The Father
The characters:
Andrei, younger brother
Ostap, elder brother
Taras Bulba, the father
The mother
Marina, Polish noble lady
Her chamber maid
Dramatization of Nikolai Gogol’s ”Taras Bulba”
A Polish prince Cosacks
Market audience Knights
The action is in Ukraine towards the end of the 16th century.
Act I Scene 1. Home at the farm.
Andrei Do you think our father will ever be able to forgive us?
Ostap Forgive us for what?
Andrei Our erudition.
Ostap Don’t be daft. He paid for us to become students.
Andrei But the cossacks inside us have been buried alive in all our education. I doubt that he will be able to recognize us.
Ostap Only you have become proper among us. He will probably beat the shit out of you, if he finds you too proud.
Andrei I have rather grown modest than proud.
Ostap Even worse. Yes, you have grown refined. I could never do that.
Andrei Then you’ll manage.
Ostap You probably will as well. But you can still fight, can’t you?
Andrei If I can. We are both after all warriors at heart.
Ostap That’s what I mean. You don’t need to worry.
Andrei I still believe he will be shocked by the sight of us.
Ostap We shall see. Watch out. Here he is.
Taras (exmines his sons) Are these scarecrows supposed to be my sons? What have they done to you? They have worked you over into pitiable old maids!
Andrei All students have to wear these clothes, father.
Taras To make you as unpractical as possible. You can hardly even ride in those frocks. Don’t tell me they have turned your heads into higher education haughtiness?
Ostap Father, you paid for that purpose yourself.
Taras I didn’t pay for you to be ruined.
Andrei We are not ruined.
Taras Have you looked at yourselves in the mirror? Anyone can see how ruined you are. You are stuffed not to be recognizable any more! You aren’t even definable as men! Perhaps you aren’t any more? Any cossack would rather define you as ridiculous milksops
Ostap Father, are you looking for trouble?
Taras I challenge you. You have allowed yourselves to be spoiled and weakened by comfort and luxury. You have grown so spoiled by the women and nuns over there that you have become like women. Come on then, Ostap, and prove yourself a man, if you can, if you dare. Such a weakling as you seem to have become I am afraid you would instantly break.
Ostap Come on then, father, and let me teach you a lesson!
Taras You don’t say, you pathetic jerk! It’s about time to drag you out of your baby clothes diapers!
Ostap I can bring down any bull, and you will be child’s game!
(They make ready to fight for serious. The mother comes out.)
Mother Stop this instant with your childish manners! Aren’t you grown up men? Your only two sons have just come home after a long stay with strangers, and all you want is to immediately beat them up! Aren’t you ashamed, Taras! Are you really their father?
Taras What do you dare to hint at, you miserable old woman? Do you mean that you deceived me all my life?
Mother You jump to conclusions as usual. I only mean that a real man doesn’t start beating his sons when he should welcome them home after their long exile!
Taras But they are completely ruined! I can’t recognize them! Can you?
Mother A mother knows her sons beXer than their father, for only she gave them birth.
Andrei (goes up to embrace his mother) Mother, you will never be able to doubt me as your son.
Mother Nor Ostap. A mother could never deny her sons, as apparently their father is able to.
Taras Come, Ostap, in my arms. Now I know you are still my son, when you did not hesitate to accept your father’s challenge. (embraces him)
Ostap You should also welcome Andrei. He is beXer than I.
Taras Come, Andrei. (embraces both together)(to Ostap) But why would Andrei be beXer than you? Is he not your brother?
Ostap He succeeded in studying and geXing erudite. I just threw my books into the wall.
Taras So he found the discipline of siXing indoors while you didn’t. He was always more cautious, while you always just went head on. It will come out alike. You take out each other. It’s good for the balance, that you compliment each other. But now you will be cossacks again!
Ostap I would love to.
Andrei We need some change from all the academic rules.
