Oldal 112 [112]
OCR
CODE-SWITCHING IN PERFORMATIVE ARTS What is going on in here? Everyone is unhappy, everyone is desirous of something, everyone loves someone, but he or she is loved by a different someone. They come together in a country estate by the lake ... Life is marvelous. But they keep on taking deep sighs, and lamenting about how sorrowful and boring life is. They are crying and yawning. The audience would also be crying, but never yawning.* In Uncle Vanya, the arrival of a couple in a country mansion upsets the blessed monotony of rural life. The characters realize that their life has gone wrong somewhere. When the couple leaves, and tranquility returns, those left behind remain painfully aware of their utter failure of life. Uncle Vanya is a drama of inertia and ennui: the characters are unable to change the narrow— gauge track of their lives. Apparently, Chekhov himself often felt that life is but a series of lost chances, frustrations and grief. In a letter to A. S. Suvorin (November 25, 1892), he had expressed this awareness of life. He wrote that he could not believe in revolution, or in the existence of God: he desired nothing, feared nothing, and hoped for nothing. Then he added: “I will not throw myself down a flight of stairs ... but I will not delude myself with hopes for a better future either." Life Sucks. This is the subtitle of Aaron Posner’s memorable (and, as he put it, “irreverent”) stage adaptation of Chekhov’s play (Theater J, Washington, DC; February 2015). Whether or not life sucks most of the time, indeed, Chekhov made quite an effort to make us feel the pain and desperation he shared with his characters. However, life goes on, so it does not leave us much room for lamenting: we have no other choice but moving on. Sonia puts this simple piece of wisdom into humble words at the end of the play: What can we do? We must live our lives. Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept, that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. ... We shall rest. ... We shall rest.® * Translation is mine. In Hungarian: Mi térténik itten? Mindenki boldogtalan, mindenki vágyakozik, mindenki szeret és mást szeret, mint aki őt szereti. Nyáron, egy vidéki birtokon a tó mellett ... találkoznak egymással. Az élet gyönyörű. De ők folyton sóhajtoznak, hogy milyen szomorú, milyen unalmas. Sírnak és ásítoznak. A nézők sírnak, de nem ásítoznak. Kosztolányi Dezsô: Csehov, in Illyés Gy. (ed.): Léngelmék, Budapest, Nyugat [1930] 1941, 302-303. Translation is mine. In Russian: À He 6powycb, …, B nporem necmnuubi, HO uU He cmaHy u oborpuyamo ce6a nademdamu Ha Ay4wee 6y0ywee. CHEKHOV / UexoB, AHuToH IlasaoBnu: ITucoma u nepenucka [A. P. Chekhov: Letters and Correspondence], 2019, https://poesias.ru/ letters/chehov-anton-p-perepiska/pismo-10095.shtml, accessed 30 December 2022. © Traditionally quoted in Marian Fell’s translation of 1916. Anton Chekhov: Uncle Vanya, Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts, trans. Marian Fell, ibiblio, https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ac/ s 110 +
