Tertium non datur Page #4

---

Captain Tomu, thank you!

You taught us a lesson

none of us will ever forget.

Captain Tomu.

- Bravo Tomu!

- Bravo!

- General, I do not deserve the honor.

- Don't be so modest, boy.

What I have insulted for a stupid

piece of paper, an officer's honor,

you have lifted up

again at the risk of your life.

General, that is not true, and I

will not deceive you a moment longer.

I had another reason

to resist the search.

Do not deceive yourself.

You keep, and let us keep

the unspoiled memory of your deed,

maybe the only dignified one

of all we do here.

General, I cannot.

My honor compels me to tell you...

Before giving you

the real explanation,

I waited for the foreign guests

to leave.

It's good for them to pass on a nice

image of their Romanian allies,

an unspoiled image of our pride

which in truth is no longer there.

Why lie now?

The truth is I, too, would have

allowed myself to be searched,

like all my other comrades,

which I won't humiliate any longer,

but for one terrible obstacle.

What?

- You had an identical stamp on you?

- As you can see!

I got it from my mother,

an old Moldavian boyar.

She gave it to me

for good luck on the battlefield!

To save me from death...

What can I say?

Imagine, had I allowed even

a summary search to be conducted...

Why didn't you say you had a similar

stamp when I ordered the search?

Too late.

And what if the lost stamp

had not been found?

So why didn't you show it to us when

the major pulled out the aurochs head '?

It would have been childish.

For me, mine was not a paper stamp

to brag about and compete with.

Mine was - and no longer is -

a talisman of a whole different value.

If I could have, I'd have kept it

hidden in my heart.

Exhibiting it pained me

as a deowering would.

This amazing meeting of two

aurochs heads in the middle of nowhere,

I wanted to shun it as a fatality.

I hid mine away from the beginning,

as a holy memory.

The other one was bloody goods.

The confrontation was ignoble.

I was unable to avoid it.

Fate made it happen!

Why show it to us now?

So you won't believe I think myself

to be better than you all,

my brothers in arms.

We are a band of cowards, gentlemen,

and we should all blow our brains out

in this classroom

where children learn how to read.

And now, forgive me, General,

for disappointing you,

and allow me to withdraw.

I need to make contact

with the wilderness

- as Alceste said in The Misanthrope.

Tenium non datur (meaning "there is no third possibility").

Bravo, Nastasia Filipovna.

I want Romania to have the population

of China and the destiny of France!

Bravo!

No... No, please...

It's ok... You shouldn't...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes