Márkus. You know, dear, that I don’t want that. Just some smaller parts. I would be ecstatic if you would see me perform. I was with poor Sziklay, now I perform theater in the round at the park. I play there through Monday.

Director. I regret that I have no free time until Tuesday.

Márkus. Then I will prolong it.

Director. Do not prolong it, child. Do not prolong it on my account. And now I am very busy. Not another word about your roles. I still have some openings for chorus girls.

Márkus sadly. Chorus girls?

Director. Well, what did you think, child, that I was hiring ladies-in-waiting?

Márkus. No … but it’s monstrous, that a woman who played Éva should go into the chorus.

Director. Éva?

Márkus. In The Tragedy of Man.

Director. That was condensed as well?

Márkus. But of course. Into a single act. But with the original music.

Director. That’s reassuring.

Márkus. It would be humiliating, to start over again in the chorus.

Director. Hmph, such is life.

As I expected, the theatrical allusions caused me some problems. There’s a reference to “Kőszínház”, “Stone Theater”, which I’m pretty sure is a nickname. (I found out on Wikipedia that a theater in Szolnok is nicknamed that, for example; it replaced a theater that was built of wood.) I ended up translating it as “a real theater, one built of stone”, which spells out the allusion in terms a modern audience can comprehend. The line about “poor Sziklay” is baffling; grammatically, it could be “I was at poor Sziklay’s house”, but that would make no sense in context, or maybe she played a role called “Poor Sziklay” (although I’m not sure that works, grammatically), or it might be an allusion to the poet Szeréna Sziklay, who died young. I don’t understand what the suffix -nal is doing in that sentence; if I understood the allusion better, I might be able to figure out the grammar, and if I understood the grammar better it might give me a clue to the allusion, but as it is I’m handicapped by my inexperience. Still, at least I can recognize what I’m unsure of, and it’s a small fraction of the text.

Three pages today, which brings my total up to nine, with sixty-six to go.