ACT ONE – SCENE I

JOSEPH: Ma, I am very hungry. Please give me something to eat. I am feeling so weak; otherwise I am going to die.

ELIZABETH (Starts sobbing): There is no food in here I can give you, my son. Moreover, I haven’t got a single cent upon me with which I can buy some food. Some people have plenty of food; others have none. That’s life! What can we do? God wants it so. I earn my life begging. People don’t care for me. Very rarely a few people would look at me and would give me a cent or two. I am now in my forties and taken with an incurable illness, and I don’t think I can do some particular job to keep our life going. I know I am going to die soon, but what worries me is what will happen to you. Who is going to look after you? Behold, you are only sixteen years old, and you are not a man yet. You can’t work.

JOSEPH: You don’t have to worry at all about me, Mum. Life is a struggle; I'll struggle and struggle until I'll succeed. One is not born with wealth. One has to look for it. Many eminent persons have suffered in life before they got crowned with fame and success.

ELIZABETH: It seems to me you have got a lion's heart.

JOSEPH: Yes, why not? I know I am a beggar's son. Still, I am proud of you. You will always be remembered in the poor soul of mine. God be willing, I'll make you famous one day.

ELIZABETH: That day will never come, my son.

JOSEPH: But why not?

ELIZABETH: Maybe you are building castles in the air.

JOSEPH: I am very ambitious. I want to be somebody. Honour is above everything else in life.

ELIZABETH: But we are too poor. Look, we have to go without food today; maybe it will be the same tomorrow.

JOSEPH: I'll start begging like you, Mum. Maybe some people will pity me, a poor boy that I am, and would give me either food or money. After all, begging is neither a crime nor a shame. Some are condemned to beg. A beggar is a human being like anybody else. He has the same rights as other citizens in a country, hasn't he?

ELIZABETH: Yes! I quite agree with you. But a beggar's privileges are often scoffed at by the rich.

JOSEPH: No one is rich and no one is poor in this world. Health is wealth after all. What's the use of someone having plenty of money when one does not enjoy good health?

ELIZABETH: But people do not realize this.

JOSEPH: Maybe either they are in ignorance or money has made them blind.

ELIZABETH: I must think so.

JOSEPH: Look at Jesus Christ. He was the Son of God, still He was poor. And nowadays in every corner of the earth, people adore and worship Him.

ELIZABETH: I have suffered a lot, too. Because I am poor, people have stoned, mocked and spat at me.

JOSEPH: Oh! When the happy days will come when poverty will be rooted out in every country in the world.

ELIZABETH: In some countries like ours, the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer.

JOSEPH: Yes, Mum, you are right. Fraud, corruption and favoritism are taking every form in Poland. And liberty of expression has been suppressed. Trade unions are not allowed to utter a word. Look at the trade unionist Lech Wałęsa; he has been imprisoned.

ELIZABETH: Some say politics is only an affair of the rich.

JOSEPH: But I don't think so. Ma, politics is the symbol of charity. Many great leaders have come out of poor families, notably Lenin, Napoleon Bonaparte and Mao Tse-tung, just to name a few.

ELIZABETH: Still we are not the only beggars. There are millions and millions of people like us in the world. Often beggars become kings.

JOSEPH: History has proved it.

ELIZABETH: Though we are poor, we are not discouraged in life.

JOSEPH: Exactly! Night and day exist both for the rich and the poor.

ELIZABETH: Though one is rich or poor, one becomes dust when death overtakes him.

JOSEPH: After all, we are all going to die, aren't we?

ELIZABETH: Well, it's time for us to go to bed now. Well, see you tomorrow. It was a time when your father was living. Those happy days will never come again. Tears in the form of blood come out of my eyes when I think of those cheerful moments of life.

JOSEPH: Don't say those happy days will never come again. They may come again, you never know. Anyway, see you tomorrow, Mum!