Opera
By Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Translated by Torsten Schwanke
„When I stood before Thee, it was, as if I stood in the face of an Angel!“
(Bible)
(Ariane in front of the cave on the floor, motionless. Naiad on the left. Dryad on the right. Eccho backwards on the wall of the grotto.)
NAIAD.
Is she asleep?
DRYAD.
Is she asleep?
NAIAD.
No! she weeps!
DRYAD.
Weeps in her sleep! hark! she moans.
BOTH.
Ah! so we are used to her.
NAIAD.
Day after day in rigid mourning.
DRYAD.
Ever new bitter lamentations.
NAIAD.
New spasms and shivers of fever.
DRYAD.
Sore heart for ever, forever -
ECCHO.
Forever! Forever!
DRYAD.
Unreconciled!
ALL THREE.
Ah, we are accustomed to it
Like the gentle sway of leaves,
Like the gentle swaying of the waves
Glides over us.
Her tears, her lamentations,
Oh, for how many, how many days,
They hardly weigh down the mind!
ARIANE.
(to the earth)
Where was I? dead? and live, live again
And still live?
And yet it is no life that I live!
Dismembered heart, do you want to beat on forever?
(Half straightens up.)
What have I dreamed? Alas! already forgotten!
My head keeps nothing more;
Only shadows pass
Through a shadow.
And yet, something then jerks up and hurts so!
Alas!
ECCHO.
Alas!
(In the scenery.)
HARLEQUIN.
How young and beautiful and sad beyond measure!
COLOMBINE.
From the front like a child, but under the eye like darkness!
BRIGHELLA, TRUFFALDINO.
And hard, very hard to comfort, I fear!
ARIANE.
(without paying any attention to them; in front of them, monologue.)
A beautiful one was called Theseus
And he walked in the light and rejoiced in life!
Why do I know about it? I want to forget!
This I have only to find: it is shame,
To be shattered like me!
One must shake oneself: yes, this I must find:
The girl was I!
Now I have it – O Gods! that I may keep it!
Not the name - the name is grown together
With another name, one thing grows
So easily into another, ah woe is me!
NAIAD, DRYAD, ECCHO.
(as if they wanted to remind her, to awaken her.)
Ariane!
(Ariane waving them off.)
Not again! She lives here all alone,
She breathes easily, she walks so easily,
Not a stalk moves where she walks,
Her sleep is pure, her mind is clear,
Her heart is louder than the spring:
She keeps well, therefore soon the day comes,
Then she may wrap herself in her cloak,
May cover her face with a shawl
And may lie in there
And be a dead woman!
(She dreams further on.)
(In the scenery.)
HARLEQUIN.
I fear great pain has confused her mind.
COLOMBINE.
Try it with music!
BRIGHELLA, TRUFFALDINO.
Certainly, she's great!
ARIANE
(without turning her head, before them; as if she had heard the last words in her dream.)
Great, but wise, yes! - I know what is good,
If you keep it away from my poor heart.
COLOMBINE.
(in the setting)
Ah, try a little song!
HARLEQUIN
(in the back, singing)
Loving, hating, hoping, trembling,
All lust and all anguish,
All a heart can bear
Once for a time!
But neither lust nor pain,
Nor pain, nor pleasure,
That is fatal to your heart,
And so you must not be!
You must lift thee out of darkness,
Even if it were for a new torment,
You must live, dear life,
Live this life one more time!
(Eccho repeats soullessly like a bird the melody of Harlequin's song.)
(Ariane motionless, dreaming.)
COLOMBINE
(half aloud)
She does not even raise her head.
HARLEQUIN
(likewise)
It is all in vain. I felt it while singing.
(Eccho repeats the melody again.)
COLOMBINE.
You're all out of tune.
HARLEQUIN.
I've never been so moved by a human being.
COLOMBINE.
So you are with every woman...
HARLEQUIN.
And you perhaps not with every man?
ARIANE
There is a realm where all is pure:
It has a name, too: Realm of the Dead.
(She lifts herself from the ground as she speaks.)
Here nothing is pure!
Here everything came to everything!
(She pulls her robe tightly around her.)
But soon a messenger approaches,
Hermes they call him.
