The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie. The Ring of the Niblung, part 1. Рихард Вагнер
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to turn the spite
Of foes to profit,
Craft and cunning alone
Can teach, as by Loge employed.
He whose advice I obeyed
Has promised ransom for Freia:
On him my faith I have fixed.
FRICKA
And art left in the lurch.
The giants come.
Lo! hither they stride:
Where lingers now thine ally?
FREIA
Where tarry ye, my brothers,
When help ye should bring me,
Weak and bartered away by my kin?
O help me, Donner!
Hither! Hither!
Rescue Freia, my Froh!
FRICKA
Now the knaves who plotted and tricked thee
Abandon thee in thy need.
[Fasolt and Fafner, both of gigantic stature, enter, armed with stout clubs.
FASOLT
Soft sleep
Sealed thine eyes
While we, both sleepless,
Built the castle walls:
Working hard
Wearied not,
Heaping, heaving
Heavy stones.
Tower steep,
Door and gate
Keep and guard
Thy goodly castle halls.
[Pointing to the castle.
There stands
What we builded,
Shining fair
Beneath the sun.
Enter in
And pay the price!
WOTAN
Name, Workers, your wage.
What payment will appease you?
FASOLT
We made the terms
That seemed to us meet.
Hast thou forgot so soon?
Freia, the fair one,
Holda, the free one—
The bargain is
We bear her away.
WOTAN [Quickly.
Ye must be mad
To moot such a thing!
Ask some other wage;
Freia I will not grant.
FASOLT
Stands for a space speechless with angry surprise.
What is this? Ha!
Wouldest deceive?—
Go back on thy bond?
What thy spear wards
Are they but sport,
All the runes of solemn bargain?
FAFNER
O trusty brother!
Fool, dost now see the trick?
FASOLT
Son of light,
Light, unstable,
Hearken! Have a care!
In treaties keep thou troth!
What thou art
Thou art only by treaties,
For, built on bonds,
There are bounds to thy might.
Though cunning thou,
More clever than we:
Though we once freemen,
Are pledged to peace,
Cursèd be all thy wisdom;—
Peaceful promises perish!—
Wilt thou not open,
Honest and frank
Stand fast by a bargain once fixed.
A stupid giant
Tells thee this:
O wise one, take it from him!
Freia, the fair one
WOTAN
How sly to judge us serious
When plainly we were but jesting!
The beautiful Goddess
Light and bright—
For churls what charm could she have?
FASOLT
Jeerest thou?
Ha! how unjust!
Ye who by beauty rule,
Proud and radiant race!
How foolish, striving
For towers of stone,
Woman's love to pledge—
Price of walls and of halls!
We dolts, despising ease,
Sweating with toil-hardened hands,
Have worked, that a woman
With gentle delight
In our midst might sojourn
And ye call the pact a jest?
FAFNER
Cease thy childish chatter;
No gain look we to get.
Freia's charms
Mean little;
But it means much,
If from the Gods we remove her.
Golden apples
Ripen within her garden;
She alone
Grows the apples and tends them.
The goodly fruit
Gives to her kinsfolk,
Who eat thereof,
Youth everlasting.
Sick and pale,
Their beauty would perish,
Old and weak,
Wasting away,
Were not Freia among them.
[Roughly.
From their midst, therefore, Freia must forth!
WOTAN [Aside.
Loge lingers long!
FASOLT
We wait for thy word!
WOTAN
Ask some other wage!
FASOLT
No