Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt - Act 3 lyrics

==ACT THIRD== ===SCENE FIRST=== [Deep in the pine-woods. Grey autumn weather. Snow is falling.] [PEER GYNT stands in his shirt-sleeves, felling timber.] PEER [hewing at a large fir-tree with twisted branches]. :Oh ay, you are tough, you ancient churl; :but it's all in vain, for you'll soon be down. :: [Hews at it again.] :I see well enough you've a chain-mail shirt, :but I'll hew it through, were it never so stout.- :Ay, ay, you're shaking your twisted arms; :you've reason enough for your spite and rage; :but none the less you must bend the knee-! :: [Breaks off suddenly.] :Lies! 'Tis an old tree, and nothing more. :Lies! It was never a steel-clad churl; :it's only a fir-tree with fissured bark.- :It is heavy labour this hewing timber; :but the devil and all when you hew and dream too.- :I'll have done with it all-with this dwelling in mist, :and, broad-awake, dreaming your senses away.- :You're an outlaw, lad! You are banned to the woods. :: [Hews for a while rapidly.] :Ay, an outlaw, ay. You've no mother now :to spread your table and bring your food. :If you'd eat, my lad, you must help yourself, :fetch your rations raw from the wood and stream, :split your own fir-roots and light your own fire, :bustle around, and arrange and prepare things. :Would you clothe yourself warmly, you must stalk your deer; :would you found you a house, you must quarry the stones; :would you build up its walls, you must fell the logs, :and shoulder them all to the building-place.- :: [His axe sinks down; he gazes straight in front of him.] :Brave shall the building be. Tower and vane :shall rise from the roof-tree, high and fair. :And then I will carve, for the knob on the gable, :a mermaid, shaped like a fish from the navel. :Bra** shall there be on the vane and the door-locks. :Gla** I must see and get hold of too. :Strangers, pa**ing, shall ask amazed :what that is glittering far on the hillside. ::: [Laughs angrily.] :Devil's own lies! There they come again. :You're an outlaw, lad! :: [Hewing vigorously.] :A bark-thatched hovel :is shelter enough both in rain and frost. :: [Looks up at the tree.] :Now he stands wavering. There; only a kick, :and he topples and measures his length on the ground;- :the thick-swarming undergrowth shudders around him! [Begins lopping the branches from the trunk; suddenly he listens, and stands motionless with his axe in the air.] :There's some one after me!-Ay, are you that sort, :old Hegstad-churl;-would you play me false? : [Crouches behind the tree, and peeps over it.] :A lad! One only. He seems afraid. :He peers all round him. What's that he hides :'neath his jacket? A sickle. He stops and looks around,- :now he lays his hand on a fence-rail flat. :What's this now? Why does he lean like that-? :Ugh, ugh! Why, he's chopped his finger off! :A whole finger off!-He bleeds like an ox.- :Now he takes to his heels with his fist in a clout. ::: [Rises.] :What a devil of a lad! An unmendable finger! :Right off! And with no one compelling him to it! :Ho', now I remember! It's only thus :you can 'scape from having to serve the King. :That's it. They wanted to send him soldiering, :and of course the lad didn't want to go.- :But to chop off-? To sever for good and all-? :Ay, think of it-wish it done-will it to boot,- :but do it-! No, that's past my understanding! ::: [Shakes his head a little; then goes on with his work.] ===SCENE SECOND=== [A room in ASE's house. Everything in disorder; boxes standing open; wearing apparel strewn around. A cat is lying on the bed.] [ASE and the COTTAR's WIFE are hard at work packing things together and putting them straight.] ASE [running to one side]. :Kari, come here! KARI :What now? ASE [on the other side]. :Come here-! :Where is-? Where shall I find-? Tell me where-? :What am I seeking? I'm out of my wits! :Where is the key of the chest? KARI :In the key-hole. ASE :What is that rumbling? KARI :The last cart-load :they're driving to Hegstad. ASE [weeping]. :How glad I'd be :in the black chest myself to be driven