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

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    KLIAN:
Splendid news!
    In the suburbs the merry crowd’s blown up
    a school; satchels and rulers are scattered across
    the square; about three hundred little mites
    perished. Tremens is very pleased.
    THIRD REBEL:
He’s …
    pleased! Brothers, brothers, do you hear?
    He’s pleased! … 30
    KLIAN:
Well, then, I’ll inform the leader
    that my news did not much please you …
    Everything, I shall report everything!
    SECOND REBEL:
We say
    that Tremens is wiser than us: he knows his goal.
    As it says in your last ode, he is a genius.
    KLIAN:
    Yes. He is worthy of entering the thunders
    of my melodies. Nonetheless … the sun …
    dazzles my eyes.
[ Looks out of the window .]
Ah—there’s that traitor,
    Ganus! There, between the soldiers, standing
    at the barriers: they’re laughing. They have
    let him through. There he goes across
    the melting snow.
    FIRST REBEL [ watching ]:
How pale he is!
    Our former friend is unrecognizable!
    Everything about him—his gaze, his pursed lips—
    reminds one of the saints in stained glass …
    They say his wife has fled …
    SECOND REBEL:
Was there a lover?
    FIRST REBEL:
    I don’t think so.
    FOURTH REBEL:
Rumour has it that one day
    he came to his wife, and on the table there was
    a note, that come what may she had decided
    to go, alone, back to her family … Klian,
    what’s so funny about that?
    KLIAN:
I shall report
    everything! Here you are, spinning rumours,
    like old women, whilst Tremens thinks that
    you are working … There are fires out there,
    they need to be fanned, whilst you … I’ll report
    everything, everything …
[ GANUS stops in the doorway .]
Ah! Noble Ganus …
    Most welcome Ganus … We were waiting for you …
    We’re glad to see you … Please …
    FIRST REBEL:
Our Ganus …
    SECOND REBEL:
    Greetings, Ganus …
    THIRD REBEL:
Do you not recognize us?
    Your friends? Four years … together … in exile …
    GANUS:
    Away, you hirelings of a liar! … Where’s Tremens?
    He summoned me.
    KLIAN:
He’s interrogating.
    He’ll be here soon …
    GANUS:
Well, I don’t need him.
    He invited me himself, and if … he’s not here …
    KLIAN:
    Wait, I’ll call him …
[ Goes towards the door .]
    FIRST REBEL:
And we will go too …
    Is that not so, brothers? Why stay here …
    SECOND REBEL:
Yes,
    so much to do …
    THIRD REBEL:
Klian, we’re coming with you!
[ quietly ]
    Brothers, I’m scared …
    FOURTH REBEL:
I’ll finish copying later …
    I’ll go …
    THIRD REBEL:
Brother, brother, what are we doing …
[ KLIAN and the REBELS leave . GANUS is alone .]
    GANUS [ looks around in all directions ]:
    … A hero lived here …
[ Pause .]
    TREMENS [ enters ]:
Thank you for coming,
    my Ganus! I know that you’ve been clouded
    by the sorrows of life. You’ve scarcely noticed
    that for a month—a month today exactly—
    I have ruled over an intoxicated country.
    I called for you, so you could tell me directly,
    could explain … but first let a fortunate man
    talk of his happiness! You know yourself—
    better than anyone, Ganus—that I waited
    for my day, in a delirium, in a chill …
    My day has come—unexpectedly, like love!
    Rumour spread like a flame that the country
    had no king … When and how he disappeared,
    who strangled him, on what night, and how long
    a dead man ruled the land, nobody now knows.
    But the people do not forgive deceit:
    the burial vaults, the senate, were filled
    with angry trampling. How splendidly,
    how austerely, the old men died, and how
    he screamed—O, sweeter than an ardent violin—
    the little boy, their ward. The people took revenge
    for the deception,—I seized the opportunity
    to blaze up, and realized that I had waited so long
    in vain: there was no king at all—only
    a legend, potent and magical! Awakening,
    the mob stormed in here, and nothing but echoes
    resounded through the dead palace! …
    GANUS:
You called
    for me.
    TREMENS:
You are right, let’s turn to business:
    in you,