Taras That’s the spirit. You will stay here at home to recover your male forces, until it gets time for all the three of us to go back to Sitch. There we’ll make real men out of you. That will be your final education. Then you will be invincible.
Mother Take it easy, Taras. Run slowly and don’t anticipate. They still have a long way to go. First of all they must have something substantial to eat. They must have been riding non-stop night and day all the way from Kiev.
Taras Don’t immediately start spoiling them again, mother.
Mother I just want to stop you from striking them down. The only thing you can teach them is brutality.
Taras That’s something they must learn as cossacks. Or else they will not be able to defend their country, their home and their family, which includes you, mother. Surely you don’t want them as useless as ordinary Russians?
Mother I just want to have them and keep them as my sons, but you just want to send them out to war.
Taras There is no war on now. But they must be able to beat the Tartars when the time comes and to stand up against the Poles if there will be a reasonable rebellion, which there always is sooner or later.
Mother All you know and can think of is war.
Taras It’s not my fault. We were always forced to defend ourselves.
Mother Yes, yes, come on inside now, boys, and get yourselves a decent meal. You deserve it.
Ostap No objection.
Andrei Me neither.
Mother You may also join, Taras.
Taras You’ll always get it your way. We will have to ravage the meat plates then.
(takes care of his son, takes them cheerily around their shoulders and enters the cabin with them, under the leadership of the mother.)
Scene 2. In the kitchen (simple and basic)
Mother Tell me now, Andrei, what did you really learn in Kiev?
Andrei I learned everything as well as I could. I tried to follow the curriculum and the university rules and to pass all the exams, which I was very careful about especially since Ostap played truant all the time and failed the exams if he aXended them at all. One of us had to distinguish himself if we were not to be expelled.
Mother Will any of all that knowledge ever be of any use to you?
Andrei Hardly. I followed the studies just to make up for Ostap who didn’t.
Mother And therefore none of you were expelled.
Andrei No one was expelled. No one could be expelled. The discipline was so strict to make it impossible not to fulfil the studies.
Mother So Ostap was also accepted and graduated.
Andrei He made it by being good at cheating.
Mother So none of you actually learned anything.
Andrei No, they were wasted years of schooling, but for one incident.
Mother What happened?
Andrei An adventure. I was walking in the street when a carriage passed by. It drove through a puddle of rain, I happened to stand in the way and got completely splashed down, while it just tried to drive on. Furious, I then grabbed hold of one of the wheels and tried to stop it, but the coachman whipped the horse and went on while I was knocked over in the dirty street and got even muddier. To my surprise it stopped and a young lady looked out to see what havoc she had wrought.
When she saw me all soiled and miserable, she burst out laughing, but that was a beautiful charming laugh. I couldn't be mad at her. When the cart then drove on I followed to see where she lived. It was a palace, and she was apparently a distinguished guest and princess of some sort visiting from Poland. When it got dark, I couldn't help going there to see her.
Mother Surely you must have changed your clothes then?
Andrei Of course.
Mother But were you received?
Andrei I climbed up to her balcony and went in. She was there and had just started to prepare for the night. The strange thing was that she was not at all appalled or surprised, as if it was natural to her that I would suddenly appear and importune. She took it as something obvious, and that’s how I felt it as well.
Marina (appears like in a flashback) What is the reason for this visit of politeness?
Andrei You must excuse me, noble princess, but I could not resist the temptation of making your acquaintance. I could never forget your mocking laughter when I was lying in the muck.
Marina (laughs) You will have to excuse me for having caused you such an inconvenience, but I assure you it was not intentional.
Andrei It was my own fault who tried to stop your carriage.
Marina You almost succeeded, but I had to help you by stopping it myself. You showed great strength but not enough. I understand you must be one of the students, but you are not from here. Are you a cossack?
Andrei Yes, my home is the wild Ukraine in the far east.
Marina I almost guessed as much.
Andrei But who are you? One could almost believe you were some kind of princess.
