Читать книгу The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie. The Ring of the Niblung, part 1 - Рихард Вагнер - Страница 3

Wotan! My lord! Awaken!

The happy hall of delight

Is guarded by gate and door:

Manhood's honour,

Power for aye,

Rise to my lasting renown!

Up from deceitful

Bliss of a dream!

My husband, wake and consider!

The walls everlasting are built!

On yonder summit

The Gods' abode

Proudly rears

Its radiant strength!

As I nursed it in dream

And desired it to be,

Strong it stands,

Fair to behold,

Brave and beautiful pile!

While thou rejoicest,

Joyless am I.

Thou hast thy hall;

My heart fears for Freia.

Heedless one, hast thou forgotten

The price that was to be paid?

The work is finished,

And forfeit the pledge:

Hast thou then no care for the cost?

My bargain well I remember

With them who built the abode.

'Twas a pact tamed them,

The obstinate race,

So that this hallowed

Hall they have built me.

It stands—the strong ones' doing:—

Fret not thou, counting the cost.

O laughing, insolent lightness!

Mirth how cruel and callous!

Had I but known of thy pact,

The trick had never been played;

But far from your counsels

Ye men kept the women,

That, deaf to us and in peace,

Alone ye might deal with the giants.

So without shame

Ye promised them Freia,

Freia, my beautiful sister,

Proud of playing the thief.

What remains holy

Or precious to men

Once grown greedy of might?

From such greed

Was Fricka then free

Herself when the castle she craved?

I was forced to ponder some means

To keep my husband faithful,

True to me when his fancy

Tempted him far from his home.

Halls high and stately,

Decked to delight thee,

Were to constrain thee

To peaceful repose.

But thou hadst the work designed

Intent on war alone;

It was to add

More to thy might still,

To stir up to tumult still fiercer

That built were the towering walls

Wouldst thou, O Wife!

In the castle confine me,

To me, the god, must be granted,

Faithful at home,

The right to wage war

And conquer the world from without.

Ranging and changing

All men love:

That sport at least thou must leave me.

Cold, hard-hearted,

Merciless man!

For the idle baubles,

Empire and sway,

Thou stakest in insolent scorn

Love and a woman's worth!

When I went wooing, to win thee

I staked ungrudging,

Gladly one of my eyes:

What folly now then to scold!

Women I honour

Beyond thy desire!

I will not abandon

Frei, the fair:

Such never was my intent.

Then succour her now:

Defenceless, in fear,

Hither she hastens for help!

Help me, sister!

Shield me, o brother!

From yonder mountain

Menaces Fasolt:

He comes to bear me off captive.

Let him come!

Sawest thou Loge?

To this tricky deceiver

O why wilt thou trust?

He always snares thee anew,

Though from his snares thou hast suffered.

I ask for no aid

Where simple truth suffices;

But 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.

And art left in the lurch.

The giants come.

Lo! hither they stride:

Where lingers now thine ally?

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!

Now the knaves who plotted and tricked thee

Abandon thee in thy need.

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.

There stands

What we builded,

Shining fair

Beneath the sun.

Enter in

And pay the price!

Name, Workers, your wage.

What payment will appease you?

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.

Ye must be mad

To moot such a thing!

Ask some other wage;

Freia I will not grant.

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?

O trusty brother!

Fool, dost now see the trick?

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!

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?

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?

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.

From their midst, therefore, Freia must forth!

Loge lingers long!

We wait for thy word!

Ask some other wage!

No other: Freia alone!

Thou there, follow us!

Help! Help from the harsh ones!

To me, Freia!

Back, overbold one!

Froh shields the fair one!

Fasolt and Fafner,

Have ye not felt

With what weight my hammer falls?

What means thy threat?

What wouldst thou here?

No strife we desire;

We want but our due reward.

Oft I've doled out

Giants their due:

Come, your reward is here

Waiting, full measure and more!

Hold, thou fierce one!

Nothing by force!

All bonds and treaties

My spear protects;

Spare then thy hammer's haft!

Woe's me! Woe's me!

Wotan forsakes me!

Can such be thy thought,

Merciless man?

There comes Loge!

Hot is thy haste

Smoothly to settle

Thy sorry, badly-made bargain!

