich, I..." "You misunderstood me." "And the fog?" "The way it was lifting from the sand, remember?" "I'm begging you..." "Please, Mikhail Vassilyevich..." "Can you imagine what would've happened if she had seen us here?" "Oh, God!" "Have mercy!" "I beg you, have pity for me." "Our past was beautiful, I often recall it with pleasure, and..." "But try to understand..." "I... have no regrets, and..." "I often think about you, and I will always remember you." "But I will remember the former Misha." "In his panama, with a bundle of books, with pockets full of tobacco." "And now you are Mikhail Vassilyevich, the teacher." "You're married." "And I...?" "I'm Sophia Yegorovna, a married woman." "And I'm determined to do something useful." "Serge very much supports me in that." "Let the past be the past." "A student was in love with a girl, the girl was in love with the student." "It's too old a story, let's not mix it up with anything else." "Michel, wait!" "Where've you been?" "They all got at each other's throats here!" "Sophie!" "Sophie!" "You know I was thinking..." "Look, Germany and Belgium are small countries, their people live close by, and, therefore, philosophical ideas are spreading around faster." "From one to another..." "The same is in Holland, or England." "And take us." "In the fall, or spring, we can't even get to the city." "To say nothing of Kamchatka." "And what about Siberia?" "Let's have some wine." " What?" " Let's have some wine." "Oh, God, how happy I am!" "Voltaire, you and Maman," "I need nothing more in my life." "No, Glinka, too." "And nothing more." "Your Excellency!" "We drew up a telegram to the Gypsies." "Mitka ran to send it." "All right, you may go." "Mikhail Vassilyevich!" "Mikhail Vassilyevich..." " Vassya..." " I'm Petya." "Never mind, go take a walk." "Porfiry Semyonovich proposed to me last winter." "We so much look forward to the summer, then we can't wait when it ends." "Are you listening?" "I've been asked to marry." "I'll get rich, learn how to mow, and make a donation to your school." "Do you think I should sink to such baseness?" "Do it, sink." "What do you mean?" "To get married without love?" "Is that your advice?" "You want to marry me off?" "You're avoiding me." "We haven't seen each other this whole winter..." "What's the matter?" "Look, you're an intelligent, kind, merciful woman." "Let's forget everything." "Let's be friends." "Besides, I'm sort of married." "Now you're talking of your wife!" "You think I'm blind?" "What was it between you and Sophia?" "You two parted as friends, too?" "I know only too well your sinful soul." "Without me, it will be the end of you, Platonov." "I wonder, will we really be able, in dozens of years, to laugh and shed senile tears over these days?" "Then the earth will swallow us up, and our names will be obscured with fog." "And out of the fog comes Yasha." "Your Excellency, everything is ready." "Why do you butt in the conversation, you fool?" "You told me yourself to report when everything's ready." "And who the real fool is, that's Mister Doctor." "He set fire to Mister Petrin's newspaper." "Get out of here!" "You must be going mad." "You have me!" "What else do you want?" "Ladies and gentlemen, please come to the house!" "The promised surprise!" "Please, everybody to the house!" "Lf, say, Richard the Lion-Hearted is brave, magnanimous, noble, then all that should be preserved." "Marry a princess who is also noble, and pass all the brain's convolutions and bumps on to your children." "But if the cook's kids with grubby faces find their way into your family, that will be the end to nobility." "Well, we're here now." "And what's this, under the shawl?" "Aha, that's the surprise!" "A magnificent intrigue!" "No smell..." "Don't touch what's not yours!" "Misha, our Kolka began to talk when he was only one, didn't he?" "And Shcherbuk never stops talking even at sixty." "I adore children!" "Ladies and gentlemen!" "I've made a decision." "Tomorrow morning I'll go to the village and feed peasant infants from the bottle while their mothers mow." "Alexandra Ivanovna, will you join me?" "Anna Petrovna, what about you?" "When we get up tomorrow, they'll already finish mowing." "We can go to bed earlier." "We won't be able to, the Gypsies are not here yet." "Yakov, have you sent a telegram to the Gypsies?" "Yakov!" "Yakov!" "What about the Gypsies?" "I told you, we sent a telegram to the city restaurant." "Scoundrel, you again smell of my perfume." "It's Mitka who's