e music is so gay, so joyful,
and, it seems that in a little while we shall know why we are living,
why we are suffering.... If we could only know, if we could only know!

[The music has been growing softer and softer; KULIGIN, smiling happily,
brings out the hat and coat; ANDREY wheels out the perambulator in which
BOBBY is sitting.]

CHEBUTIKIN. [Sings softly] "Tara... ra-boom-deay.... It is my
washing-day."... [Reads a paper] It's all the same! It's all the same!

OLGA. If only we could know, if only we could know!

Curtain.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

A COMEDY IN FOUR ACTS

CHARACTERS

LUBOV ANDREYEVNA RANEVSKY (Mme. RANEVSKY), a landowner
ANYA, her daughter, aged seventeen
VARYA (BARBARA), her adopted daughter, aged twenty-seven
LEONID ANDREYEVITCH GAEV, Mme. Ranevsky's brother
ERMOLAI ALEXEYEVITCH LOPAKHIN, a merchant
PETER SERGEYEVITCH TROFIMOV, a student
BORIS BORISOVITCH SIMEONOV-PISCHIN, a landowner
CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA, a governess
SIMEON PANTELEYEVITCH EPIKHODOV, a clerk
DUNYASHA (AVDOTYA FEDOROVNA), a maidservant
FIERS, an old footman, aged eighty-seven
YASHA, a young footman
A TRAMP
A STATION-MASTER
POST-OFFICE CLERK
GUESTS
A SERVANT

The action takes place on Mme. RANEVSKY'S estate

ACT ONE

[A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads into
ANYA'S room. It is close on sunrise. It is May. The cherry-trees are
in flower but it is chilly in the garden. There is an early frost.
The windows of the room are shut. DUNYASHA comes in with a candle, and
LOPAKHIN with a book in his hand.]

LOPAKHIN. The train's arrived, thank God. What's the time?

DUNYASHA. It will soon be two. [Blows out candle] It is light already.

LOPAKHIN. How much was the train late? Two hours at least. [Yawns and
stretches himself] I have made a rotten mess of it! I came here on
purpose to meet them at the station, and then overslept myself... in my
chair. It's a pity. I wish you'd wakened me.

DUNYASHA. I thought you'd gone away. [Listening] I think I hear them
coming.

LOPAKHIN. [Listens] No.... They've got to collect their luggage and so
on.... [Pause] Lubov Andreyevna has been living abroad for five years;
I don't know what she'll be like now.... She's a good sort--an easy,
simple person. I remember when I was a boy of fifteen, my father, who
is dead--he used to keep a shop in the village here--hit