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Little Eyolf Act III · The Henrik Ibsen Library

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  Speaker 1: Act third of lilu Ayof by Henry Gibson, translated by
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  Speaker 1: William Arter. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Act third an elevation overgrown
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  Speaker 1: with shrubs in Almoss's garden. At the back, a sheer
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  Speaker 1: cliff with a railing along its edge and with steps
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  Speaker 1: on the left leading downwards. An extensive view over the
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  Speaker 1: fiord which lies deep below. A flag staff with lines
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  Speaker 1: but no flag stands by the railing in front. On
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  Speaker 1: the right a summer house covered with creepers and wild vines.
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  Speaker 1: Outside it a bench. It is a late summer evening
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  Speaker 1: with clear sky deepening twilight. Ast is sitting on the
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  Speaker 1: bench with her hands in her nap. She is wearing
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  Speaker 1: her outdoor dress and a hat, has her parasol at
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  Speaker 1: her side and a little traveling bag on a strap
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  Speaker 1: over her shoulder. Margheim comes up from the back on
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  Speaker 1: the left. He too has a traveling bag over his shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: He's carrying a rolled up flag, catching sight of Esther.
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  Speaker 2: Oh so you're up here, Yes.
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  Speaker 3: I am taking my last look out over the fiord.
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  Speaker 2: Then I'm glad I happened to come up.
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  Speaker 3: Have you been searching for me?
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 4: I have.
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to say goodbye to you for the present,
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  Speaker 2: not for good and all.
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  Speaker 1: I hope with a faint smile.
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  Speaker 3: You are persevering.
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  Speaker 2: A roadmaker has got to be Have you.
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  Speaker 3: Seen anything of Alfred or of Rita?
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 3: I saw them both together?
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  Speaker 2: No apart.
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  Speaker 3: What are you going to do with that flag?
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  Speaker 2: Missus Olmers asked me to come up and hoist it.
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  Speaker 3: Hoist a flag just now half mast high?
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  Speaker 2: She wants it to fly both night and day.
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  Speaker 3: She says, poor Rita and poor Alfred.
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  Speaker 1: Busy with the flag.
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  Speaker 2: Have you the heart to leave them? I? I ask,
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  Speaker 2: because I see you are in traveling dress.
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  Speaker 3: I must go.
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  Speaker 2: Well, if you must, then.
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  Speaker 3: And you are going to tonight, I must too.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going by the train. Are you going that way?
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  Speaker 3: No, I shall take the steamer.
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  Speaker 1: Glancing at her, weich take our own way. Then, yes,
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  Speaker 1: she sits and looks on white. He hoists the flag
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  Speaker 1: half mast high. When he has done, he goes up
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  Speaker 1: to her.
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  Speaker 2: Miss Asta, you can't think how grieved I am about
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  Speaker 2: little layoff.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm sure you feel it deeply.
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  Speaker 2: And the feeling tortures me. For the fact is, grief
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  Speaker 2: is not much in my way.
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  Speaker 1: Raising her eyes to the flag.
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  Speaker 3: It will pass over in time, all of it.
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  Speaker 4: All our sorrow.
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  Speaker 2: All do you believe that, like.
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  Speaker 3: A squal at sea, when once you have got far
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  Speaker 3: away from here, then it will have.
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  Speaker 2: To be very far away indeed.
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  Speaker 3: And then you have this great new roadwork too.
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  Speaker 2: But no one to help me in it.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, surely.
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  Speaker 1: You have shaken his head.
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  Speaker 2: No one, no one to share this gladness with. For
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  Speaker 2: it is gladness that most needs sharing.
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  Speaker 3: Not the labor and trouble pooh, that sort.
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  Speaker 2: Of thing one can always get through alone.
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  Speaker 3: But the gladness that must be shared with someone, you.
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  Speaker 2: Think, yes, For if not, what would be the pleasure
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  Speaker 2: in being glad?