the scoundrel, he drinks it." "Shut up." "Where's Zakhar?" "Downstairs." "Find him and take this thing downstairs." "You should bring your son here one day and show him to us." "Alexandra Ivanovna tells us wonders about his abilities." "She exaggerates." "All children are alike." "The parents are different." "From different parents children must be different, too." "Quiet, everybody!" "And now the surprise!" "Zakhar!" "Yakov!" "Open it!" "A piano!" "Quiet!" "Zakhar!" "Itjust can't be." "Zakhar!" "Why in the rooms?" "Let's do it outside!" "Easy." "Careful." "There." "What's the matter?" "What's wrong?" "I'm sorry, Mishenka..." "What is it with you, Sasha?" "Come on, for God's sake." "I got scared." "And it's hot in here, my head..." "If you have a headache, you should've stayed home instead of rushing here." "And take this hat off." "I can't bear the sight of it!" "That's a good girl." "Alexandra Ivanovna, my dear!" "Everything will be all right now!" "We're going to take some drops..." "Why are you standing there?" "She's your sister after all." "Go and look!" "What's the matter, round pie?" " What is it?" " Drops." "What for?" "At a party one should be treated with dry cherry." "Here it is." "And not with drops." "Aha!" "Mystification!" "I told you, the grubby-faced can't play!" "This is mechanics!" "And I like that hat very much." "My dear..." "The grubby-faced can't do it!" "They just can't!" "Just look at it!" "Two thousand for one swoon." "Ladies and gentlemen!" "Attention, please!" "Attention, please!" "My wife, Sophia, will go to the village tomorrow to help the peasant mothers." "It's... it's so wonderful!" "It's the beginning, ladies and gentlemen!" "I decided..." "We men must also..." "I decided to give to the mowers all of my old suits, all of them, and shoes, too." "I just imagined how great the mowers would look in tails!" "Oh, I didn't think of that." "Really, it's silly." "I make a very poor Caucasian." "Have some pity, Anna Petrovna!" "Well, shall we consider his forfeit redeemed?" "Redeemed!" "Redeemed!" "Mishenka, I'm so happy for us!" "You're so clever, so funny!" "It makes me so happy to be your wife, I feel so secure." "It's hot... and embarrassing." "We aren't alone." "Save the endearments for home." "Let's continue, ladies and gentlemen!" "Sophie, your turn!" "For one who got this card fate wills..." "To mount a pig and ride around the house." "Jack of spades!" "It's my card!" "The jack of spades is mine!" "A pig, please." "Sergel, my dear, will you see to it that Yakov bring a quiet pig, so that it wouldn't bolt." "Are you still here?" " No, no, I'm off!" " Everything's ready, waiting for you." "Don't touch what's not yours!" "I can't understand what that idiot's saying." "Can you say it yourself?" "As you wish, Your Excellency." "They instructed me to go on a Polar expedition to the village to fetch a pig." "You see, it'll take me a while to go there and then back with the animal..." "And who can serve dinner properly?" "Zakhar?" "Or that Mitka of yours?" "To hell with you, let it be Mitka." " Who hasn't done his turn yet?" " Michel." "Let's make an arrangement with him." "May I do it?" "The one who got this card..." "Let me do it again." "For one who got this card fate wills to approach me now, and give me a kiss." "Ace of spades!" "I'm buying!" "Ladies and gentlemen, I'll buy the ace of spades for any fortune!" "Misha!" "You've got the ace of spades!" "Look!" "Anna Petrovna, your fate is to kiss with Misha." "Please, yield this fate to me." "It's not for sale!" "Mikhail Vassilyevich, will you?" "Sophia, hold it." "For good luck!" "I didn't mean to..." "Sophie, please, don't worry." "Careful, you may cut yourself." "You see?" "I knew it." "I don't understand how it could happen..." "Yakov!" "Yakov will clean everything." "I just can't understand..." "Oh, poor finger..." "Come on, leave me alone!" "Well, all right!" "Though I'm not in good voice today." "Well, ladies and gentlemen..." "All right..." "As a matter of fact, these are just childhood pranks." "This imitation of a deer's mating call in the woods was shown to me by Prince Konyaev, so the authorship doesn't belong to me." "Following some preparation, you'll be presented a clearing with the king of the forest on it." "Cows!" "Didn't you forget how to whistle yet?" "No, no, we'll do it ourselves!" "Me or my daughters." "What can I do for you?" "I need to see the doctor urgently." "I was told he's here." "My name is Gorokhov." "I'm a clerk at the