away! :Oh, what must a mortal abide and live through! :God help me in mercy! The whole house is bare! :What the Hegstad-churl left now the bailiff has taken. :Not even the clothes on my back have they spared. :Fie! Shame on them all that have judged so hardly! : [Seats herself on the edge of the bed.] :Both the land and the farm-place are lost to our line; :the old man was hard, but the law was still harder;- :there was no one to help me, and none would show mercy; :Peer was away; not a soul to give counsel. KARI :But here, in this house, you may dwell till you die. ASE :Ay, the cat and I live on charity. KARI :God help you, mother; your Peer's cost you dear. ASE :Peer? Why, you're out of your senses, sure! :Ingrid came home none the worse in the end. :The right thing had been to hold Satan to reckoning;- :he was the sinner, ay, he and none other; :the ugly beast tempted my poor boy astray! KARI :Had I not better send word to the parson? :Mayhap you're worse than you think you are. ASE :To the parson? Truly I almost think so. ::: [Starts up.] :But, oh God, I can't! I'm the boy's own mother; :and help him I must; it's no more than my duty; :I must do what I can when the rest forsake him. :They've left him this coat; I must patch it up. :I wish I dared snap up the fur-rug as well! :What's come of the hose? KARI :They are there, 'mid that rubbish. ASE [rummaging about]. :Why, what have we here? I declare it's an old :casting-ladle, Kari! With this he would play :bu*ton-moulder, would melt, and then shape, and then stamp : them. :One day-there was company-in the boy came, :and begged of his father a lump of tin. :"No tin," says Jon, "but King Christian's coin; :silver; to show you're the son of Jon Gynt." :God pardon him, Jon; he was drunk, you see, :and then he cared neither for tin nor for gold. :Here are the hose. Oh, they're nothing but holes; :they want darning, Kari! KARI :Indeed but they do. ASE :When that is done, I must get to bed; :I feel so broken, and frail, and ill- ::: [Joyfully.] :Two woollen-shirts, Kari;-they've pa**ed them by! KARI :So they have indeed. ASE :It's a bit of luck. :One of the two you may put aside; :or rather, I think we'll e'en take them both;- :the one he has on is so worn and thin. KARI :But oh, Mother Ase, I fear it's a sin! ASE :Maybe; but remember, the priest holds out :pardon for this and our other sinnings. ===SCENE THIRD=== [In front of a settler's newly-built hut in the forest. A reindeer's horns over the door. The snow is lying deep around. It is dusk.] [PEER GYNT is standing outside the door, fastening a large wooden bar to it.] PEER [laughing betweenwhiles]. :Bars I must fix me; bars that can fasten :the door against troll-folk, and men, and women. :Bars I must fix me; bars that can shut out :all the cantankerous little hobgoblins.- :They come with the darkness, they knock and they rattle: :Open, Peer Gynt, we're as nimble as thoughts are! :'Neath the bedstead we bustle, we rake in the ashes, :down the chimney we hustle like fiery-eyed dragons. :Hee-hee! Peer Gynt; think you staples and planks :can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts? [SOLVEIG comes on snow-shoes over the heath; she has a shawl over her head, and a bundle in her hand.] SOLVEIG :God prosper your labour. You must not reject me. :You sent for me hither, and so you must take me. PEER :Solveig! It cannot be-! Ay, but it is! :And you're not afraid to come near to me! SOLVEIG :One message you sent me by little Helga; :others came after in storm and in stillness. :All that your mother told bore me a message, :that brought forth others when dreams sank upon me. :Nights full of heaviness, blank, empty days, :brought me the message that now I must come. :It seemed as though life had been quenched down there; :I could nor laugh nor weep from the depths of my heart. :I knew not for sure how you might be minded; :I knew but for sure what I should do and must do. PEER :But your father? SOLVEIG :In all of God's wide earth :I have none I can call either father or mother. :I have loosed me from all of them. PEER :Solveig, you