Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods. The Ring of the Niblung, part 2. Рихард Вагнер
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      SIEGFRIED

CHARACTERS

      SIEGFRIED

      MIME

      THE WANDERER

      ALBERICH

      FAFNER

      ERDA

      BRÜNNHILDE

      SCENES OF ACTION

      I. A CAVE IN A WOOD

      II. DEPTHS OF THE WOOD

      III. WILD REGION AT THE FOOT OF A ROCKY MOUNTAIN; AFTERWARDS: SUMMIT OF "BRÜNNHILDE'S ROCK"

      THE FIRST ACT

      A rocky cavern in a wood, in which stands a naturally formed smith's forge, with big bellows. Mime sits in front of the anvil, busily hammering at a sword.

      MIME

      [Who has been hammering with a small hammer, stops working.

      Slavery! worry!

      Labour all lost!

      The strongest sword

      That ever I forged,

      That the hands of giants

      Fitly might wield,

      This insolent urchin

      For whom it is fashioned

      Can snap in two at one stroke,

      As if the thing were a toy!

      [Mime throws the sword on the anvil ill-humouredly, and with his arms akimbo gazes thoughtfully on the ground.

      There is one sword

      That he could not shatter:

      Nothung's splinters

      Would baffle his strength,

      Could I but forge

      Those doughty fragments

      That all my skill

      Cannot weld anew.

      Could I but forge the weapon,

      Shame and toil would win their reward!

      [He sinks further back his head bowed in thought.

      Fafner, the dragon grim,

      Dwells in the gloomy wood;

      With his gruesome and grisly bulk

      The Nibelung hoard

      Yonder he guards.

      Siegfried, lusty and young,

      Would slay him without ado;

      The Nibelung's ring

      Would then become mine.

      The only sword for the deed

      Were Nothung, if it were swung

      By Siegfried's conquering arm;

      And I cannot fashion

      Nothung, the sword!

      [He lays the sword in position again, and goes on hammering in deep dejection.

      Slavery! worry!

      Labour all lost!

      The strongest sword

      That ever I forged

      Will never serve

      For that difficult deed.

      I beat and I hammer

      Only to humour the boy;

      He snaps in two what I make,

      And scolds if I cease from work.

      [He drops his hammer.

      SIEGFRIED

      [In rough forester's dress, with a silver horn hung by a chain, bursts in boisterously from the wood. He is leading a big bear by a rope of bast, and urges him towards Mime in wanton fun.

      Hoiho! Hoiho!

      [Entering.

      Come on! Come on!

      Tear him! Tear him!

      The silly smith!

      [Mime drops the sword in terror, and takes refuge behind the forge; while Siegfried, shouting with laughter, keeps driving the bear after him.

      MIME

      Hence with the beast!

      I want not the bear!

      SIEGFRIED

      I come thus paired

      The better to pinch thee;

      Bruin, ask for the sword!

      MIME

      Hey! Let him go!

      There lies the weapon;

      It was finished to-day.

      SIEGFRIED

      Then thou art safe for to-day!

      [He lets the bear loose and strikes him on the back with the rope.

      Off, Bruin!

      I need thee no more.

      [The bear runs back into the wood.

      MIME [Comes trembling from behind the forge.

      Slay all the bears

      Thou canst, and welcome;

      But why thus bring the beasts

      Home alive?

      SIEGFRIED

      [Sits down to recover from his laughter.

      For better companions seeking

      Than the one who sits at home,

      I blew my horn in the wood,

      Till the forest glades resounded.

      What I asked with the note

      Was if some good friend

      My glad companion would be.

      From the covert came a bear

      Who listened to me with growls,

      And I liked him better than thee,

      Though better friends I shall find.

      With a trusty rope

      I bridled the beast,

      To ask thee, rogue, for the weapon.

      [He jumps up and goes towards the anvil.

      MIME

      [Takes up the sword to hand it to Siegfried.

      I made the sword keen-edged;

      In its sharpness thou wilt rejoice.

      [He СКАЧАТЬ