Letters To Thebes
(A Play)
A Rereading of Oedipus at Colonus
By
Mohammad Charmshir
Translated by
Mamak Nourbakhsh
Sister: Ismene, sister, the clouds we’d so longed for finally arrived to rain last night. And what a rain it was!! It was as if the sea itself had been let loose on this damned Colonus.
Brother : Ismene, sister, there was heavy rain here last night. None of us expected rain. None of us understood when or where the clouds of this rain came from. We just witnessed the sea pouring forth on Colonus.
Sister: Ismene, sister, I can’t express how I feel about the pouring of this rain. Suffice it for me to say that had it not rained I would not know how I would be feeling this day. I might have died. I might not have died but only gone mad. I don’t know. Whatever might have been, I would not be that which I am today.
Brother: Ismene, sister, I would not be lying were I to say that this much damned Colonus washed itself in the rain; that is sank in the wetness of this rain and that it came out again.
Sister: Ismene, sister, I was cleansed in this rain. Had it not rained I would have cried till I were blinded.
Brother: Ismene, sister, you might not believe that our father, Oedipus, walked all night under this ceaseless rain. I wanted to know what it was that he was searching in this rain ridden Colonus.
Sister: Ismene, sister, I needed this rain. Before this rain I had been oh so slowly turning into vapor in the hell of Colonus.
***
The sister approaches holding a dish. The brother is watching her.
Brother: Why don’t you let me do that?
Sister: You don’t have the stomach for it.
She holds out the dish to the brother. He looks at its contents.
Brother: Why don’t these wounds heal?
Sister: Because he is sitting in that room playing with them.
Brother: I’ll speak to him.
Sister: Well then, what are you waiting for? Go! Go talk to him… Go on!
Brother: I will.
Sister: That’s right, go ahead. Now is the right time. His room has been dusted. The sheets have been changed. The wounds on his eyes have been washed. Your father is just waiting for you there. He’s waiting to see if his son will come and what advice he will bring him. Go tell him not to touch the wounds on his eyes so that he can agree with his son, so that he can promise not to touch them again… What are you waiting for?
Brother: I told you I’m going.
Sister: If you do, I’ll kiss your hands, dear Brother, cause then I won’t have to wash the puss and the dirt of those eyes every day because I won’t start each day by seeing eyes that are only one great wound.
Brother: He’s our father.
Sister: Yes, he’s our father. He’s my father, and yours and Ismene’s and of the brother who never was and never is but I’m the only one who changes his sheets. I’m the one who touches those wounds every day… I hate these hands.
Silence. The brother wants to take hold of the sister’s hands. The sister caresses his face.
Sister: Why am I telling you this? Would I have really let you touch those wounds even if you had wanted to? I don’t want you to start your day with bad things… How I love you!
She notices her own hands. Disgusted she hides them.
***
Brother: Ismene, sister, Colonus is still wet with last night’s rain. Mist has covered everywhere. The people of Colonus look like spirits. I had always thought that the sight of spirits would terrify me but now I realize I’m not at all scared. As always, it’s still our father, Oedipus, who terrifies me most… Ismene, I still won’t enter his room.
***
Brother and sister face one another. They watch each other in silence.
Sister: Is he sleeping?
Brother: (listening) Yes, he is.
Sister: How do you know?
Brother: (listening) I know.
Sister: One never knows when a blind man is sleeping and when he’s awake.
Brother: (listening) His breath. When it slows down it means he’s sleeping.
Sister: What if he himself knows this? What if he himself has slowed down his own breathing?
Brother: (listening) Are you trying to scare me?
Sister: It’s not possible to tell.
Brother: (listening) Why would he be awake and not want anyone to know?
Sister: He listens… I saw him listening.
Brother: (listening) To what?
Sister: To us.
Brother: (listening) Your games drive me mad.
Sister: A person goes mad when he can’t tell if someone who is sleeping is actually listening to him or not… A person has to rid himself of this madness one day.
***
Sister: Ismene, sister, I’m a different person today. I’ve changed so much that I even feel I love the hell o f Colonus and its people. We are truly strange creatures, Ismene, aren’t we? Yesterday all I felt was misery and wretchedness but today the world is no longer so dark… See what this rain has done to me!
***
The sister is sitting next to her brother.
