You lie--you can't. No one can understand it. Go through the whole world, search round the whole globe, ask everybody--no one will be able to tell you, no one will understand. And if anyone says he does, take it from me that he lies, lies just as you do. Why, you can't even see your own nose properly, yet you have the brazenness to say you understand. Go. You are a foolish boy, that's what you are. SAVVA And you are wise? KING HEROD I am wise. My sorrow has made me so. It is a great sorrow. There is none greater on earth. I killed my son with my own hand. Not the hand you are looking at, but the one which isn't here. SAVVA Where is it? KING HEROD I burnt it. I held it in the stove and let it burn up to my elbow. SAVVA Did that relieve you? KING HEROD No. Fire cannot destroy my grief. It burns with a heat that is greater than fire. SAVVA Fire, brother, destroys everything. KING HEROD No, young man, fire is weak. Spit on it and it is quenched. SAVVA What fire? It is possible to kindle such a conflagration that an ocean of water will not quench it. KING HEROD No, boy. Every fire goes out when its time comes. My grief is great, so great that when I look around me I say to myself: Good heavens, what has become of everything else that's large and great? Where has it all gone to? The forest is small, the house is small, the mountain is small, the whole earth is small, a mere poppy seed. You have to walk cautiously and look out, lest you reach the end and drop off. FAT MONK _(pleased)_ Fine, King Herod, you are going it strong. KING HEROD Even the sun does not rise for me. For others it rises, but for me it doesn't. Others don't see the darkness by day, but I see it. It penetrates the light like dust. At first I seem to see a sort of light, but then--good heavens, the sky is dark, the earth is dark, all is like soot. Yonder is something vague and misty. I can't even make out what it is. Is it a human being, is it a bush? My grief is great, immense! _(Grows pensive)_ If I cried, who would hear me? If I shouted, who would respond? FAT MONK _(to the Gray Monk)_ The dogs in the village might. KING HEROD _(shaking his head)_ O you people! You are looking at me as at a monstrosity--at my hair, my chains--because I killed my son and because I am like King Herod; but my soul you see not, and my grief you know not. You are as blind as earthworms. You wouldn't know if you were struck with a beam on the head. Say, you pot-belly, what are you shaking your paunch, for? SAVVA Why--the way he talks to you! FAT MONK _(reassuringly)_ It's nothing. He treats us all like that. He upbraids us all. KING HEROD Yes, and I will continue to upbraid. Fellows like you are not fit to serve God. What you ought to do is to sit in a drinkshop amusing Satan. The devils use your belly to go sleigh-riding on at night. FAT MONK _(good-naturedly)_ Well, well, God be with you. You had better speak about yourself; stick to that.