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  Speaker 3: Ah? Yes, perhaps there is something in that.
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  Speaker 2: Oh of course, for a certain time you can go
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  Speaker 2: on feeling glad in your own heart. But it won't
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  Speaker 2: do in the long run. No, it takes two to
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  Speaker 2: be glad.
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  Speaker 3: Always two, never more, never many.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you see, then it becomes a quite different matter,
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  Speaker 2: miss Asta. Are you sure you can never make up
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  Speaker 2: your mind to share gladness and success and labor and
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  Speaker 2: trouble with one with one alone in all the world.
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  Speaker 3: I have tried it once, have you? Yes, all the
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  Speaker 3: time that my brother, that Alfred and I live together.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, with your brother, yes, but that is altogether different.
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  Speaker 2: That ought rather to be called peace than happiness. I
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  Speaker 2: should say.
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  Speaker 3: It was delightful all the same.
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  Speaker 2: There now you see even that seemed to you delightful.
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  Speaker 2: But just think now, if he had not been your brother.
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  Speaker 1: Makes a movement to rise, but remain sitting, then we should.
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  Speaker 3: Never have been together. For I was a child then,
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  Speaker 3: and he wasn't much more?
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  Speaker 1: After a pause?
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  Speaker 2: Was it so delightful that time?
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  Speaker 5: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, indeed it was.
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  Speaker 2: Was there much that was really bright and happy in
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  Speaker 2: your life? Then?
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  Speaker 5: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so much? You cannot think how much?
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  Speaker 2: Tell me a little about it, miss Asta.
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  Speaker 3: Oh there are only trifles.
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  Speaker 2: To tell such as well, such.
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  Speaker 3: As the time when Alfred had passed his examination and
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  Speaker 3: had distinguished himself, And then from time to time when
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  Speaker 3: he got a post in some school or other, or
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  Speaker 3: when he would sit at home working at an article
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  Speaker 3: and would read it aloud to me, and then when
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  Speaker 3: it would appear in some magazin.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I can quite see that it must have been
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  Speaker 2: a peaceful, delightful life, a brother and sister sharing all
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  Speaker 2: their joys. Shaking his head, what I cannot understand is
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  Speaker 2: that your brother could ever give you up, Asta, with suppressed.
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  Speaker 3: Emotion, Alfred married, you know, was not that very hard
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  Speaker 3: for you? Yes, at first it seemed as though I
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  Speaker 3: had utterly lost him all at once.
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  Speaker 2: Well, luckily it was not so bad as that. No,
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  Speaker 2: but all the same, how could he go and marry?
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  Speaker 2: I mean when he could have kept you with him alone?
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  Speaker 1: Lukinstrait in front of her.
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  Speaker 3: He was subject to the law of change.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose the law of change.
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  Speaker 3: So Alfred calls it.
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  Speaker 2: Pooh, what a stupid law that must be. I don't
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  Speaker 2: believe a bit in that law.
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  Speaker 3: Rising you may come to believe in it in time.
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  Speaker 2: Never in all my life. But listen, now, Missaskeda, do
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  Speaker 2: be reasonable for once in a way in this matter.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, oh, no, no, don't let us begin upon
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  Speaker 3: that again.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Asta, I can't possibly give you up so easily.
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  Speaker 2: Now your brother has everything as he wishes it. He
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  Speaker 2: can live his life quite contentedly without you. He doesn't
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  Speaker 2: require you at all. Then this, this that, at one blow,
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  Speaker 2: has changed your whole position here.
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  Speaker 1: With a start?
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  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?
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  Speaker 2: The loss of the child? What else should I mean?
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  Speaker 1: Recovering her self? Control?
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  Speaker 3: Little aof is gone? Yes?
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  Speaker 2: And what more does that leave you to do? Here?
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  Speaker 2: You have not the poor little boy to take care of.
