R. Selden Rose and Leonard Bacon - "The Lay of the Cid"

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Various - "Scientific American Supplement, No. 303"

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Redemption and Two Other Plays by Leo Tolstoy et al

L >> Leo Tolstoy et al >> Redemption and Two Other Plays




NIKITA. Bother her! What should I go for?

NAN. She says, "If he don't come, I'll go into the hut to him." Blest
if she didn't say she'd come in!

NIKITA. Not likely. She'll wait a bit and then go away.

NAN. "Or is it," she says, "that they want him to marry Akoulina?"

[Re-enter AKOULINA, passing near NIKITA to take her distaff.

AKOULINA. Marry whom to Akoulina?

NAN. Why, Nikita. Akoulina. A likely thing! Who says it?

NIKITA (looks at her and laughs). It seems people do say it. Would you
marry me, Akoulina?

AKOULINA. Who, you? Perhaps I might have afore, but I won't now.

NIKITA. And why not now? Akoulina. 'Cos you wouldn't love me.

NIKITA. Why not? Akoulina. 'Cos you'd be forbidden to.

[Laughs.

NIKITA. Who'd forbid it?

AKOULINA. Who? My step-mother. She does nothing but grumble, and is
always staring at you.

NIKITA (laughing). Just hear her! Ain't she cute?

AKOULINA. Who? Me? What's there to be cute about? Am I blind? She's
been rowing and rowing at dad all day. The fat-muzzled witch!

[Goes into closet.

NAN (looking out of the window). Look, Nikita, she's coming! I'm blest
if she isn't! I'll go away.

[Exit.

MARINA (enters). What are you doing with me?

NIKITA. Doing? I'm not doing anything.

MARINA. You mean to desert me.

NIKITA (gets up angrily). What does this look like, your coming here?

MARINA. Oh, Nikita!

NIKITA. Well, you are strange! What have you come for?

MARINA. Nikita!

NIKITA. That's my name. What do you want with Nikita? Well, what next?
Go away, I tell you!

MARINA. I see, you do want to throw me over.

NIKITA. Well, and what's there to remember? You yourself don't know.
When you stood out there round the corner and sent Nan for me, and I
didn't come, wasn't it plain enough that you're not wanted? It seems
pretty simple. So there--go!

MARINA. Not wanted! So now I'm not wanted! I believed you when you
said you would love me. And now that you've ruined me, I'm not wanted.

NIKITA. Where's the good of talking? This is quite improper. You've
been telling tales to father. Now, do go away, will you?

MARINA. You know yourself I never loved any one but you. Whether you
married me or not, I'd not have been angry. I've done you no wrong,
then why have you left off caring for me? Why?

NIKITA. Where's the use of baying at the moon? You go away. Goodness
me! what a duffer!

MARINA. It's not that you deceived me when you promised to marry me
that hurts, but that you've left off loving. No, it's not that you've
stopped loving me either, but that you've changed me for another,
that's what hurts. I know who it is!

NIKITA (comes up to her viciously). Eh! what's the good of talking to
the likes of you, that won't listen to reason? Be off, or you'll drive
me to do something you'll be sorry for.

MARINA. What, will you strike me, then? Well then, strike me! What are
you turning away for? Ah, Nikita!

NIKITA. Supposing some one came in. Of course, it's quite improper.
And what's the good of talking?

MARINA. So this is the end of it! What has been has flown. You want me
to forget it? Well then, Nikita, listen. I kept my maiden honor as the
apple of my eye. You have ruined me for nothing, you have deceived me.
You have no pity on a fatherless and motherless girl! (Weeping.) You
have deserted, you have killed me, but I bear you no malice. God
forgive you! If you find a better one you'll forget me, if a worse one
you'll remember me. Yes, you will remember, Nikita! Good-bye, then, if
it is to be. Oh, how I loved you! Good-bye for the last time.

[Takes his head in her hands and tries to kiss him.

NIKITA (tossing his head back). I'm not going to talk with the likes
of you. If you won't go away I will, and you may stay here by
yourself.

MARINA (screams). You are a brute. (In the doorway.) God will give you
no joy.

[Exit, crying.

AKOULINA (comes out of closet). You're a dog, Nikita!

NIKITA. What's up?

AKOULINA. What a cry she gave!

[Cries.

NIKITA. What's up with you?

AKOULINA. What's up? You've hurt her, ... That's the way you'll hurt
me also. You're a dog.

[Exit into closet.

[Silence.

NIKITA. Here's a fine muddle. I'm as sweet as honey on the lasses, but
when a fellow's sinned with 'em it's a bad look-out!

CURTAIN




ACT II

The scene represents the village street. To the left the outside of
PETER'S hut, built of logs, with a porch in the middle; to the right
of the hut the gates and a corner of the yard buildings. ANISYA is
beating hemp in the street near the corner of the yard. Six months
have elapsed since the First Act.

ANISYA (stops and listens). Mumbling something again. He's probably
got off the stove.

[AKOULINA enters, carrying two pails on a yoke.

ANISYA. He's calling. You go and see what he wants, kicking up such a
row.

AKOULINA. Why don't you go?

ANISYA. Go, I tell you!

[Exit AKOULINA into hut.

He's bothering me to death. Won't let out where the money is, and
that's all about it. He was out in the passage the other day. He must
have been hiding it there. Now, I don't know myself where it is. Thank
goodness he's afraid of parting with it, so that at least it will stay
in the house. If only I could manage to find it. He hadn't it on him
yesterday. Now I don't know where it can be. He has quite worn the
life out of me.

[Enter AKOULINA, tying her kerchief over her head.

ANISYA. Where are you off to?

AKOULINA. Where? Why, he's told me to go for Aunt Martha. "Fetch my
sister," he says. "I am going to die," he says. "I have a word to say
to her."

ANISYA (aside). Asking for his sister? Oh, my poor head! Sure he wants
to give it her. What shall I do? Oh! (To AKOULINA.) Don't go! Where
are you off to?

AKOULINA. To call Aunt.

ANISYA. Don't go I tell you, I'll go myself. You go and take the
clothes to the river to rinse. Else you'll not have finished by the
evening.

AKOULINA. But he told me to go.

ANISYA. You go and do as you're bid. I tell you I'll fetch Martha
myself. Take the shirts off the fence.

AKOULINA. The shirts? But maybe you'll not go. He's given the order.

ANISYA. Didn't I say I'd go? Where's Nan?

AKOULINA. Nan? Minding the calves.

ANISYA. Send her here. I dare say they'll not run away.

[AKOULINA collects the clothes, and exit.

ANISYA. If one doesn't go he'll scold. If one goes he'll give the
money to his sister. All my trouble will be wasted. I don't myself
know what I'm to do. My poor head's splitting.

[Continues to work.

[Enter MATRYONA, with a stick and a bundle, in outdoor clothes.

MATRYONA. May the Lord help you, honey.

ANISYA (looks round, stops working, and claps her hands with joy).
Well, I never expected this! Mother Matryona, God has sent the right
guest at the right time.

MATRYONA. Well, how are things?

ANISYA. Ah, I'm driven well-nigh crazy. It's awful!

MATRYONA. Well, still alive, I hear?

ANISYA. Oh, don't talk about it. He doesn't live and doesn't die!

MATRYONA. But the money--has he given it to anybody?

ANISYA. He's just sending for his sister Martha--probably about the
money.

MATRYONA. Well, naturally! But hasn't he given it to any one else?

ANISYA. To no one. I watch like a hawk.

MATRYONA. And where is it?

ANISYA. He doesn't let out. And I can't find out in any way. He hides
it now here, now there, and I can't do anything because of Akoulina.
Idiot though she is, she keeps watch, and is always about. Oh my poor
head! I'm bothered to death.

