Three Sisters Anton Chekhov (open ebook TXT) 📖

lose yourselves in this crowd of a hundred thousand human beings; their life will suck you up in itself, but still, you won’t disappear having influenced nobody; later on, others like you will come, perhaps six of them, then twelve, and so on, until at last your sort will be in the majority. In two or three hundred years’ time life on this earth will be unimaginably beautiful and wonderful. Mankind needs such a life, and if it is not ours today then we must look ahead for it, wait, think, prepare for it. We must see and know more than our fathers and grandfathers saw and knew. Laughs. And you complain that you know too much. Masha Takes off her hat. I’ll stay to lunch. Irina Sighs. Yes, all that ought to be written down. Andrey has gone out quietly. Tuzenbach You say that many years later on, life on this earth will be beautiful and wonderful. That’s true. But to share in it now, even though at a distance, we must prepare by work.⁠ ⁠… Vershinin Gets up. Yes. What a lot of flowers you have. Looks round. It’s a beautiful flat. I envy you! I’ve spent my whole life in rooms with two chairs, one sofa, and fires which always smoke. I’ve never had flowers like these in my life.⁠ ⁠… Rubs his hands. Well, well! Tuzenbach Yes, we must work. You are probably thinking to yourself: the German lets himself go. But I assure you I’m a Russian, I can’t even speak German. My father belonged to the Orthodox Church.⁠ ⁠… Pause. Vershinin Walks about the stage. I often wonder: suppose we could begin life over again, knowing what we were doing? Suppose we could use one life, already ended, as a sort of rough draft for another? I think that every one of us would try, more than anything else, not to repeat himself, at the very least he would rearrange his manner of life, he would make sure of rooms like these, with flowers and light⁠ ⁠… I have a wife and two daughters, my wife’s health is delicate and so on and so on, and if I had to begin life all over again I would not marry.⁠ ⁠… No, no! Enter Kuligin in a regulation jacket. Kuligin Going up to Irina. Dear sister, allow me to congratulate you on the day sacred to your good angel and to wish you, sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, good health and all that one can wish for a girl of your years. And then let me offer you this book as a present. Gives it to her. It is the history of our high school during the last fifty years, written by myself. The book is worthless, and written because I had nothing to do, but read it all the same. Good day, gentlemen! To Vershinin. My name is Kuligin, I am a master of the local high school.2 To Irina. In this book you will find a list of all those who have taken the full course at our high school during these fifty years. Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. Kisses Masha. Irina But you gave me one of these at Easter. Kuligin Laughs. I couldn’t have, surely! You’d better give it back to me in that case, or else give it to the Colonel. Take it, Colonel. You’ll read it some day when you’re bored. Vershinin Thank you. Prepares to go. I am extremely happy to have made the acquaintance of⁠ ⁠… Olga Must you go? No, not yet? Irina You’ll stop and have lunch with us. Please do. Olga Yes, please! Vershinin Bows. I seem to have dropped in on your name day. Forgive me, I didn’t know, and I didn’t offer you my congratulations. Goes with Olga into the dining-room. Kuligin Today is Sunday, the day of rest, so let us rest and rejoice, each in a manner compatible with his age and disposition. The carpets will have to be taken up for the summer and put away till the winter⁠ ⁠… Persian powder or naphthaline.⁠ ⁠… The Romans were healthy because they knew both how to work and how to rest, they had mens sana in corpore sano. Their life ran along certain recognized patterns. Our director says: “The chief thing about each life is its pattern. Whoever loses his pattern is lost himself”⁠—and it’s just the same in our daily life. Takes Masha by the waist, laughing. Masha loves me. My wife loves me. And you ought to put the window curtains away with the carpets.⁠ ⁠… I’m feeling awfully pleased with life today. Masha, we’ve got to be at the director’s at four. They’re getting up a walk for the pedagogues and their families. Masha I shan’t go. Kuligin Hurt. My dear Masha, why not? Masha I’ll tell you later.⁠ ⁠… Angrily. All right, I’ll go, only please stand back.⁠ ⁠… Steps away. Kuligin And then we’re to spend the evening at the director’s. In spite of his ill-health that man tries, above everything else, to be sociable. A splendid, illuminating personality. A wonderful man. After yesterday’s committee he said to me: “I’m tired, Feodor Ilitch, I’m tired!” Looks at the clock, then at his watch. Your clock is seven minutes fast. “Yes,” he said, “I’m tired.” Violin played off. Olga Let’s go and have lunch! There’s to be a masterpiece of baking! Kuligin Oh my dear Olga, my dear. Yesterday I was working till eleven o’clock at night, and got awfully tired. Today I’m quite happy. Goes into dining-room. My dear⁠ ⁠… Chebutikin Puts his paper into his pocket, and combs his beard. A pie? Splendid! Masha Severely to Chebutikin. Only mind; you’re not to drink anything today. Do you hear? It’s bad for you. Chebutikin Oh, that’s all right. I haven’t been drunk for two years. And it’s all the same, anyway! Masha You’re not to dare