The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

Once again editor and poet were extremely surprised, but the professor beckoned them both to him, and when they leaned towards him, whispered: ‘Bear in mind that Jesus did exist.’ ‘You see, Professor,’ Berlioz responded with a forced smile, ‘we respect your great learning, but on this question we hold to a different point of view.’ ‘There’s no need for any points of view,’ the strange professor replied, ‘he simply existed, that’s all.’ ‘But there’s need for some proof . . .’ Berlioz began. ‘There’s no need for any proofs,’ replied the professor, and he began to speak softly, while his accent for some reason disappeared: ‘It’s all very simple: In a white cloak with blood-red lining, with the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan . . .’