Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods. The Ring of the Niblung, part 2. Рихард Вагнер
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strong steel was splintered,
My father fell;
The son who now lives
Shaped it anew.
Bright-gleaming to him it laughs,
And for him its edge shall be keen.
[Swinging the sword before him.
Nothung! Nothung!
Conquering sword!
Once more to life I have waked thee.
Dead wert thou,
In fragments hewn,
Now shining defiant and fair.
Woe to all robbers!
Show them thy sheen!
Strike at the traitor,
Cut down the rogue!
See, Mime, thou smith;
Thus sunders Siegfried's sword!
[He strikes the anvil and splits it in two from top to bottom, so that it falls asunder with a great noise. Mime, who has mounted a stool in great delight, falls in terror to a fitting position on the ground. Siegfried holds the sword exultantly on high. The curtain falls.
THE SECOND ACT
A deep forest
Quite in the background the entrance to a cave. The ground rises towards a flat knoll in the middle of the stage, and slopes down again towards the back, so that only the upper part of the entrance to the cave is visible to the audience. To the left a fissured cliff is seen through the trees. It is night, the darkness being deepest at the back, where at first the eye can distinguish nothing at all.
ALBERICH
[Lying by the cliff, gloomily brooding.
In night-drear woods
By Neidhöhl' I keep watch,
With ear alert,
Keen and anxious eye.
Timid day,
Tremblest thou forth?
Pale art thou dawning
Athwart the dark?
[A storm arises in the wood on the right, and from the same quarter there shines down a bluish light.
What comes yonder, gleaming bright?
Nearer shimmers
A radiant form;
It runs like a horse and it shines;
Breaks through the wood,
Rushing this way.
Is it the dragon's slayer?
Can it mean Fafner's death?
[The wind subsides; the light vanishes.
The glow has gone,
It has faded and died;
All is darkness.
Who comes there, shining in shadow?
WANDERER
[Enters from the wood, and stops opposite Alberich.
To Neidhöhl'
By night I have come;
In the dark who is hiding there?
[As from a sudden rent in the clouds moonlight streams forth and lights up the Wanderer's figure.
ALBERICH
[Recognises the Wanderer and shrinks back at first in alarm, but immediately after breaks out in violent fury.
'Tis thou who comest thus?
What wilt thou here?
Go, get thee hence!
Begone, thou insolent thief!
WANDERER [Quietly.
Schwarz-Alberich
Wanders here?
Guardest thou Fafner's house?
ALBERICH
Art thou intent
On mischief again?
Linger not here!
Off with thee straightway!
Has grief enough
Not deluged the earth through thy guile?
Spare it further
Sorrow, thou wretch!
WANDERER
I come as watcher,
Not as worker.
The Wanderer's way who bars?
ALBERICH
Thou arch, pestilent plotter!
Were I still the blind,
Silly fool that I was,
When I was bound thy captive,
How easy were it
To steal the ring again from me!
Beware! For thy cunning
I know well,
[Mockingly.
And of thy weakness
I am fully aware too.
Thy debts were cancelled,
Paid with my treasure;
My ring guerdoned
The giants' toil,
Who raised thy citadel high.
Still on the mighty
Haft of thy spear there
The runes are written plain
Of the compact made with the churls;
And of that
Which by labour they won
Thou dost not dare to despoil them:
Thy spear's strong shaft
Thou thyself wouldst split;
The staff that makes thee
Master of all
Would crumble to dust in thy hand.
WANDERER
By the steadfast runes of treaties
Thou hast not,
Base one, been bound;
On thee my spear may spend its strength,
So keen I keep it for war.
ALBERICH
How dire thy threats!
How bold thy defiance!
And yet full of fear is thy heart!
Foredoomed to death
Through my curse is he
Who now guards the treasure.
What heir will succeed him?
Will the hoard all desire
Belong as before to the Niblung?—
That gnaws thee with ceaseless torment.
For once I have got it
Safe in my grasp,
Better than foolish giants
Will I employ its spell.
The God who guards heroes
Truly may tremble!
I will storm
Proud