With his staff
He rules the souls:
Like light birds,
Like withered leaves
He drives them away.
Thou beautiful, silent God! Look! Ariane is waiting!
Alas, from all wild pain
The heart must be cleansed,
Then your face will nod to me,
Thy footstep will be before my cave,
Darkness will be on my eyes,
Thy hand upon my heart shall be.
In the beautiful ceremonial dresses
That my mother gave to me,
These limbs shall remain,
Beautifully adorned and all alone,
A silent cave shall be my grave.
But silently my soul
Follows its new master,
Like a light leaf in the wind,
Follows down, follows so gladly.
You will set me free,
Give me myself back,
This burdensome life
You'll take it from me,
To you I'll lose myself completely,
With you Ariane will be for ever.
(Harlequin, daring; Brighella, young, clumsy; Scaramuccio, crook, fifty years old; Truffaldino, silly old man; behind them COLOMBINE. They come onto the stage from the front and prepare to cheer Ariane up with a dance. COLOMBINE remains at the side of the scenery. Eccho, Naiad, Dryad have disappeared during Ariane's monologue.)
ALL FOUR.
The lady with a gloomy mind
ives herself too much to grief.
Whatever evil has befallen her,
Time passes and erases the trace.
We know how to respect
Love's woes,
But dull languishing
Let us avoid.
To cheer her up,
Come humbly near
With her companion,
This pretty child.
(They dance.)
It is a question of whether dancing,
Whether singing is good,
To dry from tears
A beautiful eye.
It dries tears
The flattering sun.
It dries tears
The loose wind:
To cheer her up
Command the attendant,
O sad lady,
This pretty child.
COLOMBINE
(Meanwhile the four continue to dance)
How they swing,
Dancing and singing,
Would one please
Or the other,
I like it already.
But the princess
Closes her eyes,
She doesn't like the way,
She does not love the sound.
(By stepping between the four dancers.)
Go on! Leave it! You are a burden!
THE FOUR.
(continuing to dance)
Cheering her up,
Order the attendant,
O sad lady,
The pretty child!
But how we dance,
But how we sing,
Whatever we bring,
We have no happiness.
COLOMBINE.
(forcibly pushing them away)
So stop the dancing,
Stop the singing,
Withdraw! Back!
Don't you understand?
You're just a nuisance!
(She's taking them away. The four off, two to the right, two to the left.)
COLOMBINE.
(begins with a deep bow to Ariane)
Great princess, who would not understand,
That the sadness of such illustrious and exalted person
Must be measured by a different yardstick
Than that of mere mortals?
(Approaching a step, yet Ariane pays no heed to her.)
Are we not women among ourselves, and beats not then
In every breast an incomprehensible heart?
(Closer again, with a curtsy. Ariane, not paying attention to her, covers her face.)
To speak of our weakness,
To admit it to ourselves,
Is it not painfully sweet?
And doesn't it make us twitch?
She will not hear me -
Beautiful and proud and motionless,
As if you were the statue on your own tomb -
You want no other familiar
Than this rock and these waves?
(Ariane steps back to the entrance of her cave.)
Princess, hear me, not you alone,
All of us, ah, all of us - what freezes your heart,
Who is the woman who would not have suffered it?
Abandoned! in despair! exposed!
Alas, such desert islands are innumerable
Even in the midst of men, I, I myself,
I have inhabited several of them
And have not learned to curse men!
(Ariane retreats completely into the cave, COLOMBINE directs her further consolations to the invisible one.)
Faithless they are!
Monsters without limits!
A short night,
A hasty day,
A waft of air,
A flowing glance
Transforms their heart!
But are we immune
Against the cruel - the delightful,
The incomprehensible transformations?
Nor do I believe the one to be all mine,
Nor do I think myself so sure,
And in my heart there's a mingling, a beguiling
Already of a freedom never tasted,
Already of a new furtive love
A sweeping, impudent feeling is stirring in!
Nor am I true, yet it is a lie,
I think myself true, and yet I am bad,
With false weights all is weighed,
And half-knowing and half-delirious
I'll betray him at last and still love him right!
Yes, half knowing and half in a frenzy
I'll cheat at last and love him right!
So it was with Pagliazzo
And with Mezzetin!
