Source language: English
"Let us raise another glass,father. To hope again."
"to hope, Sancho." And they clicked their glasses. The night was beginning to turn from cool to cold, but the wine still warmed them, and Father Quixote had no desire to hasten towards the city he disliked and breathe the fumes of the lorries, which continued to pass along the road in a chain of headlights.
"Your glass is empty ,father".
"thank you. a drop more. You are a good fellow, Sancho. I seem to remember that our two ancestors lay down for the night under the trees more than once. there are no trees here. but there is a castle wall. In the morning we will demand entrance, but now...Give me a little more of the cheese."
"I am happy to be lying under the great symbol of the hammer and the sickle".
"The poor sickle has been rather neglected in Russia, don't you think, or they wouldn't have to buy so much wheat from the Americans?"
"A temporary shortage, father. we can't yet control the climate." "but God can."
"do you really believe that?" "yes".
"ah,you indulge too much, father,in a dangerous drug,as dangerous as the old Don's books of chivalry". "what drug?" "opium"
"oh, I understand. that old saying of your prophet Marx- "Religion is the opium of the people." but you take it out of the context, Sancho. just as our heretics have twisted the words of our lord."
"I don't follow you, Monsignor."
"you should look at "Das Kapital" again. there is no talk of opium there".
"all the same, he wrote it-though I forget for a moment where"
"yes, but he wrote it in the nineteenth century, Sancho. opium then was not an evil drug-laudanum was a tranquilizer-nothing worse. a tranquilizer for the well-to-do, one which the poor could not afford. religion is the valium of the poor- that was all he meant. better for them than a visit to a gin palace. better for them perhaps even than this wine. man can't live without a tranquilizer."
"then perhaps we should kill another bottle?"
"say half a bottle if we are to arrive safely in Madrid. too much opium can be dangerous".