[B-IV-1]
[Deemer]
(Ilya, Irina and Trigorin pull up in a carriage near the boat house.)
TRIGORIN: See! The lake is much calmer than you said.
ILYA: For an ocean, it would be calm. For a lake, it's rough waters.
TRIGORIN: It doesn't look all that rough to me. Does it to you, Irina?
IRINA: Boris, you're determined to fish. Just get out and fish.
ILYA: You'll catch nothing in this weather.
IRINA: Don't discourage him.
TRIGORIN: Where do the seagulls go in bad weather?
ILYA: I can't tell you. Somewhere dry, I'm sure.
TRIGORIN: Where do they sleep at night?
IRINA: Are you writing a story set in a forest? Suddenly you're interested in the natural world.
TRIGORIN: What a place this is to write! Kostya is very lucky.
IRINA: It's nice to hear you say something nice about him.
TRIGORIN: I didn't say he actually could write. I said he was lucky to be here to try.
ILYA: He spends a lot of time down here, he does. The funny thing is, he almost never takes a boat out.
IRINA: I think he's a poor swimmer.
TRIGORIN: He spends his time shooting at seagulls. Does he still do that?
ILYA: That only happened the one time.
IRINA: And no one will ever forgive him for it.
TRIGORIN: Something like that digs its way into one's permanent memory.
ILYA: Are we ready to go to the house?
IRINA: Yes.
TRIGORIN: No! Not yet.
IRINA: Oh, Boris.
TRIGORIN: Look at this view! I think the lake is more beautiful in bad weather than in good. Look! I think I saw a fish jump!
ILYA: I think your eyes are playing a trick on you.
TRIGORIN: I've decided something. The point of fishing is not to catch fish. Did you know that?
IRINA: Of course it is.
TRIGORIN: No. Am I right, Ilya?
ILYA: When I fish, I expect to catch something. I'm disappointed if I don't.
IRINA: See there?
TRIGORIN: The point of fishing is to enter a state of communion with nature. To become one with the pole and the line and the water and the hook. And the fish, too, of course. Fishing is a kind of meditation.
IRINA: Which is getting very uncomfortable, if I may say so. I'm cold.
TRIGORIN: It makes your blood circulate.
IRINA: Ilya, to the house, please.
ILYA: Yes, ma'am.
IRINA: Are you coming, Boris, or getting off?
TRIGORIN: I'm coming.