Out of the Wings

Flores de papel (1968), Égon Wolff

Paper Flowers : SCENE TWO

Paper Flowers (1971), translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

SCENE TWO

Edition: Sayers Peden, Margaret. 1971. Paper Flowers: A Play in Six Scenes by Egon Wolff. Columbia, Missouri, Breakthrough Books, University of Missouri Press
p. 32
Context:: EVA has returned from the shops and finds the Hake has made paper birds out of newpapers.
Sample text
EVA: Who are you? THE HAKE: They call me “The Hake.” EVA: I mean ... your name? THE HAKE: I don’t know. A name, one loses it around here in the streets, down a crack ... EVA: But you must have some name. I can’t call you “The Hake”. THE HAKE: Why not? EVA: (confused) Well ... because ... THE HAKE: (with the same expression) Because it’s the name the gang uses. EVA: It isn’t a Christian name. THE HAKE: And you’re not part of the gang. EVA: (with certain defiance) No, no I’m not, if you want to put it like that. Among my friends we call each other by our Christian names. THE HAKE: I thought you told me you didn’t have any friends. EVA: It’s a way of speaking. THE HAKE: It must be, then, that between us–who aren’t friends–we can call each other by names that aren’t Christian. (Smiles, pacifying her.) My mother calls me Robert. EVA: That’s better. I’ll call you Robert, then. THE HAKE: And Bobby. EVA: Bobby? THE HAKE: And pig. Pig before we ate. I had two mothers. She called me pig before we ate, Bobby, after. EVA: Did she die? THE HAKE: Something like that.
Copyright: The above sample taken from the translation Paper Flowers (1971) by Margaret Sayers Peden is licensed under a Creative Commons License.