What is this bargain

That I am blamed for?—

The one with the giants

That thou thyself didst decide?

O'er hill and o'er hollow

Drives me my whim;

House and hearth

I do not crave.

Donner and Froh,

They dream but of roof and room:

Wedding, must have

A home in which to dwell,

A stately hall,

A fortress fast.

It was such Wotan wished.

Hall and house,

Castle, court,

The blissful abode

Now stands complete and strong.

I proved the lordly

Pile myself;

In fear of flaws,

Scanning it close.

Fasolt and Fafner

Faithful I found;

Firm-bedded is each stone.

I was not slothful

Like many here:

Who calls me sluggard, he lies!

Cunningly

Thou wouldst escape!

Warned be, and wisely

Turn from attempts to deceive.

Of all the Gods

I alone stood by thee

As thy friend,

In the gang that trusted thee not.

Now speak, and to the point!

For when the builders at first

As wage Freia demanded,

I gave way only,

Trusting thy word

When thou didst solemnly promise

To ransom the noble pledge.

Perplexed to puzzle,

Plans to ponder

For its redeeming—

That promise I gave;

But to discover

What cannot be,

What none can do,

No man can possibly promise.

See the treacherous

Rogue thou didst trust!

Named art Loge,

But liar I call thee!

Accursèd flame,

I will quench thy fire!

From their shame to shelter,

Foolish folk flout me.

Forbear and let him alone!

Ye wot not Loge's wiles.

His advice,

Given slowly, gains

Both in weight and in worth.

Do not dally;

Promptly pay!

Long waits our reward.

Speak up surly one!

Fail me not!

How far hast thou ranged and roamed?

Still with reproach

Is Loge paid!

Concerned but for thee,

Thorough and swift,

I searched and ransacked

To the ends of the earth

To find a ransom for Freia

Fair to the giants and just.

In vain the search,

Convincing at last

That the world contains

Nothing so sweet

That a man will take it instead

Of woman's love and delight.

Where life moves and has being,

In water, earth and air

I questioned,

Asking of all things,

Where weak still is strength,

And germs only stirring,

What men thought dear—

And stronger deemed—

Than woman's love and delight.

But where life moves and has being

My questions met

But with laughter and scorn.

In water, earth and air

Woman and love

Will none forego.

One man, one only,

I met who, renouncing love,

Prized ruddy gold

Above any woman's grace.

The Rhine's pure-gleaming children

Told me of their sorrow.

The Nibelung,

Night-Alberich,

Wooed for the favour

Of the swimmers in vain,

And vengeance took,

Stealing the Rhinegold they guard.

He thinks it now

A thing beyond price,

Greater than woman's grace.

For their glittering toy

Thus torn from the deep

The sorrowful maids lamented.

They pray, Wotan,

Pleading to thee,

That thy wrath may fall on the robber

The gold too

They would have thee grant them

To guard in the water for ever.

Loge promised

The maidens to tell thee,

And, keeping faith, he has told.

Dull thou must be

Or downright knavish!

In parlous plight myself,

What help have I for others?

The Niblung has much annoyed us;

I greatly grudge him this Rhinegold;

But such his craft and cunning,

He has never been caught.

Other malice

Ponders the Niblung;

Gains he might from gold

Listen, Loge!

Tell us the truth.

What wondrous gift has the gold,

That the dwarf desires it so?

A plaything,

In the waves providing

Children with laughter and sport,

It gives, when to golden

Ring it is rounded,

Power and might unmatched;

It wins its owner the world.

Rumours I have heard

Of the Rhinegold;

Runes of riches

Hide in its ruddy glow;

Pelf and power

Are by the ring bestowed.

Could this gaud,

This gleaming trinket

Forged from the gold,

Be worn by a woman too?

The wife who wore

That glittering charm

Never would lose

Her husband's love—

That charm which dwarfs are welding,

Working in thrall to the ring.

O could but my husband

Come by the ring!

Methinks it were wisdom,

Won I the ring to my service.

But say, Loge,

How shall I learn

To forge and fashion it true?

A magic rune

Can round the golden ring.

No one knows it,

Yet plain the spell to him

Who happy love forswears.

That suits thee not;

Thou art too late too.

