Richard Wagner
Tannhäuser
Act II
Translated by Abigail Dyer © Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved.
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Contents
Act II, Scene 1
‘Wagner, Tannhäuser, Act 3’
Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 1836-1904)
Picaryl
Song Hall, Wartburg Castle. Upstage, a view of the courtyard and valley.
ELISABETH Dear hall of song, we're reunited!
How joyfully we meet again,
For soon his song will come revive you
And wake me from my gloomy dream!
E'er since the knight departed,
How empty you have seemed!
He left me heavyhearted;
He left you dull and bleak.
My heart leaps up so high and joyous
Just as you gleam with noble pride.
The man whose singing once revived us
Will soon be by our side!
My heart leaps up so high and joyous
Just as you gleam with noble pride.
The man whose singing once revived us
Will soon be back and by our side!
Joyful, we meet!
Joyful, we meet!
Dear hall of song, we
Joyfully meet,
Joyfully meet!
Dear hall of song, we
Joyfully meet!
Act II, Scene 2
Tannhauser, accompanied by Wolfram, enters from Upstage and walks with Wolfram down the stairs.
WOLFRAM She waits there. Worry not; approach her now!
(Wolfram leans against the Upstage wall. Tannhäuser rushes forward and throws himself at Elisabeth’s feet.)
TANNHÄUSER O Princess!
ELISABETH (shyly, confused)
God! Oh, stand up! Leave me!
I dare not see you here!
TANNHÄUSER Oh, dare! Oh, stay and let me at your feet remain!
ELISABETH Oh, please get up! Here you should never kneel:
Inside this hall is your kingdom and your realm.
Oh, please get up! Receive my thanks that you’ve come back again!
But all this time, where were you?
TANNHÄUSER Far from here in far off, far off places.
Fog of forgetting has, 'twixt the night and now, spread through my mind.
My recollections suddenly have vanished
And only one thing can I still remember:
That I had no more hope you would receive me,
That I might lift my eyes to you in greeting.
ELISABETH What was it, then,
That led you back to us?
TANNHÄUSER A miracle! A most astounding holy wonder!
ELISABETH I bless this holy wonder
With all my heart’s devotion!
Forgive, for I know not what I am saying!
I’m dreaming now and foolish as a child.
Helpless, enthralled, abandoned to the wonder,
I know myself no more.
Oh, help me now to solve the mystery of my heart’s desire!
The singers’ clever ballads
Heard I oft in childhood days.
Their singing and their carols
Seemed but a lovely game,
Their singing and their carols
Seemed but a lovely game.
But what a new and foreign feeling
Your song awoke inside my breast!
It shook me and it sent me reeling!
With sudden joy, my heart it pressed!
New feelings, unfamiliar ardour,
Such longs as I can’t explain!
What once I treasured, I discarded
For joy I could not even name!
And when you left, when you went missing,
My joy and my repose were gone.
The ballads sung by fine musicians
To me seemed only empty songs.
Asleep, my dreams were full of suffering.
Awake, my gloom blocked out the sun.
All joy and happiness fled from me.
Heinrich! Heinrich! To me what have you done?
TANNHÄUSER Then thank the god of love and praise him!
He plucked my harp and wrote the tune.
His voice you heard; my serenades, his.
'Twas he who led me here to you.
ELISABETH AND TANNHÄUSER Oh, blessed be the hour.
These tidings, blessed be.
And blessed be the power
ELISABETH That brought you here to me.
TANNHÄUSER That made you think of me.
ELISABETH I feel it bright and radiant,
The smile of the sun.
My newfound life awaits me,
I claim the joy I’ve won!
TANNHÄUSER My newfound life awaits me,
The life I’d led is done.
I claim with joy breathtaking
Life’s loveliest wonder, won!
WOLFRAM Naught but despair awaits me.
My every hope is gone!
Act II, Scene 3
Landgrave enters from the side. Elisabeth hurries to him and buries her face in his chest.
LANDGRAVE You? You are here inside this hall that for so long you had avoided? So, did it tempt you, this song contest, at last to join us?
ELISABETH My uncle! O my kindly father!
LANDGRAVE Finally has your heart resolved to yield its secret?
ELISABETH My eyes will tell you;
I can't speak the words.
