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Uzeyir Hajibayov
Arshin mal alan
êëàâèð

ÀÑÒ II
Music is being played. The curtain is rising. It’s front of Sultan bay's House.
Gulchohra, Asya and Telli are sitting. One of them is sewing; the other is knitting.

Gulchohrà
She is sewing and singing
My bitter suffering and grief made all feel deep sorrow for me.

Music
My bitter suffering and grief made all feel deep sorrow for me.
I feel bitter deep grief, because I made all feel sorrow for me. (2)
Music
Day by day love deepens in my soft and excited heart.
Music
Day by day love deepens in my soft and excited heart.
If he feels my tender soul, I can cure him with my love. (2)
No difference even if it rains stones on my head from heavens. (2)
Because I can destroy the home of sadness with arrow of bitter sigh. (2)
Oh... come my love! (2)
Come, come, come, my love!
ASYA:
(she sighs) Håó, Gulchohra, when you sing, always grief covers my heart, I become sad.
GULCHOHRA: It means you don’t like my singing.
ASYA: No, I like your singing very much. But the sadness surrounds me, and I grieve.
GULCHOHRA: Oh, isn’t our life full of grief from the day of birth till the end?
ASYA: Oh, yes, by God, you are right.
TELLI: Well, why are you grieving, ladies? Sultan bay marries you in some days. Inshaallah, you will have à family, and à lot of children. Then you will not have any grief.
GULCHOHRA: Oh, Telli, it would be better not to marry like this; because you know how we marry.
TELLI: Oh, lady, why do you talk like that?
GULCHOHRA: Am I not right? You marry à man without being aware of who is going to be your husband. You don’t know the man whom you marry. Hå is either young or old, mangy or bald; maybe he likes to beat his wife...
ASYA: (surprised) Well, Gulchohra, then you will not marry, at all. Will you stay at home and keep company with à sack of flour?
TELLI: God forbid!
GULCHOHRA: Do I mean one should stay at home till the end of life? I mean one should know whom she marries. Before marriage one should see, choose, love and know one another well.
ASYA: (laughs). You speak in such à manner, I bet, even the cooked chicken would laugh at you. (With irony) Poor girl, whom can you see among these four walls in order to love?
GULCHOHRA: In that case, I prefer to stay at home.
TELLI: Ladies, may my lord marry you! I’ll go to see your bridegroom, his house and estate. On coming back I’ll tell you everything.

 

Gulchohra and Asya laugh

GULCHOHRA: Well, Telli, do you think your visit to my bridegroom will be enough for me? You think I do not need to see him?
TELLI: No, lady, I’ll see first and then you.
ASYA: All right, Telli, let it be so. May I marry! The rest is easier.
GULCHOHRA: No, until I don’t see the man I’ll not marry. But you may marry without seeing him.
TELLI: By God, lady, it is better to marry without seeing the husband. When you see him beforehand, it will not be so interesting. But when you don’t see him, your heart hurries and disturbs you to see him soon.

 






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