SAINT OR FOOL

Gate Keeper: To you who desire to cross this threshold, do you know what awaits you?

Girl: I know.

Gate Keeper: Cold, hunger, abhorrence, derision, contempt, abuse, prison, disease and death!

Girl: I know, I am ready, I shall endure all blows.

Gate Keeper: Not from enemies alone, but from relatives, and friends.

Girl: Yes even from them...

Gate Keeper: Are you ready even to commit a crime? Do you know that you may be disillusioned in that which you believe, that you may discover that you were mistaken, that you ruined your young life in vain?

Girl: I know that, too.

Gate Keeper: Enter!

The girl crossed the threshold, and a heavy curtain fell behind her.
Fool! said someone, gnashing his teeth.
Saint! someone uttered in reply.

Ivan Turgenev