The Essential Russian Plays & Short Stories. Максим Горький
HEROD
Chains? Just baby rattles. Put them on a horse and he too would carry them if he had the strength. I have a sad heart. (Looks at Savva) You know, I killed my own son. Yes, I did. Have they been telling you about me, these chatterboxes?
SAVVA
They have.
KING HEROD
Can you understand it?
SAVVA
Why not? Yes, I can.
KING HEROD
You lie—you can't. No one can understand it. Go through the whole world, search round the whole globe, ask everybody—no one will be able to tell you, no one will understand. And if anyone says he does, take it from me that he lies, lies just as you do. Why, you can't even see your own nose properly, yet you have the brazenness to say you understand. Go. You are a foolish boy, that's what you are.
SAVVA
And you are wise?
KING HEROD
I am wise. My sorrow has made me so. It is a great sorrow. There is none greater on earth. I killed my son with my own hand. Not the hand you are looking at, but the one which isn't here.
SAVVA
Where is it?
KING HEROD
I burnt it. I held it in the stove and let it burn up to my elbow.
SAVVA
Did that relieve you?
KING HEROD
No. Fire cannot destroy my grief. It burns with a heat that is greater than fire.
SAVVA
Fire, brother, destroys everything.
KING HEROD
No, young man, fire is weak. Spit on it and it is quenched.
SAVVA
What fire? It is possible to kindle such a conflagration that an ocean of water will not quench it.
KING HEROD
No, boy. Every fire goes out when its time comes. My grief is great, so great that when I look around me I say to myself: Good heavens, what has become of everything else that's large and great? Where has it all gone to? The forest is small, the house is small, the mountain is small, the whole earth is small, a mere poppy seed. You have to walk cautiously and look out, lest you reach the end and drop off.
FAT MONK (pleased)
Fine, King Herod, you are going it strong.
KING HEROD
Even the sun does not rise for me. For others it rises, but for me it doesn't. Others don't see the darkness by day, but I see it. It penetrates the light like dust. At first I seem to see a sort of light, but then—good heavens, the sky is dark, the earth is dark, all is like soot. Yonder is something vague and misty. I can't even make out what it is. Is it a human being, is it a bush? My grief is great, immense! (Grows pensive) If I cried, who would hear me? If I shouted, who would respond?
FAT MONK (to the Gray Monk)
The dogs in the village might.
KING HEROD (shaking his head)
O you people! You are looking at me as at a monstrosity—at my hair, my chains—because I killed my son and because I am like King Herod; but my soul you see not, and my grief you know not. You are as blind as earthworms. You wouldn't know if you were struck with a beam on the head. Say, you pot-belly, what are you shaking your paunch, for?
SAVVA
Why—the way he talks to you!
FAT MONK (reassuringly)
It's nothing. He treats us all like that. He upbraids us all.
KING HEROD
Yes, and I will continue to upbraid. Fellows like you are not fit to serve God. What you ought to do is to sit in a drinkshop amusing Satan. The devils use your belly to go sleigh-riding on at night.
FAT MONK (good-naturedly)
Well, well, God be with you. You had better speak about yourself; stick to that.
KING HEROD (to Savva)
You see? He wants to feast on my agony. Go ahead, feast all you want.
GRAY MONK
My, what a scold you are. Where do you get your vocabulary? He once told the Father Superior that if God were not immortal he, the Father Superior, would long ago have sold him piece by piece. But we tolerate him. He can do no harm in a monastery.
FAT MONK
He attracts people. Many come here for his sake. And what difference does it make to us? God sees our purity. Isn't that so, King Herod?
KING HEROD
Oh, shut up, you old dotard. Look at him; he can scarcely move his legs, old Harry with the evil eye. Keeps three women in the village; one is not enough for him. (The monks laugh good-naturedly) You see, you see? Whew! Look at their brazen, shameless eyes! Might as well spit on them!
SAVVA
Why do you come here?
KING HEROD
Not for them. Listen, young man. Have you a grief?
SAVVA
Perhaps I have. Why?
KING HEROD
Then listen to me. When you are in sorrow, when you are suffering, don't go to people. If you have a friend, don't go to him. It's more than you'll be able to stand. Better go to the wolves in the forest. They'll make short work of it, devour you at once, and there will be the end of it. I have seen many evil things, but I have never seen anything worse than man. No, never! They say men are created in His image, in His likeness. Why, you skunks, you have no image. If you had one, the tiniest excuse for one, you would crawl away on all fours and hide somewhere from sheer shame. You damned skunks! Laugh at them, cry before them, shout, at them. It doesn't make any difference. They go on licking their chops. King Herod—Damned skunks! And when King Herod—not I, but the real one with a golden crown—killed your children, where were you—hey?
FAT MONK
We weren't even in the world then, man.
KING HEROD
Then there were others like you. He killed. You accepted it. That's all. I have asked many the question: "What would you have done?" "Nothing," they always reply. "If he killed, what could be done about it?" Fine creatures! Haven't the manliness to stand up even for their children. They are worse than dogs, damn them!
FAT MONK
And what would you have done?
KING HEROD
I? I should have wrung his neck from off his royal gold crown—the confounded brute!
GRAY MONK
It says in the scripture: "Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
FAT MONK
That is to say, don't interfere with other people's business. Do you understand?
KING HEROD (to Savva in despair)
Just listen, listen to what they are saying.
SAVVA
I hear what they are saying.
KING HEROD
Just you wait, my precious! You'll get what's coming to you, and mighty quick. The devil will come and hurl you into the fiery pit. To hell, to gehenna, with you! How your fat will melt and run! Do you get the smell, monk?