fair one- :and to come to me? SOLVEIG :Ay, to you alone; :you must be all to me, friend and consoler. :::[In tears.] :The worst was leaving my little sister;- :but parting from father was worse, still worse; :and worst to leave her at whose breast I was borne;- :oh no, God forgive me, the worst I must call :the sorrow of leaving them all, ay all! PEER :And you know the doom that was pa**ed in spring? :It forfeits my farm and my heritage. SOLVEIG :Think you for heritage, goods, and gear, :I forsook the paths all my dear ones tread? PEER :And know you the compact? Outside the forest :whoever may meet me may seize me at will. SOLVEIG :I ran upon snow-shoes; I asked my way on; :they said "Whither go you?" I answered, "I go home." PEER :Away, away then with nails and planks! :No need now for bars against hobgoblin-thoughts. :If you dare dwell with the hunter here, :I know the hut will be blessed from ill. :Solveig! Let me look at you! Not too near! :Only look at you! Oh, but you are bright and pure! :Let me lift you! Oh, but you are fine and light! :Let me carry you, Solveig, and I'll never be tired! :I will not soil you. With outstretched arms :I will hold you far out from me, lovely and warm one! :Oh, who would have thought I could draw you to me,- :ah, but I have longed for you, daylong and nightlong. :Here you may see I've been hewing and building;- :it must down again, dear; it is ugly and mean- SOLVEIG :Be it mean or brave,-here is all to my mind. :One so lightly draws breath in the teeth of the wind. :Down below it was airless; one felt as though choked; :that was partly what drove me in fear from the dale. :But here, with the fir-branches soughing o'erhead,- :what a stillness and song!-I am here in my home. PEER :And know you that surely? For all your days? SOLVEIG :The path I have trodden leads back nevermore. PEER :You are mine then! In! In the room let me see you! :Go in! I must go to fetch fir-roots for fuel. :Warm shall the fire be and bright shall it shine, :you shall sit softly and never be a-cold. [He opens the door; SOLVEIG goes in. He stands still for a while, then laughs aloud with joy and leaps into the air.] PEER :My king's daughter! Now I have found her and won her! :Hei! Now the palace shall rise, deeply founded! [He seizes his axe and moves away; at the same moment an OLD-LOOKING WOMAN, in a tattered green gown, comes out from the wood; an UGLY BRAT, with an ale-flagon in his hand, limps after, holding on to her skirt.] THE WOMAN :Good evening, Peer Lightfoot! PEER :What is it? Who's there? THE WOMAN :Old friends of yours, Peer Gynt! My home is near by. :We are neighbours. PEER :Indeed? That is more than I know. THE WOMAN :Even as your hut was builded, mine built itself too. PEER [going]. :I'm in haste- THE WOMAN :Yes, that you are always, my lad; :but I'll trudge behind you and catch you at last. PEER :You're mistaken, good woman! THE WOMAN :I was so before; :I was when you promised such mighty fine things. PEER :I promised-? What devil's own nonsense is this? THE WOMAN :You've forgotten the night when you drank with my sire? :You've forgot-? PEER :I've forgot what I never have known. :What's this that you prate of? When last did we meet? THE WOMAN :When last we met was when first we met. :::[To THE BRAT.] :Give your father a drink; he is thirsty, I'm sure. PEER :Father? You're drunk, woman! Do you call him-? THE WOMAN :I should think you might well know the pig by its skin! :Why, where are your eyes? Can't you see that he's lame :in his shank, just as you too are lame in your soul? PEER :Would you have me believe-? THE WOMAN :Would you wriggle away-? PEER :This long-legged urchin-! THE WOMAN :He's shot up apace. PEER :Dare you, you troll-snout, father on me-? THE WOMAN :Come now, Peer Gynt, you're as rude as an ox! ::: [Weeping.] :Is it my fault if no longer I'm fair, :as I was when you lured me on hillside and lea? :Last fall, in my labour, the Fiend held my back, :and so 'twas no wonder I came out a fright. :But if you would see me as fair as before, :you have only to turn yonder girl out of doors, :drive