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“Parsifal” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)
| Contents: Characters; Act One; Act Two; Act Three |
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Klingsor's magic castle. The inner keep of a tower open to the sky. Stone steps lead to the battlements on the tower wall. The stage represents the projecting wall of the tower, which leads down into darkness below. Implements of witchcraft and necromantic apparatus. |
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KLINGSOR (on the projecting wall, to one side, sitting before a metal mirror) The time has come. My magic castle lures the fool, whom I see approaching from afar, shouting boyshly. In deathly sleep the woman is held fast by the curse whose grip I have the power to loosen. Up then! To work! (He descends slightly towards the centre and lights incense, which instantly fills the background with blue smoke. Then he seats himself again before his magic mirror and call with mysterious gestures into the depths:) Come up! Come up! To me! Your master calls you, nameless one, primaeval witch, rose of hell! You were Herodias, and what else? Gundryggia there, Kundry here! Come here! Come hither, Kundry! Your master calls: obey! (Kundry's shape arises in the bluish light. She seems asleep. Gradually however she moves like one awaking. Finally she utters a terrible scream.) Are you waking? Ha! To my power you fall again today, at the right time. (Kundry itters a laud wail that subsides to a frightened whimper.) Say, where have you been roaming again? Fie! There among the knights and their circle where you let yourself be treated like beast! Do you not fare better with me? When you captured their master for me - ha ha! - that chaste guardian of the Grail - what drove you forth again? |
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KUNDRY (hoarsely and brokenly, as if striving to regain speech) Oh! - Oh! Blackest night! Frenzy! - O rage!... O misery!... Sleep... sleep... deep sleep!... death! KLINGSOR Did another awaken you? Eh? KUNDRY Yes... my curse!... O yearning... yearning! KLINGSOR Ha ha! There, for the saintly knights? KUNDRY There... there I served. KLINGSOR Yes, to make good the wrong that you had maliciously done them? They will not help you; if I bid the right price they are all venal; the steadiest will fall when he sinks in your arms, and so be brought low by the Spear which I myself seized from their master. Now today we have the most dangerous to meet; he is shielded by his foolishness. KUNDRY I... will not... Oh!... Oh! KLINGSOR You will, because you must. KUNDRY |
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You... cannot... force me. KLINGSOR But I can hold you. KUNDRY You? KLINGSOR Your master. KUNDRY By what power? KLINGSOR Ha! Since only with me does your power avail you nothing. KUNDRY (laughing shrilly) Ha ha! Are you chaste? |
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KLINGSOR (furiously) Why do you ask this, accursed witch? (He sinks into gloomy brooding) Dire distress! So now the fiend mocks me that once I strove after holiness? Dire distress! The pain of untamed desire, most horrible, hell-inspired impulse which I had throttled to deathly silence - does it now laugh aloud and mock through you, bride of the devil? - Beware! One man already repents his contempt and scorn, that proud man, strong in holiness, who once drove me out. His race I ruined; undredeemed shall the guardian of the holy treasure languish; and soon - I know it - I myself will guard the Grail - Ha ha! How did you like the hero Amfortas whom I ensnared to your charms? KUNDRY O anguish! Anguish! He too was weak!... Weak are they all! All fall victim to my curse! - O endless sleep, only release, how can I win you? KLINGSOR Ha! He who spurns you sets you free: attempt it with the boy who is drawing near! KUNDRY I... will not! |
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KLINGSOR (hastily mounting the tower wall) He is already mounting the tower. KUNDRY Alas! Alas! Did I wake for this? Must I? Must I? KLINGSOR (looking down) Ha! The boy is handsome! KUNDRY Oh! Woe is me! KLINGSOR (leaning out, blows a horn) Ho, guards! Ho, knights! Heroes! Up! Foes are at hand! Ha! How they rush to the ramparts, my deluded garrison, to defend their beautiful witches! - Yes! Courage! Courage! - Ha ha! He is not afraid; he has disarmed brave Sir Ferris, whose weapon he sturdily wields against the throng. (Kundry breaks into wild hysterical laughter, which turns to a convulsive cry of woe.) How ill does his ardour accord with the dullards! He has struck one in the arm, another in the thigh! Ha ha! They weaken; they flee. (Kundry vanishes. The bluish light is extinguished, leaving total darkness below, in contrast to the bright blue sky above the walls) Each takes home a wound! Not one of them do I grudge! May the whole brood of knights thus wreak havoc on each other! Ha! How proudly he now stands on the rampart! How happily flushed are his cheeks as in childish amazement |
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he gazes at the deserted garden! Ho, Kundry! (He turns towards the far background) |
