Armenian Literature: Comprising Poetry, Drama, Folk-lore and Classic Traditions;: Translated into English for the First Time
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Armenian Literature: Comprising Poetry, Drama, Folk-lore and Classic Traditions;: Translated into English for the First Time
Armenian literature; Armenian literature -- Translations into English
MOSI. Well, I will be still. But I swear that this young man may call
himself lucky that he has freed himself from you and closed with Ossep.
Both of you together are not worth Ossep's finger-tips.
BARSSEGH. Leave me in peace or I will shake off all my anger on to you.
MOSI. What can you do to me? You cannot put my store under the hammer.
What a man you are, indeed!
BARSSEGH. A better man than you any day.
MOSI. In what are you better?
BARSSEGH. In the first place, I am master of my five senses, and you are
cracked.
MOSI [_laughs_]. Ha, ha, ha! If you were rational you would not have
said that. Am I crazy because I show up your villanies? You are wise,
you say? Perhaps you are as wise as Solomon!
BARSSEGH. I am wealthy.
MOSI. Take your money and--[_Whispers something in his ear._] You have
stolen it here and there. You have swindled me out of something, too. Me
and this one and that one, and so you became rich! You have provided
yourself with a carriage, and go riding in it and make yourself
important. Yes, that is the way with your money. Did your father Matus
come riding to his store in a carriage, eh? You say you are rich? True,
there is scarcely anyone richer than you; but if we reckon together all
the money you have gained honorably, we shall see which of us two has
most. [_Drawing his purse from his pocket and slapping it_.] See! I have
earned all this by the sweat of my brow. Oh, no, like you I collected it
for the church and put it in my own pocket. Are you going to fail again
soon?
BARSSEGH. Heaven preserve me from it!
MOSI. It would not be the first time. When you are dead they will shake
whole sacks full of money in your grave for you.
BARSSEGH. Will you never stop?
KHALI. Are you not ashamed to make such speeches?
MOSI. Till you die I will not let you rest. As long as you live I will
gnaw at you like a worm, for you deserve it for your villany. What!
Haven't you committed every crime? You robbed your brother of his
inheritance; you cheated your partner; you have repudiated debts, and
held others to false debts. Haven't you set your neighbors' stores on
fire? If people knew everything they would hang you. But the world is
stone-blind, and so you walk God's earth in peace. Good-by! I would like
to go to Ossep and warn him against you; for if he falls into your
clutches he is lost.
SCENE IV
BARSSEGH. Yes, yes; go and never come back.
KHALI. I wish water lay in front of him and a drawn sword behind.
BARSSEGH. This fellow is a veritable curse!
KHALI. Yes, he is, indeed.
BARSSEGH. The devil take him! If he is going to utter such slanders, I
hope he will always do it here, and not do me harm with outsiders.
KHALI. You are to blame for it yourself. Why do you have anything to do
with the good-for-nothing fellow?
BARSSEGH. There you go! Do I have anything to do with him? He is always
at my heels, like my own shadow.
KHALI. Can't you forbid him to enter your doors?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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