Then it was Cavicchio,
Then Burattin,
Then Pasquariello!
Ah, and at times,
It seems to me,
There were two!
But never whims,
Always a must!
Always a new
Trembling amazement.
That a heart so completely does not understand itself,
Not understands itself at all!
Each one came as a demi-god
And his very step made me dumb,
He kissed my forehead and cheeks,
I was caught by the demi-god
And turned round and round!
As a demi-god came each one gone,
Each one changed me,
He kissed my mouth and cheeks,
Surrendered I was mute!
Came the new demi-god walking,
I was mute, I was mute, I was mute!
(Eccho invisible, repeats the Rondo, but without lyrics, ad libitum.)
HARLEQUIN.
(leaps out of the door)
Pretty preaching! But deaf ears!
COLOMBINE.
Yes, it seems the lady and I speak different languages.
HARLEQUIN. It would seem so.
COLOMBINE. It is a question whether she will not eventually learn to express herself in mine.
HARLEQUIN. We will wait and see. But what we won't wait for -
(He is close to her in one leap, seeking to embrace her.)
COLOMBINE.
(breaks away)
What do you take me for?
HARLEQUIN.
For a delightful girl whose relations with me are in urgent need of revival -
COLOMBINE.
Impudent! and besides, here!
Two steps from the Princess's flat!
ARLEQUIN.
Pah! Flat, it's a cave.
COLOMBINE.
What difference does it make?
HARLEQUIN.
Very much, it has no windows.
(He tries to kiss her again.)
COLOMBINE.
(breaks away energetically)
I think you'd be really capable!
HARLEQUIN.
Doubt not, of anything!
COLOMBINE.
(measures him with her gaze, half to herself)
To think that there are women who would like him even -
HARLEQUIN.
And to think that you are such a woman from top to bottom!
(Colombine measures him with her gaze. Brighella, Scaramuccio, Truffaldino poke their heads out of the set to the left and right.)
BRIGHELLA, SCARAMUCCIO, TRUFFALDINO.
Shh! Shh! Colombine!
COLOMBINE.
(has eluded Harlequin, runs forward, in front of them, almost ad spectatores)
Men! Dear God, if you really meant us to resist them, why did you make them so different?
(She ends, mid-prose, with a roulade.)
THE FOUR.
To comfort a stubborn one,
Leave that embarrassing business!
Let her not be comforted,
Let her weep, she is right!
(Colombine dances from one to another, knows how to flatter each.)
BRIGHELLA.
(with a silly tone)
But I am not stubborn,
You give a good face.
Ah, I ask no more,
I'm so glad.
SCARAMUCCIO.
(with a sly expression)
On this island
There are pretty places.
Come, let me guide you,
I know the way!
TRUFFALDINO.
(lasciviously lustful)
If only a carriage,
A little horse would be mine,
I'd have the little one,
Soon I where alone!
HARLEQUIN.
(discreetly in the background)
How she wastes
Eyes and hands,
I look in silence
Here to the end!
COLOMBINE.
(dancing from one to the other)
Always a must,
Never a whim,
Always a new
Unspeakable wonder!
(The four, with Colombine, in any entanglement.)
BRIGHELLA.
I am not stubborn.
HARLEQUIN.
I am lurking in silence.
COLOMBINE.
(in dancing)
So it was with Pasquariello
And so with Mezzetin!
SCARAMUCCIO.
If I had the girl -
TRUFFALDINO.
I would know!
COLOMBINE.
(in dancing)
Then with Cavicchio
And with Burattino!
TWO.
Come, let yourself be led,
I lurk in silence!
COLOMBINE.
(in dancing.)
Ah, and at times
Were there two!
TWO.
There are pretty places:
I know about them!
COLOMBINE.
Ah, and at times
There were two!
(She seems to lose a shoe while dancing. Scaramuccio, nimble, seizes the shoe and kisses it. She lets him put it on her, leaning on Truffaldino, who has fallen at her feet from the other side.)
COLOMBINE.
(on Truffaldino)
How fierily he humbles himself!
(On Scaramuccio, to whom she holds out the inside of her hand for a kiss)
How the pressure returns the pressure!
COLOMBINE AND SCARAMUCCIO.
