Fragment from Goderdzi Chokheli’s novel “Human Sadness,” 1984 (Translation)

“Sorrow No. 167”

Bibghai (the village deacon)

— What troubles you?
— You know what troubles me.
— I know what troubled you before, but could it be that today something else troubles you?
— I will still build that house, but for that it is necessary…

Bibghai fell silent for a moment and then, for who knows which time already, began the memorized story:

— My neighbors, you know, I do not know how to lie. I have had the project ready for a long time now—you know this well yourselves, and so does Gamikharadai. To build this house, you must give me the village square, and you must also help me with the construction. I do not want such a big house only for myself.

— How many rooms will there be? — asked Seba.
— I have decided on five hundred rooms.
— Five hundred? And what do we need so many for, or where will we get the materials?
— We will find the materials. Let us dismantle all the houses we have and build one big house, go inside and live sweetly—what difference does it make? We want to be together anyway. Everything will be inside that house. First, a dining hall with twenty rooms will be built.

— What do we need so many rooms for? — said Tatia.
— How can you ask what for? If there is eating, then eating must be done properly.
— Still, so many rooms…
— In the first room, you will take off your shoes, in the second room, you will take off your coat, in the third room, you will remove your hat and hang it up, in the fourth room, you will take off your belt…
— Do women have to undress too? — asked Salome.
— No, women—well, only occasionally.
— What do you mean, occasionally?
— Whoever wants to will take things off; whoever does not want, she does not have to.
— What will be in the fifth room?
— The fifth is the spoon room: you take a spoon and go on to the sixth, where the plates are stacked, and so you go on… In every room, there is extreme order, and everything is clean. When you reach the tenth room, a pot of borscht will be waiting for you. You pour the borscht and go on to the eleventh room.

— And what is in the eleventh room?
— The eleventh is the cherry room, but…
— But what? That’s good.
— It is good, but we may have to abolish it.
— Why?
— Where will we get cherries in winter?
— When there are no cherries, we can store something else in the eleventh.
— Yes, that’s also possible, though that issue still troubles me.
— Does it trouble you a lot? — asked Gamikharadai and prepared to write.
— Very much so, — said Bibghai.
— Does nothing else trouble you?
— The fifteenth room troubles me as well.
— What is in the fifteenth?
— In the fifteenth there are strawberries, and in winter…
— Which other room troubles you?
— In the other rooms, everything is fine. In the sixteenth room, there are khinkali; in the seventeenth, there are greens and spices; in the eighteenth, there are apples; in the nineteenth, there are tables: you sit down, arrange the food, enjoy yourself nicely, and then you go out into the twentieth room. There, the beds are spread; you lie down and fall asleep.

When Bibghai finished describing the dining hall, he looked proudly at his neighbors and asked:

— Well, how is it?
— It’s good, but…
— But what?
— Do we really have to dismantle the old houses to build that house?
— Yes, yes. First of all, the old ones are no good for anything anymore; second, why live separately—being together is better. Which old house has such a dining hall? And third, materials are needed.

— And regarding materials, nothing troubles you? — asked Gamikharadai.
— For now, no.
— What will we roof that house with? — asked the young man, Gogi.
— Let us roof it with tin, so it will start to glitter and hurt our enemies’ eyes, blind them, — said Bibghai and looked at his neighbors.

— Let me go, or I’ll stone that tin roof to pieces! — shouted Galilei, who until now had been listening silently to the story of the dining hall.
— Whoever harms this house will not enter its dining hall either, — said Bibghai.
— I’ll smash your heads! I’ll go only into the cherry room! — Galilei shouted.
— You’d better behave sensibly.
— Will your house have a room for chickens? — Galilei asked quietly.
— It will have one for chickens and one for donkeys.
— Do you know what I’ll do to you?
— What will you do to us?
— When you finish eating in the nineteenth and go to sleep in the twentieth…
— We will sleep.
— Yes, you’ll sleep soundly.
— We will sleep soundly.
— And then I’ll come in and smash the heads of you sleepers! — said Galilei and laughed with satisfaction.

Translation by Nina Chkareuli, January 2026