her clean out of your sight and your mind;- :do but this, dear my love, and I'll soon lose my snout! PEER :Begone from me, troll-witch! THE WOMAN :Ay, see if I do! PEER :I'll split your skull open-! THE WOMAN :Just try if you dare! :Ho-ho, Peer Gynt, I've no fear of blows! :Be sure I'll return every day of the year. :I'll set the door ajar and peep in at you both. :When you're sitting with your girl on the fireside bench,- :when you're tender, Peer Gynt,-when you'd pet and caress her,- :I'll seat myself by you, and ask for my share. :She there and I-we will take you by turns. :Farewell, dear my lad, you can marry to-morrow! PEER :You nightmare of hell! THE WOMAN :By-the-bye, I forgot! :You must rear your own youngster, you light-footed scamp! :Little imp, will you go to your father? THE BRAT [spits at him]. :Faugh! :I'll chop you with my hatchet; only wait, only wait! THE WOMAN [kisses THE BRAT]. :What a head he has got on his shoulders, the dear! :You'll be father's living image when once you're a man! PEER [stamping]. :Oh, would you were as far-! THE WOMAN :As we now are near? PEER [clenching his hands]. :And all this-! THE WOMAN :For nothing but thoughts and desires! :It is hard on you, Peer! PEER :It is worst for another!- :Solveig, my fairest, my purest gold! THE WOMAN :Oh ay, 'tis the guiltless must smart, said the devil; :his mother boxed his ears when his father was drunk! [She trudges off into the thicket with THE BRAT, who throws the flagon at PEER GYNT.] PEER [after a long silence]. :The Boyg said, "Go roundabout!"-so one must here.- :There fell my fine palace, with crash and clatter! :There's a wall around her whom I stood so near, :of a sudden all's ugly-my joy has grown old.- :Roundabout, lad! There's no way to be found :right through all this from where you stand to her. :Right through? Hm, surely there should be one. :There's a text on repentance, unless I mistake. :But what? What is it? I haven't the book, :I've forgotten it mostly, and here there is none :that can guide me aright in the pathless wood.- :Repentance? And maybe 'twould take whole years, :ere I fought my way through. 'Twere a meagre life, that. :To shatter what's radiant, and lovely, and pure, :and clinch it together in fragments and shards? :You can do it with a fiddle, but not with a bell. :Where you'd have the sward green, you must mind not to trample. :'Twas nought but a lie though, that witch-snout business! :Now all that foulness is well out of sight.- :Ay, out of sight maybe, not out of mind. :Thoughts will sneak stealthily in at my heel. :Ingrid! And the three, they that danced on the heights! :Will they too want to join us? With vixenish spite :will they claim to be folded, like her, to my breast, :to be tenderly lifted on outstretched arms? :Roundabout, lad; though my arms were as long :as the root of the fir, or the pine-tree's stem,- :I think even then I should hold her too near, :to set her down pure and untarnished again.- :I must roundabout here, then, as best I may, :and see that it bring me nor gain nor loss. :One must put such things from one, and try to forget.- : [Goes a few steps towards the hut, but stops again.] :Go in after this? So befouled and disgraced? :Go in with that troll-rabble after me still? :Speak, yet be silent; confess, yet conceal-? :: [Throws away his axe.] :It's holy-day evening. For me to keep tryst, :such as now I am, would be sacrilege. SOLVEIG [in the doorway]. :Are you coming? PEER [half aloud]. :Roundabout! SOLVEIG :What? PEER :You must wait. :It is dark, and I've got something heavy to fetch. SOLVEIG :Wait; I will help you; the burden we'll share. PEER :No, stay where you are! I must bear it alone. SOLVEIG :But don't go too far, dear! PEER :Be patient, my girl; :be my way long or short-you must wait. SOLVEIG [nodding to him as he goes]. :Yes, I'll Wait! [PEER GYNT goes down the wood-path. SOLVEIG remains standing in the open half-door.] ===SCENE FOURTH=== [ASE's room. Evening. The room is lighted by a wood fire on the open hearth. A cat is lying on a chair at the foot of the bed.] [ASE lies in the