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  Speaker 2: You have no duties, no claims upon you of any sort.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, please, mister Borgheim, don't make it so hard for me.
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  Speaker 2: I must, I should be mad if I did not
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  Speaker 2: try my uttermost. I shall be leaving town before very long,
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  Speaker 2: and perhaps I shall have no opportunity of meeting you there.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps I shall not see you again for a long
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  Speaker 2: long time, and who knows what may happen in the meanwhile.
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  Speaker 3: With a grave smile, So you are afraid of the
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  Speaker 3: law of change after all?
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  Speaker 2: No, not in the least, ha. And there is nothing
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  Speaker 2: to be changed either, not in you, I mean, For
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  Speaker 2: I can see you don't care much about me. You
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  Speaker 2: know very well that I do, perhaps, but not nearly enough,
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  Speaker 2: not as I want you to. By heaven, Asta, miss Asta,
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  Speaker 2: I cannot tell you how strongly I feel that you
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  Speaker 2: are wrong in this. A little onward, perhaps from today
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  Speaker 2: and tomorrow all life's happiness may be awaiting us, and
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  Speaker 2: we must needs pass it by. Do you think we
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  Speaker 2: will not come to repent of it? Asta?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know. I only know that they are not
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  Speaker 3: for us, all these bright possibilities.
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  Speaker 1: Looks at her with self control.
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  Speaker 2: Then I must make my roads alone.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, how I wish I could stand by you in
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  Speaker 3: it all, help you in the labor, share the gladness
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  Speaker 3: with you?
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  Speaker 2: Would you if you could? Yes, that I would, But
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  Speaker 2: you cannot looking down?
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  Speaker 3: Would you be content to have only half of me?
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  Speaker 2: No, you must be utterly and entirely mine.
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  Speaker 1: Looks at him and says quietly, Then I cannot.
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  Speaker 2: Good Bye, then, miss Asta.
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  Speaker 1: He is on the point of going, almost comes up
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  Speaker 1: from the left at the back. Bogheim stops the moment
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  Speaker 1: he has reached the top of the steps, points and says,
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  Speaker 1: in a low voice, is Rita.
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  Speaker 5: In there in the summer house?
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  Speaker 1: No, there is no one here, But miss Asta almost
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  Speaker 1: comes forward, going towards him.
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  Speaker 3: Shall I go down and look for her? Shall I
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  Speaker 3: get her to come up here?
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  Speaker 1: With a negative gesture?
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  Speaker 5: No, no, no, let it alone to Bogheim. Is it
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  Speaker 5: you that have hoisted the flank?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, missus Olmos asked me to uh, that was what
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  Speaker 2: brought me up.
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  Speaker 5: Here, and are you going to start tonight?
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  Speaker 2: Yes? To night, I go away in good earnest with a.
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  Speaker 5: Glance at Esther, and you have made sure of pleasant company,
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  Speaker 5: I dare.
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  Speaker 1: Say, shaking his head, I am going alone alone, utterly alone, indeed.
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  Speaker 2: And I shall have to remain alone too.
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  Speaker 5: There is something horrible in being alone. The thought of
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  Speaker 5: it runs like ice through my blood.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, but Alfred, you are not alone.
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  Speaker 5: There may be something horrible in that too, Esther.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, don't talk like that, don't think like.
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  Speaker 1: That, not listening to her.
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  Speaker 5: But since you are not going with him, since there
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  Speaker 5: is nothing to bind you, why will you not remain
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  Speaker 5: out here with me and with Rita?
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  Speaker 3: No, no, I cannot. I must go back to town now.
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  Speaker 5: But only into town, est do you hear?
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  Speaker 3: Yes?
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  Speaker 5: And you must promise me that you will soon come
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  Speaker 5: out again.
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  Speaker 3: No, no, I dare not promise you that for the present.
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  Speaker 5: Well as you will. We shall soon meet in town.
