Richard Wagner
Parsifal
Act II
Translated by Abigail Dyer © Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved.
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Contents
Setting
Klingsor’s magic castle, on the south-facing part of the same mountain as the Grail's realm, facing Arabic Spain and looking similar to it.
Act II, Scene 1
Curtain up.
The inner chamber high up in an open tower. Stone steps on the side lead toward the ramparts on the projecting tower wall, which is the floor of the stage. Deep darkness. Tools of magic and necromancy.
KLINGSOR (at the side of the projecting tower wall, sitting before a metal mirror)
The time has come.
My magic castle lures the fool in.
I see him coming,
Filled with childish glee.
In death-like sleep
The curse has bound her tight.
But I know how to slip the knot.
Wake up! To work!
(Klingsor moves closer to Up Center and lights incense. The background fills immediately with blue smoke.
Returns to sitting in front of his magic mirror. With mysterious gestures, he calls into the depths.)
Wake up! Wake up! Come here!
Your master calls you, nameless lady.
She-devil, you, rose of Hades,
Called once Herodias and--
What else?
Gundrygia there, Kundry here!
Come here! Come over, Kundry!
Your master calls! Wake up!
(In the blue light, Kundry’s figure appears. She seems to be sleeping. Kundry seems to waken. She lets out a terrible scream.)
You’re waking? Ha!
So I’ve cast my magic spell once again
At the right time.
(Kundry lets out a wailing cry that trails off into a frightened whimper.)
Tell me, where were you off to this time?
Fooey! That’s where the Grail knights live,
Where like a beast you let them treat you.
Don’t you like it here much better?
At my command you captured their master —
Ha, ha— the guardian pure of the Grail—
So what do you want with them now?
KUNDRY (roughly, choppily, as if in an attempt to regain speech)
Fright! Fright!
Darkest night.
Madness… Oh! Rage….
Ah, sorrow!
Sleep, sleep, deepest sleep….
Death!
KLINGSOR Did one of them awake you? Huh?
KUNDRY Yes… my curse. Oh, longing, longing!
KLINGSOR Do you long for the pure and chaste knights?
KUNDRY There, I served them.
KLINGSOR Right, right, as penance for the suffering
You cruelly upon them have brought?
They won’t help you now.
Each one turns crooked
When the temptation’s right.
The strongest will fall
Victim to your enchantment
And thus will he lose the Spear
That from their king himself I procured.
The most dangerous of them
We’ll catch today.
Foolishness shields him well.
KUNDRY I will not! Oh, oh—
KLINGSOR You’d better, since you must.
KUNDRY You cannot control me.
KLINGSOR But I can hold you.
KUNDRY You?
KLINGSOR Your master.
KUNDRY And by what power?
KLINGSOR Ha! Precisely because I’m immune to your charms.
KUNDRY (shrilly laughing)
Ha ha! Are you chaste?
KLINGSOR How dare you ask,
Accursed witch?
This is how the devil mocks
The man who once sought holiness.
Terrible need!
Uncontrollable longing’s pain,
By a hell-bent, horrible urge possessed,
Which I have forced to silence through death.
Does it laugh, mock my pride,
Through you, its devil-bride?
Watch yourself!
I’ve made one mocker sorry already.
His pride pumped full of holiness,
He once rejected me:
And yet I crushed him.
Unredeemed must the Grail’s guardians now languish
And soon, I reckon, I’ll guard the Grail myself.
Ha ha, so how did you like Amfortas, the king,
I gave you for your little fling?
KUNDRY: Oh! Sorrow! Sorrow!
Weak was he,
Weak, each one!
To my curse, with me each one of them has fallen!
Perpetual sleep, my only cure,
How, how can I find you?
KLINGSOR Ha! Who resists you, sets you free:
So on this next boy try your charms.
KUNDRY I will not!
KLINGSOR (moves hastily to the tower wall)
See how he’s climbing the wall.
KUNDRY O! Anguish! Anguish!
Is this why you woke me?
Must I? Must?
KLINGSOR (looking down)
Ha! He’s a pretty child!
KUNDRY Oh! Oh! Pity me!
KLINGSOR (leaning out of the tower, blowing into a horn)
Ho! You watchmen!
Ho, warriors!
Heroes! Charge! Fight the foe!
Ha! See them storming the ramparts!
See my foolish little puppets defending their beautiful devil-brides!
Yes! Bravely! Bravely!