MATRYONA. Oh, my jewel, if he gives the money to any one but you,
you'll never cease regretting it as long as you live! They'll turn you
out of house and home without anything. You've been worriting, and
worriting all your life with one you don't love, and will have to go
a-begging when you are a widow.

ANISYA. No need to tell me, mother. My heart's that weary, and I don't
know what to do. No one to get a bit of advice from. I told Nikita,
but he's frightened of the job. The only thing he did was to tell me
yesterday it was hidden under the floor.

MATRYONA. Well, and did you look there?

ANISYA. I couldn't. The old man himself was in the room. I notice that
sometimes he carries it about on him, and sometimes he hides it.

MATRYONA. But you, my lass, must remember that if once he gives you
the slip there's no getting it right again! (Whispering.) Well, and
did you give him the strong tea?

ANISYA. Oh! oh!...

[About to answer, but sees neighbor and stops.

[The NEIGHBOR (a woman) passes the hut, and listens to a call from
within.

NEIGHBOR (to Anisya). I say, Anisya! Oh, Anisya! There's your old man
calling, I think.

ANISYA. That's the way he always coughs,--just as if he were screaming.
He's getting very bad.

NEIGHBOR (approaches MATRYONA). How do you do, granny? Have you come
far?

MATRYONA. Straight from home, dear. Come to see my son. Brought him
some shirts--can't help thinking of these things, you see, when it's
one's own child.

NEIGHBOR. Yes, that's always so. (To Anisya.) And I was thinking of
beginning to bleach the linen, but it is a bit early, no one has begun
yet.

ANISYA. Where's the hurry?

MATRYONA. Well, and has he had communion?

ANISYA. Oh, dear, yes, the priest was here yesterday.

NEIGHBOR. I had a look at him yesterday. Dearie me! one wonders his
body and soul keep together. And, O Lord, the other day he seemed just
at his last gasp, so that they laid him under the holy icons.[1] They
started lamenting and got ready to lay him out.

ANISYA. He came to, and creeps about again.

MATRYONA. Well, and is he to have extreme unction?

ANISYA. The neighbors advise it. If he lives till to-morrow we'll send
for the priest.

NEIGHBOR. Oh, Anisya dear, I should think your heart must be heavy. As
the saying goes, "Not he is sick that's ill in bed, but he that sits
and waits in dread."

ANISYA. Yes, if it were only over one way or other!

NEIGHBOR. Yes, that's true, dying for a year, it's no joke. You're
bound hand and foot like that.

MATRYONA. Ah, but a widow's lot is also bitter. It's all right as long
as one's young, but who'll care for you when you're old? Oh yes, old
age is not pleasure. Just look at me. I've not walked very far, and
yet am so footsore I don't know how to stand. Where's my son?

ANISYA. Ploughing. But you come in and we'll get the samovar ready;
the tea'll set you up again.

MATRYONA (sitting down). Yes, it's true, I'm quite done up, my dears.
As to extreme unction, that's absolutely necessary. Besides, they say
it's good for the soul.

ANISYA. Yes, we'll send to-morrow.

MATRYONA. Yes, you had better. And we've had a wedding down in our
parts.

NEIGHBOR. What, in spring?[2]

MATRYONA. Ah, now if it were a poor man, then, as the saying is, it's
always unseasonable for a poor man to marry. But it's Simon
Matveyitch, he's married that Marina.

ANISYA. What luck for her!

NEIGHBOR. He's a widower. I suppose there are children?

MATRYONA. Four of 'em. What decent girl would have him! Well, so he's
taken her, and she's glad. You see, the vessel was not sound, so the
wine trickled out.

NEIGHBOR. Oh, my! And what do people say to it? And he, a rich
peasant!

MATRYONA. They are living well enough so far.

NEIGHBOR. Yes, it's true enough. Who wants to marry where there are
children? There now, there's our Michael. He's such a fellow, dear
me....

PEASANT'S VOICE. Hullo, Mavra. Where the devil are you? Go and drive
the cow in.

[Exit NEIGHBOR.

MATRYONA (while the NEIGHBOR is within hearing speaks in her ordinary
voice). Yes, lass, thank goodness, she's married. At any rate my old
fool won't go bothering about Nikita. Now (suddenly changing her
tone), she's gone! (Whispers.) I say, did you give him the tea?

ANISYA. Don't speak about it. He'd better die of himself. It's no use
--he doesn't die, and I have only taken a sin on my soul. O-oh, my
head, my head! Oh, why did you give me those powders?

MATRYONA. What of the powders? The sleeping powders, lass,--why not
give them? No evil can come of them.

ANISYA. I am not talking of the sleeping ones, but the others, the
white ones.

MATRYONA. Well, honey, those powders are medicinal.

ANISYA (sighs). I know, yet it's frightening. Though he's worried me
to death.

MATRYONA. Well, and did you use many?

ANISYA. I gave two doses.

MATRYONA. Was anything noticeable?

ANISYA. I had a taste of the tea myself--just a little bitter. And he
drank them with the tea and says, "Even tea disgusts me," and I say,
"Everything tastes bitter when one's sick." But I felt that scared,
mother.

MATRYONA. Don't go thinking about it. The more one thinks the worse it
is.

ANISYA. I wish you'd never given them to me and led me into sin. When
I think of it something seems to tear my heart. Oh, dear, why did you
give them to me?

MATRYONA. What do you mean, honey? Lord help you! Why are you turning
it on to me? Mind, lass, don't go twisting matters from the sick on to
the healthy. If anything were to happen, I stand aside! I know
nothing! I'm aware of nothing! I'll kiss the cross on it; I never gave
you any kind of powders, never saw any, never heard of any, and never
knew there were such powders. You think about yourself, lass. Why, we
were talking about you the other day. "Poor thing, what torture she
endures. The step-daughter an idiot; the old man rotten, sucking her
lifeblood. What wouldn't one be ready to do in such a case!"

ANISYA. I'm not going to deny it. A life such as mine could make one
do worse than that. It could make you hang yourself or throttle him.
Is this a life?

MATRYONA. That's just it. There's no time to stand gaping; the money
must be found one way or other, and then he must have his tea.

ANISYA. O-oh, my head, my head! I can't think what to do. I am so
frightened; he'd better die of himself. I don't want to have it on my
soul.

MATRYONA (viciously). And why doesn't he show the money? Does he mean
to take it along with him? Is no one to have it? Is that right? God
forbid such a sum should be lost all for nothing. Isn't that a sin?
What's he doing? Is he worth considering?

ANISYA. I don't know anything. He's worried me to death.

MATRYONA. What is it you don't know? The business is clear. If you
make a slip now, you'll repent it all your life. He'll give the money
to his sister and you'll be left without.

ANISYA. O--oh dear! Yes, and he did send for her--I must go.

MATRYONA. You wait a bit and light the samovar first. We'll give him
some tea and search him together--we'll find it, no fear.

ANISYA. Oh dear, oh dear; supposing something were to happen.

MATRYONA. What now? What's the good of waiting? Do you want the money
to slip from your hand when it's just in sight? You go and do as I
say.

ANISYA. Well, I'll go and light the samovar.

MATRYONA. Go, honey, do the business so as not to regret it
afterwards. That's right!

[ANISYA turns to go. MATRYONA calls her back.

MATRYONA. Just a word. Don't tell Nikita about the business. He's
silly. God forbid he should find out about the powders. The Lord only
knows what he would do. He's so tender-hearted. D'you know, he usen't
to be able to kill a chicken. Don't tell him. 'Twould be a fine go, he
wouldn't understand things.

[Stops horror-struck as PETER appears in the doorway.

PETER (holding on to the wall, creeps out into the porch and calls
with a faint voice). How's it one can't make you hear? Oh, oh, Anisya!
Who's there?

[Drops on the bench.