Marina (laughing) You flaXer me. I am just the daughter of the voyvod of Kovno. We are just here for a temporary visit.
Andrei May I then never see you again?
Marina (laughs) Come and visit me at Kovno in the same way as here. I am sure to be at home if you come by.
Andrei You are mocking a poor erring cossack.
Marina I like you. You are unusually polite for being an errant cossack. I heard so much of their brutality and wild manners. But you are almost civilised. Although you forced your way into my privacy, you have showed yourself prudent and sensitive with interesting nuances. The students are usually impudent, but you are not.
Andrei You inspire me with hope by your benevolent grace.
Marina I would also gladly like to see you again. I think the ways of our destiny have crossed for some consistent purpose. Destiny rules us all with or against our will. But now I must ask you to leave before you risk detection. I don’t want you to get into trouble.
Andrei I obey you and vanish, since you are my destiny controlling me. But I believe like you that we shall meet again. (hurries out. Marina disappears.)
Mother An adventure indeed. Was she very beautiful?
Andrei Infinitely beautiful.
Mother Then you are at risk. You are stuck.
Andrei No, I did not get stuck.
Mother You got stuck on her. Now you will never be rid of her.
Andrei I hope so.
Mother You are lost, my son, but that gives you infinite credit. (embraces him)
Andrei Let’s see what it will bring.
Taras (breaks in) You must cease now spoiling our son. He is coming along with us tomorrow to Sitch to complete his education as a warrior.
Andrei At last!
Mother He has hardly been at home for a week, and you are immediately sending him away!
Taras It’s for his own good. He must not get too comfortable.
Andrei I actually longed to get away, mother. It’s not good to spend most of your time geXing bored.
Taras That’s what I say. I hope you haven’t tried to influence him with any weakening temptations?
Mother He just told me about an encounter with a woman. I warned him against such adventures.
Taras Nothing is threatening you except a woman. Shun them as the plague. They are only there to catch you in a death trap for good. All they want is to cheat you.
Andrei Like you were caught by mother?
Taras That’s a different thing. She was still one of us. It’s the women in the city that lie in ambush.
Andrei I am looking forward to the training camp, father.
Taras Your brother is already packing and preparing. You had beXer do the same.
Andrei You don’t have to ask me. (disappears)
Taras What was that dame he happened to?
Mother A lady in Kiev who almost drove him over. He probably just wanted to show her that he survived.
Taras He should have driven her over as a retribution, or ridden her over.
Mother He lacked his horses.
Taras I know. Nothing to bother about. Students happen to that sort of thing in the city. The sooner they learn what tarts most fine ladies are, the beXer, so that they don’t get into trouble. (takes to her, like to an old intimate comrade)
Act II scene 1.
Ostap He is changed. It’s a fact. I don’t quite recognize him any more. He has become more introvert and started brooding. I don’t like it.
Taras (enters) Are you also worried about Andrei, Ostap?
Ostap Have you also noticed that he has changed?
Taras I feel there is something unsound going on. I have asked him here. I want to talk with him.
Ostap Do you want me to leave?
Taras You may leave or stay, as you like.
Ostap If you want to speak with him, I think he would prefer being alone with yo u.
Taras Maybe that’s for the best. I hear him coming.
Andrei (enters) Here I am, father. What is the maXer?
Ostap I will leave you alone together.
Andrei You are welcome to stay. We have no secrets.
Ostap Are you sure? (leaves)
Andrei What is the maXer, father? Has anything happened?
Taras That’s what I should ask you.
Andrei Why?
Taras Don’t play innocent. More than I have noticed that you have changed. What is the maXer with you?
Andrei I never quite understood the reason for our siege.
Taras We couldn’t just enjoy ourselves at Sitch. Not even our wildest fighting games were enough at length. We needed to make ourselves useful and come to our rights.
Andrei And for that we lay siege to an innocent city, forcing its women, children sand aged people to famine and maybe a premature death.
