in Kharkoff.
He has sent me his new book.
It is strange. He refutes the very theories
which he defended seven years ago.It is appalling!
There is nothing appalling about it.
Drink your tea, mamma.
- But I want to speak.
- We have been speaking for the past 50 years
and reading books!
It's time to put an end.
It seems you never want to listen
to what I have to say.
Pardon me, Jean, but you have changed so
in the last year that I hardly know you.
You used to be a man of settled convictions
and had an illuminating personality...
Oh, yes. I had
an illuminating personality,.
which illuminated no one....
I had an illuminating personality!
You couldn't say anything more biting.
Uncle Vanya, how dreary!
You speak as if your former convictions
were somehow to blame,
You have forgotten that a conviction,
in itself ...
is nothing but a dead letter..
You should have done something.
Done something! Not every man is capable
of being a writing'perpetuum mobile'
like your Herr Professor.
- What do you mean by that?
Grandma! Uncle Vanya!
I entreat you! ...
I am silent.
I apologise and am silent..
What a fine day! Not too hot.
A fine day to hang oneself.
- What did the peasants want, nurse?
- The same old thing, the same old nonsense.
Is the doctor here? Excuse me, sir,
but I have been sent to fetch you.
- Where are you from?
- The factory.
Thank you.
Damn it, this is annoying.
- You must come back to dinner from the factory.
- No, It will be too late.
Look here, my man, get me a
glass of vodka, will you?
I should be really delighted if
you would come to see me some day.
My estate is small, but
it is surrounded by forests.
I have always heard that you
were very fond of the woods.
One can do a great deal of good by helping to preserve them,
but doesn't it interfere with your real calling?
God alone knows what
a man's real calling is.
- Do you find it interesting?
- Yes, very.
I suspect that the woods do not interest you as much.
I should think you would find them monotonous.
Oh ,no, the work is thrilling.
Michael Livovich says that they teach mankind
to understand beauty
that forests are the ornaments of the earth
and temper a stern climate
and in countries where the climate is milder
the people are more kind and gentle
The inhabitantsof such countries are handsome,
tractable, sensitive,
graceful in speech
and gesture.
Art and science blossom among them.
Their philosophy is joyous,
their treatment of women is full of exquisite nobility.
Bravo, bravo!
Allow me, dear friend to go on burning firewood
in my stoves and building my sheds of planks.
You can burn peat in your stoves.
I don't object, of course,
to cutting wood from necessity
but why destroy the forests?
The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows
of the axe. Millions of trees have perished.
And why? Because men are too
lazy and stupid
to stoop down and pick up
their fuel from the ground.
Am I not right, Madame?
Who but a stupid barbarian could
burn so much beauty in his stove
and destroy that which he cannot make?
The forests are disappearing,
the rivers are running dry,....
the game is exterminated, the climate is spoiled,
and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day.
I read irony in your eye,
you do not take what I am saying seriously...
and-after all, it may
very well be nonsense,
but when I hear the rustling
of the young plantations
set out with my own hands,
I feel as if I had had some small
share in improving the climate.
When I plant a little birch tree
and then see ...
I must be off.
Good-bye.
Who is here?
No, it's hot.
I dreamt just now that my left leg
belonged to some one else,
and it hurt so that I woke.
No, I don't believe this is gout,
it is more like rheumatism. What time is it?
I want you to look for Batushka's works in the library
tomorrow. I think we have him.
- Why do I find it so hard to breathe?
- You are tired; this is the second