Copenhagen - Michael Frayn [9]
Heisenberg Their four children living, and their two children dead.
Margrethe Harald. Lying alone in that ward.
Bohr She’s thinking about Christian and Harald.
Heisenberg The two lost boys. Harald …
Bohr All those years alone in that terrible ward.
Heisenberg And Christian. The firstborn. The eldest son.
Bohr And once again I see those same few moments that I see every day.
Heisenberg Those short moments on the boat, when the tiller slams over in the heavy sea, and Christian is falling.
Bohr If I hadn’t let him take the helm …
Heisenberg Those long moments in the water.
Bohr Those endless moments in the water.
Heisenberg When he’s struggling towards the lifebuoy.
Bohr So near to touching it.
Margrethe I’m at Tisvilde. I look up from my work. There’s Niels in the doorway, silently watching me. He turns his head away, and I know at once what’s happened.
Bohr So near, so near! So slight a thing!
Heisenberg Again and again the tiller slams over. Again and again …
Margrethe Niels turns his head away …
Bohr Christian reaches for the lifebuoy …
Heisenberg But about some things even they never speak.
Bohr About some things even we only think.
Margrethe Because there’s nothing to be said.
Bohr Well … perhaps we should be warm enough. You suggested a stroll.
Heisenberg In fact the weather is remarkably warm.
Bohr We shan’t be long.
Heisenberg A week at most.
Bohr What—our great hike through Zealand?
Heisenberg We went to Elsinore. I often think about what you said there.
Bohr You don’t mind, my love? Half-an-hour?
Heisenberg An hour, perhaps. No, the whole appearance of Elsinore, you said, was changed by our knowing that Hamlet had lived there. Every dark corner there reminds us of the darkness inside the human soul …
Margrethe So, they’re walking again. He’s done it. And if they’re walking they’re talking. Talking in a rather different way, no doubt—I’ve typed out so much in my time about how differently particles behave when they’re unobserved … I knew Niels would never hold out if they could just get through the first few minutes. If only out of curiosity .… Now they’re started an hour will mean two, of course, perhaps three .… The first thing they ever did was to go for a walk together. At Göttingen, after that lecture. Niels immediately went to look for the presumptuous young man who’d queried his mathematics, and swept him off for a tramp in the country. Walk—talk—make his acquaintance. And when Heisenberg arrived here to work for him, off they go again, on their great tour of Zealand. A lot of this century’s physics they did in the open air. Strolling around the forest paths at Tisvilde. Going down to the beach with the children. Heisenberg holding Christian’s hand. Yes, and every evening in Copenhagen, after dinner, they’d walk round Faelled Park behind the Institute, or out along Langelinie into the harbour. Walk, and talk. Long, long before walls had ears … But this time, in 1941, their walk takes a different course. Ten minutes after they set out … they’re back! I’ve scarcely had the table cleared when there’s Niels in the doorway. I see at once how upset he is—he can’t look me in the eye.
Bohr Heisenberg wants to say goodbye. He’s leaving.
Margrethe He won’t look at me, either.
Heisenberg Thank you. A delightful evening. Almost like old times. So kind of you.
Margrethe You’ll have some coffee? A glass of something?
Heisenberg I have to get back and prepare for my lecture.
Margrethe But you’ll come and see us again before you leave?
Bohr He has a great deal to do.
Margrethe It’s like the worst moments of 1927 all over again, when Niels came back from Norway and first read Heisenberg’s uncertainty paper. Something they both seemed to have forgotten about earlier in the evening, though I hadn’t. Perhaps they’ve both suddenly remembered that time. Only from the look on their faces something even worse has happened.
Heisenberg Forgive me if I’ve done or said anything that …
Bohr Yes, yes.
Heisenberg It meant a great deal to me, being here