Taras The Poles are oppressing us. They have no right to rule over us. We have our own laws and traditions as cossacks, and besides they impose a church on us which isn’t ours.
Andrei Christians are obliged to leave other Christians alone.
Taras Why can’t Catholics then leave us Orthodox in peace? What right do they have to rule over us and enforce Catholic laws on us? We have nothing to do with politics, but they want to force their politics on us. Dubno is an important fortress to them. By taking it we can claim our right to freedom and right of self rule as cossacks.
Andrei But the civilian population is made to suffer for it
Taras The Poles are to blame, who rule over them and turned their city into a military fortification. No, Andrei, you are not pressed by moral considerations. Your concern is something else.
Andrei The famine is increasing every day in the city.
Taras It could be remedied directly if the Poles give up the city.
Andrei The risk is that the siege will make the government send reinforcements and relief. Are we then prepared to fight an entire qualified army?
Taras If they do we will know it in advance, and then we will have to assess our position. Meanwhile we will go on starving the Poles. Don’t worry. You have no responsibility.
Andrei I just question the sensibility of the operation.
Taras Cheer up. At Sitch you were always gay and took part in all contests and games and never showed any scruples. Why have you suddenly grown scrupulous when we at last turn our warring sports into serious business? That’s why we exist!
Andrei Perhaps I am just melancholy.
Taras That’s a risky temperament. It only leads to inertia. I think you lost yourself too deeply in your books at Kiev.
Andrei Maybe I did. (leaves)
Taras He evades the question and has something to hide. I just hope he hasn’t happened to some dame. That would be the worst thing that could happen to him.
Scene 2. Night in the camp.
Andrei (alone) Everything is quiet and still after a long day’s hard exercises with strenuous fighting games and partying galore, so everyone is drunk and half dead. In the meanwhile no one is aware of what is happening in the city, where people might die in the streets of starvation since no supplies are let in, while there might be Polish reinforcements any time now breaking the siege, and then there will be war. What are we waiting for? Life or death? Does it maXer? Not in the long run. Life will just anyway just become an increasing bore the longer you live. But there is someone moving. I thought I was alone.
Maid (coming up to him) You are Andrei, the Cossack of Kiev.
Andrei How do you know me? Who are you? And what is a lonesome woman doing in this camp?
Maid Hush! Don’t wake anyone up. I am sent by my mistress, who knows you, and who has seen you from the walls. She has asked me to fetch you, so that you may see her.
Andrei Who knows me in Dubno?
Maid The princess Marina.
Andrei Is she in Dubno? Right in the middle of the siege? What is she doing here?
Maid Hush! She was here on a visit when the city all of a sudden fell under siege.
Andrei Does she want my help to get out?
Maid No, she needs you support for other things.
Andrei What help could she expect of a cossack?
Maid Are you coming? I can bring you into the city by a secret entrance.
Andrei I would gladly see her again. Show me the way. I would gladly do what I can.
Maid (with a finger on her mouth) Let’s not wake anyone up.
(They steal around the sleeping cossacks lying topsy turvy. One of them is Taras. He wakes up for a short moment.)
Taras (drowsy) Andrei! Don’t tell me you are out with a lass! Go to bed! (immediately falls asleep again snoring.)
Andrei Don’t worry. He has been drinking all day. He won’t wake up any more.
(They quietly proceed.)
Scene 3. In the beautiful premises of the princess.
Marina (overwhelmingly beautiful) Only he could help us. We need a miracle. It was a miracle that I at all caught sight of him.
Maid (enters with Andrei by a hidden door)
Andrei What labyrinths! How could I ever find my way back?
Maid We are safely arrived now.
Andrei (becomes aware of Marina and is absolutely stunned) Marina!
Marina Welcome, Andrei! You are the straw of help in our flood. You have to help us.
Andrei How?
