I Am Dina

Dina:
We played a game together. Mama and I. On the cliff. It was a simple game - I spun around and would count my steps moving in a random direction. If I went over the cliff, she would have to come and catch me. But she never did. I couldn't count to more than twenty.

Lorch:
Your mother is in heaven. She's... She's happy, because now... now she's free... free of all the sorrows and cares of this world. And that just makes her happy.

Dina:
Does it?

Lorch:
Yes

Dina:
So it was a good thing that happened to my mama?

Lorch:
Well...

Dina:
[Dina points the sky] Up there, there isn't any sadness and no naughty girls. Nobody else knew how to send mama up there but I did. I set mama free.

Jacob:
Isn't Dina going to dine with us?

Dina's Father:
No. She takes her meals in the kitchen.

Dagny:
She's... happiest that way.

Dina's Father:
Jacob owns the biggest merchandised establishment in the whole county. He is a wealthy man.

Dina:
He can wipe his ass with his money.

Jacob:
[Dina got scared of her husbands' behaviour and has climbed up a high ladder during her wedding. Wedding guests watch as her husband and her father are trying to get her down] Come down Dina! Please, on my knees! Come down, I beg you!

Dina's Father:
Get down here right now! What are you? Crazy? Do you want to ruin your whole wedding?

Dina:
You beast!

Jacob:
Yes I know, I know...

Dina:
You are like a stallion, you!

Jacob:
No! It won't happen again!

Dina:
Oh, no?

Jacob:
Come down now, I promise.

Dina:
And you expect me to believe that?

Jacob:
I swear to God.

Dina:
Well, that demands witnesses.

Jacob:
[Jacob calls out to the whole crowd] I, Jacob Groenelv, swear by almighty God, that I will never again carry on like a stallion!

Dina:
Look at me. Look at me. Let all the cares and sorrows of this world fall away from you...

Jacob:
[Dina is drinking and laughing with sailormen. Her husband tries to get her attention] Dina... Dina. Dina!

sailor:
Pardon me, I think that your father wishes to have a word with you.

Dina:
Jacob was no longer strong. He was frightened and would not play. He was starting to see who I was.

Dina's Father:
He's to be called Jacob of course?

Dina:
No, he's not. He's to be called Benjamin.

Dina's Father:
Benjamin? Nobody in our family has ever been called "Benjamin".

Dina:
You can brawl all you like, it will be as I say.

Lorch:
Dear Dina, by the time you read this letter, I will be dead. Has life been good to you and have you found love? Promise me that you will... That you will embrace life and not death... And find yourself a man who will help you to live in a world in which there are no ghosts. Do not ever be lonely as I have been. For I have only one friend. Death. He lies here beside my bed faithful till the end. And his cold breath makes my eyes water. Dina... play for me. Lorch.

Dina:
Kindness isn't exactly what I'm best known for.

Leo Zhukovsky:
Then I'm in luck this evening.

Leo Zhukovsky:
You seem to take all this talk of suffering and death very well...

Dina:
I'm not easily scared.

Leo Zhukovsky:
Not even by death?

Dina:
Not even by that.

Niels:
It's a lie.

Dina:
Oh, yes?

Niels:
Oh, yes.

Dina:
At any rate, she is pregnant and I hardly think that the child was put there by the Holy Ghost.

Dina:
When she feels bad, she screams. Do you still hear her?

Dina's Father:
Oh, yes... I hear her... I hear her every single day.

Dina:
Won't you ever stop hating me?

Dina's Father:
Dina, please...

Dina:
Tell me the truth, Father! Tell me what you feel.

Dina's Father:
What I feel? I feel... nothing.

Dina:
I'm tired of all your accusations. Niels probably had a reason to hang himself. It was his decision.

Dina's Father:
It's strange, Dina, how people always die around you.

Benjamin:
You've got to stay here!

Dina:
No.

Benjamin:
If you go, I won't be here when you get back!

Dina:
And where will you be?

Benjamin:
I might be dead!

Dina:
Then you have had a short life.

Benjamin:
I don't care!

Dina:
Benjamin, everyone cares about their own life.

Benjamin:
Well, I don't! I will come back as a ghost!

Dina:
I should hope so. Then I won't have lost you completely.

Dina:
I don't know anything about you! Who are you?

Leo Zhukovsky:
I'm no-one, Dina. I'm no-one. I am my mission.

Dina:
I can't marry a man who does not exist.

Leo Zhukovsky:
Oh, are we to be married?

Dina:
Yes. Leo.

Leo Zhukovsky:
I doubt that the prison chaplain can perform any other ceremonies other than the last rites.

Dina:
It must not happen.

Leo Zhukovsky:
Don't tell me you're beginning to fear death.

Dina:
I want to spend my life with you.

Dina:
They all die... And the ones that don't die... I kill.

[last words]

Dina:
I am Dina. Watching her beloved drifting away. Am I condemned to this forever? I am the mothers' eye, which sees the child, which sees myself. I am Dina, who sees.

Dina:
[last words in the international version] Leo. You came back.

Leo Zhukovsky:
Try to rest...

Dina:
Are you going to stay?

Leo Zhukovsky:
I'm always going to be leaving you, Dina, but I will always come back.

Dina:
I know of no fine words to do with love. They wither like flowers when I try to pick them.