Ivan Petrovich’s room; it is his bedroom and also the office of the estate. By the window a big table with ledgers and papers of all sorts, a writing desk, some bookcases, a scale. A smaller table for Astrov; on the table drawing materials, paints; beside them a portfolio. A blackbird in a cage. On the wall a map of Africa, which nobody here needs. A huge sofa upholstered in oilcloth. To the left a door leading to the inner rooms; to the right the door to the front hall; by the righthand door a doormat for the peasants to wipe the mud from their shoes. Autumn evening. Silence.
Telegin and Marina sit facing each other, Telegin holding up a skein of yarn for stockings and Marina winding it into a ball.
TELEGIN
Hurry up, Marina, they’ll call us soon to say goodbye. They’ve already sent for the horses.
MARINA
(Tries to wind faster) There’s not much left.
They’re going to Kharkov. To live there.
MARINA
So much the better.
TELEGIN
They got scared … Elena Andreevna says, “I don’t want to spend another hour here … we’ll leave, we’ll leave … We’ll live in Kharkov for a while,” she says, “see how it is, and then send for our things …” They’re traveling light. So you see, Marina Timofeevna, they’re not meant to live here. Not meant to … A predestined fate.
MARINA
So much the better. They made such a racket just now, started shooting—shame on them!
TELEGIN
Yes, a subject worthy of a great paintbrush.10
MARINA
To live to see such a thing!
Pause.
We’ll start living again as we were, like we used to. Tea at eight, lunch at one, in the evening we’ll sit down to supper; all in good order, like people do … Christian people. (With a sigh) I haven’t eaten noodles for a long time, poor sinful me.
TELEGIN
Yes, it’s quite a long time since we’ve had noodles on the table.
Pause.
Quite a long time … This morning, Marina Timofeevna, I walked through the village, and a shopkeeper called out after me: “Hey, you, sponger!” And it really stung me!
MARINA
Pay no attention, dear heart. We’re all spongers on God. You, and Sonya, and Ivan Petrovich—nobody sits idle, everybody works! Everybody … Where’s Sonya?
TELEGIN
In the garden. She and the doctor are searching all over for Ivan Petrovich. They’re afraid he’ll do away with himself.
MARINA
And where’s his pistol?
TELEGIN
(In a whisper) I hid it in the cellar.
MARINA
(With a smirk) Lord help us!
Voinitsky and Astrov enter from outside.
VOINITSKY
Leave me alone. (To Marina and Telegin) Go away! Leave me alone at least for an hour! I can’t stand being watched over.
TELEGIN
Right away, Vanya. (Exits on tiptoe)
MARINA
Goose! Gabble, gabble! (Gathers up her wool and exits)
VOINITSKY
Leave me alone!
With great pleasure. I ought to have gone long ago, but, I repeat, I won’t leave until you give back what you took from me.
VOINITSKY
I didn’t take anything from you.
ASTROV
I’m serious: don’t keep me waiting. I should have gone long ago.
VOINITSKY
I took nothing from you.
They both sit down.
ASTROV
No? Well, I’ll wait a little longer and then, forgive me, we’ll have to resort to violence. Tie you up and search you. I’m quite serious.
VOINITSKY
As you please.
Pause.
To play such a fool: to shoot twice and miss both times! I’ll never forgive myself.
ASTROV
If you were so eager to shoot, you could have fired at your own head.
VOINITSKY
(Shrugging) Strange. I tried to commit a murder, and they don’t arrest me, they don’t take me to court. It means they think I’m crazy. (Spiteful laughter) I’m the crazy one, not those who hide their mediocrity, their obtuseness, their blatant heartlessness behind the mask of professor, learned magician. Not those who marry old men and then cheat on them in front of everybody. I saw it, I saw you embrace her!
ASTROV
Yes, sir, I did. And here’s for you! (Thumbs his nose)
VOINITSKY
(Glancing at the door) No, it’s the world that’s crazy, for putting up with all of you!
ASTROV
That’s stupid.
VOINITSKY
Well, I’m crazy, irresponsible, so I have the right to say stupid things.
ASTROV
That’s an old trick. You’re not crazy, you’re just a misfit. A buffoon. I used to consider every misfit sick, abnormal, but now I’m of the opinion that man’s normal condition is to be a misfit. You’re perfectly normal.
VOINITSKY
(Covers his face with his hands) I’m ashamed! If you knew how ashamed I am! No pain can compare with this sharp sense of shame. Unbearable! (Bends down to the table) What am I to do? What am I to do?
ASTROV
Nothing.
VOINITSKY
Give me a little something! Oh, my God … I’m forty-seven years old. Supposing I live till sixty, it means I’ve got thirteen years to go. That’s long! How will I live out those thirteen years, what will I do, what will I fill them with? Oh, you see … (Presses Astrov’s hand convulsively) you see, if it was possible to live the rest of your life in some new way. To wake up on a bright, quiet morning and feel that you were beginning life anew, that all the past was forgotten, scattered like smoke. (Weeps) To begin a new life … Tell me how to begin … what to begin with …
ASTROV
(Irritated) Ehh, come on! What new life? Our situation, yours and mine, is hopeless.
VOINITSKY
Yeah?
ASTROV
I’m convinced of it.
VOINITSKY
Give me a little something … (Points to his heart) There’s a burning here.
ASTROV
(Shouts angrily) Stop it! (Softening) Those who will live a hundred or two hundred years after us and will despise us for having lived our lives so stupidly and so tastelessly—maybe they will find a way to be happy, but we … For you and me there’s only one hope. The hope that when we’re lying in our coffins, we’ll be granted visions, maybe even pleasant ones. (Sighs) Yes, brother. There were only two respectable, intelligent men in the whole district: you and me. But in some ten years this philistine life, this contemptible life, sucked us in; its stinking fumes poisoned our blood, and we became as trite as everybody else. (Animatedly) But don’t you get me off track. Give me back what you took from me.
VOINITSKY
I didn’t take anything from you.
You took a vial of morphine from my medicine bag.
Pause.
Listen, if you’re so intent on killing yourself, go to the forest and shoot yourself there. But give me back the morphine. Otherwise there’ll be talk, suspicions, people will think I gave it to you … It’s enough for me that I’ll have to perform the autopsy … Do you think that’ll be interesting?
Sonya enters.
VOINITSKY
Leave me alone!
ASTROV
(To Sonya) Sofya Alexandrovna, your uncle filched a vial of morphine from my medicine bag and won’t give it back. Tell him that’s … really not smart. And I have no time. I’ve got to go.
SONYA
Uncle Vanya, did you take the morphine?
Pause.
ASTROV
He did. I’m sure of it.
SONYA
Give it back. Why do you scare us? (Tenderly) Give it back, Uncle Vanya! Maybe I’m just as unhappy as you are, but I don’t despair. I bear it, and I’ll go on bearing it until my life ends … You bear it, too.
Pause.
Give it back! (Kisses his hands) Dear, good uncle, nice uncle, give it back! (Weeps) You’re kind, you’ll feel sorry for us and give it back. Bear it, uncle! Bear it!
VOINITSKY
(Takes the vial from a drawer and hands it to Astrov) Here, take it! (To Sonya) But we must get to work quickly, do something quickly, otherwise I can’t … I can’t …
SONYA
Yes, yes, get to work. As soon as we see them off, we’ll sit down and work … (Nervously fingers the papers on the table) We’ve neglected everything.
ASTROV
(Puts the vial into the medicine bag and tightens the straps) Now I can be on my way.
ELENA ANDREEVNA
(Enters) Ivan Petrovich, you’re here? We’re leaving now … Go to Alexander, he wants to say something to you.
SONYA
Go, Uncle Vanya. (Takes Voinitsky under the arm) Let’s go. You and papa have to make peace. It’s necessary.
Sonya and Voinitsky exit.
ELENA ANDREEVNA
I’m leaving. (Gives Astrov her hand) Goodbye.
ASTROV
Already?
ELENA ANDREEVNA
They’ve already brought the horses.
ASTROV
Goodbye.
You promised me today that you would leave here.
ASTROV
I remember. I’ll leave right now.
Pause.
You got scared? (Takes her hand) Is it so frightening?
ELENA ANDREEVNA
Yes.
ASTROV
Why not stay! Hmm? Tomorrow in the forester’s hut …
ELENA ANDREEVNA
No … It’s already decided … I’m looking at you so bravely because it’s already decided that we’re leaving … I ask you for one thing: think better of me. I’d like you to respect me.
