Waiting for Godot (9 page)

VLADIMIR
: Calm yourself, calm yourself.

ESTRAGON
: You and your landscapes! Tell me about the worms!

VLADIMIR
: All the same, you can't tell me that this (
gesture
) bears any resemblance to . . . (
he hesitates
) . . . to the Macon country for example. You can't deny there's a big difference.

ESTRAGON
: The Macon country! Who's talking to you about the Macon country?

VLADIMIR
: But you were there yourself, in the Macon country.

ESTRAGON
: No I was never in the Macon country! I've puked my puke of a life away here, I tell you! Here! In the Cackon country!

VLADIMIR
: But we were there together, I could swear to it!

Picking grapes for a man called . . . (
he snaps his fingers
) . . . can't think of the name of the man, at a place called . . . (
snaps his fingers
) . . . can't think of the name of the place, do you not remember?

ESTRAGON
: (
a little calmer
). It's possible. I didn't notice anything.

VLADIMIR
: But down there everything is red!

ESTRAGON
: (
exasperated
). I didn't notice anything, I tell you!

Silence. Vladimir sighs deeply
.

VLADIMIR
: You're a hard man to get on with, Gogo.

ESTRAGON
: It'd be better if we parted.

VLADIMIR
: You always say that and you always come crawling back.

ESTRAGON
: The best thing would be to kill me, like the other.

VLADIMIR
: What other? (
Pause
.) What other?

ESTRAGON
: Like billions of others.

VLADIMIR
: (
sententious
). To every man his little cross. (
He sighs
.) Till he dies. (
Afterthought
.) And is forgotten.

ESTRAGON
: In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.

VLADIMIR
: You're right, we're inexhaustible.

ESTRAGON
: It's so we won't think.

VLADIMIR
: We have that excuse.

ESTRAGON
: It's so we won't hear.

VLADIMIR
: We have our reasons.

ESTRAGON
: All the dead voices.

VLADIMIR
: They make a noise like wings.

ESTRAGON
: Like leaves.

VLADIMIR
: Like sand.

ESTRAGON
: Like leaves.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: They all speak at once.

ESTRAGON
: Each one to itself.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: Rather they whisper.

ESTRAGON
: They rustle.

VLADIMIR
: They murmur.

ESTRAGON
: They rustle.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: What do they say?

ESTRAGON
: They talk about their lives.

VLADIMIR
: To have lived is not enough for them.

ESTRAGON
: They have to talk about it.

VLADIMIR
: To be dead is not enough for them.

ESTRAGON
: It is not sufficient.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: They make a noise like feathers.

ESTRAGON
: Like leaves.

VLADIMIR
: Like ashes.

ESTRAGON
: Like leaves.

Long silence
.

VLADIMIR
: Say something!

ESTRAGON
: I'm trying.

Long silence
.

VLADIMIR
: (
in anguish
). Say anything at all!

ESTRAGON
: What do we do now?

VLADIMIR
: Wait for Godot.

ESTRAGON
: Ah!

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: This is awful!

ESTRAGON
: Sing something.

VLADIMIR
: No no! (
He reflects
.) We could start all over again perhaps.

ESTRAGON
: That should be easy.

VLADIMIR
: It's the start that's difficult.

ESTRAGON
: You can start from anything.

VLADIMIR
: Yes, but you have to decide.

ESTRAGON
: True.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: Help me!

ESTRAGON
: I'm trying.

Silence
.

VLADIMIR
: When you seek you hear.

ESTRAGON
: You do.

VLADIMIR
: That prevents you from finding.

ESTRAGON
: It does.

VLADIMIR
: That prevents you from thinking.

ESTRAGON
: You think all the same.

VLADIMIR
: No no, impossible.

ESTRAGON
: That's the idea, let's contradict each other.

VLADIMIR
: Impossible.

ESTRAGON
: You think so?

VLADIMIR
: We're in no danger of ever thinking any more.

ESTRAGON
: Then what are we complaining about?

VLADIMIR
: Thinking is not the worst.

ESTRAGON
: Perhaps not. But at least there's that.

VLADIMIR
: That what?

ESTRAGON
: That's the idea, let's ask each other questions.

VLADIMIR
: What do you mean, at least there's that?

ESTRAGON
: That much less misery.

VLADIMIR
: True.

ESTRAGON
: Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?

VLADIMIR
: What is terrible is to
have
thought.

ESTRAGON
: But did that ever happen to us?

VLADIMIR
: Where are all these corpses from?

ESTRAGON
: These skeletons.

VLADIMIR
: Tell me that.

ESTRAGON
: True.

VLADIMIR
: We must have thought a little.

ESTRAGON
: At the very beginning.

VLADIMIR
: A charnel-house! A charnel-house!

ESTRAGON
: You don't have to look.

VLADIMIR
: You can't help looking.

ESTRAGON
: True.

VLADIMIR
: Try as one may.

ESTRAGON
: I beg your pardon?

VLADIMIR
: Try as one may.

ESTRAGON
: We should turn resolutely towards Nature.

VLADIMIR
: We've tried that.

ESTRAGON
: True.

VLADIMIR
: Oh it's not the worst, I know.

