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
TYLTYL
We were playing at eating cakes?...
THE FAIRY
Have you any cakes?... Where are they?...
TYLTYL
In the house of the rich children.... Come and look, it's so lovely. (_He
drags the_ FAIRY _to the window_.)
THE FAIRY (_at the window_)
But it's the others who are eating them!...
TYLTYL
Yes; but we can see them eat....
THE FAIRY
Aren't you cross with them?...
TYLTYL
What for?...
THE FAIRY
For eating all the cakes.... I think it's very wrong of them not to give
you some....
TYLTYL
Not at all; they're rich.... I say, isn't it beautiful over there?...
THE FAIRY
It's no more beautiful there than here.
TYLTYL
Ugh!... It's darker here and smaller and there are no cakes....
THE FAIRY
It's exactly the same, only you can't see....
TYLTYL
Yes, I can; and I have very good eyes. I can see the time on the church
clock and daddy can't...
THE FAIRY (_suddenly angry_)
I tell you that you can't see!... How do you see me?... What do I look
like?... (_An awkward silence from_ TYLTYL.) Well, answer me, will
you? I want to know if you can see!... Am I pretty or ugly?... (_The
silence grows more and more uncomfortable_.) Won't you answer?... Am I
young or old?... Are my cheeks pink or yellow?... Perhaps you'll say I have
a hump?...
TYLTYL (_in a conciliatory tone_)
No, no; It's not a big one....
THE FAIRY
Oh, yes, to look at you, any one would think it enormous.... Have I a hook
nose and have I lost one of my eyes?...
TYLTYL
Oh, no, I don't say that.... Who put it out?...
THE FAIRY (_growing more and more irritated_).
But it's not out!... You wretched, impudent boy!... It's much finer than
the other; it's bigger and brighter and blue as the sky.... And my hair,
do you see that?... It's fair as the corn in the fields, it's like virgin
gold!... And I've such heaps and heaps of it that it weighs my head
down.... It escapes on every side.... Do you see it on my hands? (_She
holds out two lean wisps of grey hair_.)
TYLTYL
Yes, I see a little....
THE FAIRY (_indignantly_)
A little!... Sheaves! Armfuls! Clusters! Waves of gold!... I know there are
people who say that they don't see any; but you're not one of those wicked,
blind people, I should hope?...
TYLTYL
Oh, no; I can see all that isn't hidden....
THE FAIRY
But you ought to see the rest with as little doubt!... Human beings are
very odd!... Since the death of the fairies, they see nothing at all and
they never suspect it.... Luckily, I always carry with me all that is
wanted to give new light to dimmed eyes.... What am I taking out of my
bag?...
TYLTYL
Oh, what a dear little green hat!... What's that shining in the cockade?...
THE FAIRY
That's the big diamond that makes people see....
TYLTYL
Really?...
THE FAIRY
Yes; when you've got the hat on your head, you turn the diamond a little;
from right to left, for instance, like this; do you see?... Then it presses
a bump which nobody knows of and which opens your eyes....
TYLTYL
Doesn't it hurt?...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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