eaten by an eagle, and his flesh grew
again overnight. If my body could turn into bread and joy for the
people, I would consent to live in eternal torture in order to feed
the unfortunate. There'll soon be a holiday here in the monastery--

SAVVA

I know.

LIPA

There is an ikon of the Saviour there with the touching inscription:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden--

SAVVA

And I will give you rest." I know.

LIPA

It is regarded as a wonder-working ikon. Go there on the feast-day.
It's like a torrent pouring into the monastery, an ocean rolling
toward its walls; and this whole ocean is made up entirely of human
tears, of human sorrow and misery. Such monstrosities, such cripples.
After witnessing one of those scenes, I walk about as in a dream.
There are faces with such a depth of misery in them that one can never
forget them as long as one lives. Why, Savva, I was a gay young
thing before I saw all that. There is one man who comes here every
year--they have nicknamed him King Herod--

SAVVA

He is here already. I've seen him.

LIPA

Have you?

SAVVA

Yes, he has got a tragic face.

LIPA

Long ago, when still a young man, he killed his son by accident, and
from that day he keeps coming here. He has an awful face. And all of
them are waiting for a miracle.

SAVVA

Yes. There is something worse than inescapable human suffering,
however.

LIPA

What?

SAVVA _(lightly)_

Inescapable human stupidity.

LIPA

I don't know.

SAVVA

I do. Here you see only a small fragment of life, but if you could see
and hear all of it--When I first read their newspapers, I laughed and
thought it was a joke. I thought they were published in some asylum
for the insane. But I found it was no joke. It was really serious,
Lipa, really serious. And then my head began to ache with an
intolerable pain. _(He presses his hand to his forehead)_

LIPA

Your head began to ache?

SAVVA

Yes. It's a peculiar pain. You don't know what it is like. Few people
know what it is. And the pain continued until I resolved--

LIPA

What?

SAVVA

To annihilate everything.

LIPA

What are you saying?

SAVVA

Yes, yes, everything. All that's old.

LIPA _(in amazement)_

And man?

SAVVA

Man is to remain, of course. What is in his way is the stupidity
that, piling up for thousands of years, has grown into a mountain. The
modern sages want to build on this mountain, but that, of cours