Ha ha! The boy has no fear:
He took the sword from the warrior Ferris
And now wields the weapon against the rest.
How badly the boobies contend with his zest!
(Kundry breaks out in unearthly, ecstatic laughter that turns into a convulsive cry of pain.)
He hit that one’s arm and that one’s ankle!
(Kundry screams)
Ha ha! They weaken!
They flee him!
(The blue light goes out. Complete darkness below contrasts with the bright blue sky above the walls.)
Take their wounded limbs home as their prize.
What a kick it gives me!
May it be so,
That all the knights in the world
Fight to death with each other!
Ha! How proud he parades on the ramparts!
How laughter makes his cheek bloom so rosy as,
Childish, he stares at the garden, remote, secluded!
(he turns Upstage)
Hey, Kundry!
(she doesn’t appear)
What? Hard at work?
Ha ha! My magic never fails
To call you back to me to do as I bid!
(turns back to face Downstage)
You there, childish sprout,
All those prophesies are wrong.
The young and dumb fall without fail to my power:
Your purity corrupted,
I’ll keep you as my puppet!
(he and the whole tower sink rapidly as the magic garden appears onstage)
Parsifal on the Quest for the Holy Grail
Act II, Scene 2
The magic garden fills the stage completely. Tropical vegetation, a most luxurious collection of flowers; Upstage, the castle ramparts and on either side, in a rich Arabian style, projecting terraces.
Parsifal stands on the rampart, gazing astonished at the garden. From every side, first from the garden, then from the palace, beautiful girls rush in, in total confusion. At first, a few, then more and more. They’ve thrown on softly colored veils as if they’ve just been frightened out of a sound sleep.
FLOWER GIRLS Here was the battle!
Weapons!
Wild war whoops!
Where is the villain?
Let’s take vengeance!
My beloved is wounded!
But where is my man now?
Ah! I woke up abandoned!
Where have they fled to?
Where is my beloved?
Oh where can I find him?
Ah! I woke up abandoned!
Oh pain! Oh sorrow!
Where are our beloveds?
There in the castle!
We saw them in the castle!
We saw them all bloody and wounded.
Sorrow! Sorrow!
Someone help us!
But who is our foe?
(they notice Parsifal and point to him)
That’s him, there!
There he is! There he is!
Where? There!
I saw!
With my Ferris’s sword in his own hand!
Ah! I recognize my lover’s blood!
Our castle he stormed!
And I heard our master’s horn.
Yes, we, too, heard his horn.
Just so!
My swain ran that way.
Yes, all of them ran that way.
My swain ran that way.
Oh, pain!
They all came out here but each of our men lost his sword!
Oh woe! Woe to him whom they fought!
He smote my beloved!
He cut down my friend!
His weapon’s still bloody!
My beloved’s foe—
Hey! You there! Hey you!
Why did you cause such pain?
Accursed, accursed should you be!
Ha! Villain!
Dare you approach us?
How could you smite all our lovers?
(Parsifal jumps deeper into the garden. The Girls draw back. He looks at them, full of admiration.)
PARSIFAL You charming children,
How could I not smite them
When they, you beauties,
They would have kept me from you?
GIRLS You came just for us?
Say, are we fair?
PARSIFAL I’ve ne’er seen so lovely a crowd.
I’d say you’re pretty—is that allowed?
GIRLS So then you don’t want to smite us?
So you wouldn’t smite us?
PARSIFAL I’d rather not.
GIRLS What harm you’ve done us by rampaging!
Oh what a rampage! Harmful, so harmful!
You’ve gone and smitten our playthings!
Who’ll play with us now?
PARSIFAL I volunteer!
(Girls’ surprise has become lusty laughter. As Parsifal nears the two excited groups of Girls, the First Group and First Chorus slip away behind the flowerbeds to adorn themselves with flowers.)
SECOND GROUP AND SECOND CHORUS So treat us right and do not stray.
Do not stray from us.
And if you do not chide us
We’ll make it worth your while.
We do not play for wealth,
We’re playing for love itself.
If you manage to assuage us
Then you’ll have earned your wages!
(The Girls from the First Group and First Chorus reenter dressed in flower gowns and looking like flowers themselves. They immediately rush Parsifal.)
FIRST GROUP Take your hands off him!
He belongs to me!
No! No, me!
SECOND GROUP Ha! The hussies!
They’ve painted their faces!
(Second Group and Second Chorus exit to behind flowerbeds and also return wearing flower gowns.)
