Savva and the Life of Man Part 35

You awakened me, Savva. When you told me all that, my eyes were suddenly opened, and I began to love everything. Do you understand? I began to love it all. These walls--formerly I didn't notice them; now I am sorry for them--so sorry, I could cry. And the books and everything--each brick, each piece of wood to which man has applied his labor. Let's admit that it's poor stuff. Who says it's good? But that's why I love it--for its defects, its imperfections, its crooked lines, its unfulfilled hopes. For the labor and the tears. And all who hear you talking, Savva, will feel as I do, and will begin to love all that is old and dear and human.

SAVVA

I have nothing to do with you.

LIPA

Nothing to do with us? With whom then have you to do? No, Savva, you don't love anyone. You love only yourself and your dreams. He who loves men will not take away from them all they have. He will not regard his own wishes more than their lives. Destroy everything!

Destroy Golgotha! Consider: _(with terror)_ destroy Golgotha! The brightest, the most glorious hope that ever was on earth! All right, you don't believe in Christ. But if you have a single drop of n.o.bility in your nature, you must respect and honor His n.o.ble memory. He was also unhappy. He was crucified--crucified, Savva. You are silent? Have you nothing to say?

SAVVA

Nothing.

LIPA

I thought--I thought--if you succeeded in carrying out your plot--I thought I'd kill you--that I'd poison you like some noxious beast.

SAVVA

And if I don't succeed--

LIPA

You are still hoping?

SAVVA

And if I don't succeed, I'll kill you.

LIPA _(advancing a step toward him)_

Kill me! Kill me! Give me a chance to suffer for the sake of Christ.

For the sake of Christ and for the sake of the people.

SAVVA

Yes. I'll kill you.

LIPA

Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Oh, Lord, to suffer for Thee! Is there higher happiness than that?

SAVVA _(with a contemptuous gesture, pointing at Lipa)_

And that's a human being! That's one counted among the best! That's the kind in which they take pride! Ah me, how poor you are in good people!

LIPA

Insult! Mock! That's the way it has always been. They have always heaped insults upon us before they killed us.

SAVVA

No, I don't mean to insult you. How can I insult you? You are simply a silly woman. There have been many such in the past. There are many such to-day. You are simply a foolish, insignificant creature. You are even innocent, like all insignificant persons. And if I mean to kill you, there is no reason to be proud of it. Don't think you are an object specially worthy of my indignation. No, it would merely make matters a little easier for me. When I was chopping wood, and the axe in my raised arm struck the threshold instead of the log of wood, the jar was not so hard as if someone had arrested the motion of my arm. A raised hand must fall on something.

LIPA

And to think that this beast is my brother!

SAVVA

Whose cradle you rocked and whose diapers you changed. Yes. But to me it doesn't seem in the least strange that you are my sister, or that this bundle there is my brother. No, Tony! They are going. _(Tony turns his head and stares stupidly without making any answer)_ And it doesn't seem in the least strange to me that any insignificant chit and piece of nothingness calling itself my brother or my sister should go to the chemist's and buy a nickel's worth of a.r.s.enic on finding out who I am. You see, they have even attempted to poison me. The girl who left me tried to do it, but she lost her nerve. The point is that my sisters and brothers, among other things, have the characteristic of being cowards.

LIPA

I would have done it.

SAVVA

I don't doubt it. You are a little hysterical, and hysterical people are determined, unless they happen to burst into tears first.

LIPA

I hysterical? All right, have it your way, have it your way. And who are you, Savva?

SAVVA

That doesn't interest me.

LIPA

They are going, they are going. And they will find what they need. And that is the work of an hysterical woman. Do you hear how many of them there are? And if they found out--if I were to open the window this minute and cry out: "This man here has tried to destroy your Christ"--If you want it, I'll do it this instant. You need only say so. Shall I? _(She takes a step toward the window in a frenzy of rage)_ Shall I?

SAVVA

Yes, it's a good way of escaping the crown of thorns. Go ahead, shout.

But look out, don't knock Tony down.

LIPA _(turning back)_

I am sorry for you. You are beaten, and one doesn't like to kick a man who is down. But remember, remember, Savva, there are thousands, thousands of them coming in, and each one is your death!

SAVVA _(smiling)_

The tramp of death.

LIPA