ANISYA (steps from behind the corner). Why have you come out? You
should have stayed where you were lying.

PETER. Has the girl gone for Martha? It's very hard.... Oh, if only
death would come quicker!

ANISYA. She had no time. I sent her to the river. Wait a bit, I'll go
myself when I'm ready.

PETER. Send Nan. Where's she? Oh, I'm that bad! Oh, death's at hand!

ANISYA. I've sent for her already. Peter. Oh, dear! Then where is she?

ANISYA. Where's she got to, the plague seize her!

PETER. Oh, dear! I can't bear it. All my inside's on fire. It's as if
a gimlet were boring me. Why have you left me as if I were a dog? ...
no one to give me a drink.... Oh ... send Nan to me.

ANISYA. Here she is. Nan, go to father.

[NAN runs in. ANISYA goes behind the corner of the house.

PETER. Go you. Oh ... to Aunt Martha, tell her father wants her; say
she's to come, I want her.

NAN. All right.

PETER. Wait a bit. Tell her she's to come quick. Tell her I'm dying.
O--oh!

NAN. I'll just get my shawl and be off.

[Runs off.

MATRYONA (winking). Now, then, mind and look sharp, lass. Go into the
hut, hunt about everywhere, like a dog that's hunting for fleas: look
under everything, and I'll search him.

ANISYA (to MATRYONA). I feel a bit bolder, somehow, now you're here.
(Goes up to porch. To PETER.) Hadn't I better light the samovar?
Here's Mother Matryona come to see her son; you'll have a cup of tea
with her?

PETER. Well, then, light it.

[ANISYA goes into the house. MATRYONA comes up to the porch.

PETER. How do you do?

MATRYONA (bowing). How d'you do, my benefactor; how d'you do, my
precious ... still ill, I see. And my old man, he's that sorry! "Go,"
says he, "see how he's getting on." He sends his respects to you.

[Bows again.

PETER. I'm dying.

MATRYONA. Ah, yes, Peter Ignatitch, now I look at you I see, as the
saying has it, "Sickness lives where men live." You've shrivelled,
shrivelled, all to nothing, poor dear, now I come to look at you.
Seems illness does not add to good looks.

PETER. My last hour has come.

MATRYONA. Oh well, Peter Ignatitch, it's God's will you know, you've
had communion, and you'll have unction, God willing. Your missus is a
wise woman, the Lord be thanked; she'll give you a good burial, and
have prayers said for your soul, all most respectable! And my son,
he'll look after things meanwhile.

PETER. There'll be no one to manage things! She's not steady. Has her
head full of folly--why, I know all about it, I know. And my girl is
silly and young. I've got the homestead together, and there's no one
to attend to things. One can't help feeling it.

[Whimpers.

MATRYONA. Why, if it's money, or something, you can leave orders?

PETER (to Anisya inside the house). Has Nan gone?

MATRYONA (aside). There now, he's remembered!

ANISYA (from inside). She went then and there. Come inside, won't you?
I'll help you in.

PETER. Let me sit here a bit for the last time. The air's so stuffy
inside. Oh, how bad I feel! Oh, my heart's burning.... Oh, if death
would only come!

MATRYONA. If God don't take a soul, the soul can't go out. Death and
life are in God's will. Peter Ignatitch. You can't be sure of death
either. Maybe you'll recover yet. There was a man in our village just
like that, at the very point of death....

PETER. No, I feel I shall die to-day, I feel it.

[Leans back and shuts his eyes.

ANISYA (enters). Well, now, are you coming in or not? You do keep one
waiting. Peter! eh, Peter!

MATRYONA (steps aside and beckons to ANISYA with her finger). Well?

ANISYA (comes down the porch steps). Not there.

MATRYONA. But have you searched everywhere? Under the floor?

ANISYA. No, it's not there either. In the shed perhaps; he was
rummaging there yesterday.