Brother: When I saw him leaving the room, all I felt was fear. I was seeing him again after many years: Oedipus, my father. How old he’d grown! How emaciated and fragile. I knew I shouldn’t look into his eyes, at those wounds that have now replaced his eyes. But all I looked at were those very wounds. When he came out to stand under the rain I was even more scared. He was like the spirit that had always haunted my sleep… Why was our father rushing away like that under the heavy Colonus rain? That is what I asked myself.
***
The brother is eating. His sister approaches and sits before him. She watches him in silence.
Sister: Is it like you always like it? … That’s how you used to like it, isn’t it? ... All spicy… I wanted it to turn out the way you always liked it… Is it as hot as you like it?... It can be made even hotter… more… much more… Do you like it?... Do you like this spiciness?...Why had I forgotten how much you like this spiciness? … You like this spiciness, don’t you? ... Don’t let me ever forget again… Don’t let your sister forget how much her brother likes this spiciness… I wish it would rain every day, little Brother of mine.
***
Brother: Ismene, sister, we were not expecting this rain. We weren’t even hoping for it. You know, Colonus is the city of a people with no hope. Had anyone told me that there existed such a city, I would not have believed them. But now I do believe. Colonus exists within this world. Had it not existed, our father might not have had a place to go to… Oedipus with no hope, Colonus with no hope. We are inside a nightmare, sister, inside a nightmare.
***
Brother: Did you say something?
Sister: He moaned again.
Brother: It wasn’t just a moan, he might have said something.
Sister: Well, go see what he’s saying… Don’t you want to see what he is saying?
Brother: You said he’s just moaning.
Sister: I would have told you had he said something.
Brother: Is he in pain?
Sister: He’s not saying anything.
Brother: Something has to be done for him.
Sister: What?
Brother: I don’t know
Sister: The door to that room is always open. Once you’ve figured it out, go do whatever it is you have to do. Ok? Ok?
Brother: Ok.
Sister: So until that day just keep on repeating this to yourself. Say, ‘he’s just moaning.’ Say that he always moans like this.
***
The sister is standing with a bowl in hand. The brother is sitting at the table.
Sister: I had to take off the scabs on his eyes. The puss that had gathered behind his lids poured out. I washed the coagulated blood. Fresh blood poured out of his eye sockets. The pain he was feeling eased down.
The brother vomits on the table.
***
The brother’s head is on his sister’s knees.
Brother: I wanted to wake up but couldn’t. I told myself it was easy and that I only had to open my eyes. I couldn’t. You should have woken me up. I was very frightened. It was a bad dream… You were sleeping on the bed. You were suffering. You were giving birth. There was no one with you. You were alone. I came toward you but I couldn’t reach you. I was looking at you when you suddenly gave birth. Your child fell to the ground. You looked at it and laughed. I looked at your child. Your child was our father; it was blind… I wouldn’t wake up.
***
Sister: Ismene, sister, I’m filled with such amazing hope after last night’s rain that once again this morning I stood before the mirror after such a long time and looked at my face. I saw that I had lost weight. There were dark circles under my eyes. I saw such wrinkles on my face that each one of them makes one’s heart shudder. Yet I was not sad. I stood there and took a real look at myself. Today is a good day for me which is why I told myself that I have to take better care of myself.
***
The sister is sitting beside the brother.
Brother: I saw him stumbling blindly like a madman in the rain. I didn’t want to follow him. When I saw you following him I set out too. I told myself that I’m not afraid of him when you’re there. You didn’t see me. You were watching him, Oedipus, our father, walking in the rain. I was going to call out to you when you turned around. There was something in your eyes I’d never seen there before. My own voice would not rise out of my throat.
***
The sister is sitting and the brother is lighting the candles. In fact the brother is doing whatever the sister says.
Sister: It’s good… like this… each one… no, no. Don’t light another candle from where you are. Approach each candle and then light it… Take your steps slowly. Don’t rush… No, don’t raise the candle. Bend over each candle that you want to light. That’s good… No, don’t hurry. Watch to make sure each candle has been lit. Make sure it doesn’t go out… Don’t position the candles like the room is to be lit. Place them so that when they’re all lit the corpse is drenched in light. Just the corpse… Now that all the candles have been lit you must sit at the foot of the corpse. You mustn’t sit at its head.
