Olga
(The rich have time for courtesy, if not
For love) will this content you?
In my hearOlga.
I have renounced all this, because to me
All joys seem stolen from the joyless.
WellDim.
I knew your answer. You would freely give
Life's pleasures—would you give your life itself
To help the helpless?
Yes.Olga.
Dim.I knew that too.
But more than that—could you give up this life,
All this young blooming life and hope, amidst
The hisses and the howlings of the world—
That which each calls the world—the neighbour- names,
The long-known friends—the rival and the lover?
Could you endure to see them stand aloof
In scorn, yes, e'en the kind with wondering horror,
The men who once would reverently have knelt
To kiss your feet, hereafter to deny
The very knowledge of your face and name;
And thus rejected, even by your kin,
You should become upon the winged sheets'
That light on every threshold in all lands,
A name of portent to all curious eyes
That feed upon disasters—they themselves
For love) will this content you?
In my hearOlga.
I have renounced all this, because to me
All joys seem stolen from the joyless.
WellDim.
I knew your answer. You would freely give
Life's pleasures—would you give your life itself
To help the helpless?
Yes.Olga.
Dim.I knew that too.
But more than that—could you give up this life,
All this young blooming life and hope, amidst
The hisses and the howlings of the world—
That which each calls the world—the neighbour- names,
The long-known friends—the rival and the lover?
Could you endure to see them stand aloof
In scorn, yes, e'en the kind with wondering horror,
The men who once would reverently have knelt
To kiss your feet, hereafter to deny
The very knowledge of your face and name;
And thus rejected, even by your kin,
You should become upon the winged sheets'
That light on every threshold in all lands,
A name of portent to all curious eyes
That feed upon disasters—they themselves
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