The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Written by Bertolt Brecht

Translated by Frank McGuinness
DOI: 10.5040/9781408167205.00000002
Page Range: 7-12

Prologue
Summer 1945.

Among the ruins of a Caucasian village, the members of two collective farms.

Peasant Woman (left) We stopped three Nazi tanks there in the hills,
but the orchard was destroyed.

Old Man (right) Our lovely dairy – in ruins.

Girl Tractor Driver (left) I put the match to it myself, comrade.

There is a pause.

Expert I'll give you the report now. As Hitler's armies advanced, they
drove this kolchos and its herds to the east. They now want to resettle in
their valley. They have examined the village and made note of the
savage degree of destruction.Now this valley grew little grass. Their
neighbours, the Rosa Luxemburg kolchos, propose that these lands be
handed over to them. They will replant these pastures with fruit and
vineyards. As an expert from the Reconstruction Commission, I ask both
sides that they decide together, should the lands be replanted or should
they come back to the valley?

Old Man (right) First of all I want to complain that the time for
discussing this has been cut short. We've spent three days and nights
getting here. Now we have to decide this in half a day.

Wounded Soldier (left) Comrades, we don't have as many villages

now, there's not as many hands working. We no longer have so much
time.

Tractor Woman We have to ration all pleasures. Tobacco's rationed, so

is wine, and talk has to be rationed too.

The Old Man (right) sighs.

The Old Man (right) sighs.

Old Man (right) Hell's gates to the Fascists. I'll come to the point and
tell you exactly why we want our valley back. There's a whole pack of
reasons, but I'll start with the simplest. Makina Abakidze, get out the
goat's cheese.

A Peasant Woman, right, takes out a large cheese, wrapped in cloth, from a
large basket.

There is laughter and applause.

Old Man (right) Get stuck in, comrades, have a feed.

Old Peasant (left) Is this your way of offering some kind of bribe?

There is laughter.

Old Man (right) How could it be called a bribe? We know you're going
to take the cheese and the valley as well.

There is laughter.

Old Man (right) I'm only asking you for an honest answer. Do you like
this cheese?

Old Man (left) The answer is, yes.

Old Man (right) Is that so? (He adds bitterly:) I should have guessed
you'd know damn all about cheese.

Old Man (left) Why not, when I'm telling you it tastes grand.

Old Man (right) Because it tastes like nothing. Because it's not what it
was like in the old days. Why is that so? Because our goats don't like the
new grass as much as they liked the old. Cheese isn't cheese since the
grass isn't grass. That's it exactly. Put it in the report, please.

Old Man (left) But your cheese tastes great.

Old Man (right) It's not great, it's barely edible. The new pasture's
good for nothing, no matter what the young people say. I say we can't
settle there. Even the morning doesn't smell like the morning in that
place.

Some laugh.
 Expert Don't upset yourself because they're laughing. They still
understand you. Comrades, why do we love our homeland? For this
reason. The bread tastes better there, the sky is higher, the air is more
sweet, voices sound stronger, and the earth is easier to walk on. Isn't
that so?

Old Man (right) But this valley has always belonged to us.

Wounded Soldier What do you mean by ‘always’? Nothing's belonged

to anyone always. When you were a young man, you didn't even belong
to yourself. You belonged to the princes of Kazbeki.

Old Man (right) The valley belongs to us, according to the law.

Tractor Woman Look, the law has to be examined to see if it still

stands up.

Old Man (right) I do know that. But is it all the same then what kind of
tree stood outside the house where you gave birth? What kind of
neighbours you have, is that all the same?

Old Man (left) Why don't you just listen quietly to what your
‘neighbour’ Kato Wachtang has to say about the valley? She's our
agronomist.

Peasant Woman We haven't finished what we have to say about the

valley, not by a long chalk. Not all the houses are destroyed and the
foundations of the dairy are at least still standing.

Expert Don't get angry. You know that you can call on state support,
here and elsewhere. I suggest that you lay out your plans for the valley
under dispute before the comrades here.