The brother comes and sits next to the sister. Both stare at the lit candles that seem to be placed around a corpse.
Sister: It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
Brother: Yes.
Sister: This is how a person should be respected when he dies.
Brother: Is someone going to die?
Sister: Who knows?... Maybe… Death is always with us.
The brother looks around.
***
The sister is standing holding a bowl, the brother is beside her.
Sister: The cloth I’d placed on his eyes got stuck to the wounds. I wet it but it still peeled off the scabs. The wounds are sore and they hurt. There is nothing that can be done. The old wounds need to be shaved off so that fresh skin can replace them.
***
Brother: Ismene, sister, I wandered all through Colonus with our father last night. I followed him all the way like a shadow. He would touch the walls of Colonus as he moved forward and I watched him. He would slip, fall, get up, hold on to the walls and walk on and I would just watch him. I should have moved forward. I should have helped him. Yet I did nothing… Why am I so frightened of this man?
***
The brother is beside the sister.
Sister: (looks at him) He’s sitting.
Brother: On his bed?
Sister: (looks at him) On his bed.
Brother: Has he bent his head onto his chest?
Sister: (looks at him) He has bent his head onto his chest.
Brother: What about his hands?
Sister: (looks at him) He has put his hands on his knees.
Brother: That’s all?
Sister: (looks at him) That’s all.
Brother: That’s exactly how I see him… Every time I wonder what he’s doing in that room, that’s how I see him.
***
The sister is pouring water and the brother is washing his hands.
Brother: The dog came forward and licked Father’s hand. Father didn’t pull away his hand. I was looking at Father’s hand that was being wetted by that huge powerful tongue. He didn’t just wet it. He covered it in a thick veil. Suddenly something boiled and rose from the pits of my stomach. I couldn’t stop it. My mouth was filled. I cupped my hands and threw up. A warm yellow liquid flowed into my palms. I vomited again. My legs shivered. I crumpled. I sat down. My eyes filled with tears. I looked and saw that the dog was still licking father’s hands. (he turns and looks at his sister) They were looking at each other. The dog was like Father: he was blind.
***
Sister: Ismene, sister, after last night’s rain I have really decided to take better care of myself. I haven’t been eating much these days. It wasn’t just because of the heat although I do lose my appetite when it gets hot but the main reason was the hatred that had taken hold of my entire being. I hated everything and everybody; most of all I hated you and myself: hated you for staying in Thebes and not following our Father, Oedipus. And I hated myself for not having stayed and for having come to the hell of Colonus… I’m not yet quite entirely freed of that hatred. But the truth is that I really feel better today. It’s all because of this rain that came last night and cleaned everything away.
***
The sister is sitting next to her brother.
Brother: We were all three under that rain: myself, you and Father. We had never before all been in one place like that. Even like now, without news of each other. In that rain, in the streets of Colonus, we lost each other only to find one another again. When Father stopped I never thought he would turn around and call out to you. How could he have known you were there? I thought he might have heard your footsteps but when you moved forward I knew that he had known all along that you were there.
***
The brother has placed his head on his sister’s knees.
Sister: Ismene and I are beside you. All three of us are…
Brother: Where is our brother?
Sister: Our brother?... He’s pacing.
Brother: Why is he pacing?
Sister: Well… this way we can all imagine he’s waiting for you to call him.
Brother: I don’t want him to be away from us. Tell me he’s with us.
Sister: Ok, our brother, Ismene and I are with you. We are…
Brother: Why isn’t our father there?
Sister: Why isn’t he there? … Well, as always, he’s in his room.
Brother: Is he sleeping?
Sister: Yes, he’s sleeping.
Brother: Why is Father always in all the stories you tell me?
Sister: Why should he be awake?
Brother: Talk to us.
Sister: He doesn’t talk.
Brother: Tell me a story in which Father is talking… Well, why don’t you?
Sister: I’m thinking
Brother: Of what?
Sister: I’m thinking of what he used to say when he used to talk… No, I don’t remember.
Brother: I don’t remember either… Did he ever talk? … He never did with me… He was always distant even when he was standing right next to me… Are you also afraid of him like I am?
Sister: I don’t know if I’m afraid of him or not. All I know is that I never liked him to be near.
Brother: You don’t love him, do you?
Sister: No.
Brother: Then why did you follow him?
