--Hola! You there! Wake up! _(He jostles against a sleeper, who grunts._ What are you muttering down there? _(He kicks him._ THE WATCHER (_asleep_): Oh hum! THE KING: Wake up there, sack of wool! Wake up, block! _(He kicks him._ THE WATCHER (_talking indistinctly in his sleep_): Ho! Ho! Do not push me! I am falling! I am falling! THE KING (_catching him by the foot and dragging him across the hall_): Will you wake up, or won't you? THE WATCHER (_waking and rubbing his eyes_): Eh? Eh? What's that? What? What? What? What? What time is it? Eh? _(He sees the KING._ _(The KING goes to the middle of the hall and strikes furiously on a gong. All awake and look at him, dumbfounded, not moving from their places._ THE KING: Well, Watchers! _(Silence._ Behold you sleep, and the first part of the night is not yet spent! They care for nothing but eating and drinking and talking to each other! Like brutes, like dogs that wag their tails! And when they cease their chatter, they fall asleep. Their souls are simple! They are not capable of thinking for themselves. Do you know where we are? Do you know for what we are waiting? We must watch and listen! We must listen and wait! _(The song of the nightingale is heard._ The nightingale is singing. All night he pours out his soul. All night the tiny bird sings of the marvels of God. And you, could you not watch? The worries of your wretched trades cannot trouble you now. That care has been taken from you. Could you not watch and wait? But, like hulking lackeys you sleep! And it may be that someone has entered and looked at you, Like the bird that flies and does not alight. But they sleep and leave me all alone! And I David, The King, with my white hairs, I wander through the palace in the pangs and agony of death, And I tread my mitre under my feet and like an infant or an animal that one clutches to one's breast, I hold back with my hands my escaping soul! THE FIRST WATCHER: Pardon us, O King. THE SECOND WATCHER: O King, why do you waken us and keep us from sleeping? Go! Put out the light and lie down with us. Pillow your head on my side. All too soon will come the day. The light troubles my eyes. I am going to sleep. _(He drops his head on his chest. The KING gazes at him and, opening his mouth little by little, begins to yawn._ THE THIRD WATCHER: O King, you yourself are yawning! It is weariness. It is the wind, the exhalation of the void within us. We talked and our words were only an empty sound; and from morning until evening we gave ourselves no rest. In truth we are dead. As tired As a man who comes home drunk in the morning and goes to bed without undressing or taking off his boots. At first the heart was silent, And then, like a tom-cat that yowls very softly, it began to voice its lament. THE SECOND WATCHER: Be still, heart! Be still, poor heart! What would you have? THE FOURTH WATCHER: And even now they come to extinguish us