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  Speaker 3: Then, But Alfred, you must stay at home here with.
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  Speaker 1: Rita now, without answering, turns to Bogham.
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  Speaker 5: You may find it a good thing, after all, that
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  Speaker 5: you have to take your journey alone.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, how can you say such?
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  Speaker 5: A thing you see, you can never tell whom you
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  Speaker 5: might happen to meet afterwards on the way, Alfred the
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  Speaker 5: right fellow traveler. When it is too late.
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  Speaker 3: Too late, Alfred Alfred.
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  Speaker 1: Look in from one to the other.
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  Speaker 2: What is the meaning of this? I I don't understand.
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  Speaker 1: Rita comes up from the left at the back.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, don't go away from me. All of you go
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  Speaker 4: in towards her.
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  Speaker 3: You said you prefer to be alone.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, but I dare not. It is getting so horribly dark.
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  Speaker 4: I seem to see great, open fixed eyes upon me.
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  Speaker 3: What if it were so? Rita, you ought not to
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  Speaker 3: be afraid of those eyes?
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  Speaker 4: How can you say so? Not afraid?
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  Speaker 5: Esther? I beg you, for Heaven's sake, remain here with Rita.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, and with Alfred too? Do do?
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  Speaker 1: Esta? Struggling with herself.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, I want you so much, Well, then do it
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  Speaker 4: for Alfred and I cannot go alone through the sorrow
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  Speaker 4: and heartache.
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  Speaker 5: Say rather, through the ranklings of remorse.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, whatever you like to call it, we cannot bear
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  Speaker 4: it alone. We two, Oh, Asta, I beg and implore
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  Speaker 4: you stay here and help us take Aulf's place for
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  Speaker 4: us Aolf's Yes, would you not have it so, Alfred.
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  Speaker 5: If she can, and will you used.
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  Speaker 4: To call her your little Aolf Caesar's her hand. Henceforth
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  Speaker 4: you shall be our alef Esta Ayolf, as you were before.
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  Speaker 1: With concealed emotion.
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  Speaker 5: Remain and share our life with us, est with Rita,
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  Speaker 5: with me, with me, your brother.
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  Speaker 1: With decision, snatches her hand away. No, I cannot turning.
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  Speaker 3: Mister Borkheim. What time does the steamer start?
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  Speaker 2: Now? At once?
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  Speaker 3: Then I must go on board? Will you go with me?
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  Speaker 2: Will I? Yes? Yes?
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  Speaker 3: Then come ah, that is how it is.
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  Speaker 4: Well, then you cannot stay with us.
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  Speaker 1: Throwing her arms round her.
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  Speaker 3: Neck, thanks for everything.
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  Speaker 1: Rita goes up to arms and grasps his hand.
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  Speaker 3: Alfred, goodbye, a thousand times goodbye.
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  Speaker 5: What is disaster? It seems as though you were taking flight?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, Alfred, I am taking flight, flight from me, from
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  Speaker 3: you and from myself.
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  Speaker 1: Shrinking back ah. As the rushes down the steps at
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  Speaker 1: the back, Borgheim waves his head and follows her. Rita
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: leans against the entrance to the summer house. Ormers goes
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: in strong inward emotion up to the raining and stands there,
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  Speaker 1: gazing downwards. Papause turns and says with hard won composure.
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  Speaker 5: There comes the steamer. Look, Rita, I dare not look
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  Speaker 5: at it, You dare.
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  Speaker 4: Not, no, Oh, for it has a red eye and
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  Speaker 4: a green one too, great glowing eyes.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, those are only the lights, you know.
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  Speaker 4: Henceforth they are eyes for me. They stare and stare
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  Speaker 4: out of the darkness and into the darkness.
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  Speaker 5: Now she is putting into shore.
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  Speaker 4: Where are they mooring her this evening?
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  Speaker 1: Then coming forward at the pier as usual, drawing herself up.