Sister: What else was I to do?
Brother: You could have stayed in Thebes.
Sister: Without you?
Brother: I know that you didn’t only come for my sake.
They look at each other in silence.
Brother: Tell me… You, me, Ismene and our brother…
Sister: Ismene, our brother and I are all with you. Father is there too…
Brother: He’s not talking.
Sister: He’s sleeping.
***
The sister is standing holding a bowl in her hands.
Sister: He spoke today. I was washing his wounds when I heard my name. I looked and saw his lips moving. I bent over and brought my ears closer to his lips. He wasn’t saying anything. There was only his breath on my skin. Again he called out my name. Then he didn’t say anything else.
***
Brother: Ismene, sister, in Colonus I only think of sin. I know I shouldn’t but I do. It might be because there is nothing else to think of in this city. I should actually say that sin is the only thing one can think of in this city. Colonus is steeped in sin, Ismene, because our father is here. Is there anyone who has committed a greater sin than our father? … In Colonus I only think of sin.
Sister: Ismene, sister, the rain last night has so changed my spirits that I am only thinking of good things. When I say good things I mean those good things that one can think of in the hell of Colonus. For example, I’ve recently found a means of freeing myself of sorrow. I want to count all the grains of sand in Colonus. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to do cause even if you carry a world of sorrow you will have forgotten it all before you reach the thousandth grain… Ismene, Ismene, this rain… this rain.
***
The sister is sitting next to her brother.
Brother: I was frozen under that rain that was drenching us and weighing down on all three of us. I only looked at you, at how you were writhing with each other. I was dying. I was dying in one of the many streets of Colonus under the ceaseless drops of rain. I didn’t die. I turned around. I lost myself in the streets of Colonus.
***
The sitter is wiping the bloody hands of her brother with a cloth.
Sister: We won’t tell anyone anything, ok? … Are you listening to me?
Brother: Yes, yes.
Sister: I don’t want new gossip to start… You don’t either, do you?
Brother: No, I don’t.
Sister: I know you don’t. But should anyone find out then whose rumors will start again… You know they will, don’t you?
Brother: Yes, I do.
Sister: Then once again we will have to give everything up and leave… We don’t want that, do we?
Brother: No, we don’t.
Sister: Then no one must know. We shouldn’t let anyone know… Do you understand that?
Brother: Yes.
Sister: Then we must believe that nothing has happened.
Brother: No, nothing has happened.
Sister: No, nothing has happened. Everything is like it was before, normal and ordinary.
Brother: Normal and ordinary.
Sister: That’s good. We will clean up this mess no matter what it takes.
Brother: Yes.
Sister: Is everything normal and ordinary?
Brother: It’s normal and ordinary.
Sister: Then finish it. Calm down, ok?
Brother: Ok.
Sister: That’s good… Are you calm now?
Brother: I’m calm.
Sister: But you’re shaking.
The brother starts to cry but quickly wipes his tears.
Sister: You have to give me time… I will clean up this mess. I will clean it up, ok?
Brother: You will clean it up… I had to kill him, didn’t I?
Sister: Yes, yes.
Brother: He would lick Father’s hands every day.
Sister: I know. I know.
Brother: He could see it made me sick every day so why did he do it? … Our father shouldn’t have done that.
Sister: No, he shouldn’t have.
Brother: I had to kill that dog. I had to kill him.
***
The sister is standing over her brother with a bowl in her hand.
Sister: The wounds in his eyes are increasing. The wounds have been infected; they are oozing. There’s still blood pouring out of the sockets of his eyes. He’s sitting in that room and pulling something out of those sockets. What else is there left in them that pains him so?
***
Sister: Ismene, sister, this rain has been so good for me that I must say I lived for as long as it rained.
Brother: Ismene, sister, there was good rain last night. It was so good that our father, Oedipus, left his room.
Sister: Sister…
Brother: Sister…
Sister: Sister, before this only fire fell forth from the skies of Colonus. You should have been here and seen how ready we are like fools to do anything to get rid of the heat. We would wander around the house wet and baking all day. We would shut the windows and then open them again. We would wet our clothes and swing them in the air. It was all to change the veil of air that was suffocating us. But nothing would change… We were scared of the heat, very scared, Ismene.
The End
Thursday April 26, 2010
Mohammad Charmshir