ESTRAGON
: What?

VLADIMIR
: To have thought.

ESTRAGON
: Obviously.

VLADIMIR
: But we could have done without it.

ESTRAGON
: Que voulez-vous?

VLADIMIR
: I beg your pardon?

ESTRAGON
: Que voulez-vous.

VLADIMIR
: Ah! que voulez-vous. Exactly.

Silence
.

ESTRAGON
: That wasn't such a bad little canter.

VLADIMIR
: Yes, but now well have to find something else.

ESTRAGON
: Let me see.

He takes off his hat, concentrates
.

VLADIMIR
: Let me see. (
He takes off his hat, concentrates
.

Long silence
.) Ah!

They put on their hats, relax
.

ESTRAGON
: Well?

VLADIMIR
: What was I saying, we could go on from there.

ESTRAGON
: What were you saying when?

VLADIMIR
: At the very beginning.

ESTRAGON
: The very beginning of WHAT?

VLADIMIR
: This evening . . . I was saying . . . I was saying . . .

ESTRAGON
: I'm not a historian.

VLADIMIR
: Wait . . . we embraced . . . we were happy . . . happy . . . what do we do now that we're happy . . . go on waiting . . . waiting . . . let me think . . . it's coming . . . go on waiting . . . now that we're happy . . . let me see . . . ah! The tree!

ESTRAGON
: The tree?

VLADIMIR
: Do you not remember?

ESTRAGON
: I'm tired.

VLADIMIR
: Look at it.

They look at the tree
.

ESTRAGON
: I see nothing.

VLADIMIR
: But yesterday evening it was all black and bare.

And now it's covered with leaves.

ESTRAGON
: Leaves?

VLADIMIR
: In a single night.

ESTRAGON
: It must be the Spring.

VLADIMIR
: But in a single night!

ESTRAGON
: I tell you we weren't here yesterday. Another of your nightmares.

VLADIMIR
: And where were we yesterday evening according to you?

ESTRAGON
: How would I know? In another compartment.

There's no lack of void.

VLADIMIR
: (
sure of himself
). Good. We weren't here yesterday evening. Now what did we do yesterday evening?

ESTRAGON
: Do?

VLADIMIR
: Try and remember.

ESTRAGON
: Do . . . I suppose we blathered.

VLADIMIR
: (
controlling himself
). About what?

ESTRAGON
: Oh . . . this and that I suppose, nothing in particular. (
With assurance
.) Yes, now I remember, yesterday evening we spent blathering about nothing in particular. That's been going on now for half a century.

VLADIMIR
: You don't remember any fact, any circumstance?

ESTRAGON
: (
weary
). Don't torment me, Didi.

VLADIMIR
: The sun. The moon. Do you not remember?

ESTRAGON
: They must have been there, as usual.

VLADIMIR
: You didn't notice anything out of the ordinary?

ESTRAGON
: Alas!

VLADIMIR
: And Pozzo? And Lucky?

ESTRAGON
: Pozzo?

VLADIMIR
: The bones.

ESTRAGON
: They were like fishbones.

VLADIMIR
: It was Pozzo gave them to you.

ESTRAGON
: I don't know.

VLADIMIR
: And the kick.

ESTRAGON
: That's right, someone gave me a kick.

VLADIMIR
: It was Lucky gave it to you.

ESTRAGON
: And all that was yesterday?

VLADIMIR
: Show your leg.

ESTRAGON
: Which?

VLADIMIR
: Both. Pull up your trousers. (
Estragon gives a leg to Vladimir, staggers. Vladimir takes the leg. They stagger
.) Pull up your trousers.

ESTRAGON
: I can't.

Vladimir pulls up the trousers, looks at the leg, lets it go. Estragon almost falls
.

VLADIMIR
: The other. (
Estragon gives the same leg
.) The other, pig! (
Estragon gives the other leg. Triumphantly
.) There's the wound! Beginning to fester!

ESTRAGON
: And what about it?

VLADIMIR
: (
letting go the leg
). Where are your boots?

ESTRAGON
: I must have thrown them away.

VLADIMIR
: When?

ESTRAGON
: I don't know.

VLADIMIR
: Why?

ESTRAGON
: (
exasperated
). I don't know why I don't know!

VLADIMIR
: No, I mean why did you throw them away?

ESTRAGON
: (
exasperated
). Because they were hurting me!

VLADIMIR
: (
triumphantly, pointing to the boots
). There they are! (
Estragon looks at the boots
.) At the very spot where you left them yesterday!

Estragon goes towards the boots, inspects them closely
.

ESTRAGON
: They're not mine.

VLADIMIR
: (
stupefied
). Not yours!

ESTRAGON
: Mine were black. These are brown.

VLADIMIR
: You're sure yours were black?

ESTRAGON
: Well they were a kind of gray.

VLADIMIR
: And these are brown. Show.

ESTRAGON
: (
picking up a boot
). Well they're a kind of green.

VLADIMIR
: Show. (
Estragon hands him the boot. Vladimir inspects it, throws it down angrily
.) Well of all the—

ESTRAGON
: You see, all that's a lot of bloody—