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What? Already at work? - Ha ha! I well know the spell that forever binds you to serve me again! (looking out again) You there, innocent lad, whatever prophecies were made you, too young and dull, you fall into my power; once deprived of purity you will remain my slave! (He rapidly sinks with the whole tower; at the same time the magic garden rises and fills the whole stage. Tropical vegetation, luxuriant display of flowers; towards the rear the scene is bounded by the battlements of the castle walls, flanked by projecting parts of the castle itself, [in a rich Arabian style] with terraces. Upon the rampart stands Parsifal, gazing down into the garden in astonishment. From all sides beautiful maidens rush in, first from the garden, then from the palace, in wild confusion, singly then in numbers; they are clad in soft-coloured veils hastily donned, as if just startled out of sleep.) |
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MAIDENS (entering from the garden) Here was the uproar! Here! Here! Weapons! Angry clamour! Woe is us! MAIDENS (entering from the castle) Who is the miscreant? Where is the miscreant? Vengeance! SOME MAIDENS My beloved wounded? OTHERS Where can I find mine? OTHERS I awoke alone! Where have they fled? OTHERS Inside the palace! Alas! Alas! We saw them with bleeding wounds. Up, to their aid! Who is the foe? (They perceive Parsifal and point him out.) There he stands! See him there, see him there! My Ferris's sword is in his hand! I see my beloved's blood on it. I saw him; he climbed the rock! I heard the master's horn. My knight ran hither, they all came, but each encountered his weapon. He wounded my lover. He struck my friend. Still bloody is his weapon! You there! You there! |
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Why create such distress? May you be accursed! (Parsifal jumps down lower into the garden.) THE MAIDENS Ah, audacious one! You dare to approach! Why did you smite our lovers? PARSIFAL Lovely children, how could I not smite them? They barred my way to you, my fair ones. MAIDENS Were you seeking us? Had you seen us already? PARSIFAL Never yet have I seen so fair a company: do you not think me right in calling you fair? |
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THE MAIDENS Then you do not mean to harm us? PARSIFAL I could not do so. MAIDENS Yet you have caused us many woes! You smote our playmates! Who now will play with us? PARSIFAL I will, gladly! (The maidens' surprise has changed to gaiety and now break into merry laughter. - As Parsifal comes ever nearer to the excited groups, the maidens of the first Group and of the first Chorus slip away unperceived behind the banks of flowers to complete their floral adornment.) |
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THE MAIDENS (second Group and second Chorus) Are you kind? Then do not stay afar! And if you do not chide us, we will repay you: we do not play for gold, we play for love's dues. If you bring us consolation you shall win it from us! (The maidens of the first Group and first Chorus return wholly dressed in flowers, looking like flowers themselves, and at once rush upon Parsifal.) THE ADORNED MAIDENS (one at a time) Leave the boy! - He belongs to me! - No! - No! - To me! - To me! THE OTHERS MAIDENS Ah, the minxes! - They secretly adorned themselves. THE MAIDENS (as they dance round Parsifal in ever-changing circles with the charm of children at play) Come, come, handsome boy! I'll be your flower! All my loving care is for your delight and bliss! |
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PARSIFAL (standing in happy calm amidst the maidens) How sweet you smell! Are you flowers then? THE MAIDENS The garden's pride and perfumed essence our master plucked us in Springtime! We grow here in summer and sunlight to bloom for your delight. Now be friendly and kind, do not grudge the flowers their due! If you cannot love and cherish us, we shall wither and perish. FIRST MAIDEN Take me to your bosom! SECOND MAIDEN Let me cool your brow! THIRD MAIDEN Let me touch your cheek! FOURTH MAIDEN Let me kiss your lips! FIFTH MAIDEN No! I! I am the fairest! SIXTH MAIDEN No! I, I smell sweeter! |
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PARSIFAL (gently restraining their charming impetuosity) You wild throng of lovely flowers, if I am to play with you, give me some room! MAIDENS Why do you scold us? PARSIFAL Because you are quarrelling. MAIDENS We are only quarrelling over you. PARSIFAL Have done, then! FIRST MAIDEN Let him be: see, he favours me! SECOND MAIDEN No, me! THIRD MAIDEN Rather me! FOURTH MAIDEN No, me! |
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SOME MAIDENS (to Parsifal) You avoid me? SOME OTHERS You drive me away? SOME OTHERS Are you afraid of women? SOME OTHERS Don't you dare? FIRST MAIDEN How meanly timid and cold you are! Would you have the flowers woo the butterfly? SOME OTHERS MAIDENS How faint-hearted he is! - How cold he is! SOME MAIDENS Leave him to his folly! OTHERS MAIDENS We give him up for lost. OTHERS MAIDENS Then let him be our choice! MANY MAIDENS No, he belongs to me! No, ours! - And me! PARSIFAL (half angrily driving the maidens off) Have don! You shall not catch me! (He makes to escape, but on hearing Kundry's voice pauses in surprise.) KUNDRY |
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Parsifal! - Stay! (The maidens are terror-struck and shrink back at once from Parsifal) PARSIFAL "Parsifal"...? Once in a dream my mother called me that. KUNDRY Stay here! Parsifal! - Bliss and surpassing delight await you. You wantoning children, let him be; flowers soon to wither, with you he is not destined to play. Go home, tend the wounded; many a lonely hero awaits you. |
