분야
hwpHow I got into this predicament,
Ill neverknow.
Absolutely incredible.
To be executed fora crime
I never committed.
Of course,
isnt all mankind in the same boat?
Isnt all mankind ultimately executed
for a crime it never committed?
The difference is
that all men go eventually,
but I go six oclock tomorrow morning.
I was supposed to go at fiive oclock,
but I have a smart lawyer. Got leniency.
Ive a tremendous yearning
to be young again.
A boy. Such happy memories
at oursummerhouse.
Uncle Nikolai with his wonderful laugh.
God, he was repulsive.
There was Grandpa and Grandma,
who had been married for years
and still felt as deeply about one another
as the day they met.
And my own father,
a handsome and generous man.
In addition to oursummerand winter
estate, he owned a valuable piece ofland.
True, it was a small piece. But he carried
it with him whereverhe went.
Dimitri Pietrovich!
I would like to buy your land.
This land is not for sale.
Some day, I hope to build on it.
He was an idiot. But I loved him.
Then there was mother, who made
the most delicious blintzes in the world.
Of course, there was Old Gregor,
and his son, Young Gregor.
Young Gregors son
was older than Old Gregor.
Nobody could fiigure out
how that happened.
My two brothers, lvan and Mikhail,
used to play amusing little games.
But I had a completely different
concept ofmyselfas a child.
My fiirst experience with death
was with one ofourserfs, Old Nehamkin.
Old Nehamkin was on the roof, putting up
a lightning rod, when a storm broke out.
After he failed to show up for dinner,
Mother went to look forhim.
What is it, Old Nehamkin?
Youre not looking well.
Are you OK? You feel all right?
We laid Old Nehamkin to rest,
and that night
I had a strange and vivid dream.
I knew that after that dream I would
not grow up to be an ordinary man.
I spoke often with FatherNikolai,
who was always dressed in black
with a black beard.
For years
I thought he was an ltalian widow.
Every action has a cause. The universe
exists, therefore it has a cause.
It follows God created the universe,
therefore He exists.
And yet Spinoza didnt believe
in the Holy Trinity.
- Spinoza was a Jew.
- Whats a Jew?
You never saw a Jew?
Here. I have some sketches.
- There are Jews.
- No kidding.
- They all have these horns?
- No, this is the Russian Jew.
The German Jew has these stripes.
I recall my fiirst mystical vision.
I was in the woods, thinking about Christ.
IfHe was a carpenter, I wondered
what Hed charge forbook shelves?
Suddenly...
- Who are you?
- Death.
What happens after we die?
Is there a hell? ls there a God?
Do we live again?
All right. Let me ask one key question.
- Are there girls?
- Youre an interesting young man.
Well meet again.
- Dont bother.
- Its no bother.
I grew to full manhood.
Actually, fiive foot six,
which is technically not full manhood
in Russia, but you can own property.
Over ", you can own land. Under ",
you needpermission from the Tsar.
We were three healthy men.
My brotherlvan.
My brotherMikhail.
And myself.
Finally, there was my cousin Sonja.
In addition to being the most beautiful
woman I had everseen,
she was one ofthe fewpeople
I could have deep conversations with.
Boris, look at this leaf. Isnt it perfect?
And this one? Look.
Oh, yeah. I definitely think that
this is the best of all possible worlds.
- Its certainly the most expensive.
- Isnt nature incredible?
To me, nature is... I dunno,
spiders and bugs and,
big fish eating little fish.
And plants eating plants
and animals eating...
Its like an enormous restaurant.
Yes, but if God created it,
it has to be beautiful,
even if His plans not apparent
to us at the moment.
Sonja, what if there is no God?
Boris Dimitrovitch, are you joking?
What if were just
a bunch of absurd people
who are running around
with no rhyme or reason?
But if there is no God,
then life has no meaning.
Why go on living?
Why not just commit suicide?
Well, lets not get hysterical.
I could be wrong.
Id hate to blow my brains out,
then see they found something.
Boris. Let me show you
how absurd your position is.
Lets say there is no God, and each man
is free to do exactly as he chooses.
What prevents you
from murdering somebody?
- Murders immoral.
- Immorality is subjective.
Yes, but subjectivity is objective.
Not in a rational scheme of perception.
Perception is irrational.
It implies imminence.
But judgment of any system
of phenomena exists
in any rational, metaphysical or
epistemological contradiction
to an abstracted empirical concept
such as being, or to be, or to occur
in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.
Yeah, Ive said that many times.
Boris, we must believe in God.
If I could just see a miracle,
just one miracle.
If I could see a burning bush,
or the seas part, or...
Or my Uncle Sasha pick up a check.
We should go back downstairs.
By now
the last golden streaks of the sunset
are vanishing behind the western hills.
Soon the dark blanket of night
shall settle over us all.
Hey, youve been going
t