bed, fumbling about restlessly with her hands on the coverlet.] ASE :Oh, Lord my God, isn't he coming? :The time drags so drearily on. :I have no one to send with a message; :and I've much, oh so much, to say. :I haven't a moment to lose now! :So quickly! Who could have foreseen! :Oh me, if I only were certain :I'd not been too strict with him! PEER GYNT [enters]. :Good evening! ASE :The Lord give you gladness! :You've come then, my boy, my dear! :But how dare you show face in the valley? :You know your life's forfeit here. PEER :Oh, life must e'en go as it may go; :I felt that I must look in. ASE :Ay, now Kari is put to silence, :and I can depart in peace! PEER :Depart? Why, what are you saying? :Where is it you think to go? ASE :Alas, Peer, the end is nearing; :I have but a short time left. PEER [writhing, and walking towards the back of the room]. :See there now! I'm fleeing from trouble; :I thought at least here I'd be free-! :Are your hands and your feet a-cold, then? ASE :Ay, Peer; all will soon be o'er.- :When you see that my eyes are glazing, :you must close them carefully. :And then you must see to my coffin; :and be sure it's a fine one, dear. :Ah no, by-the-bye- PEER :Be quiet! :There's time yet to think of that. ASE :Ay, ay. : [Looks restlessly around the room.] :Here you see the little :they've left us! It's like them, just. PEER [with a writhe]. :Again! :: [Harshly.] :Well, I know it was my fault. :What's the use of reminding me? ASE :You! No, that accursed liquor, :from that all the mischief came! :Dear my boy, you know you'd been drinking; :and then no one knows what he does; :and besides, you'd been riding the reindeer; :no wonder your head was turned! PEER :Ay, ay; of that yarn enough now. :Enough of the whole affair. :All that's heavy we'll let stand over :till after-some other day. : [Sits on the edge of the bed.] :Now, mother, we'll chat together; :but only of this and that,- :forget what's awry and crooked, :and all that is sharp and sore.- :Why see now, the same old p**y; :so she is alive then, still? ASE :She makes such a noise o' nights now; :you know what that bodes, my boy! PEER [changing the subject]. :What news is there here in the parish? ASE [smiling]. :There's somewhere about, they say, :a girl who would fain to the uplands- PEER [hastily]. :Mads Moen, is he content? ASE :They say that she hears and heeds not :the old people's prayers and tears. :You ought to look in and see them;- :you, Peer, might perhaps bring help- PEER :The smith, what's become of him now? ASE :Don't talk of that filthy smith. :Her name I would rather tell you, :the name of the girl, you know- PEER :No, now we will chat together, :but only of this and that,- :forget what's awry and crooked, :and all that is sharp and sore. :Are you thirsty? I'll fetch you water. :Can you stretch you? The bed is short. :Let me see;-if I don't believe, now, :It's the bed that I had when a boy! :Do you mind, dear, how oft in the evenings :you sat at my bedside here, :and spread the fur-coverlet o'er me, :and sang many a lilt and lay? ASE :Ay, mind you? And then we played sledges :when your father was far abroad. :The coverlet served for sledge-apron, :and the floor for an ice-bound fiord. PEER :Ah, but the best of all, though,- :mother, you mind that too?- :the best was the fleet-foot horses- ASE :Ay, think you that I've forgot?- :It was Kari's cat that we borrowed; :it sat on the log-scooped chair- PEER :To the castle west of the moon, and :the castle east of the sun, :to Soria-Moria Castle :the road ran both high and low. :A stick that we found in the closet, :for a whip-shaft you made it serve. ASE :Right proudly I perked on the box-seat- PEER :Ay, ay; you threw loose the reins, :and kept turning round as we travelled, :and asked me if I was cold. :God bless you, ugly old mother,- :you were ever a kindly soul-! :What's hurting you now? ASE :My back aches, :because of the hard, bare boards. PEER :Stretch yourself; I'll support you. :There now, you're lying soft. ASE [uneasily]. :No, Peer, I'd be moving! PEER :Moving? ASE :Ay, moving; 'tis ever my