Marina We need support. We need a messenger who could get through the lines, and only a Cossack could do it. The city is starving, people die in the streets, the emergency gets worse every day, the men’s war demands women and children sacrifices every day who never
had anything to do with the war, and the situation becomes more and more intolerable every day. All we need is someone to get through the lines to a convoy of supplies waiting just some mile outside the city, where also troupes and reinforcements are lying in wait, and they are only hesitating because they think the city is already fallen. They just need to be convinced that we are still alive and need them. Could you do it?
Andrei Marina, you are asking me to betray my own people.
Marina No, I am asking you to save humanity. You can save all the lives here in the city without losing a single life of yours. What is the alternative? That the siege may last with the people dying at an ever-increasing rate and in greater numbers every day from hunger and disease, mainly women and children and the elderly, who have done nothing to deserve your siege, which is only vanity what have you to gain by it? What is the meaning of it? A rebellion against the Poles? What harm have they done to you? Are we not as Christian as you? It is a men's war against men, but it is the women and the children and the old people who have to pay for it, they become the main victims, for your male vanity of challenging each other's power, as if power were something to argue about. It never has been. It has always been just vanity. You can save us from the war, Andrei. It might be the chance of a lifetime. In that case, you will win me and the heart of the Polish court and you will be promoted higher than you can ever be on your own, and you can even gain historical glory.
Andrei Marina, the only thing worth gaining is yourself, if I could win you by this, I will do anything for you.
Marina I thank you with all Poland and all history.
Andrei I never felt more humble and grateful.
Marina But you have to succeed. We have no time to lose. You had beXer start immediately.
Andrei Give me extra instructions, and I will be off at once.
Marina You will have them at once. (opens a door to a Polish nobleman of high dignity)
Prince Welcome, Pan Andrzej. You will not have to regret this.
Andrei The princess Marina is my warrant that you will stay true to your word.
Prince A Pole never breaks his word. Come with me, please. You will learn everything you need to know, and then when you come back you will be promoted to one of our highest ranks.
Andrei (watches Marina) I am most humble in gratitude and willingness to serve.
Marina (can’t help it, embraces him) Welcome, my knight! (They find each other even in a kiss.)
Act III scene 1. The camp.
Cossack 1 We have a problem.
2 They have had reinforcements and supplies.
3 How is it possible? No deliveries are possible except by us.
2 There are smugglers who know secret entrances to the city.
4 The contraband traffic is small. They have had great supplies.
3 It’s only possible by inside assistance.
4 Renegades?
3 Renegades and traitors.
5 I know who it is.
All Who is it? What do you know?
5 I have seen him.
All Tell us!
5 We have to be quiet about this. It is sensitive. Above all, Taras Bulba must not know about it.
3 Why?
4 His son Andrei is missing in the camp since some time. He has been asking for him. No one knows anything.
5 I have seen him. The Poles have started making bold aXacks. He has led some of these aXacks.
2 Andrei Bulba? Impossible!
5 I have seen him in shining armour, like a knight or a prince. He is some kind of officer and acts as a leader. He is as bold and fearless as a cossack. The Poles are weaker and more careful and sometimes coward.
4 So you have actually recognized him?
5 There is no doubt about it. He is the one. He has allowed himself to be persuaded and recruited by the Poles. He has changed sides. He has turned himself into a traitor.
2 That explains it. That’s why the Poles have become bolder and started to take initiatives.
1 I heard rumours that they expect great reinforcements.
5 Quiet! Here is the old one.
Enter
Taras Bulba
Taras What are you talking about? What’s this talk about reinforcements?
1 It’s just a rumour we have heard.
Taras The city doesn’t let out many hearses any more. Is the population dying out, or is there no famine any more?
Ostap It’s worse than that, father.
Taras You seem to know something about it.
Ostap We know from our spies that great supports and reinforcements are on their way. We will have to fight and might have to end the siege. And at the same time you know that the Tartars have aXacked Sitch. We will be at war in the south as well with the muslims.
Taras But what do you know about the situation in Dubno?