Hand and lip, mouth and hand,
What a twitching magic band!
(Scaramuccio and Truffaldino step back right and left. Brighella leaps deftly to clasp Colombine, she deftly slips from his grasp.)
COLOMBINE.
(dances again)
Do I make him jealous of this one,
Will the stiff - how lithe
Will the stiff lad turn!
BRIGHELLA.
(stiffly dancing and singing)
Will she make me envious of these,
Oh, how I'll turn supple
Around the pretty babe!
SCARAMUCCIO.
(likewise dancing)
Makes she envy us on this one,
He, how all supple,
Ho, around her favour revolve!
TRUFFALDINO.
(likewise)
How they each supple,
One upon another envious,
Without pause knows how to spin!
(As the three turn, Colombine throws herself backwards into Harlequin's arms and hastens to disappear with him.)
SCARAMUCCIO, BRIGHELLA, TRUFFALDINO.
(find themselves alone)
My shoe!
My look!
My hand!
That was the sign,
Cleverly from the circle I must steal!
The heavenly being awaits me,
She has chosen me as her friend!
(All three creep stealthily into the doors, and immediately Scaramuccio, coming from the right, appears in front of the stage.)
SCARAMUCCIO.
(to himself)
Shh, where is she? Where might she be?
(Peering around, walks around stage right.
BRIGHELLA.
(reveals, coming from the left, quietly dumbfounded.)
Shh, where is she? Where might she be?
(Turns right, collides with the returning Scaramuccio.)
TRUFFALDINO.
(reveals, coming from the left, at the left corner at the very moment Brighella takes the first step to the right.)
Shh, where is she? Where might she be?
(Collides with the two who have collided; all three of them stagger into the middle.)
ALL THREE
(of them, each in his own way)
Damn coincidence!
But she don't recognise me!
(Colombine and Harlequin have reappeared at the front left)
COLOMBINE.
That a heart, so even understands itself,
Nor understands itself!
BRIGHELLA, SCARAMUCCIO, TRUFFALDINO.
(look at each other)
Ssh!
HARLEQUIN.
Ah, how lovely, finely jointed!
COLOMBINE.
Hand and lip, mouth and hand!
THE THREE.
Ai! Ai!
HARLEQUIN AND COLOMBINE
(together)
Hand and lip, mouth and hand,
What a twitching magic band!
THE THREE
(by dancing away angry and sorrowful)
Ai! ai! ai! The thief! The thief!
The base, base thief!
Ai! ai! ai! ai!
(The stage remains empty after the five masks - Colombine, Harlequin etc. - have left. Interlude by the orchestra, referring to Bacchus, quite strange, mysterious; then: Naiad, Dryad, Eccho appear, almost simultaneously, hastily from right, left and backwards.)
DRYAD.
(excitedly)
A beautiful miracle!
NAIAD.
A lovely boy!
DRYAD.
A young god!
ECCHO.
A young god, a young god!
DRYAD.
So you know?
NAIAD.
The name?
DRYAD.
Bacchus!
NAIAD.
Hear me!
ECCHO.
Hear me, hear me!
DRYAD.
His mother died in childbirth.
NAIAD.
A king's daughter.
DRYAD.
One of God's beloved, one of God's beloved!
NAIAD.
God‘s what?
ECCHO
(enthusiastically)
One of God's beloved, one of God's beloved!
NAIAD
(eagerly)
God‘s what?
DRYAD.
But the little one - listen - nymphs,
Nymphs brought him up!
ECCHO
(excitedly)
Nymphs raised him!
Nymphs brought him up!
NAIAD, DRYAD.
Nymphs! the tender, divine child!
ALL THREE.
Oh, that it had not been us.
ECCHO
(birdlike)
Ah, that it had not been us.
DRYAD.
He grows like the flame under the wind.
NAIAD.
He is no longer a child – now a boy and a man!
DRYAD.
Quick to ship with wild companions!
NAIAD.
Nightly in the wind he sets the sails!
DRYAD.
He at the helm, he at the helm.
NAIAD.
Bold! the lad!
ECCHO
(birdlike)
He at the wheel.
DRYAD, NAIAD.
Hail the first adventure!
