So to this house you came at last, and lead A life of riot and revel here indeed! Music resounds, champagne drips from the tables, Laughter roars through the graying dawn full oft, Nought the long working-day knows but the soft Sound of hot tongues’ husht lisping of love’s fables.-- What a low, common beggar I must be To you--proud queen of joy and ecstasy! I came with what was mine from you to purchase A plain, straightforward interchange of pleasure. I could tear my hair with rage! For without measure Hideous is the lust that here besmirches Those libertines your friends and you their game! They set no stops to their inhuman glee! Hasten and wreathe =their= limbs! A purer aim And element upbuoys and quickens me! I sought refreshment, and have no desire To smear myself in the earth’s deepest mire! LISISKA-- Oh, stay! If you desert me now, ’tis harder,-- ’Tis night around me again! Don’t go away! Like a lip-lash already each word you say Flicks me, and stings my craving with pricking whips: Would you might loathe and hate me with such ardor That it would be your fists and not your lips Whose blow on blow aches through my body’s smart! Once you’ve been pressed to my heart Then go back whence you came, Smilingly write my name In your notebook ... --while with me There will stay but the ghastly curse--to be Once more in the grip of the hellish drive Out of which no joy remained alive! HERR KÖNIG-- I can’t believe my senses now!--It seems, You’ve fallen in =love= with me? Oh, cruel!--Spurned By women, I have wept aloud and yearned Thru many--how many--nights of tortured dreams! Is the first love in all my life now faltering Toward me upon bought lips?!--Are you not bound To give to every stranger, without paltering, His will,--and hopes of comfort would you found On me?--to me lay passionately bare Your soul, whose lurid charms shall hold me fast? If e’er my lot so close to yours were cast I should be seized with horror past compare! LISISKA-- For God’s sake, don’t believe in my love! ’Tis my duty here to affect the dove! Think to yourself just once what it means When suddenly someone parts the screens!-- Rake up love’s coals, be alive and elated; There is a =man= by God created!-- --Do you want me to play that wretched game With =you= here? To feel but loathing when your high’st flame Burns thru here?! But if you thoroly with your Hunnish Fists my body and limbs will punish,-- That, if you find pleasure in it, Can unite us till my dying minute! HERR KÖNIG--