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  Speaker 4: How can they moor her there?
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  Speaker 5: They must?
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: But it was there that ale? How can they moor
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  Speaker 4: her there?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, life is pitiless, Rita.
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  Speaker 4: Men are heartless. They take no thought, whether for the
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  Speaker 4: living or for the dead.
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  Speaker 5: There you are right. Life goes its own way, just
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  Speaker 5: as if nothing in the world had happened, gazing straight before.
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  Speaker 4: Her, And nothing has happened either, not to others, only
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  Speaker 4: to us too.
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  Speaker 1: The pain reawakening.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, Rita, so it was to no per that you
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  Speaker 5: bore him in sorrow and anguish. For now he is
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  Speaker 5: gone again. It has left no trace behind.
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  Speaker 4: Him, only the crutch was saved.
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  Speaker 5: Be silent, Do not let me hear that word.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, I cannot bear the thought that he is gone from.
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  Speaker 5: Us, you could very well do without him. When he
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  Speaker 5: was with us, half the day would often pass without
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  Speaker 5: your setting eyes on him.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, for I knew that I could see him whenever
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: I wanted to.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, that is how we have gone and squandered the
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: short time we had with little aof.
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  Speaker 4: Do you hear, Alfred? Now it is ringing again.
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  Speaker 5: Looking over the fiord, It is the steamer's bell that
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: is ringing. She's just starting.
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  Speaker 4: Oh it's not that bell. I mean all day I
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  Speaker 4: have heard it ringing in my ears. Now it is
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  Speaker 4: ringing again.
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  Speaker 5: Going up to her, You are mistaken, Rita.
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  Speaker 4: No, I hear it so plainly. It sounds like a knell, low, slow,
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  Speaker 4: and always the same words.
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  Speaker 5: Words, what words.
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  Speaker 1: Nodding her head in the rhythm.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: The crutch is floating. The crutch is floating. Oh surely
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: you must hear it too, shaking his head.
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: I hear nothing, and there is nothing to hear.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Oh, you may say what you will. I hear it
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  Speaker 4: so plainly, looking.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Out over the railing.
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  Speaker 5: Now they are on board, Rita, Now the steamer is
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: on her way to the town.
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  Speaker 4: Is it possible you do not hear it? The crutch
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  Speaker 4: is floating.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: The crutch is coming forward.
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  Speaker 5: You shall not stand there listening to a sound that
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: does not exist. I tell you, Asta and Borgheim are
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: on board. They have started already.
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  Speaker 1: Asta is gone, looks timidly at him.
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  Speaker 4: Then I suppose you will soon be gone.
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  Speaker 5: Too, Alfred, What do you mean by that.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: That you will follow?
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: Your sister has told you anything.
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  Speaker 4: No, but you said yourself it was for us to
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  Speaker 4: sake that that we came together.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, but you, you yourself, have bound me to you by
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: our life together.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, in your eyes I am not. I am not
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  Speaker 4: entrancingly beautiful anymore.
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: The law of change may perhaps keep us together.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Nonetheless, nodding slowly, there is a.
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  Speaker 4: Change in me now, I feel the anguish of it. Anguish, yes,
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: for change too is a sort of birth.
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  Speaker 5: It is our a resurrection, transition to a higher life.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Gazing sadly before.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Her, Yes, with the loss of all all life's happiness.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: That loss is just the gain.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Oh phrases good God. We are creatures of earth.
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  Speaker 5: After all, but something akin to the sea and the
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: heavens too.
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  Speaker 4: You perhaps not I, Oh, yes.
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  Speaker 5: You too, more than you yourself suspect.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Advancing a pace towards him, Tell me Alfred, could you
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: think of taking up your.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: Work again, the work that you have hated?
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: So I am easier to please now. I am willing
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: to share you with the book. Why, only to keep
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: you here with me, to have you near me.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: Oh, it is so little I can do to help you.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: Rita, But perhaps I could help.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: You with my book.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Do you mean no but to live your life?