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THE MAIDENS (reluctantly leave Parsifal) Must we leave you? Must we not see you? Alas! Oh what sorrow! We would gladly be parted from all men, to be with you alone. Farewell, farewell! you charming, fair boy, you - fool! (With this last, the maidens disappear laughing into the castle.) PARSIFAL Have I just dreamt all this? (He looks round timidly to the side from which the voice came. There now appears, through an opening in the banks of flowers, a young woman of great beauty - Kundry, completely transformed - on a couch of flowers, wearing a light, fantastic, veil-like robe of Arabian style.) |
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PARSIFAL Did you call me, who am nameless? KUNDRY I named you, foolish innocent, "Fal parsi", you innocent fool, "Parsifal". Thus when he fell in Araby your father Gamuret called his son, to whom, still in his mother's womb, he gave his dying greeting with this name. I waited for you here to tell you this: what drew you here, if not the wish to know? PARSIFAL I never saw, nor dreamt of, what now I see, and which fills me with dread. - Do you too bloom in this bank of flowers? KUNDRY No, Parsifal, you foolish innocent! Far, far away, is my home. I tarried here only that you might find me. I came from afar, where I have seen much. I saw the child on its mother's breast, its first lisping still laughs in my ear; though sad at heart, how Heart's Sorrow also laughed, that in her grief the apple of her eye should cry for joy! She fondly lulled to sleep with caresses the babe cradled gently on soft moss; with anxious care a mother's yearning guarded its sleep, and the hot dew of a mother's tears woke it at morn. She was all mourning, child of sorrow, for your father's love and death. To shield you from like peril she deemed it her highest duty's task. She strove to hide and shelter you safe afar from weapons and from men's strife and fury. She was all concern and foreboding lest you should ever acquire knowledge. Do you not still hear her cry of distress when you roamed late and far? Oh! How great was her joy and laughter |
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when she sought and found you again; when her arms clapsed you tight did you perhaps fear her kisses? But you did not consider her woe, her desperate grief, when you finally did not return and left no trace behind! She waited night and day till her laments grew faint, grief consumed her pain and she craved for death's release: her sorrow broke her heart, and Heart's Sorrow died. PARSIFAL (whose rising emotion has culminated in terrible perturbation, sinks overcome with distress at Kundry's feet) Woe is me! Alas! What have I done? Where was I? Mother! Sweet, dear mother! Your son, your son it was who killed you! Fool! Blind, blundering fool, where did you wander, forgetting her - forgetting yourself too? O dearest, beloved mother! |
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KUNDRY If grief were still a stranger to you, the sweetness of consolation would never comfort your heart; now assuage that distress, that woe for which you grieve, in the solace which love offers you. PARSIFAL (sinking deeper and deeper in his grief) How could I forget my mother - my mother! Ah! what else have I forgotten? What have I ever remembered yet? Only dull stupidity dwells in me. KUNDRY (still half reclining, bends over Parsifal's head, gently touches his forehead and fondly puts her arm around his neck) Confession will end guilt in remorse, understanding changes folly into sense. Learn to know the love that enfolded Gamuret when Heart's Sorrow's passion engulfed him in its fire! She who once gave you life and being, to subdue death and folly sends you this day, as a last token of a mother's blessing, the first kiss of love. (She has bent her head completely over his and gives him a long kiss on the lips) |
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PARSIFAL (suddenly starts up with a gesture of the utmost terror: his demeanour expresses some fearful change; he presses his hands hard against his heart as if to master an agonising pain.) Amfortas! - The wound! The wound! It burns within my heart! O sorrow, sorrow! Fearful sorrow! From the depths of my heart it cries aloud. Oh! Oh! Most wretched! Most pitiable! I saw the wound bleeding: now it bleeds in me! Here - here! No, no! It is not the wound. Flow in streams, my blood, from it! Here! Here in my heart is the flame! The longing, the terrible longing which seizes and grips all my senses! O torment of love! How everything trembles, quakes and quivers in sinful desire! (As Kundry stares at Parsifal in fear and astonishment, he falls into a complete trance) (in a low voice, with horror) |
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My dull gaze is fixed on the sacred vessel; the holy blood flows: - the bliss of redemption, divinely mild, trembles within every soul around: only here, in my heart, will the pangs not be stilled. The Saviour's lament I hear there, the lament, ah! the lamentation from His profaned sanctuary: "Redeem Me, rescue Me from hands defiled by sin!" Thus rang the divine lament in terrible clarity in my soul. And I - fool, coward, fled hither to wild childish deeds! (He flings himself in despair on his kness) Redeemer! Saviour! Lord of grace! How can I, a sinner, purge my guilt? KUNDRY (whose astonishment has changed to passionate admiration, hesitantly tries to approach Parsifal) Honoured hero! Throw off this spell! Look up and greet your fair one's coming! |