MATRYONA. Go, search, search for all you're worth. Go all over
everywhere, as if you licked with your tongue! But I see he'll die
this very day, his nails are turning blue and his face looks earthy.
Is the samovar ready?

ANISYA. Just on the boil.

NIKITA (comes from the other side, if possible on horse-back, up to
the gate, and does not see PETER. To MATRYONA). How d'you do, mother,
is all well at home?

MATRYONA. The Lord be thanked, we're all alive and have a crust to
bite.

NIKITA. Well and how's master?

MATRYONA. Hush, there he sits.

[Points to porch.

NIKITA. Well, let him sit. What's it to me?

PETER (opens his eyes). Nikita, I say, Nikita, come here!

[NIKITA approaches. ANISYA and MATRYONA whisper together.

PETER. Why have you come back so early?

NIKITA. I've finished ploughing.

PETER. Have you done the strip beyond the bridge?

NIKITA. It's too far to go there.

PETER. Too far? From here it's still farther. You'll have to go on
purpose now. You might have made one job of it.

[ANISYA, without showing herself, stands and listens.

MATRYONA (approaches). Oh, sonny, why don't you take more pains for
your master? Your master is ill and depends on you; you should serve
him as you would your own father, straining every muscle just as I
always tell you to.

PETER. Well, then--o--oh!... Get out the seed potatoes, and the women
will go and sort them.

ANISYA (aside). No fear, I'm not going. He's again sending every one
away; he must have the money on him now, and wants to hide it
somewhere.

PETER. Else ... o--oh! when the time comes for planting, they'll all
be rotten. Oh, I can't stand it!

[Rises.

MATRYONA (runs up into the porch and holds PETER up). Shall I help you
into the hut?

PETER. Help me in. (Stops.) Nikita!

NIKITA (angrily). What now?

PETER. I shan't see you again.... I'll die to-day.... Forgive me,[3]
for Christ's sake, forgive me if I have ever sinned against you.... If
I have sinned in word or deed.... There's been all sorts of things.
Forgive me!

NIKITA. What's there to forgive? I'm a sinner myself.

MATRYONA. Ah, sonny, have some feeling.

PETER. Forgive me, for Christ's sake.

[Weeps.

NIKITA (snivels). God will forgive you, Daddy Peter. I have no cause
to complain of you. You've never done me any wrong. You forgive me;
maybe I've sinned worse against you. (Weeps.)

[PETER goes in whimpering, MATRYONA supporting him.

ANISYA. Oh, my poor head! It's not without some reason he's hit on
that. (Approaches NIKITA.) Why did you say the money was under the
floor? It's not there.

NIKITA (does not answer, but cries). I have never had anything bad
from him, nothing but good, and what have I gone and done!

ANISYA. Enough now! Where's the money?

NIKITA (angrily). How should I know? Go and look for it yourself!

ANISYA. What's made you so tender?

NIKITA. I am sorry for him,--that sorry. How he cried! Oh, dear!

ANISYA. Look at him,--seized with pity! He has found some one to pity
too! He's been treating you like a dog, and even just now was giving
orders to have you turned out of the house. You'd better show me some
pity!

NIKITA. What are you to be pitied for?

ANISYA. If he dies, and the money's been hidden away....

NIKITA. No fear, he'll not hide it....

ANISYA. Oh, Nikita darling! he's sent for his sister, and wants to
give it to her. It will be a bad lookout for us. How are we going to
live, if he gives her the money? They'll turn me out of the house! You
try and manage somehow! You said he went to the shed last night.

NIKITA. I saw him coming from there, but where he's shoved it to, who
can tell?

ANISYA. Oh, my poor head! I'll go and have a look there.

[NIKITA steps aside.

MATRYONA (comes out of the hut and down the steps of the porch to
ANISYA and NIKITA). Don't go anywhere. He's got the money on him. I
felt it on a string round his neck.

ANISYA. Oh my head, my head!

MATRYONA. If you don't keep wide awake now, then you may whistle for
it. If his sister comes--then good-bye to it!