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: Shaking his head, I seem to have no life.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: To live well, then to endure your life darkly, looking away.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: From her, I think it would be best for both
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: of us that we should part, looking curiously at him.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: Then where would you go? Perhaps to Asta after all?
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: No, never again to Asta? Where then up into the solitudes.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Up among the mountains. Is that what you mean?
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Yes?
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: But that is mere dreaming, Alfred. You could not live
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: up there, and.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: Yet I feel myself drawn to them.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: Why tell me.
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: Sit down and I will tell you.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: Something, something that happened to you up there, Yes, and
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: that you never told Asta and me. Yes, Oh you
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: are so silent about everything you ought not to be.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: Sit down there and I will tell you about it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, tell me.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: She sits on the bench beside the summer house.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: I was alone up there, in the heart of the
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: great mountains, I came to a wide, dreary mountain lake,
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: and that lake I had to cross, but I could not,
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: for there was neither a boat nor anyone there well.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: And then then I went, without any guidance, into a
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: side valley. I thought that by that way I could
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: push on over the heights and between the peaks, and
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: then down again on the other side of the lake.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: Oh, and you lost yourself, Alfred.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: I mistook the direction, for there was no path or track.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: And all day I went on, and all the next night,
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: and at last I thought I should never see the
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: face of man again.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: Not come home to us. Oh, then I am sure
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: your thoughts were with us here.
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: No they were not.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: Not.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: No, it was so strange. Both you and Aolf seemed
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: to have drifted far far away from me. And asked, too,
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: then what did you think of I did not think.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: I dragged myself along among the precipices and reveled in
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: the peace and luxury of death springing up.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: Don't speak in that way of that horror.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: I did not feel it. So I had no fear.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: Here went death and I it seemed to me like
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: two good fellow travelers. It all seemed so natural, so simple,
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: I thought, in my family, we don't live to behold.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: Oh, don't say such things, Alfred. You see you came
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: safely out of it after all.
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: Yes, all of a sudden I found myself where I
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: wanted to be, on the other side of the lake.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: It must have been a night of terror for you, Alfred.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: But now that it is over, you will not admit
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: it to yourself.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: That night sealed my resolution. And it was then that
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: I turned about and came straight homewards to a off
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: too late. Yes, and then when my fellow traveler came
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: and took him, then I felt the horror of it,
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: of it, all of all that, in spite of everything,
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: we dare not tear ourselves away from so earth bound?
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: Are we both of us Rita with a.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: Gleam of toy, Yes, you are too. Are you not
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: coming close to him? Oh? Let us live our life
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: together as long as we.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: Can live our life? Yes, and have nothing to fill
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: life with. An empty void involveses wherever I look.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: Sooner or later, you will go away from me, Alfred.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: I feel it. I can see it in your face.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: You will go away from me.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: With my fellow traveler.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: Do you mean no, I mean worse than that of
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: your own free will? You will leave me for you
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: think it's only here with me that you have nothing
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: to live for? Is not that what is in your thoughts?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Looking steadfastly at her? What if it were a disturbance?
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And the noise of angry quarrying voices is heard from
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: down below in the distance, Almos goes to the rating.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: What is that?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: You'll see they have found him.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: He will never be found.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: But what is it then?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Coming forward?
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: Only fighting as usual down on the beach. Yes, the
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: whole village down there ought to be swept away. Now
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: the men have come home, drunk as they always are.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: They are beating the children. Do you hear the boys crying?
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: The women are shrieking for help for them.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: Should we not get someone to go down and help them.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: Help them? Who did not help aof let them go
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: as they let aof go.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: Oh you must not talk like that, Alfred, nor think
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: I cannot think otherwise. All the old hovels ought to
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: be torn down.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: And then what is to become of all the poor people?
