Genghis Khan

47.
ENTERS, PROUD AND DEFIANT. HE IS
A HUSKY }10NGOL GENERAL, STILL YOUNG.
GENGHIS KH.~'J DOES NOT LOOK AT HIH,
DOES NOT SPEAK Hvf1'1£DIATEL Y.
. GENGHIS KHAN
(CALMLY) /ke11, Tobotai? Why did you come back? Not enough
courage? / I have always been generous to my troops. All the
less re~ 'son that you, a valiant :Mongol officer--you who have
served;me so many years-- You deserted! Why? What were you
plotting? You have betrayed me and the Mongol people~
TO BOT AI
Don't raise yo~r voice to me. I don't consider you the Mongol
people.
GENGHIS KHAN'
What.} wb.o, then, has led the Mongol people? Who has sent
the hooves of Mongol horses thundering across the continent?
. TOBOTAI
The hooves of our horses thunder, but is it the will of the
Mongol people? Or is it only the spectacle of your own ambition?
You pretend to lead the Mongol people, yet you have
led them only from one battlefield to another, from one massacre
to another. Your only goal is to conquer, for your
personal profit, all the thrones o= the continent--of Tangut,
of China, of Persia, of Arabia, and now of Shensi. You are
seated on a sea of blood--the blood of the :Mongols. It is
you who are the traitor of our people!
GENGHIS KHAN
And that is .the reason you left me?
TO BOT AI
No. Not exactly. In truth, I left in search of--in search
of the green bank of a river. I ·wanted to stretch out in
the grass and spend the rest of my useless life watching the
water flow by. I was tired. I'd had enough--enough of everything.
GENGHIS KHA!'\J'
(CONTEMPTUOUSLY) The green bank of a river~ You expect me
to believe--so there: there is all the ambition of a Mongol
officer!
TO BOT AI
But I found it was useless~ Everything is useless.
GENGHIS KHAN
So you came back. What's stopping you from kneeling to me
now, and begging mercy?