factory." "I took my shoes off, not to dirty the floor." "Very pleased, Mr. Gorokhov." "Come on, you're not pleased at all." "I'm not pleased either." " The doctor is downstairs." " Thank you." "What do you want?" "I'm Gorokhov from the factory." "I came for you." "Here's the letter." "Will you hold it, please?" "Is it spiritism?" "I don't understand." "Is patient Gorokhova your wife?" "Why the letter then?" "Wouldn't it be easierjust to say it?" "The letter's just in case." "If they hadn't let me in, I would've given it." "No, today I can't come." "Tomorrow by the evening." "I see." "Or maybe we better go?" "The horses are good, my boss's horses." "I'd be much obliged." "I understand, but you know, Mister..." "Gorokhov." "I can't go today." "Tomorrow." "Or the day after at the latest." "Doctor, for Christ's sake, I beg you, let's go." "I got it." "Excuse me." "You might have warned me that Doctor is busy." "I wouldn't have bothered him." "Now he may not come at all." " This way out, Mr. Gorokhov." " Sorry." "May I put it here?" "Kolia, why didn't you go with him?" "Please, spare me your moralizing." "Try to be human." "Get used to the idea that I'm like a brick wall, with you up against it." "She may be very ill, and you remain here?" "It's not good." "It's none of your business." "You're too little to interfere." "Don't you dare speaking in that tone to my wife!" "Loafer!" "You're the only doctor in the neighborhood!" "People beg you, as if for alms, for what you're supposed to give them." "You should treasure every opportunity to help thy neighbor." " You want me to go?" " Yes!" "Very well, I'll go after dinner." "But you know..." "as for you, Michel, you're not the most conscientious teacher" "I've met in my life either." "So I'm to blame, right?" "I'm sorry." "So since I'm a bad teacher, you can afford not to visit your patients?" "Let them all die while you go on partying and drinking vodka!" "Only I've neither finished university, nor taken anyone else's place." "And you did finish it, so please act in kind." "Excuse me, I..." "Ladies and gentlemen, will you please all drink to my health?" " Sergel, where are you?" " Coming!" "You know, the village constable told me the other day that earthquakes happen because of water evaporation." "It seems that some Germans made that discovery, and they said that only metalloids could save us." "You'd better take a nap, father." "And you, Kolia, stop laughing." "Sleep is an amazing miracle of nature that rejuvenates man's energy." "Perhaps I've lived that long because I sleep so often." "Here, I found it!" "Listen!" ""Russia is a vast plain where a dashing man is rushing"." "Isn't that something?" "But who is that dashing man?" "The representative of blue blood." "Precisely!" "All the best the humanity possesses, it owes to the representatives of blue blood!" "And what do we do now?" "Fraternize with the trash, with the publicans." "Civilization is in danger!" "There're no ideas or ideals left!" "In no time the grubby-faced will gobble up everything." "The grubby-faced!" "The grubby-faced all around, my God!" "Where are the representatives of our high-class aristocracy?" "Where are Pushkins, Lermontovs, Gogols, Goncharovs, Turgenevs?" "!" " Goncharov was a merchant." " Yes, that's right!" "What?" "Goncharov was a merchant." "Exceptions only prove the rule." "Besides, it's a debatable issue whether your Goncharov was a genius." "The catastrophe is imminent!" "And in the face of that catastrophe, we must unite, while it's not too late, and strike against our common enemy." "Let me face the grubby-faced not as Pavel Shcherbuk, but as Richard the Lion-Hearted." "Enough of playing softies with them!" "Let's say it right to their mugs:" "Hands off!" "The cobbler should stick to his last!" "Right to their mugs!" " Please count me out." " Why's that, I wonder?" "Because my father was a common workman." "And if it doesn't please anybody here, I can leave." "However, everything you have here was bought with my money." "The fireworks, the cannon, even the piano plays for my money." "And you go on living only because I, the grubby-faced, is alive!" "Do you get it, Pavel Petrovich?" "All you can do is teach how to live, to believe, to rule the people." "But you yourselves, are you living?" "Are you believing?" "No!" "You, Pavel Petrovich, what are you so proud of?" "Your blue blood?" "But no one will feed you for that today." "You have to know how to do something." "And what can you do?" "Yell