Читать книгу Four Mystery Plays - Rudolf Steiner - Страница 12

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Scene the same as the Fourth.

(The Spirit of the Elements stands in the same place.)

Felicia:

Thou calledst me. What wouldst thou hear of me?

Spirit:

Two men did I present unto the earth

Whose spirit-powers were fructified through thee.

They found their soul’s awakening in thy words

When meditation dry had lamed them both.

Thy gifts to them make thee my debtor too.

Their spirit doth not of itself suffice

To render full repayment unto me

For all the service which I did for them.

Felicia:

For many years one of these men did come

To our small cottage, that he might obtain

The strength that lent unto his words their fire.

Later he brought the other with him too;

And so they two consumed the fruits, whose worth

Was then unknown to me: but little good

Did I receive from them as recompense.

Their kind of knowledge to our son they gave,

With good intent indeed, but yet the child

Found nought therein but death unto his soul.

He grew to manhood steeped in all the light,

His father Felix, through the spirit-speech,

Taught him from fountains and from rocks and hills:

To this was joined all that had lived and grown

In my own soul from my first childhood’s years;

And yet our son’s clear spirit-sense was killed

By the deep gloom of sombre sciences.

Instead of some blithe happy child, there grew

A man of desert soul and empty heart.

And now forsooth thou dost demand of me

That I should pay what they do owe to thee!

Spirit:

It must be so, for thou at first didst serve

The earthly part in them; and so through me

The spirit bids thee now complete the work.

Felicia:

’Tis not my wont to shrink from any debt;

But tell me first what detriment will grow

In mine own self from this love-service done?

Spirit:

What thou at first didst do for them on earth,

Robbed of his spirit-powers thine only son;

And what thou givest to their spirits now

Is lost henceforth to thee from thine own self;

Which lessening of the powers of life in thee

Will show as ugliness in thine own flesh.

Felicia:

They robbed my child of all his spirit-power,

And in return I needs must wander forth

A monster in the sight of men, that fruits

May ripen for them, which work little good!

Spirit:

Yet thy work aids the welfare of mankind

And leads as well to thine own happiness.

Thy mother’s beauty and thy child’s own life

Will blossom for thee in a loftier way,

When one day in the souls and hearts of men,

New spirit-powers shall seed and fructify.

Felicia:

What must I do?

Spirit:

What must I do? Mankind thou hast inspired

Full often with thy words. Inspire then now

The spirits of the rocks: in this same hour

Thou must bring forth from out thy treasured store

Of fairy pictures some one tale to give

Those beings who do serve me in my work.

Felicia:

So be it then:—A being once did live

Who flew from East to West, as runs the sun.

He flew o’er lands and seas, and from this height

He looked upon the doings of mankind.

He saw how men did one another love,

And, how in hatred they did persecute.

Yet naught could stay this being in his flight,

For love and hatred none the less bring forth

Full many thousand times the same results.

Yet o’er one house—there must the being stay;

For therein dwelt a tired and weary man,

Who pondered on the love of humankind,

And pondered also over human hate.

His contemplations had already graved

Deep furrows on his brow; his hair was white.

And, grieving o’er this man, the being lost

His sun-guide’s leadership, and stayed with him

Within his room e’en when the sun went down.

And when the sun arose again, once more

The being joined the spirit of the sun;

And once again he saw mankind pass through

The cycle of the earth in love and hate.

But when he came, still following the sun,

A second time above that selfsame house,

His gaze did fall upon a man quite dead.

(Germanus, invisible behind the rock, speaks. As he speaks, he gradually drags his unwieldy size on to the stage; his feet like clogs are almost earth-bound.)

Germanus:

A man once lived, who went from East to West:

Whose eager thirst for knowledge lured him on

O’er land and sea; and with his wisdom’s sight

He looked upon the doings of mankind.

He saw how men did one another love,

And, how in hatred they did persecute;

And at each turn of life the man did note

How blind was wisdom’s eye to probe its depths.

For, though the world is ruled by love and hate,

Yet could he not combine them into law.

A thousand single cases wrote he down

Yet still he lacked the comprehending eye.

This dull, dry seeker after truth once met

Upon his path a being formed of light;

Who found existence fraught with heaviness

Since it must live in constant combat with

A darksome being formed of shadows black.

‘Who art thou then?’ the dry truth-seeker asked.

‘Love,’ said the one; the other answered, ‘Hate.’

But these two beings’ words fell on deaf ears;

The man heard not, but wandered blindly on

In his dry search for truth from East to West.

Felicia:

And who art thou, who thus against my wish

Dost parody my words in his own way

Until they sound a very mockery?

Germanus:

Only a dwarf-like image of me lives

In man, and therein many things are thought,

That are but mockery of their own selves.

When I do show them in the actual size,

In which they do appear within my brain.

Felicia:

And therefore dost thou also mock at me?

Germanus:

I must right often ply this trade of mine;

Yet mostly men do hear me not, so now

I seized for once this opportunity

To speak as well where men can hear my words.

Johannes (out of his meditation):

This was the man, who of himself did say

That spirit-light grew of its own accord

Within his brain; and Dame Felicia came,

Just like her husband, as she is in life.

Curtain