(Girls dance in changing circles around Parsifal, as in a children’s game. They softly stroke his cheeks and chin.)
GIRLS Come! Come! Handsome fellow!
I’ll be your flower!
To your bliss and refreshment
I will devote every hour!
Let me come into flower.
To your blissful refreshment
We’ll dedicate every hour!
PARSIFAL (merrily, calmly, from the middle of the circle of Girls)
Your scent is so sweet!
Say, are you flowers?
GIRLS The garden’s best!
A scent so luscious,
In spring the master plucks us!
We grow up here in sun and summer;
We bloom for your bliss and wonder.
Now all our needs attend:
Don’t keep from the flowers their friend!
If you can’t make love to us each minute
We’ll wilt and die off in an instant!
Upon your bosom take me!
Your hair, ah, let me brush it!
Your handsome cheek, let me touch it!
Your mouth, oh, let me kiss it!
No, I!
For I am fairest!
No, no, I am fairer!
I am fairer!
No, my scent is sweeter!
No, I! I! Yes, I!
PARSIFAL (gently deflecting their charming impetuosity)
Crazed gaggle of blossoms so shapely,
If we’re to play games you must not suffocate me!
GIRLS You’re scolding us?
PARSIFAL Because you’re fighting.
GIRLS We’re fighting over you!
PARSIFAL Hey, stop that!
GIRLS Hands off of him!
See, he wants me!
He wants me!
No, me!
No, no, he prefers me!
(to Parsifal)
You’re pushing me away?
You’re turning your back?
Rejecting me?
Rejecting me?
What, are you fearful of women?
Don’t you dare to kiss them?
Horrible! Cold and a coward!
You’re horrible—cold and a coward!
The bee must be chased around by the flowers!
Oh, he is cold!
Cowardly, he!
Come! Let’s leave the fool boy.
We’re giving up our best toy.
So he'll be ours to enjoy!
No, he belongs to me!
No, he is ours now!
He’s ours!
And mine! Yes, mine!
PARSIFAL (half angrily shooing the Girls away)
Let go! I’m not your prey!
(Parsifal wants to run away but the sound of Kundry’s voice from the flower beds makes him stay where he is.)
KUNDRY Parsifal! Stay here!
PARSIFAL Parsifal, she called me that in her sleep, my mother.
KUNDRY (slowly becoming visible)
Parsifal! Oh stay here, Parsifal!
You’ll find salvation and joy withal!
(Upon hearing Kundry’s voice, the Girls are shocked and move away from Parsifal.)
You sulkers and pouters,
Leave him alone!
Poor, half-wilted flowers—
Hands off! He isn’t one of your toys!
Run home, back to your bowers.
There, tend your lonely, wounded boys!
GIRLS (Girls bashfully, reluctantly retreat from Parsifal and return to the castle.)
Ah, to leave you!
To desert you!
How painful!
How painful, indeed!
How painful!
We’d gladly jilt our other lovers
To be with you alone—
Alone with you.
Farewell, you handsome, you haughty, you fool!
(With the last words, the Girls disappear giggling into the castle.)
(Parsifal looks around shyly to see where the voice came from. The flowerbeds part, revealing a most beautiful young woman—Kundry, now totally transformed. Lying on a bed of flowers, in lightly veiled, fantastical, Arabian-style dress, she comes into view.)
PARSIFAL Those flowers, were they just a dream?
(still at a distance)
Did you call me, though I’m nameless?
KUNDRY I called you, foolish pure one,
Fal-Parsi, you purest fool, you,
Parsifal…
As he, out in Arabian lands, breathed his last,
Your father Gamuret so named his son,
Still in his mother’s womb protected.
He spoke this name as death approached him.
So I could tell you this I waited here.
What drew you here but curiosity?
PARSIFAL I never saw anything like this before.
Why do I tremble at the sight?
Are you a bloom here in this grove enchanted?
KUNDRY No, Parsifal, you foolish pure man!
I’m eons from my homeland.
So you would find me,
I waited for you here.
I came from far off,
Where I saw these things:
I saw the baby at his mother’s breast.
His baby babbles laugh still in my ear.
How heavy-hearted, yet heartily laughed Herzeleide
As, in her suffering, gurgled her pride and joy beside her.
The softest mosses were his bedding;
His blanket, her kisses and caressing.
As sick with worry,
She guarded him with maternal fierceness.
He woke to a flurry
Of falling dew from her maternal tears.