ASTROV
Ach! (Gesture of impatience) Stay, I’m asking you. Admit you’ve got nothing to do in this world, you have no aim in life, nothing to occupy your attention, and sooner or later you’ll give way to your feelings—it’s inevitable. And it would be better if it’s not in Kharkov, not somewhere in Kursk, but here in the bosom of nature … At least it will be poetic, the autumn is even beautiful … Here there’s the forest, half-ruined country mansions straight out of Turgenev …
ELENA ANDREEVNA
You’re so funny … I’m angry with you, but still … I’ll remember you with pleasure. You’re an interesting, original man. You and I will never see each other again, so—why hide it? I even felt slightly attracted to you. Well, let’s shake hands and part as friends. No bad feelings.
(Shakes her hand) Yes, go … (Musingly) You seem to be a good, kind-hearted person, but there also seems to be something strange in your whole being. You came here with your husband, and everybody who had been working here, scurrying around, creating something, had to drop what they were doing and spend the whole summer attending to your husband’s gout and you. You both—he and you—infected us all with your idleness. I was attracted, did nothing for a whole month, and during that time people were sick, peasants let their cattle graze in my forest among the young trees … So, wherever you and your husband set foot, you bring destruction … I’m joking, of course, but still … it’s strange, and I’m convinced that if you stayed, the devastation would be enormous. I’d be done for, and … it wouldn’t turn out well for you either. So, yes, go. Finita la commedia!11
ELENA ANDREEVNA
(Takes a pencil from his desk and quickly tucks it away) I’m taking this pencil to remember you by.
ASTROV
It’s somehow strange … We got acquainted and suddenly for some reason … we’ll never see each other again. The same with everything in the world … While nobody’s here, before Uncle Vanya comes in with his bouquet, allow me … to kiss you … In farewell … May I? (Kisses her cheek) Well, there … wonderful.
ELENA ANDREEVNA
I wish you all the best. (Looks around) Come what may, just once in my life! (Embraces him impetuously, and both quickly step back from each other) I must go.
ASTROV
Go quickly. If they’ve brought the horses, just leave.
ELENA ANDREEVNA
I think they’re coming.
ASTROV
Finita.
Enter Serebryakov, Voinitsky, Marya Vassilyevna with a book, Telegin and Sonya.
SEREBRYAKOV
(To Voinitsky) Let bygones be bygones. After what happened, I’ve lived through and thought through so much in these last few hours, I think I could write a whole treatise for the edification of posterity on how one ought to live. I willingly accept your apologies, and I beg you to accept mine. Goodbye! (He and Voinitsky kiss three times)12
VOINITSKY
You’ll regularly receive what you received before. Everything will be as it was.
Elena Andreevna embraces Sonya.
SEREBRYAKOV
(Kisses Marya Vassilyevna’s hand) Maman …
MARYA VASSILYEVNA
(Kissing him) Alexandre, have yourself photographed again and send me the picture. You know how dear you are to me.
TELEGIN
Goodbye, Your Excellency! Don’t forget us!
SEREBRYAKOV
(After kissing his daughter) Goodbye … Goodbye all! (Giving Astrov his hand) Thank you for the pleasant company … I respect your way of thinking, your pursuits, your enthusiasms, but allow an old man to introduce just one observation into my parting words: there are deeds to be done, ladies and gentlemen! There are deeds to be done! (A general bow) All the best! (Exits, followed by Marya Vassilyevna and Sonya)
VOINITSKY
(Firmly kisses Elena Andreevna’s hand) Goodbye … Forgive me … We’ll never see each other again.
ELENA ANDREEVNA
(Moved) Goodbye, dear man. (Kisses his head and exits)
ASTROV
(To Telegin) Waffle, tell them to bring my horses while they’re at it.
TELEGIN
Yes, my friend. (Exits)
Only Astrov and Voinitsky are left.
ASTROV
(Taking paints from the table and putting them in the suitcase) Why don’t you go and see them off?
VOINITSKY
Let them go … I … I can’t. It’s hard for me. I’ve got to busy myself with something quickly … Work, work! (Rummages in the papers on the table)
Pause; a jingling is heard.
ASTROV
They’ve gone. The professor’s glad, no doubt! Nothing in the world could lure him back.
MARINA
(Enters) They’ve gone. (Sits in an armchair and knits a stocking)
(Enters) They’ve gone. (Wipes her eyes) God grant them a safe journey. (To her uncle) Well, Uncle Vanya, let’s do something.
VOINITSKY
Work, work …
SONYA
It’s a long, long time since we sat together at this table. (Lights the lamp on the table) Seems there’s no ink. (Takes the inkwell, goes to the cupboard and fills it) I’m sad that they’ve gone.