like a deer?" "You're good for nothing, my friend." "And I, the grubby-faced..." "To choose such a word!" "Grubby-faced!" "I can do anything." "I can do anything." "My father was afraid of even approaching this house." "And I'm discussing weather with his excellency here." "What are you doing, Gerasim?" "It's no good, dear." "To reproach people for eating bread at someone else's house." "It's not nice." "Gerasim Kuzmich, will you please turn down the lamp?" "It begins to smoke." "I just can't stand drafts and smoke." "The kerosene is bought for my money, too." "It was delicious." "Delicious." "Maman, I got so frightened!" "Go on, eat, ladies and gentlemen!" "Thank you very much." "I wasn't hungry when I came here, so I hardly ate anything." "My dear, don't pay attention, I beg you!" "Come on, give up this pretense." "It's been like that for years." "Should I dare look askance at any of my creditors," "I'd be banished from that estate tomorrow." "Either estate or honor!" "I choose estate." "Gerasim Kuzmich can send us all to the poorhouse, but he bears with us." "Your health, Gerasim Kuzmich!" "My goodness..." "Oh, God, it's so painful." "You see, Sophia?" "Poor Russia, our kind country!" "Leave Russia alone, for God's sake!" " But I wanted to say..." " What?" "What did you want to say?" "You've been uttering that cryptic phrase for fifteen years now." "It's time to stop!" "We talk and talk!" "Russian soul!" "People's good!" "Ideas!" "Haven't your tongues withered yet?" "You go on and on about Russia, Shcherbuk about the grubby-faced..." "One could climb the walls from our wise ideas, the lamp begins to smoke." "We talk, eat, sleep, and do it all with a clear conscience!" "We've got European self-esteem, though our development is Asian." "How can you?" "What you're saying is immoral!" "Sure, to admit your own inadequacy is immoral." "But to amuse oneself by feeding infants from the bottle and giving the peasants one's tails, that's not immoral." " He's a bell!" " Yes!" "And you're a bell, too!" "Only I'm toiling by myself, and anyone can ring you." "When did you finish university?" "Three years ago." "And what are you doing?" "Nothing." "And you will go on doing nothing for another five years!" "But I can't go and teach at school, can I?" "I'm not dying of starvation, I've got a whole life ahead, why hurry?" "Everybody's tired of listening to you." "Don't listen to me, my dear!" "Your papa sleeps and doesn't listen to anyone." "That's why he loves everybody." "What wrong did the old man do to you?" "All right, Mr. Tchatsky, you slapped everyone in the face." "Mr. Tchatsky is not looking for the truth, he's just amusing himself." "They've got no servants of their own to flog, so he chose us." "Each and everyone, each and everyone." "What's that again?" "They just delivered the beast, Your Excellency." "What beast?" "The one we sent an expedition for." "The pig for Mr. Triletsky." "All right, enough of philosophizing!" "Please, Mr. Triletsky!" "That's wonderful!" "The swine is here." "Go ahead, my dear." "Listen, you think I'm a clown?" "You all take me for a clown here." "And what do you know about me?" "All of you, what can you know about me?" "Yes, I'm bored." "I'm bored to death living in that hole and not being able to be myself." "Shuddering at every dog's bark, afraid that they came for me and I have to go bumping down abominable roads," "driven by awful horses." "Thinking only of... diarrhea." "And anticipating nothing but cholera, and reading only about cholera." "But, in fact, remaining absolutely indifferent to that disease and to the people afflicted with it." "It's shameful, and frightening, and utterly disgusting." "Oh, God..." "It's awfully shameful... to live and drink like that, all in vain." "And what's more, to know that there will be nothing else in your life." "Kolia, I beg you, stop it!" "And you all, stop it!" "Where do you want the beast?" "Get out!" "Out!" "For God's sake, get out!" "I'm not asking you, you know." "His Excellency told me to deliver the beast, so I delivered..." "I'm so tired of it all!" "Imagine that at this very moment a man is sitting in some Southern country, thinking:" ""Now I'll get in my pirogue and go for bananas"." "Beautiful!" "I read a story recently..." "I don't remember where." "A short story, but nice." "About a girl." "She was in love with a student, the student was in love with her." "He read books to her, she listened." "In the evenings they sat by the river watching the lights