She wept, your poor and sainted mother,
Over your father’s love and death:
A fate like his, you’d never suffer!
She swore to this with every breath.
She kept you far from warriors and weapons
So she could keep you sheltered and protected.
She suffered so to keep you hidden;
Never should you learn of
Those things she’d forbidden!
Can you not still hear her plaintive cry
When late and far you would stray?
Ha! How she’d be cured by laughter and joy
Once she had searched and found your way
And when her arms around you she’d fling….
Did you find her kiss a frightful thing?
But her anguish
You just ignored,
So, too, her troubled raging,
When in the end you wandered off,
No trace of you remaining.
Day in, day out, she waited
Until her sobs abated.
Her grief tore her suffering apart.
For death’s release she cried.
Her sorrow broke her heart.
She, brokenhearted, died.
PARSIFAL (with increasing gravity until, terribly grief-stricken, he sinks down, painfully overwhelmed, at Kundry’s feet)
Sorrow! Sorrow!
How could I!
Where was I?
Mother! Sweet and lovely Mother!
Your son! Your only son has killed you!
Oh fool! Stupid, bumbling fool!
Oh, where did you go, go to forget her?
How could I e’er forget you,
Dearest, darlingest Mother!
KUNDRY Had you never known hurt,
Sweet consolation could never comfort your heart.
The suffering you regret,
Repent it now through consolation.
Let love pay your debt.
PARSIFAL (increasingly despondent)
My mother—my mother,
I did forget her.
Ha! What else have I gone and forgot’?
What was I ever mindful of?
There’s naught but foolishness in me.
KUNDRY (Still lying down, bends towards Parsifal’s head and gently touches his brow. Cozily wraps her arm around his neck.)
Confession bring guilt and ends in sadness.
But wisdom makes sense of foolish madness.
It’s love you should be learning:
Your father learned the same
When Herzeleide’s burning
Engulfed him in its flame!
The one who bore you, raised and adored you,
Whom death and folly can’t dismiss,
She gives you this,
This mother’s blessing,
This last wish,
This love’s first, sweetest kiss.
(Kundry has bowed her head completely over his. Puckers her lips and gives him a long kiss on the mouth.)
(Here, Parsifal suddenly makes a gesture of deepest horror. His behavior denotes the fearful change that has come over him. He presses his hands violently against his heart as if to overcome agonizing pain.)
PARSIFAL Amfortas!
The wounds —ah!
The wounds —ah!
They burn inside my body.
They’re wailing, wailing, horrible wailing,
A broken wailing deep in my heart.
O! O! Abject! Disconsolately!
The wounds, I see them bleeding —
They bleed inside of me!
Here! Here! No! No!
No, it’s not the wound that pains me.
Let my blood pour to put out the pain!
Here! Here! It burns in my heart!
A yearning—a horrible yearning.
It grabs ahold of me, has its way.
Oh, love’s own torment!
(As Kundry stares at Parsifal in horror and amazement, he becomes increasingly lost in reverie.)
(softly, unearthly)
Oh how I tremble,
Quail and shake with sinfullest desire!
I fix my gaze, dim, on the holy cup.
The holy blood, aglow.
Salvation’s bliss is godly sweet
Yet causes every soul to tremble.
Yet in my heart I am still tormented.
The Savior’s wailing, ah, I hear it,
The wailing, ah, the wailing,
Over a desecrated faith:
“Redeem me, rescue me
From guilt-stained hands of sinners!”
So did the Lord in anguish call to me,
Here in my soul’s depth.
But I, the fool, the coward,
Played stupid little boy games,
Ran straight here!
(falls grief-stricken to his knees)
Redeemer, Savior, what’s Your will?
What is the penance for my guilt?
KUNDRY (her astonishment turned to passionate admiration, shyly approaches Parsifal)
Brave warrior, throw off your fear:
Arise! Behold! The willing one draws near!
PARSIFAL (still kneeling, stares stiffly at Kundry as she bends towards him and gestures affectionately in the ways he describes below:)
Yes, that love song, she sang it to him.
That little look—that look I recognize.
And that one she used to mirthfully mock him.
That simper, yes, she used it on him.
Like that, she tucked her chin down.
Like that, she tossed her hair —
So flirty it fluttered behind her.
Like that, swung her arm ‘round his neck
And slathered him with caresses.
Allied with all unholy torment,
His own salvation
Her lips did kiss away!
I… know that kiss!
