The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 09: Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig
General
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 09: Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig
German literature -- 19th century -- Translations into English; German literature -- 20th century -- Translations into English
[_Exit_.]
ACT V
_Oden Forest_.
SCENE I
_Enter_ HAGEN, GUNTHER, VOLKER, DANKWART _and serving men_.
HAGEN.
This is the place. The spring is gushing forth,
The bushes cover it. If I stand here,
I can impale the man who stoops to drink
Against the rock.
GUNTHER.
I've given no command.
HAGEN.
When thou hast taken thought thou wilt command.
There is no other way, and there will come
No second day like this one. Therefore speak,
Or if thou wilt not speak, be still!
(_To the serving men_.)
Hello!
'Tis here we rest!
[_The serving men prepare a meal_.]
GUNTHER.
Thou'st always hated him.
HAGEN.
I'll not deny that gladly to this work
I lend my hand, and I would surely meet
In combat any man who came between
My enemy and me, and yet the deed
I hold not for that reason less than just.
GUNTHER.
And yet my brothers spoke against the deed
And turned their backs upon us.
HAGEN.
Had they then
The courage to warn him and hinder us?
They must have felt that we are in the right,
And it is but their youth that makes them shrink
From blood that is not shed in open fight.
GUNTHER.
It must be so.
HAGEN.
Why he has bought off death
And so ennobled murder.
(_To the serving men_.)
Sound the horns,
And call the hunt together. For 'tis time
That we should eat.
[_The horns are blown_.]
Now take things as they are
And leave it all to me. If thou art not
Offended, or forgivest what is past,
So be it, yet forbid thy servant not
To rescue and avenge thy noble wife!
She will not break the solemn oath she swore.
If she's deceived in her firm trust in us--Her
confidence that we'll redeem the pledge--Then
all the joy of life that once again,
May be aroused within her youthful heart
When shadows deepen and the end is near,
Will be transformed into one dreadful curse,
One final imprecation upon thee!
GUNTHER.
There still is time.
SCENE II
_Enter_ SIEGFRIED _with_ RUMOLT _and huntsmen_.
SIEGFRIED.
I'm here! And now ye hunters,
Where are your spoils? Mine were to follow me
Upon a wagon, but the wagon broke.
HAGEN.
A lion is the game I chase today,
But I have failed to find one.
SIEGFRIED.
That I know,
For I myself have killed him!--Food is spread.
Sound trumpets in his praise who ordered that,
For now we feel the need. Accursed ravens,
Here too? Now blow your bugles till they burst!
I've thrown near every kind of game I killed
At this black flock; at last I threw a fox,
But still they would not fly, and yet I hate
Nothing so much in all the woodland green
As that deep black--'tis like the devil's hue.
The doves have never flocked around me so!
Shall we stay here to pass the night?
GUNTHER.
We thought--
SIEGFRIED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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