The Tragedy of Mister Morn by Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Karshan, Anastasia Tolstoy Read Free Book Online Page B

approaching ]:
So, have you decided?
    GANUS:
    Yes, we have decided. But I’m not much
    of a murderer: we shall fight à la courte paille .
    MORN:
    Excellent … A solution has been found. We
    shall agree the details tomorrow. Goodnight.
    May I add that duels are not to be
    discussed with ladies. Midia could not bear it.
    Keep silent to the end. Let’s go, Edmin.
[ to MIDIA ]
    I’m leaving, Midia … Be calm …
    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