The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six ActsMaeterlinck, Maurice
General
The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts
Maeterlinck, Maurice
Fairy plays; French drama -- Translations into English
THE HAPPINESS
I can see that you know nothing.... I am the chief of the Happinesses of
your home; and all these are the other Happinesses that live there....
TYLTYL
Then there are Happinesses in my home?
(_All the_ HAPPINESSES _burst out laughing_.)
THE HAPPINESS
You heard him!... Are there Happinesses in his home!... Why, you little
wretch, it is crammed with Happinesses in every nook and cranny!... We
laugh, we sing, we create enough joy to knock down the walls and lift the
roof; but, do what we may, you see nothing and you hear nothing.... I hope
that, in future, you will be a little more sensible.... Meantime, you shall
shake hands with the more noteworthy of us.... Then, when you reach home
again, you will recognise them more easily and, at the end of a fine day,
you will know how to encourage them with a smile, to thank them with a
pleasant word, for they really do all they can to make your life easy and
delightful.... Let me introduce myself first: the Happiness of Being Well,
at your service.... I am not the prettiest, but I am the most important.
Will you know me again?... This is the Happiness of Pure Air, who is almost
transparent.... Here is the Happiness of Loving one's Parents, who is clad
in grey and always a little sad, because no one ever looks at him.... Here
are the Happiness of the Blue Sky, who, of course, is dressed in blue, and
the Happiness of the Forest, who, also of course, is clad in green: you
will see him every time you go to the window.... Here, again, is the
good Happiness of Sunny Hours, who is diamond-coloured, and this is the
Happiness of Spring, who is bright emerald....
TYLTYL
And are you as fine as that every day?
THE HAPPINESS OF BEING WELL
Why, yes, it is Sunday every day, in every house, when people open their
eyes.... And then, when evening comes, here is the Happiness of the
Sunsets, who is grander than all the kings in the world and who is followed
by the Happiness of Seeing the Stars Rise, who is gilded like a god of
old.... Then, when the weather breaks, here are the Happiness of the Rain,
who is covered with pearls, and the Happiness of the Winter Fire, who opens
his beautiful purple mantle to frozen hands.... And I have not mentioned
the best among us, because he is nearly a brother of the great limpid
Joys whom you will see presently: his name is the Happiness of Innocent
Thoughts, and he is the brightest of as all.... And then here are.... But
really there are too many of them!... We should never have done; and I must
first send word to the Great Joys, who are right at the back, near the
gates of Heaven, and who have not yet heard of your arrival.... I will send
the Happiness of Running Barefoot in the Dew, who is the nimblest of us....
(_To the_ HAPPINESS OF RUNNING BAREFOOT IN THE DEW, _who comes
forward capering_) Off you go!...
LIGHT (_to_ TYLTYL)
In the meantime, you might enquire about the Blue Bird. It is just possible
that the chief Happiness of your home knows where he is....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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