(Parsifal suddenly rises, pushes Kundry away)
Despoiler, get you away!
Never tempt me again!
KUNDRY (very passionately)
Pitiless!
If, as you claim, you can feel the world’s pain,
Well, then, it’s time you felt mine, too.
If you're a savior
Why keep your favor
From me, who so hotly desires you?
Forever, I’ve been waiting to find you,
To let myself be saved
By Him I cruelly shamed.
Oh, if you knew the curse
That’s plagued me ever after,
In death, in life, in
Pain and laughter,
Through time and time again, I see
Endless, how it torments me.
I saw Him, Him and mocked Him!
Then I found His gaze…
I seek Him now
From world to world
Once more to feel His presence.
In deep distress
I sense His gaze turn to me.
His eye upon me rests.
Then, once more, the accursed laughter grips me.
A sinner falls to my enchantment.
I laugh then,
Laugh and cannot cry, no, I
Rant and rave in screaming folly,
A never-ending soul’s dark night
From which I waken, so contrite.
Him whom I craved
As death’s shadow stalked Him,
Him whom I knew
And yet I mocked Him,
Upon His bosom let me cry and
For just an hour we’ll be united.
Though God Himself cast me away,
You’ll lift my sin from me;
I’ll be saved.
PARSIFAL Forever more would you and I
Be damned for that one hour
If I forget my mission
And fall to your enchantment!
You, too, I have been sent to save
If you turn from your wicked ways.
The healing solace that will guide you
Flows not from lust that can’t be quelled.
Salvation’s water is denied you
Until you seal perdition’s well.
Another one, another source,
I saw the brothers thirsting for.
The brothers, in repentance earnest,
Would mortify their flesh and scourge it.
But who can know it?
How to tell
Which is the saving water’s well?
Oh wretch who’s turned from all that saves,
Delusional, disordered,
You hotly thirst for holy graces
And from damnation’s well draw water!
KUNDRY (in wild rapture)
So was it my kiss
That to enlightenment brought you?
Then taste the rest of my body —
You’ll feel divine, you’ll feel godly!
So you’re a savior.
Well that's just grand.
Become a god this hour!
For that, let me be forever damned,
Cast from salvation’s power!
PARSIFAL Salvation, sinner, I offer you, too.
KUNDRY Ah, let me love you divinely!
Salvation I will get from you.
PARSIFAL Love and salvation you’ll inherit.
Lead the way to Amfortas and you’ll see.
KUNDRY (erupting in a rage)
No! You’ll never find him!
He is fallen—so let him rot there!
That unhappy, lewd little man,
After I mocked him, mocked him, mocked him,
Ha ha, he fell by his own sharp Spear!
PARSIFAL But who could have stabbed him with the blade revered?
KUNDRY He who reproved my mocking
And laid his curse.
Ha! It makes me brave!
Against you, too,
I’ll turn the blade
If you should pity that reprobate.
Ha! Madness! (imploring him) Mercy! Mercy on me!
One hour with me, stay!
One hour with you, pray!
At the end of it, you will be shown the way!
(She moves to embrace him. He violently pushes her away.)
PARSIFAL You wretch! Get you away!
KUNDRY (flying into a wild rage, she calls out to Upstage)
Help me! Come one and all!
Capture the scoundrel!
Come now!
Blockade the exits!
Blockade the byways!
Should you escape from here
And follow every path in the world,
The one path you seek,
That path, you never will find it!
The paths and byways
That kidnap you from me,
Those I curse unto you:
Wander! Wander!
You, my true friend,
Him I give into your charge!
(Klingsor has appeared on the rampart and points a lance at Parsifal.)
KLINGSOR Stop there! This weapon binds you to me here:
The fool will come to learn from his master’s Spear!
(Throws the Spear at Parsifal. It freezes in the air over Parsifal’s head.)
PARSIFAL (taking the Spear with his hand from the air and holding it over his head)
This symbol vanquishes your magic power!
As it heals the wound that
Its blade inflicted,
So, too, shall it ruin all of your ill-gotten gain!
(He has swung the Spear in the sign of the cross as the castle sinks as if struck by an earthquake.
The garden quickly becomes a wasteland. Wilted flowers are strewn all over the floor. Kundry sinks to the ground with a scream.
Parsifal pauses in his exit and, from atop the ruined wall turns to address Kundry.)
You know where you can find me if you seek.
(He exits. Kundry has raised herself up a little and watches him as he leaves.)
ACT II CURTAIN