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PARSIFAL (still kneeling, gaze fixedly at Kundry, who bends over him with the cressing movements indicated in the following) Yes! This was the voice with which she called him; - and this her look, truly I recognise it - and this, smiling at him so disquietingly; the lips - yes - thus they quivered for him, thus she bent her neck - thus boldly rose her head; thus laughingly fluttered her hair - thus her arms were twined around his neck - thus tenderly fawned her features! In league with the pangs of every torment, her lips kissed away his soul's salvation! Ah, this kiss! (He has gradually risen and thrusts Kundry from him) Corrupter! Get away from me! Forever, forever away from me! |
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KUNDRY (with the ulmost passion) Cruel one! If you feel in your heart only others' sorrows, then feel mine too! If you are a redeemer, what maliciously stops you from uniting with me for my salvation? Through eternities I have waited for you, the saviour so late in coming, whom once I dared revile. Oh! If you knew the curse which afflicts me, asleepp and awake, in death and life, pain and laughter, newly steeled to new affliction, endlessly through this existence! I saw Him - Him - and mocked...! His gaze fell upon me! - Now I seek Him from world to world to meet Him once again. I darkest hour I feel His eyes turn on me and His gaze rest upon me. The accursed laugher assails me once again: a sinner sinks into my arms! Then I laugh - laugh - I cannot weep, can only shout, rage, storm, rave in an ever-renewed nightmare from which, though repentant, I scarcely wake. One for whom I yearned in deathly longing, whom I recognised though despised and rejected, let me weep upon his breast, for one hour only be united to you and, though God and the world disown me, in you be cleansed of sin and redeemed! PARSIFAL For evermore would you be damned with me if for one hour, unmindful of my mission, I yelded to your embrace! For your salvation tto I am sent, |
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if you will turn aside from your desires. The solace to end your sorrows comes not from the source from which they flow: grace shall never be bestowed on you until that source is sealed to you. Another grace - ah, a different one, for which, pitying, I saw the brotherhood pining in dire distress, scourging and mortifying their flesh. But who can know aright and clear the only true source of salvation? O misery that banishes all deliverance! O blackness of earthly error, that while ferishly pursuing supreme salvation yet thirsts for the fount of perdition! |
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KUNDRY (in wild ecstasy) Was it my kiss which thus revealed the world to you? The full embrace of my love then would raise you to godhead. Redeem the world, if this is your destiny: make yourself a god for an hour, and for that let me be damned forever, my wound never be healed! PARSIFAL I offer redemtion to you too in your sin. KUNDRY Let me love you, godlike as you are, and you would then give me redemption. PARSIFAL Love and redemption shall be yours if you will show me the way to Amfortas. KUNDRY (breaking out in fury) Never shall you find him! Let the fallen one perish, that woeful seeker after shame whom I derided, at whom I laughed! Ha ha! He fell by his own spear! PARSIFAL Who dared to wound him with the holy weapon? |
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KUNDRY He - he who once punished my laughter: his curse - ha! - gives me strength; I will call the Spear against you yourself if you accord that sinner mercy! Ah, this is madness! - Pity! Pity on me! Be mine for one hour! Let me be yours for one hour, and you shall be led on your way! (She tries to embrace him. He thrusts her aside violently) PARSIFAL Away, evil woman! KUNDRY (starting up in wild fury and calling into the background) Help! Help! Hither! Seize the miscreant! Hither! Bar his path! Bar his passage! And though you flee from here and find all the roads in the world, that road you seek, that path you shall not find, for any path and passage that leads you away from me I curse for you. Stray and be lost! You whom I know so well, I give him into your power! |
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KLINGSOR (has appeared on the rampart and brandishes a lance at Parsifal) Halt! I have the right weapon to fell you! The fool shall fall to me through his master's Spear! (He hurls the Spear, which remains poised above Parsifal's head.) PARSIFAL (seizing the Spear in his hand and holding it above his head) With this sign I rout your enchantment. As the Spear closes the wound which you dealt him with it, may it crush your lying splendour into mourning and ruin! (He has swung the Spear in the sign of the Cross; the castle sinks as if by an earthquake. The garden swiftly withers to a desert; faded flowers are strewn on the ground. - Kundry falls to the ground with a scream). (Parsifal pauses once more as he hastens away, and at the top of the ruined wall turns back to Kundry.) PARSIFAL You know where you can find me again! (He hurries away. Kundry has raised herself a little and gazes after him) |
| Contents: Characters; Act One; Act Two; Act Three |