The Lower Depths

ANNA. Kvashnya left me some dumplings over there – you eat them!

KLESHTCH [coming over to her] And you – don’t you want any?

ANNA. No. Why should I eat? You’re a workman – you need it.

KLESHTCH. Frightened, are you? Don’t be! You’ll get all right!

ANNA. Go and eat! It’s hard on me… I suppose very soon.

KLESHTCH [walking away] Never mind – maybe you’ll get well – you can never tell! [Goes into kitchen]

THE ACTOR [loud, as if he had suddenly awakened] Yesterday the doctor in the hospital said to me: “Your organism,” he said, “is entirely poisoned with alcohol.”

SATINE [smiling] Organon.

THE ACTOR [stubbornly] Not organon – organism!

SATINE. Sibylline..

THE ACTOR [shaking his fist at him] Nonsense! I’m telling you seriously.. if the organism is poisoned.. that means it’s bad for me to sweep the floor – to inhale the dust.

SATINE. Macrobistic.. hah!

BUBNOFF. What are you muttering?

SATINE. Words – and here’s another one for you – transcendentalistic.

BUBNOFF. What does it mean?

SATINE. Don’t know – I forgot.

BUBNOFF. Then why did you say it?

SATINE. Just so! I’m bored, brother, with human words – all our words. Bored! I’ve heard each one of them a thousand times surely.

THE ACTOR. In Hamlet they say: “Words, words, words!” It’s a good play. I played the grave-digger in it once..

[Kleshtch comes from the kitchen.]

KLESHTCH. Will you start playing with the broom?

THE ACTOR. None of your business. [Striking his chest] Ophelia! O – remember me in thy prayers!

[Back stage is heard a dull murmur, cries, and a police whistle. Kleshtch sits down to work, filing screechily.]

SATINE. I love unintelligible, obsolete words. When I was a youngster – and worked as a telegraph operator – I read heaps of books..

BUBNOFF. Were you really a telegrapher?

SATINE. I was. There are some excellent books – and lots of curious words.. Once I was an educated man, do you know?

BUBNOFF. I’ve heard it a hundred times. Well, so you were! That isn’t very important! Me – well – once I was a furrier. I had my own shop – what with dyeing the fur all day long, my arms were yellow up to the elbows, brother. I thought I’d never be able ever to get clean again – that I’d go to my grave, all yellow! But look at my hands now – they’re plain dirty – that’s what!

SATINE. Well, and what then?

BUBNOFF. That’s all!

SATINE. What are you trying to prove?

BUBNOFF. Oh, well – just matching thoughts – no matter how much dye you get on yourself, it all comes off in the end – yes, yes —

SATINE. Oh – my bones ache!

THE ACTOR [sits, nursing his knees] Education is all rot. Talent is the thing. I knew an actor – who read his parts by heart, syllable by syllable – but he played heroes in a way that.. why – the whole theatre would rock with ecstasy!

SATINE. Bubnoff, give me five kopecks.

BUBNOFF. I only have two —

THE ACTOR. I say – talent, that’s what you need to play heroes. And talent is nothing but faith in yourself, in your own powers —

SATINE. Give me five kopecks and I’ll have faith that you’re a hero, a crocodile, or a police inspector – Kleshtch, give me five kopecks.

KLESHTCH. Go to hell! All of you!

SATINE. What are you cursing for? I know you haven’t a kopeck in the world!

ANNA. Andrei Mitritch – I’m suffocating – I can’t breathe —

KLESHTCH. What shall I do?

BUBNOFF. Open the door into the hall.

KLESHTCH. All right. You’re sitting on the bunk, I on the floor. You change places with me, and I’ll let you open the door. I have a cold as it is.

BUBNOFF [unconcernedly] I don’t care if you open the door – it’s your wife who’s asking —

KLESHTCH [morosely] I don’t care who’s asking —

SATINE. My head buzzes – ah – why do people have to hit each other over the heads?

BUBNOFF. They don’t only hit you over the head, but over the rest of the body as well. [Rises] I must go and buy some thread – our bosses are late to-day – seems as if they’ve croaked. [Exit]

[Anna coughs; Satine is lying down motionless, his hands folded behind his head.]

THE ACTOR [looks about him morosely, then goes to Anna] Feeling bad, eh?

ANNA. I’m choking —