Ostap Come, father. I had beXer discuss this in private with you. (to the others) Disperse! I will have to speak alone with him.
5 Ostap knows all about the maXer. We can’t help the old man. (gets the others to follow him out)
Taras What’s the maXer, Ostap? Do you know anything about Andrei?
Ostap Father, he is no longer one of us. He is leading the Poles in aXacking us.
Taras What are you saying?
Ostap I have seen him in action myself. There is no doubt about it. I refused to believe it at first, but he has actually changed sides. I decided to examine the maXer and have learned one thing and another by a Jewish smuggler. Andrei has been converted by a Polish princess and intends to marry her.
Taras I always warned him against women! I saw that as the only danger to his life! So he has been seduced by a woman to commit high treason!
Ostap He got to know her already in Kiev.
Taras (collects himself ) Thank you, my son. Then we know where we stand and what we have to expect. He has changed sides and armed the Poles against us and obviously organized their reinforcements and a new supply line. Shall we then abandon Dubno and concentrate on the muslim aggression in the south? I can’t leave Dubno without a seXlement with my son.
Ostap We’ll carry on the siege as long as it takes. But be prepared for meeting Andrei in the field of baXle.
Taras I will meet him. Leave him to me. Next time you see him in the baXle, tempt him away, press him and force him away from the others, and I will be there to take care of him.
Ostap How?
Taras I will teach him a lesson. I will meet him as a man and as a father.
Ostap Good, father. You’ll know how to deal with him. We will leave him to you. (moves over to the others and start planning with them)
Taras My son a traitor. That’s improbable to the highest degree. It is the total disaster, if it is true. But I have to give him a chance to defend himself. I just can’t accept such terribly improbable bad luck.
Scene 2.
Taras He is in any way a born leader to the cossacks, my son Ostap. Andrei is fallen and can’t rise any more, he has actually commiXed suicide and could never be regarded as a cossack again by cossacks, but his fall has motivated Ostap to fight for two. He could never replace Andrei, but he could compensate him. Just watch him slaughter the Poles and chase them off! He moves like a scythe among the grains! The poor Polish tin soldiers stand no chance against him! But now they are geXing reinforcements, and their leader is not to be trifled with. Yes, I recognize him no maXer how unrecognizable they have made him, dressed up as a mercenary in shining armour like a prince. They are completely dependent on him. Without him they would all run home with their tails between their legs to cry in the skirts of their mothers, and the city would fall like a house of cards. Will Ostap and his companions be able to separate him? Yes, they tempt him away. Ostap is seeing me. I will follow. Now the lost son is surrounded, and he has no chance against our might. They force him to dismount. Now it’s my turn.
(interferes) Leave him to me, boys.
Andrei Father!
Taras So you still recognize me?
Andrei Have you come to my rescue?
Taras No, I have come to speak with you. I have the right to an explanation.
Andrei Father, I have found my happiness. That is all.
Taras By treason?
Andrei What’s the meaning of power and politics, honour and glory of war, wealth, position and success to love?
Taras She has turned your head and bereft you of your soul. Who is she?
Andrei A fairy princess at the Warsaw court.
Taras You admit yourself that you have fallen to a fairy tale. You have lost your touch with reality. You are lost.
Andrei No, I have found myself.
Taras What is a so called self-realization other than the definite perfect self-deception? Do you think you could become a Pole just like that when your only blood is that of a cossack?
Andrej I have found my calling and answered it. You can’t stop me from obeying myself.
Taras You have fallen down into a black hole of a worse abyss than any damnation. You have denied your own family and people. And you can’t defend your action.
Andrei I have to follow my own nature and live my own life.
Taras You have no life if you deny your father and your mother. You don’t even have the same religion as the Poles. How could a son of mine allow himself to be so ruined as no longer to be recognizable?
Andrei You are old, father. You can’t understand the power of nature in a young blood. No natural force in the world is stronger than the manhood power of youth.
Taras Which you have prostituted and put into the service of destruction!
