Boryna briefly regains consciousness and entrusts Hanka with his wishes

Boryna briefly regains consciousness and entrusts Hanka with his wishes in a scene that turns a moment of apparent recovery into a final, practical charge. As he speaks of defending what is theirs, the fields and the family’s material security converge: he reveals where he has hidden cash and tells Hanka to defend Antek, even at the cost of selling half the farm. His lucidity lasts only long enough to pass that responsibility on before he collapses again.

The sudden awakening

The moment begins amid ordinary household concerns, but the household is already listening for news from beyond its walls. Hanka has given her father, old Bylica, something to eat and is recounting Rocho’s news of Antek when Magda bursts in to say that something has happened to her father. Inside, Boryna is sitting at the edge of the bed, looking around the room. Hanka rushes to support him in case he falls; his gaze moves over her and then fixes on the door as Antek's Brother-in-law enters unexpectedly. The others do not know what to say, and Magda begins to cry.

Boryna’s first words return to the farm’s working calendar: he asks whether everyone is up and says it is time for the fields. Then he raises his voice to urge the men to defend what is theirs and not give up. The call is forceful, but his body cannot sustain it. He shakes and buckles against Hanka, while Antek's Brother-in-law and The Blacksmith's Wife move to help. Hanka refuses to let them take her place, straining under the effort of holding him upright. The scene sets the strength of Boryna’s command against the visible fragility of the man issuing it.

A brief return, then a private charge

Boryna gives a sudden shout about sowing the barley first and calling the men to help him. He tenses, falls back, closes his eyes, and begins to rattle in his throat. Hanka cries out that he is dying. Magda puts a blessed candle into his limp hand, and Hanka calls for the priest. Before Antek's Brother-in-law can leave, however, Boryna opens his eyes again. The candle falls and breaks into pieces: the object meant to accompany a dying man is interrupted by an unexpected return to awareness.

Antek's Brother-in-law reads the change as a passing episode, but Boryna pushes him away and speaks clearly. He orders the others out, then points insistently at the door when the blacksmith hesitates. The blacksmith leaves, but does not go far: he slips into the orchard and crouches beneath the gable window to listen, because the bedheads stand against that wall and words can be heard through the panes. The attempted privacy of the exchange is therefore fragile. Hanka alone is summoned to the bedside, yet another household member remains close enough to overhear.

Boryna tells Hanka that cash is hidden in the storeroom and instructs her to conceal it so that no one can prise it from her. When she asks where, he specifies that it is in the grain. The revelation is concrete and guarded: money has been placed among the household’s stored provisions, and Hanka is entrusted not merely with knowing of it but with protecting it. His measured, lucid delivery, with pauses for rest between words, makes the disclosure feel like a transfer of responsibility accomplished under severe physical constraint.

Antek, the farm, and the ending of the scene

The charge extends beyond the hidden money. Boryna tells Hanka to defend Antek and says she should sell half the farm if necessary, but not give up. He cannot finish the thought. His face turns blue, he falls back, and his eyes become clouded; he mutters further words and seems to try to rise. Hanka cries out, while Antek's Brother-in-law and Magda return and attempt to revive him with water. He does not come to. He lies motionless, with his eyes open, no longer responsive to what is happening around him.

This exchange links the threatened household’s immediate resources to the contested future of its family. The cash hidden in the grain is something Hanka can protect, while the farm is something she may have to sell in part to carry out the injunction to defend Antek. Boryna does not offer a detailed plan, and the scene does not show what Hanka will ultimately do with either instruction. Instead, it gives her a stark priority: preserve what can be preserved, and do not abandon Antek. The appeal echoes his shouted demand that the men defend what is theirs, but now the public call has narrowed into a private obligation placed on Hanka.

After his collapse, the household falls quiet. Hanka, Magda, and the others remain beside him for a long time; the women weep, and no one speaks. At dusk they leave together, as the room sinks into shadow and the last embers of twilight are reflected in the pond. The ending does not resolve Boryna’s condition or the fate of his instructions. It leaves the broken candle, the concealed cash, and Hanka’s charge as the scene’s material traces of a brief, failing return to speech.