Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods. The Ring of the Niblung, part 2

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Рихард Вагнер

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Зарубежная классика

Год написания книги

2018

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As the day dawns Siegfried and Mime enter. Siegfried carries his sword in a sword-belt of rope. Mime examines the place carefully. At last he looks towards the background, which remains in deep shadow, whilst the rising ground in the middle becomes, after a time, more and more brightly illuminated by the sun.

MIME

Our journey ends here;
Here we halt.

SIEGFRIED

[Sits down under the lime-tree and looks about him.

So here I shall learn what fear is?
A far way thou hast led me;
We have wandered lone together
A whole night long in the woods.
This is the last
Of thee, Mime!
Can I not master
My lesson here,
Alone I will push forward
And never see thee again.

MIME

Lad, believe me,
If thou canst not
Learn it here and now,
No other place,
No other time
Ever will teach thee fear.
Dost thou see
That cavern yawning dark?
Yonder dwells
A dragon dread and grim,
Horribly fierce,
Enormous in size,
With terrible jaws
That threaten and gape;
With skin and hair,
All at a gulp,
The brute could swallow thee whole.

SIEGFRIED

[Still sitting under the lime-tree.

'Twere well to close up his gullet;
His fangs I will therefore avoid.

MIME

Poison pours
From his venomous mouth;
Were he to spue out
Spittle on thee,
Thy body and bones would decay.

SIEGFRIED

That the poison may not consume me,
I will keep out of its reach.

MIME

A serpent's tail
Sweeping he swings;
Were that about thee wound
And folded close,
Thy limbs would be broken like glass.

SIEGFRIED

That his swinging tail may not touch me,
Warily then I must watch.
But answer me this:
Has the brute a heart?

MIME

A pitiless, cruel heart.

SIEGFRIED

It lies, however,
Where all hearts lie,
Brute and human alike?

MIME

Of course! There, boy,
The dragon's lies too.
At last thou beginnest to fear?

SIEGFRIED

[Who till now has been lying indolently stretched out, sits up suddenly.

Nothung into
His heart I will thrust!