Andrei It wasn’t the Poles who started the war. The siege was on your responsibility.
Taras We have the right to stand up against the Poles. They have no right to rule over us. A people has the right to freedom and to rebel against those who want its limitation! But you have turned yourself into a lackey of the oppressors!
Andrei No, father. I have pledged my services to love. Your cause is lost anyway. The Prince is on his way here with an army which will cleansweep the steppes from Cossacks all the way down to Crimea!
Taras And such oppressors, tyrants and bullies of violence you have joined with violence!
Andrei I couldn’t endure the sufferings of the starving women and children in the city, who the cossacks force into a painful premature death.
Taras So you defend your high treason with compassion? Can’t you see the madness of your case?
Andrei You sent me to Kiev to get knowledge and wisdom of the world, which has led me to take a stand for peace against the war.
Taras You still have your roots in Ukraine. You can’t deny your blood with less than giving it up.
Andrei How could you force me to relinquish my happiness?
Taras Come closer, my son. We could always reason together. I can forgive you your high treason, I can understand that you have your right to pursue your so called happiness, but I cannot forgive you for breaking with your own family. (strikes him down and impales him. Considers the corpse for a while before Ostap turns up again.)
Ostap (tries to understand what he is viewing) Is he dead, father?
Taras Yes, he is dead.
Ostap Has he fallen?
Taras No, I executed him. (Ostap is dumb.) Don’t ask me why. He was a traitor. Nothing could save him. If I hadn’t seXled the maXer, the other cossacks would have executed him sooner or later. Now he escaped the dishonour of being brought to public trial by his own. As his father I took the maXer into my own hands. That was the only supple way out. I tried to speak some sense into him. He could not defend himself.
Ostap I don’t understand the entire context. The Poles are approaching with a huge army. We will have to give up the siege, even though the Poles now have lost their leading warrior.
Taras You will now have to fight for two, Ostap. The Tartars have taken Sitch and looted our homelands. We must now fight them for serious.
Ostap (constantly hesitating) And Andrei?
Taras Leave him to the Poles and to burial by his fairy princess.
(They leave, Taras first without turning back, Ostap with a last look at his dead brother.)
Act IV Scene 1.
1 He is like possessed.
2 What’s the maXer with him?
3 He is blinded by sorrow and thirst for revenge after his son went down.
4 But he was a rat. He went over to the Poles. He was a traitor.
3 He still blames the Poles for his loss.
2 The man is old.
5 Here is Ostap.
4 How is it going, Ostap?
Ostap The war has taken a difficult turn. What started as a siege of a rather insignificant city has developed into a war of two fronts, where we suddenly have a massive Polish army against us and also have to defend ourselves against a horde of aggressive Tartars in the south, who are ruining and looting our homelands.
1 Yes, it looks bad.
2 Do we have to retreat?
Ostap Not as long as we can fight. We can still beat them back. And my father insists on consistent raids against Polish areas and villages.
3 We were just discussing that. We think he is blind and mad of sorrow about his son.
Ostap He will do anything to repress the memory of him. He tries to convince himself that he never existed.
3 He will never get over his disappointment.
Ostap Here he comes. We had beXer change the subject.
2 It’s no use. Everyone keeps discussing the case.
Taras (enters) Are you siXing here idling instead of fighting?
Ostap Father, the men have to rest in between. They can’t just make war all the time.
Taras Nonsense A warrior must never relax. He must constantly keep prepared for war, and there are always enemies left for him to fight. A cossack is only alive as long as he remains in his saddle and may go on in full array. If he relaxes he will fall off. There is only one human mortal sin, and it is slackness.
1 Command us, Taras Bulba. You are now our leader.
Taras No, Ostap is now your leader, and he can only lead you to victory as long as you follow him. He will teach you to chase all oppressors out of the country and all muslims out of Ukraine back to their barren deserts. They have no business in Ukraine, which is our country and no one else’s. Least of all the Poles have any right of any claim to it and to be here at all.
