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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2023
Woman: You are a modern girl: innocent, but aware—
Girl: yes, I am aware of all of the mysteries, without—
Woman: getting yourself dirty in the process. You only know as much as the sun in the sky knows of the earth.
Girl: Yes.
Woman: And what do you think you’ll do now? Where will life take you?
Girl: It’s easy for you, you gave away your soul.
Woman (bitterly): Doesn’t giving mean receiving?
Girl: No, only you could give someone something. Only the rich give and if you found the one who was worthy of your soul …
Woman: If! If! What if I had not found him? What if I had been mistaken and had again quickly closed my hand, which had been open to give?
(Both remain silent, pondering.)
After a longer while the
Girl: Must one not be unhappy if her sister-soul can’t be found?
Woman: You call her sister-soul. Call her the soul of humanity—that would be better. But your eyes tell me you demand more from life. I am your sister-soul. But you wish for more. Your hungry eyes betray your desire for happiness.
Girl (quietly): And happiness is love.
Woman (sadly): Oh, you girls of the new generation! Is this a deficiency in our adaptation or in our education—will we always have to think like that?
Girl (sighs).
Woman: Would our world really be that narrow? Man has mountains and mountain-valleys, sea and seabed, empires, galaxies and beyond that aspirations, and we, we would only have love? Are we that poor?
Girl: And he also has vast empires that he sees under the microscope: wonder after wonder, awe without end! Is life not the most wondrous fairy tale? You look into a small, thin tube, not larger than your eye, and inside, beyond, suddenly are worlds, empires of unknown things … and always new things, always and again!
Woman: But we, we would only have love?
Girl: Man longs for love, as well.
Woman: As well! You said it. But we long only for love. Have you not observed women who have a profession? A man will take his goal in life seriously, and love will sweeten it for him.
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