MARYA VASSILYEVNA
(Enters slowly) They’ve gone! (Sits down and immerses herself in reading)
SONYA
(Sits down and leafs through a ledger) First of all, Uncle Vanya, let’s do the accounts. We’ve neglected them terribly. Today again someone came about their account. Write. You do one account, I’ll do another …
VOINITSKY
(Writes) “Account … of Mister …”
Both write silently.
MARINA
(Yawns) Sleepy time …
ASTROV
It’s quiet. The pens scratch, the cricket chirps. It’s warm, cozy … I don’t feel like leaving.
A jingling of bells is heard.
They’re bringing the horses … So it only remains for me to say goodbye to you, my friends, to say goodbye to my table, and … off I go! (Puts the maps into the portfolio)
MARINA
What’s the rush? Sit a while.
ASTROV
I can’t.
VOINITSKY
(Writes) “Plus the two seventy-five already owed …” Workman enters.
WORKMAN
Mikhail Lvovich, the horses are ready.
ASTROV
I heard. (Hands him the medicine bag, the suitcase, and the portfolio) Here, take all this. Make sure you don’t crush the portfolio.
WORKMAN
Yes, sir. (Exits)
ASTROV
Well, then … (Goes to say his goodbyes)
SONYA
And when shall we see you?
ASTROV
Not before summer, probably … Winter’s unlikely … Of course, if anything happens, let me know—I’ll come. (Shakes hands) Thank you for your hospitality, for your kindness … in short, for everything. (Goes to the nanny and kisses her on the head) Goodbye, old girl.
So you’ll up and leave without tea?
ASTROV
I don’t want any, nanny.
MARINA
How about a nip of vodka?
ASTROV
(Hesitating) Well, maybe …
Marina exits.
(After a pause) My outrunner’s gone a bit lame. I noticed it yesterday when Petrushka was taking him to be watered.
VOINITSKY
He should be re-shod.
ASTROV
I’ll have to stop at the blacksmith’s in Rozhdestvenno. No way around it. (Goes to the map of Africa and studies it) It must be really hot in Africa right now—scorching!
VOINITSKY
Yes, probably.
MARINA
(Comes back carrying a tray with a glass of vodka and a piece of bread) Take it!
Astrov drinks the vodka.
To your health, dear heart. (Bows deeply) And have a bit of bread.
No, this’ll do me … So, all the best! (To Marina) Don’t see me off, nanny. There’s no need.
He exits. Sonya follows him with a candle to see him off; Marina sits down in her armchair.
VOINITSKY
(Writing) “February second, linseed oil, twenty pounds … February sixteenth, again linseed oil, twenty pounds … Buckwheat …”
Pause. Bells jingle.
MARINA
He’s gone.
Pause.
SONYA
(Comes back, puts the candle on the table) He’s gone …
VOINITSKY
(Counts on an abacus and writes down) “Sum total … fifteen … twenty-five …”
Sonya sits down and writes.
MARINA
(Yawns) Ohh, Lord help us …
Telegin enters on tiptoe, sits by the door, and quietly tunes his guitar.
VOINITSKY
(To Sonya, passing his hand over her hair) My child, it’s so hard for me. Oh, if you knew how hard it is for me!
What can we do, we’ve got to live!
Pause.
We will live, Uncle Vanya. We’ll live through a long, long string of days, of drawn-out evenings; we’ll patiently endure the trials destiny sends us; we’ll work for others now and in our old age, knowing no peace, and when our hour comes, we will obediently die, and there, beyond the grave, we will say that we suffered, that we wept, that it was bitter for us, and God will take pity on us, and you and I, uncle, dear uncle, will see a bright, beautiful, refined life, we will rejoice, and we will look back at our present misfortunes with tenderness, with a smile—and we will rest. I believe it, uncle, I believe it fervently, passionately … (Kneels before him and lays her head on his hands; in a weary voice) We will rest!
Telegin quietly plays the guitar.
We will rest! We will hear the angels, we will see the sky all in diamonds, we will see how all the evils of the earth, all our sufferings, are drowned in mercy, which will fill the whole world, and our life will become quiet, gentle, sweet as a caress. I believe it, I believe it … (Wipes his tears with a handkerchief) Poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you’re crying … (Through tears) You haven’t known any joys in your life, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait … We will rest … (Embraces him) We will rest!
The watchman raps. Telegin strums softly; Marya Vassilyevna writes on the margins of a pamphlet; Marina knits a stocking.
We will rest!
The curtain slowly falls.