Speak not so friendly in my ear. Here you are lord, and command us here. Hesitate not to color my pallid And bloodless cheeks with buffets untallied! That for a whore like me Is an unheard-of fee! Helpless lamenting, sobbing and wailing Need not cause you the slightest quailing. Shallow’s the bliss from such abuse! Pile pitiless blow upon blow without truce! If your fist should smash in my face entire Even that would not slake my desire! HERR KÖNIG-- I am not prepared for such words, such a test.... Is this a merry welcome for the guest? You speak as if in purgatory already Here, you atoned for lust enjoyed and gone. LISISKA-- Oh, no! Untamed the Monster, Lust, doth eddy, Raging forever in flesh, blood and bone! Think you I, the devil’s spouse, Would ever have happened into this house If my heart’s horrible hammering stopped When Rapture seized me and shone? Rapture evaporates, dropped On a hot stone! And Lust, an unstilled throe, A hungering woe, Plunges, to find death, into this And every abyss! Are you not cruel, good sir, in your joys? I should be sorry! But what do you care for my noise? Strike me, your quarry! HERR KÖNIG-- If that dark urge is really yours, to go From the last depths to something yet below,-- I could shed tears that from the spring-time crew Of amorous girls I picked and chose just you. Out of your eyes, so innocent, so gay, There gleamed on me a =bliss without alloy=.... LISISKA-- Do you wish that our time pass away-- And we have no joy? Down there, over our rules and tenets, Mother Adele sits, watch in hand: Counts and reckons, immovable, bland, My enjoyment’s minutes! [_Pause._] HERR KÖNIG-- You have grown tired of ecstasy at length And hope for lassitude from tears and pain,-- For some deep calm to overcome the strength Of your hot craving day and night in vain. LISISKA-- If I sleep, then please with a sudden hard Punch in the ribs wake me up, well-jarred! HERR KÖNIG-- That note was false! A flaw is in the reed! --How can a human being understand that?! Whistle at happiness--at life--you can that,-- But =sleep=? No! that was blasphemy indeed! LISISKA-- I am not your property, You need not protect me; Spare not then so anxiously The joys that still affect me; Seek no means to comfort me; Kindness knows not how to; Who beats me up most mercilessly,-- He’s the one I bow to. You ask me Whether or no I still can blush? Unmask me With a quick blow, And mark the flush! HERR KÖNIG-- Cold sweat runs down me, chill’d in skull and spine, Shuddering!--Let me out!... Half in a dream I hoped to pluck the sweet fruits of love’s vine. You offer thorns to me instead!... You seem A young wild thing; how came it that you strayed-- Impossible!--from flower-paths to these briars? LISISKA--