on the boats." "They sang songs, they dreamed..." "They kissed, exchanged vows." " Who wrote that story?" " I don't remember." "The girl wore her hair brushed down over the ears, and she always smelled of the river water." "They imagined their life to be a big, continuous celebration, with a lot of room in it for the two of them." "And they were happy." "One day the girl said she had to leave for Petersburg for a couple of days." ""Will you let me go?" She asked." ""I will," he said." ""But I'll miss you very much"." "At midnight he took her to the station." "She hugged him tenderly." "He squeezed her hands, hardly managing to hold back tears, but he said nothing." "And after the train took off, he watched its receding lights," "and repeated softly:" ""My dear girl..." "My magnificent girl..."" "A day passed." "And another, then five days." "And a whole month." "She wasn't coming back." "She never came back." "The student went to the station, drank there, then met the trains, and drank again..." "But after a while he calmed down, came to his senses..." "And became an ordinary man." "It's something reminiscent of Gleb Uspensky." "Or Leskov." "You're being so unthoughtful." "You upset everybody again." "Enough!" "I've had it!" "Everybody to the river!" "The fireworks!" "Misha!" "Where are you?" "Look, how beautiful!" "Wait!" "Hear me out!" "Please, Sophia!" "Wait!" "My magnificent one!" "I'm a lost man, and I resigned myself to it long ago." "But you?" "!" "Sophia, my dear, what happened to you?" "What happened to your pure soul, your sincerity, your courage?" "Wait!" "All right..." "Sophia..." "Are you out of your mind?" "My dear, tell me honestly, for the sake of our past, why did you marry that man?" " He's a fine man!" " Don't say what you don't believe." "He's my husband!" "Why didn't you marry a working man, a sufferer?" "Why have you chosen that pygmy who's up to his eyes in debt and idleness, why?" "Please, Mikhail Vassilyevich..." "I beg you, have mercy, don't ruin my life." "You may laugh at me, you may think whatever you wish, but..." "I've got nothing else in my life." "Nothing." "Mikhail Vassilyevich!" "I loved you more than anything in the world." "My darling!" "There's no afterward." "It only seems that everything will still happen, that life is long and happy, that now you can live as if making a rough copy of life, and change everything afterward." "This "afterward" will never come..." "Never." "If I knew it on that night when I watched the lights of the last train car..." "Why didn't you go looking for me?" "I was young and happy." "I believed in the long, happy life." "I believed in "afterward"." "And afterward, a pig in a poke." "Oh, God!" "I can't believe it..." "I got so frightened when I saw you today." " Do you remember the wharf?" " Of course I do." "Sophie, you wanted your talma." "I've brought it." "I didn't stand there on purpose." "Oh, my goodness..." "My God, how vulgar!" "How vulgar it is, how vulgar..." "If..." "Do you understand anything?" "Do you..." "Congratulations, Misha!" "Maman!" "I need a horse!" "I must leave now and for good." "What is it this time?" "What a crazy night!" "You may take it." "Thank you." "Sergel!" "Mamma Anyuta, it's so awful!" "You must teach me how to go on living." "Or shall I not live at all?" "I'm alone, alone again." "It's so horrible!" "What have I done to deserve it?" "What's the matter?" "Someone beat you, or offended you?" "Meet the husband who's been cheated on!" "Sophia?" "You saw her?" "With Platonov?" "Oh, God, Sophia!" "Sophia!" "Sophia!" "Sophia!" "My happiness..." "my salvation... my hopes..." "Mother, send me to a lunatic asylum!" "I'm insane!" "Because I still believe in love, in honesty, in friendship!" "Or better, let them beat me up with stones, like a mad dog." "I'm in everyone's way, because absolutely no one needs me." "Sergel, come on, stop it..." "Come, come..." "Oh, Platonov, Platonov..." "Everything will be all right, everything will be as it used to be." "No one cares for your ninny, your coquette." "Platonov is a clever man, he realizes that there's nothing to her but pretense and staged exaltations, and there will never be anything more." "Everything will be all right, everything will be as before." "Sophia will be with you," "Platonov with me, Sasha with Platonov." "Nobody wants your Sophia, you may rest assured." "Maman..." "Maman..." "How can you?" "How can you?" "How can you?" "!" "How can you!" "Yakov!" "My things!" "Zakhar!" "Mitka!" "Where