2 How long do we have to go on massacring them while they are still here?
Taras As long as they remain and still haven’t learned their lesson. We have the right of our own land, and no one else has any right of it. It’s the heritage of our fathers and no one else’s.
Ostap He gives us no choice, cossacks. We have to carry on the war hard as long as we have enemies and oppressors left in the country. You are right, father. We have no choice.
Taras That’s what I mean. You had beXer get going.
Ostap Come, my friends! We still have much to do! (They all break it up.)
Scene 2.
Cossack 1 Who will tell him?
2 He should know already.
3 No one has the guts to inform him.
Taras (enters) What’s up? Why do you all look so gloomy?
1 Everyone knows about it, except you, Taras Bulba.
Taras What?
2 Your son has been captured and will be publicly executed in the capital.
Taras If that is supposed to be a joke, it isn’t funny.
3 He was too foolhardy, Taras. He always insisted on being the first in the front line. He always insisted on leading the initiative and to excel for your sake, Taras, to honour his father. He didn’t want to disappoint you. He always persevered in exposing himself to the greatest dangers. Naturally he became a favourite target to his enemies. They succeeded in tempting him away from his friends, isolating him and surrounding him to get him caught and stuck. Now they are triumphing and anticipating their victory. His execution will be their greatest popular treat since a long time.
Taras It is supreme cowardice to make a public show of the execution of their bravest enemy.
2 Indeed. Taras When will it be?
2 On Sunday in the middle of the square in front of the cathedral.
Taras Then I must be there. He must know that he is not alone in his last moment. How will he be executed?
2 Breaking on the wheel and decapitation, the ordinary wartime procedure.
3 You can’t risk your life by going there. The cossacks need you. You are now our only leader.
Taras I know. I will be back.
1 We can’t stop him.
Taras No, you can’t.
3 You can’t save him.
Taras For a cossack nothing is impossible. If his life can’t be saved, we can still save his soul.
1 (o the others) We can’t stop him.
2 We trust you, Taras. Whatever you do, come back.
Taras You can be sure of it. (leaves)
3 Do you think he could do something stupid?
1 He knows what he is doing, and the last thing he’ll do is anything stupid. It’s his son. Perhaps he could save him. No one else could.
Act V scene 1. The square.
Taras (among the public, disguised as a merchant) My son, I am to blame for having sent you to your death. That was never my intention. I saw your splendid possibilities as a leader of our people and encouraged you to lead us in baXle, but I never thought you could get caught. I took for granted that you would always manage and get away as well as I. But I was wrong. You were only human, just like your brother. Even you had your weaknesses. You took risks. You wanted to excel. You wished to honour me and your kin. I taunted you to hubris. Now I will get my punishment. I already lost one son. I can’t lose another.
But your last struggle will be your greatest victory. Not a sound of complaint or pain has passed your lips during your inhuman torture. You will not allow your enemies the malicious joy of leXing them know that it hurts. But how far will it go? They know you will have to break and will press you until you do, and they will not let you die before you have broken. But how long can you stand it? Not even I could endure such atrocious pains.
Ostap (outside, in a heart-rending scream of pain) Father, where are you?
Taras (can’t keep himself down, steps forth and calls out loud) I am here, my son!
(Knights immediately turn up arresting him)
Knight We knew the leader himself was to turn up here! Now we’ve got him!
Taras Yes, let me die together with my son! Let me share his liberation and ultimate freedom! It’s not more than right! He has done right, and the least I can do for him is to share his ultimate triumph! We are free! None of you are!
Knight Take him away and fulfil his wish. They both asked for it. All we have to do is to send them on their way directly to eternity. They are themselves to blame.
(Taras Bulba is take away without resisting.)
Taras (calls out loud again) Andrei is expecting us, my son! We cossacks will never die anyway!
Ostap (like before, heart-rending) Father, we are alive!
The End
(March 2022, translated in November 2024)