The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing: Miss Sara Sampson, Philotas, Emilia Galotti, Nathan the WiseLessing, Gotthold Ephraim
General
The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing: Miss Sara Sampson, Philotas, Emilia Galotti, Nathan the Wise
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
German drama -- Translations into English
Yes, I will vouch it, honest, wild--
How shall I call him? Ah! the real beggar
Is, after all, the only real king. (_Exit at opposite side_.)
ACT III.
Scene I.--_A room in_ Nathan's _house_.
Recha, Daja.
RECHA.
Well, Daja, did my father really say
"That I might instantly expect him here?"
That surely meant that he would come at once,
And yet how many minutes have rolled by!
But I'll not dwell upon the moments gone,
I'll only live in those that are to come,
That one which brings him here must come in time.
DAJA.
But for the Sultan's ill-timed messenger
Nathan had brought him hither.
RECHA.
When he comes--
Oh! when this dearest of my inmost hopes
Shall be fulfilled--what then--what then?
DAJA.
What then?
Why then I trust the wish most dear to me
Will also be fulfilled.
RECHA.
And in its place
What wish shall take possession of my breast?
Which now forgets to heave, unless it pant
With some fond wish? Will nothing come? I shudder!
DAJA.
My wish shall then supplant the one fulfilled,
My wish to see you borne to Europe's shores
By hands well worthy of you.
RECHA.
You do err.
The very thought which makes you form this wish
Forbids it to be mine. Your native land
Attracts you, and has mine no charm for me?
Shall a remembrance of your cherished home,
Your absent kindred and your dearest friends,
Which years and distance have not yet effaced,
Rule in your soul with softer, mightier sway
Than what I know, and hear, and feel of mine.
DAJA.
'Tis vain to struggle, for the ways of Heaven
Are still the ways of Heaven. And who can say
If he who saved your life may not be doomed,
Through his God's arm, for whom he nobly fights.
To lead you to that people--to that land
To which you should belong by right of birth?
RECHA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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