ANISYA. That's true. She'll come and he'll give it her. What's to be
done? Oh, my poor head!

MATRYONA. What is to be done? Why, look here; the samovar is boiling,
go and make the tea and pour him out a cup, and then (whispers) put in
all that's left in the paper. When he's drunk the cup, then just take
it. He'll not tell, no fear.

ANISYA. Oh! I'm afeared!

MATRYONA. Don't be talking now, but look alive, and I'll keep his
sister off if need be. Mind, don't make a blunder! Get hold of the
money and bring it here, and Nikita will hide it.

ANISYA. Oh my head, my head! I don't know how I'm going to....

MATRYONA. Don't talk about it I tell you, do as I bid you. Nikita!

NIKITA. What is it?

MATRYONA. You stay here--sit down--in case something is wanted.

NIKITA (waves his hand). Oh, these women, what won't they be up to?
Muddle one up completely. Bother them! I'll really go and fetch out
the potatoes.

MATRYONA (catches him by the arm). Stay here, I tell you.

[NAN enters.

ANISYA. Well?

NAN. She was down in her daughter's vegetable plot--she's coming.

ANISYA. Coming! What shall we do?

MATRYONA. There's plenty of time if you do as I tell you.

ANISYA. I don't know what to do; I know nothing, my brain's all in a
whirl. Nan! Go, daughter, and see to the calves, they'll have run
away, I'm afraid.... Oh dear, I haven't the courage.

MATRYONA. Go on! I should think the samovar's boiling over.

ANISYA. Oh my head, my poor head!

[Exit.

MATRYONA (approaches NIKITA). Now then, sonny. (Sits down beside him.)
Your affairs must also be thought about, and not left anyhow.

NIKITA. What affairs?

MATRYONA. Why, this affair--how you're to live your life.

NIKITA. How to live my life? Others live, and I shall live!

MATRYONA. The old man will probably die to-day.

NIKITA. Well, if he dies, God give him rest! What's that to me?

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Turkey is restoring the citizenship of its most famous 20th century poet Nazim Hikmet over 50 years after it branded him a traitor.

Hikmet, a communist who died in exile in Moscow in 1963, was imprisoned in Turkey for more than a decade. He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 1951 because of his communist views, but despite a ban on his poetry which remained in place until 1965, has remained one of Turkey's best-loved poets. His work, much of which was written in prison, including his masterpiece Human Landscapes, has been translated into more than 50 languages.

"This is very good news," said Richard McKane, Hikmet's English translator. "The restoration of his Turkish citizenship is long overdue: the people of Turkey and his readers are owed that."

Immortalised by Pablo Neruda, with whom he shared the Soviet Union's International Peace Prize in 1950, with the lines "Thanks for what you were and for the fire / which your song left forever burning", Hikmet was also supported by Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, when given the editorship for a day of Turkish newspaper Radikal two years ago, used the example of Hikmet in his cover story to criticise the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey. In 2000, 500,000 Turks petitioned the government to restore Hikmet's citizenship rights and repatriate his remains.

Deputy prime minister Cemil Cicek told the Associated Press that it was time for the government to change its mind about Hikmet. "The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered a crime," the BBC quoted him as saying.

Hikmet, whose remains are currently in Russia, had said that he wished to be buried in Turkey in his 1953 poem Testament, translated by Ruth Christie. "Friends if it's not my lot to see the day / of independence... / if I die before that day / - and it seems I will - / bury me in a village graveyard in Anatolia / and if it's fitting / and a plane tree grows at my head, / then there's no need for a gravestone or anything else."

Cicek said that Hikmet's family would now decide whether to ship his remains back to his homeland.

Hikmet introduced free verse to Turkey in the 1930s, with his themes ranging from war to love. Despite his imprisonment he retained a deep passion for Turkey. "I love my country", he wrote in one of his poems. "I swung in its lofty trees, I lay in its prisons. Nothing relieves my depression like the songs and tobacco of my country."

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