Then go to the common home! And now I say to you, Hope not to still survive, being dead, For how can any man see without his eyes, and how else will he be able To grasp than with his hands? CÉBÈS: If this is so, O my body you have been of little worth, For you die and I must die along with you. I shall die like a four-footed beast, and shall exist no more. Why then has it been given to me to know this? (_He begins to scream._) Ah! Ah! TÊTE-D'OR: Yes, cry! CÉBÈS: Night! O Night! TÊTE-D'OR: The night is vast and wide, and the sun is lost in it, And the silence, that no voice breaks nor any word, endures. CÉBÈS: Forever and ever! TÊTE-D'OR: Cry! Cry! CÉBÈS: As for you, you live. You live and you watch me dying at your feet! Oh! Oh! O Tête-d'or, can't you do anything for me? For I suffer! TÊTE-D'OR (_changing his tone_): Do not be afraid! I am here! Do not be afraid To die. All is vanity and nothingness. CÉBÈS: Do not go! Be my nurse! Stay here. Let me be with you A little longer. Do not be disgusted with me because I die. TÊTE-D'OR: Look, I hold your hand. What was it I said just now? Come! Death is nothing. Smile! Won't you smile for me? CÉBÈS: Alone! TÊTE-D'OR: What's that? CÉBÈS: Alone.... TÊTE-D'OR: Alone? What are you saying? CÉBÈS: ... I die! TÊTE-D'OR: Am I not with you? CÉBÈS: Alone I die! For I do not know who I am and I flee away and vanish like a spring that disappears! Then why do you say that you love me? Why do you lie? For who can love me Since I cease to be when my body dies? A bitter indignation boils within me! My bowels bloat! I am racked with fearful retchings That strive to rive apart the fastening of my bones! Alone I die! And I pant in vain for breath and there is something in me that is not satisfied; More alone than the strangled babe that its murderous mother buries at the bottom of a dunghill, Among the broken dishes and dead cats, in earth that is full of fat pink worms! _(He tries to get up._ TÊTE-D'OR: What are you doing? Stay where you are! Come, you cannot get out of bed! _(He holds him back._ CÉBÈS: I want to get up, to walk again! Oh! I can live! Leave me alone! Let go of me! TÊTE-D'OR: Stay where you are! Are you mad? Don't you recognise me? What would you do? CÉBÈS: Will you not let me go, wretched man! O coward! I hate you--O the great beast, he holds me! --Will you not let me go! _(He bites his hand, frees himself, struggles to his feet and falls, TÊTE-D'OR puts him back on his bed._ TÊTE-D'OR: You see! CÉBÈS (_screaming_): Ho, ho, ho! TÊTE-D'OR: Be quiet! Calm yourself! CÉBÈS (_screaming_): Ho! TÊTE-D'OR: You turn my heart to ice! Do not howl like a wolf in this unholy night! CÉBÈS: Oh! O God! TÊTE-D'OR: Cébès! CÉBÈS: Let me alone! TÊTE-D'OR: Have you forgotten.... CÉBÈS: Leave me! _(His mouth still open, he slowly lays his head on his pillow. Then he begins to smile. Pause._