wish. PEER :Oh, nonsense! Spread o'er you the bed-fur. :Let me sit at your bedside here. :There; now we'll shorten the evening :with many a lilt and lay. ASE :Best bring from the closet the prayer-book: :I feel so uneasy of soul. PEER :In Soria-Moria Castle :the King and the Prince give a feast. :On the sledge-cushions lie and rest you; :I'll drive you there over the heath- ASE :But, Peer dear, am I invited? PEER :Ay, that we are, both of us. [He throws a string round the back of the chair on which the cat is lying, takes up a stick, and seats himself at the foot of the bed.] :Gee-up! Will you stir yourself, Black-boy? :Mother, you're not a-cold? :Ay, ay; by the pace one knows it, :when Grane begins to go! ASE :Why, Peer, what is it that's ringing-? PEER :The glittering sledge-bells, dear! ASE :Oh, mercy, how hollow it's rumbling! PEER :We're just driving over a fiord. ASE :I'm afraid! What is that I hear rushing :and sighing so strange and wild? PEER :It's the sough of the pine-trees, mother, :on the heath. Do you but sit still. ASE :There's a sparkling and gleaming afar now; :whence comes all that blaze of light? PEER :From the castle's windows and doorways. :Don't you hear, they are dancing? ASE :Yes. PEER :Outside the door stands Saint Peter, :and prays you to enter in. ASE :Does he greet us? PEER :He does, with honor, :and pours out the sweetest wine. ASE :Wine! Has he cakes as well, Peer? PEER :Cakes? Ay, a heaped-up dish. :And the dean's wife is getting ready :your coffee and your dessert. ASE :Oh, Christ; shall we two come together? PEER :As freely as ever you will. ASE :Oh, deary, Peer, what a frolic :you're driving me to, poor soul! PEER [cracking his whip]. :Gee-up; will you stir yourself, Black-boy! ASE :Peer, dear, you're driving right? PEER [cracking his whip again]. :Ay, broad is the way. ASE :This journey, :it makes me so weak and tired. PEER :There's the castle rising before us; :the drive will be over soon. ASE :I will lie back and close my eyes then, :and trust me to you, my boy! PEER :Come up with you, Grane, my trotter! :In the castle the throng is great; :they bustle and swarm to the gateway. :Peer Gynt and his mother are here! :What say you, Master Saint Peter? :Shall mother not enter in? :You may search a long time, I tell you, :ere you find such an honest old soul. :Myself I don't want to speak of; :I can turn at the castle gate. :If you'll treat me, I'll take it kindly; :if not, I'll go off just as pleased. :I have made up as many flim-flams :as the devil at the pulpit-desk, :and called my old mother a hen, too, :because she would cackle and crow. :But her you shall honour and reverence, :and make her at home indeed; :there comes not a soul to beat her :from the parishes nowadays.- :Ho-ho; here comes God the Father! :Saint Peter! you're in for it now! :: [In a deep voice.] :"Have done with these jack-in-office airs, sir; :Mother Ase shall enter free!" :[Laughs loudly, and turns towards his mother.] :Ay, didn't I know what would happen? :Now they dance to another tune! :: [Uneasily.] :Why, what makes your eyes so gla**y? :Mother! Have you gone out of your wits-? : [Goes to the head of the bed.] :You mustn't lie there and stare so-! :Speak, mother; it's I, your boy! [Feels her forehead and hands cautiously; then throws the string on the chair, and says softly:] :Ay, ay!-You can rest yourself, Grane; :for even now the journey's done. :[Closes her eyes, and bends over her.] :For all of your days I thank you, :for beatings and lullabies!- :But see, you must thank me back, now- :[Presses his cheek against her mouth] :There; that was the driver's fare. THE COTTAR'S WIFE [entering]. :What? Peer! Ah, then we are over :the worst of the sorrow and need! :Dear Lord, but she's sleeping soundly- :or can she be-? PEER :Hush; she is dead. [KARI weeps beside the body; PEER GYNT walks up and down the room for some time; at last he stops beside the bed.] PEER :See mother buried with honour. :I must try to fare forth from here. KARI :Are you faring afar? PEER :To seaward. KARI :So far! PEER :Ay, and further still. ::[He goes.]