ECCHO.
He at the wheel, he at the wheel!
DRYAD.
The first dventure! You know what it was?
NAIAD.
Circe! Circe! at her island
The ship lands, to her palace
The foot floats, nightly with torches -
DRYAD
(takes the word from her mouth)
At the threshold she receives him,
To the table she draws him,
Brought the food, brought the drink -
NAIAD
(eagerly)
The magic potion! the magic lips!
All too sweet a gift of love!
ECCHO.
Too sweet a gift of love!
DRYAD
(triumphant in tone)
But the boy - but the boy! -
How she insolently and arrogantly
Waving him at her feet -
Her arts are in vain,
For no beast sinks to the earth!
ALL THREE.
All arts are in vain,
Because no beast sinks to earth!
DRYAD.
From her arms wrested,
Pale and wondering, without mockery -
Not changed, not bound,
A young god stands before her!
ALL THREE.
Not changed, not bound,
A young god stands before her!
ECCHO.
(birdlike enraptured)
Not transformed!
NAIAD, DRYAD
(at the entrance of the cave)
Ariane!!!
NAIAD.
Is she asleep?
DRYAD.
Is she asleep?
NAIAD.
No! she hears us!
ECCHO.
Not turned!
DRYAD
(reporting to Ariane)
A beautiful miracle!
NAIAD.
A boy! A god!
DRYAD
(always towards the cave)
Yesterday the guest of Circe,
Lying with her at the feast,
Sipping the magic potion -
ECCHO.
Not changed! Not changed!
NAIAD.
He is here with us today!
DRYAD.
Do you hear?
NAIAD.
Do you hear?
THE TWO
(quietly)
Ariane...
(Bacchus' voice becomes audible. At the same moment, as if drawn forth by magic, Ariane steps out of the cave, listening. The three nymphs, listening, step sideways and backwards.)
BACCHUS
(appears on the rock, invisible to Ariane and the nymphs)
Circe, can you hear me?
You have done me almost nothing -
But they are all yours,
What are you doing to them?
Circe, I escaped,
See, I can smile and rest -
Circe, what was your will
To do to me?
ARIANE
(into his singing, before him, softly)
He reaches through all pain,
Dissolving old agony:
To the heart in the heart he reaches.
NAIAD, DRYAD, ECCHO
(softly, timidly)
Sound, sound, sweet voice,
Strange bird, sing again,
Your laments revive,
We delight in such songs!
BACCHUS
(melancholy, sweet)
But since I unchanged
From thee have gone,
What clings the sultry feelings
To this dazed mind?
As if I were in drowsy herbs
A forest beast! -
Circe - what you were not allowed to do,
Is it not done to me?
ARIANE.
O messenger of death!...
Sweet is thy voice!
Balm to the blood,
And slumber to the soul!
NAIAD, DRYAD, ECCHO
(after the voice seems to cease, softly)
Sound, sound, sweet voice,
Sweet voice, sound again!
Thy lamentations revive!
Your songs delight us!
BACCHUS
(cheerfully, with something like graceful mockery)
Circe, I have escaped!
Circe, I have escaped!
See, I can smile and rest!
Circe - what was your will
To do to me?
ARIANE
(at the same time with him, her eyes closed, her hands raised towards the direction from which the voice sounds, softly)
Do not load too lavishly
With nightly delight
Ahead the weak mind!
Who long awaits thee,
Take her away!
(Bacchus steps out, stands before Ariane.)
ARIANE
(in a sudden fright, beats her hands before her face.)
Theseus!
(Then quickly bending down.)
No! no! it is the beautiful silent god!
I greet you, messenger of all messengers!
(Naiad, Dryad, Eccho have retreated on all sides in deep denial.)
*
(Ariane, Bacchus)
BACCHUS
(very young, tenderest in tone.)
You beautiful creature! Are you the Goddess of this island?
Is this cave thy palace? are these thy servants?
Do you sing magic songs at your loom?
Do you take the stranger in there
And lie with him at meal,
And dost thou water him there with a magic potion?
And ah, who gives himself to thee,
Dost thou change him too?
Alas! Art thou such a sorceress too?
ARIANE.
I know not what thou sayest.