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: They must go somewhere else.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: And the children too, does.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: It make much difference where they go to the dogs.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: You are forcing yourself into this harshness, Alfred.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: I have a right to be harsh now. It is
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: my duty, your duty, my duty to ayof. He must
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: not lie unavenged once for all Rita. It is as
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: I tell you, think it over. Have the whole place
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: down there raised to the ground when I am gone,
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: when you are gone, Yes, for that will at least
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: give you something to fill your life with, and something
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: you must have there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: You are right, I must. But can you guess what
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: I will set about when you were gone?
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: Well?
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: What as soon as you are gone from me, I
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: will go down to the beach and bring all the
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: poor neglected children home with me, all the mischievous boys.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: What will you do with them? Here?
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: I will take them to my heart you, Yes, I will.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: From the day you leave me. They shall all be here,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: all of them, as if they were mine, in our
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: little AOF's plays, Yes, in our little AOL's place. They
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: shall live in Aolf's rooms. They shall read his books,
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: they shall play with his toys. They shall take it
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: in turns to sit in his chair at table.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: But this is sheer madness in you I do not
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: know a creature in the world that is less fitted
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: than you for anything of that sort.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: Then I shall have to educate myself for it, to
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: train myself to discipline myself.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: If you are really in earnest about this, about all
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: you say, then there must indeed be a change in you.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: Yes there is, Alfred, and for that I have you
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: to thank you. You have made an empty place within me,
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: and I must try to fill it up with something,
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: with something that is a little like love.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Stands for a moment lost in thought, then looks at her.
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: The truth is, we have not done much for the
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: poor people down there.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: We have done nothing for.
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: Them, scarcely even thought of them.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Never thought of them in sympathy.
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: We who had the gold and the green forests.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: Our hands were closed to them, and our hearts too nuts.
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: Then it was perhaps natural enough, after all, that they
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: should not risk their lives to save.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Little aof thank Alfred, are you so certain that that
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: we would have risked ours?
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: With an uneasy gesture of repulsion?
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: You must never doubt that.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: Oh we are children of earth.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: What do you really think you can do with all
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: these neglected children?
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: I suppose I must try if I cannot lighten an
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: andnoble their lot in life.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: If you can do that, then Eyof was not born
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: in vain, nor.
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: Taken from us in vain either.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Look in steadfastly at her.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: Be quite clear about one thing, Riata. It is not
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: love that is driving you to this.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: No, it is not, at any rate, not yet.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Well, then what is it you have.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: So often talked to Asta of human responsibility?
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: Of the book that you hated.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: I hate that book still, but I used to sit
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: and listen to what you told her, and now I
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: will try to continue it in my own way.
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: Shaking his head, it is not for the sake of
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: that unfinished book.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: No, I have another reason as well.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: What is that?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Softly, with a melancholy smile, I want to.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Make my peace with the great open eyes you see.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Struck fixing me his eyes upon her.
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: Perhaps I could join you in that and help you, Rita?
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: Would you?
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Yes? If I were only sure I.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: Could, But then you would have to remain here.
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: Let us try. If it could not be so.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Yes, let us Alfred both are silent. Then almost goes
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: up to the flag staff and hoist the flag to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the top. Rita stands beside the summer house, and looks
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: at him in silence, coming forward again.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: We have a heavy day of work before us.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: Rita, you will see that now and then a sabbath
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: peace will descend on us.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: Then perhaps we shall know that the spirits.
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: Are with us, the spirits.
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, they will perhaps be around us those whom we have.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Lost, our little Aolf and your big Aolf too.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: Now and then perhaps we may, still on the way
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: through life, have a little passing glimpse of them.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: When shall we look for the Alfred.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Fixing his eyes upon her upwards nuts in approval.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, upwards, upwards towards the peaks, towards the stars,
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: and towards the great silence, giving.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Him her hand thanks. End of Act third and of
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Little Ales by Hannah Gibson, translated by William Arter.