Soldier Kato Last winter, comrade, we were fighting here in the hills as
partisans, we spoke about how we'd increase our fruit plantations ten
times bigger after we rid ourselves of the Germans. I have worked out an
irrigation project. By building a dam on our mountain lake, three
hundred hectares of barren land could be watered. Then our kolchos
could grow not only fruit, but make wine as well. Yet the project is only
worth doing if it includes the valley that's under dispute. Here are the
plans.

She hands the Expert a briefcase.

Old Man (right) Our kolchos has plans for a new stud farm – write that
in the report.
 in the report.

Tractor Woman During the days and nights we had to shelter in the
mountains, with no bullets left for the few rifles we had, that's when this
project was drawn up, comrades. Even finding a pencil was difficult.

Both sides applaud.

Old Man (right) We thank our comrades who defended this valley, and
we thank all who fought to defend our homeland.

They shake and embrace.

Peasant Woman (left) All we thought about was that our soldiers, our
men and yours too, should return to an even more prosperous
homeland.

Tractor Woman The poet Mayakovsky's said it, ‘The homeland of the
Soviet People should be the homeland of Reason as well.’

With the exception of the Old Man, the delegates on the right have stood up
and begun to study the agronomist's drawings, together with the Expert.

Expert The rocks here need to be blown up. All they'll need will be
cement and dynamite and they'll force the water to come down here.

A Young Worker (right) says to the Old Man (right):

Young Worker Alleko, take a look, they're going to water all the fields
between the hills.

Old Man (right) I will not look at it. I knew that project would be good.
I won't have a pistol pointed at my head.

Wounded Soldier They only want to point a pencil at your head.

Expert What will I put in my report? Can I write that you are in favour
of the transfer of your old valley for the project?

Peasant Woman (right) I'll support it. What about you, Alleko?

Old Man (right) I move you give us copies of these drawings.

Peasant Woman (right) Then we can sit down and eat. Once he has the
drawings and can discuss them, then it will all be settled. I know him, and
the rest of us will do the same.
 Peasant Woman (left) Comrades, in honour of your visit and of the
Expert, we plan to show a play that has some connection with our
problem. The singer Arkadi Tsheidze is in it.

There is applause.
The Tractor Woman has gone off to fetch the Singer.

Peasant Woman (right) Comrades, your play had better be good.

We're paying a valley for it.

Peasant Woman (left) Arkadi Tsheidze knows twenty-one thousand

verses.

Old Man (left) You and the Reconstruction Commission should make
sure he comes north more often, comrade.

Expert We're more busy managing the economy.

The Old Man smiles.

Old Man (left) You're rearranging the supply of vineyards and tractors.
Why don't you turn your hand to songs as well?

Led by the Girl, the Singer (Arkadi Tsheidze), enters the circle. He is a robust
man of simple manners.
Musicians with their instruments come with him.

The artists are greeted with applause.

Tractor Woman Arkadi, this comrade is the Expert from the

Reconstruction Commission.

The Singer greets those about him.

Peasant Woman (right) I'm honoured to make your acquaintance.

Since I was at school I've heard about your songs.

Singer It's a play with songs this time. We've brought along the old
masks.

Old Man (right) Is it one of the stories from long ago?

Singer Very long ago. It's called The Chalk Circle, and it started out
first with the Chinese. We've changed it as we went along into another
version. Yura, show the masks. Comrades, it's a great honour for us to
 version. Yura, show the masks. Comrades, it's a great honour for us to
entertain you after a tough debate. We hope you find that an old poet's
voice sounds well even in the shadow of a Soviet tractor. It might be
wrong to mix different wines, but old and new wisdom mix very well.

Expert I've got to get back to Tiblisi by today. How long will the story
last, Arkadi?

Singer (replies casually) It's really two stories. A couple of hours.

Expert (asks very confidentially) Couldn't you shorten it?

Singer No.

Copyright © Der kaukasische Kreidekreis 1955. Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe 30 Bände,
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. Translation copyright © 2007 by Brecht Heirs. Frank McGuinness has
asserted his right to be identified as the translator of this work.
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