the hell is everybody?" "Are you all asleep?" "When father was alive, you did everything for me, now all you're doing is for my stepmother!" "The carriage!" "Quick, the carriage!" "The carriage!" "And the horse?" "Where's the horse?" "The horse!" "My hat!" "Where the devil is my hat?" "!" "What do you want, Porfiry Semyonovich?" "I want to tell you..." "that I hate you." "You're a scoundrel." "You've ruined my life." "And you'll ruin many more." "You condemn everybody, but yourself..." "You're sowing debauchery, faithlessness." "And it's so terribly unfair that life isn't beating you enough..." "But you should be punished, beaten severely!" "Why do you think it's not beating me, Porfiry Semyonovich?" "Nothing goes unpunished." "You know..." "I know that don't care what you think of me." "Honest man!" "I know why you're honest." "You simply can't sin." "You censure everything you yourself are incapable of because of old age." "Is it clear?" "Oh, Lord..." "O merciful God..." "How little we need to be happy!" "To sit in a cozy, warm train car, drinking tea by the lamp" "and conversing pleasantly with your chance fellow-traveler." "As you're going away for good, leaving behind you the senseless sequence of years and acts." "Oh, God..." "Now I know for sure:" "It's enough to betray just once, just once be unfaithful to what you believed in and what you loved, and you would never get rid of the succession of betrayals and lies." "O merciful God!" "Save and protect me, strengthen me and show me the way!" "I've been waiting for you, Mikhail Vassilyevich." "Mikhail Vassilyevich..." "Let's go away!" "You've resurrected me." "I have awakened from a heavy sleep, I'm happy." "All my life I'll be grateful to you for that." "I thought of everything!" "We'll start a new life!" "A life as pure as a mountain spring, as bright as the sun." "We'll work till we sweat, till exhaustion!" "We'll eat the bread we've earned, far away from this filth and dust." "We shall..." "be enjoying our work!" "And our life will become a celebration ofjustice, light and purity." "You will teach children, and I will help you." "We'll wear simple clothes, we'll eat simple food." "Only let's go away from here, Misha, as soon as possible!" "Take me!" "Here's my hand!" "I got so cold waiting for you..." "Mikhail Vassilyevich?" "No..." "Sofia, it's not that!" "Not that... not that..." "I'm thirty five!" "I'm thirty five." "Are you all right?" "You've been spying on me?" "!" "Spying?" "!" "I'm thirty five!" "Everything's ruined!" "Everything!" "Sasha!" "Alexandra!" "Everything's ruined!" "Thirty five!" "I'm a zero!" "A nobody!" "Zero!" "I'm thirty five!" "Lermontov had been already in the grave for eight years!" "Napoleon was a general!" "And I've done nothing in that damned life of yours!" "Sasha!" "You've ruined my life!" "It's because of you I'm a nobody!" "Alexandra!" "Where's my true self?" "I'm a good-for-nothing cripple!" "Where's my strength, my mind, my talent?" "A wasted life!" "Stop it!" "Oh, you're here too, the keeper of a fire that isn't even smoldering?" "How I hate you, with your canaries and your borsches!" "But you have no choice, just like me!" "To see you every day, to hear your voice, to despise you and myself, and to know there's no choice!" "Aren't you ashamed?" "A nobody!" "And I'm just like all of you here!" "So everybody's here, aren't you?" "I have disturbed everyone, haven't I?" "I woke up everybody?" "Never mind!" "You'll get your rest when I'm gone!" "Misha!" "Mishenka!" "Misha!" "Mishenka!" "Misha!" "Mishenka!" "Mishenka!" "My darling!" "Mishenka, my dear..." "my husband..." "You're alive..." "Therefore, I can live, too." "I love you so much, Mishenka." "I love you, whatever you are." "You're my whole world." "I'm afraid of nothing, I can endure anything..." "Because no one in the world will ever love you as I do." "Mishenka, you're tired." "You'll have a rest, and we'll be happy again." "And we'll live a long, long life." "And luck will come our way." "We'll see a new, bright, pure world." "And new, beautiful people who will understand us and forgive us." "Only we must love..." "We must love, Mishenka." "If we love, we'll live a long and happy life..." "Sashenka..." "My dear girl!" "My salvation..." "Why is it so, why?" "Let's go, my dear." " Will you forgive me, please?" " Stop it, let's go." "I fell and hurt myself..." "I didn't know it was shallow..." "I thought it was deep here..." "Everything will be as it used to be." "THE END"