Alberich did not delay;

Fearless he mastered

The potent spell,

And wrought aright was the ring.

We should all be

Under the dwarf,

Were not the ring from him wrested.

The ring I must capture!

Lightly now,

Without cursing love it were won.

Just so:

Without guile, as in children's games!

Then tell us how.

By theft!

What a thief stole

Steal thou from the thief;

How better could object be won?

But with baleful arms

Battles Alberich.

Wary, wise

Must be thy scheming,

If the thief thou wouldst confound,

And restore the ruddy

And golden toy,

The Rhinegold, to the maidens.

For this they pray and implore.

The river-maidens?

What profit were mine?

Of that billow-born brood

Bring me no tidings,

For they have wooed

To my woe

Full many a man to their caves.

Worth far more than Freia

Were the glittering gold.

Eternal youth, too, were his

Who could use the charm in its quest.

Hear, Wotan,

Our word while we wait;

Freia we will restore you,

And will take

Paltrier payment:

The Niblung's red-gleaming gold

Will guerdon us giants rude.

Ye must be mad!

With what I possess not

How can I, shameless ones, pay you?

Hard labour

Went to those walls;

How easy

With fraud-aided force

(What our malice never achieved)

The Niblung to break and bind!

Why should I make

War on the Niblung?—

Fight, your foe to confound?

Insolent

And greedily grasping

Dolts you grow through my debt!

Maiden, come!

We claim thee ours!

As pledge thou shalt be held

Till the ransom is paid.

Woe's me! Woe's me! Woe!

From your midst

We bear her forth!

Till evening—mark it well!—

As a pledge she is ours.

We will return then.

But when we come,

If the Rhinegold be not ready,

The Rhinegold bright and red—

The respite is ended,

Freia is forfeit

And bides among us for aye!

Sister! Brothers!

Save me! Help!

Up! Follow fast!

Fall now the heavens!

Save me! Help!

Downward over stock and stone

Striding they go;

Through the ford across the Rhine

Wade now the robbers.

Sad at heart

Hangs Freia,

Thrown rudely over rough shoulders!

Heia! hei!

The louts, how they lumber along!

Through the Rhine valley they reel.

Not till Riesenheim's march

Is reached will they rest!

How darkly Wotan doth dream!

What ails the high, happy Gods?

Does a mist mock me?

Tricks me a dream?

Dismayed and wan,

How swiftly ye fade!

Lo! the bloom forsakes your cheeks,

And quenched is the light of your eyes!

Courage, Froh!

Day's but begun!

From thy hand, Donner,

The hammer is falling!

And why frets Fricka?

Sees she with sorrow

That Wotan's hair, growing grey,

Has made him gloomy and old?

Woe's me! Woe's me!

What does it mean?

My hand sinks down.

My heart stands still.

I have it: hear what ye lack!

Of Freia's fruit

Ye have not partaken to-day.

The golden apples

Within her garden

Restored you your strength and your youth,

Ate ye thereof each day.

The garden's guardian

In pledge has been given.

On the branches dries

And droops the fruit,

To drop soon and decay.

My loss is lighter,

For still did Freia,

Stingy to me,

Stint the delectable fruit.

Not half as godlike

Am I, ye high ones, as you!

But ye trusted solely

To the fruit that makes young,

As well both the giants wist.

Your life they played for,

Plotted to take;

Contrive so that they fail.

Lacking the apples,

Old and worn,

Grey and weary,

Wasting, the scoff of the world,

The Gods must pine and pass.

Wotan, alas!

Unhappy man!

See what thy laughing

Lightness has brought us—

Scoff and scorn for all!

Up, Loge,

And follow me!

To Nibelheim hastening downward,

I go in search of the gold.

The Rhine-daughters

Thy aid invoked:

Not vainly they hoped for thy help then?

Fool, be silent!

Freia, the fair one—

Freia's ransom we go for.

Where thou wouldst go

Gladly I lead.

Shall we dive

Sheer through the depths of the Rhine?

Not through the Rhine.

Then swift let us swing

Through this smoky chasm.

Together, come, creep we in!

Ye others wait

Till evening here;

The golden ransom

When got will again make us young.

Fare thee well, Wotan!

Good luck! Good luck!

O come back soon

To thy sorrowing wife!