SAVVA

Oh, he just happened along.

KING HEROD

Well, brother, feeling bad, down in the mouth?

SPERANSKY

Yes, I feel blue.

KING HEROD

Keep still, keep still, I don’t want to listen.  You are suffering?  Keep still.  I am a man too, brother, so I don’t understand.  I’ll insult you if you don’t look out. (Throws away the cigarette) No, I can’t.  As long as I keep standing or walking I manage somehow.  The moment I sit down, it’s hell.  Oh!  Ow-w! (Writhing in agony) I simply can’t catch my breath.  Oh, God, do you see my torture?  Eh?  Well, well, it’s nothing.  It’s gone.  Oh!  Ow-w!

[The sky has become overcast with clouds.  It turns dark quickly.  Now and then there are flashes of lightning.

SAVVA (quietly)

One must try to stifle one’s grief, old man.  Fight it.  Say to yourself firmly and resolutely:  “I don’t want it.”  And it will cease to be.  You seem to be a good, strong man.

KING HEROD

No, friend, my grief is such that even death won’t remove it.  What is death?  It is little, insignificant, and my grief is great.  No, death won’t end my grief.  There was Cain.  Even when he died, his sorrow remained.

SPERANSKY

The dead do not grieve.  They are serene.  They know the truth.

KING HEROD

But they don’t tell it to anybody.  What’s the good of such truth?  Here am I alive, and yet I know the truth.  Here am I with my sorrow.  You see what it is—­there is no greater on earth.  And yet if God spoke to me and said, “Yeremey, I will give you the whole earth if you give me your grief,” I wouldn’t give it away.  I will not give it away, friend.  It is sweeter to me than honey; it is stronger than the strongest drink.  Through it I have learned the truth.

SAVVA

God?

KING HEROD

Christ—­that’s the one!  He alone can understand the sorrow that is in me.  He sees and understands.  “Yes, Yeremey, I see how you suffer.”  That’s all.  “I see.”  And I answer Him:  “Yes, O Lord, behold my sorrow!” That’s all.  No more is necessary.

SAVVA

What you value in Christ is His suffering for the people, is that it?

KING HEROD