ANNA PETROVNA: How can you say that? How can you lie to me, on such a night as this, beneath such a sky? Tell your lies in autumn, if you must, in the gloom and the mud, but not now, not here. You’re being watched! Look up, you absurd man! A thousand eyes, all shining with indignation! You must be good and true, just as all this is good and true. Don’t break this silence with your little words!
There’s no man in the world I could ever love as I love you. There’s no woman in the world you could ever love as you love me. Let’s take that love; and all the rest, that so torments you – we’ll leave that to others to worry about. Are you really such a terrible Don Juan? You look so handsome in the moonlight! Such a solemn face! It’s a woman who’s come to call, not a wild animal!
All right – if you really hate it all so much I’ll go away again. Is that what you want? I’ll go away, and everything will be just as it was before. Yes…? (she laughs) Idiot! Take it! Snatch it! Seize it! What more do you want? Smoke it to the end, like a cigarette – pinch it out – tread it under your heel. Be human! You funny creature! A woman loves you – a woman you love – fine summer weather. What could be simpler than that? You don’t realise how hard life is for me. And yet life is what I long for. Everything is alive, nothing is ever still. We’re surrounded by life. We must live, too, Misha! Leave all the problems for tomorrow. Tonight, on this night of nights, we’ll simply live!