Is it, my Lord, that thou wilt proof me?
My mind is confused with many lies,
Without consolation!...
I live here and wait for thee, I wait for thee
For nights and days, how many, I know it no more!
BACCHUS.
How? do you know me? Did you know of me before?
You greeted me with my name.
ARIANE.
No! no! It is not you,
My mind is confused!..
BACCHUS.
Who am I then?
ARIANE.
Thou art the master of a dark ship,
That sails the dark path.
BACCHUS.
I am the Lord - over a ship.
ARIANE
(abruptly)
Take me! Away from here with this my heart!
It is of no more use in the world...
BACCHUS
(gently)
Then wilt thou go with me to my ship?
ARIANE.
I am ready. You ask? Is it that you wish to proof me?
(Bacchus shakes his head.)
ARIANE
(with suppressed fear)
How can you manage the transformation?
With your hands? With your staff?
How, or is it a potion
That you give to drink? You spoke of a potion!
BACCHUS
(dreamy in her sight)
Did I speak of a potion,
I know no more.
ARIANE.
I know, so it is there, where you lead me!
He who lingers there soon forgets!
The word, the breath is gone in a moment!
One rests and rests again from resting;
For there no one is weary from weeping - -
He has forgotten what chould ache him:
Nothing is valid that was valid here, I know.
(She closes her eyes.)
BACCHUS
(deeply excited, unconsciously solemn)
Am I a god, did a god create me,
Died my mother in flames away,
When in flames my father showed himself to her,
Circe's spell on me failed,
For I am proof, balm and ether.
Mortal blood flows in my veins.
Hear me, creature that stands before me,
Hear me, you who wish to die - -
Then die rather the eternal stars,
Than that thou shouldst fall from my arms!..
ARIANE
(fearfully recoils from the force of his tone)
hose were magic words! Alas! So quickly!
Now there is no turning back. Do you give oblivion
So between look and look?
Is everything moving away,
Everything from me?
The sun? The stars?
I myself?
Are my pains taken from me,
Taken away? Ah!
Breathing away.
Is there nothing left of Ariane but a breath?
(She sinks, he holds her. Everything sinks, a starry sky stretches over the two.)
BACCHUS
(more moved than loud)
I tell you, only now life begins to rise
For you and me!
(He kisses her.)
ARIANE
(unconsciously escapes from him, looks around her with fearful amazement)
Didn't the world lie on my breast?
Did you blow it away?
There inside lay the poor bitch
Pressed to the ground, on cold nettles
With worm and woodlouse, and poorer than she -
BACCHUS.
Now rises thy sorrow's inmost delight,
Rises in thine and my heart!
ARIANE.
You magician, you! Transformer, thou!
Do not from the shadow of your cloak
The Great Mother's eye is upon me?
Is thus thy shadow-land so blessed!
So needless of the earthly world?
BACCHUS.
Thyself! thou art needless,
Thou my enchantress!
ARIANE.
Is there a live beyond?
Are we over the river yet?
Are we yet there?
How could it happen?
Even my cave, o my beautiful, arched
Over a blessed lair,
A holy altar!
How wonderfully, wonderfully thou transformest!
BACCHUS.
Thou! You my all!
I am another than I was before!
The sense of God is awake in me,
To grasp thy glorious being!
I stir my limbs in divine delight!
The cave there, let the cave of your pain,
I draw it to deepest delight around thee and me!
(A canopy slowly descends from above over both of them, enclosing them.)
ARIANE
(hanging on his arm)
What of me hangs
In your arms?
Oh, what of me,
That I perish,
Did you catch secret things
With the breath of thy mouth?
What remains, what remains of Ariane?
Let not my pain be lost!
ARIANE‘S VOICE.
Let not my pain be lost,
With thee let Ariane be!
COLOMBINE
(steps out of the wings, points her fan back over her shoulder at Bacchus and Ariane, and repeats her rondo with laughing triumph.)
Come, the new god is gone,
Devoted we are mute!
BACCHUS' VOICE.
I needed you for everything!
Now I am another than I was before,
Through thy pains I am rich,
Now I stir my limbs in divine delight!
And sooner die the eternal stars,
Ere thou from my arms rushest!
(The canopy has closed.)