LANDGRAVE Then let the words remain unspoken
And keep your secret safe inside,
Its sweet, enchanting spell unbroken,
Until you’re ready to confide.
Well then, that which his song so wonderfully
Awoke inside your breast,
He'll soon explain its meaning
And bring it to completion
As beauteous art becomes a beauteous deed.
The nobles of my lands whom I invited
To this rare festival are coming in.
Far more than e’er before are here
Because they heard that you’re to be the pageant’s queen.
Act II, Scene 4
The Landgrave and Elisabeth appear on the balcony to view the arrival of the guests. Four Noble Pages announce the guests as they come in, and look to the Landgrave for orders as to their reception, etc.
Knights and counts enter individually with their noble ladies and retinues. The retinues remain in the background. The knights, counts and their ladies are received by the Landgrave and Elisabeth.
CHORUS Gladly we greet again the noble song hall.
May art and peace alone within her dwell!
May here our joyful salutation sound long:
Prince of Thuringia! Landgrave Herman hail!
(The assembled guests take their seats in a large semi-circle. The Singers step forward, enthusiastically greet the guests and are shown to their seats by the Pages.
Landgrave rises.)
LANDGRAVE So many lovely tunes have been performed here
By you, our treasured singers, in this song hall.
With hymns mysterious and with jolly ballads
You equally have gladdened all our hearts.
If we took arms, raised deadly, bloody battle cries
For the glory of our German lands,
If we withstood the Guelphs with brave resistance
And a disastrous conflict thus averted,
So, too, did you win meritorious victory:
Through graciousness and courteous manners,
Through virtue and through faith untarnished
That shine forth clearly from your art,
You’ve won the highest victory.
So sing another contest here today
Now that our ardent singer has come back again,
He who so sadly long was absent.
What summoned him back to our singers’ circle?
What secret glad and wondrous could it be?
Through song, through art, to us he will reveal it.
Therefore, I pose the question to you all:
Who here can love’s true nature for me fathom?
He who solves that, who sings it worthily and well,
Wins from Elisabeth the prize.
He’ll lay his claim with singing bold and ardent.
I’ll make sure she’s the one who will reward it!
Come, treasured singers!
Men, take up your harp strings!
The challenge has been laid.
Fight for the prize
And, in advance, accept our grateful thanks!
CHORUS Hail! Hail! Prince of Thuringia hail!
The arts’ protective patron hail!
(The Four Noble Pages step forward. They take a small, rolled up piece of paper from each Singer with the Singer’s name written on it and collect the papers in a golden goblet. They bring the goblet to Elisabeth, who reaches in, pulls out one of the pieces of paper and hands it to the Pages. They read the name on it and announce:)
FOUR NOBLE PAGES Wolfram von Eschenbach, begin now!
(Wolfram rises. Tannhäuser rests on his harp and appears lost in daydreams.)
WOLFRAM I look around and see such noble persons,
The lofty sight of them delights my breast:
So many heroes fearless, wise and German,
An oaken forest splendid, green and fresh.
And fair and virtuous I find the ladies,
Delicate blossoms, wafting sweet perfume
Such that my eye turns drunken in its gazing.
Before their graces, silent falls my tune.
And then I see a star up in the heavens.
Bright and celestial is it shining there.
Such distance gives me comfort and, with reverence,
Devoutly does my soul sink down in prayer.
And look! It shows to me a wondrous fountain
On which my awe-struck spirit's eye might rest.
That font of joy, all graciousness flows from it.
From it, my heart with nameless joy's refreshed.
That fountain would not suffer my corruption:
I’d never touch it out of sin or lust.
I’d practice self-denial and devotion,
In adoration, shed my heart’s last blood!
You nobles may hear in the words I favour
Just how I fathom love’s true, purest nature.
CHORUS Just so! How worthy is your song!
(Tannhäuser, who appeared to wake up toward the end of Wolfram’s song, rises.)
TANNHÄUSER May I count myself happy also?
I’ve seen what Wolfram sang about.
What man here could that fountain not know?
Listen, I’ll praise its virtue now!
But I would overheat with yearning
If I the font could not come near
So I must slake my thirsty burning,
My lips put to its water clear,
In hungry gulps, drink joy unmeasured—
No hesitation mars my bliss—
For it’s a font of boundless pleasure
And, like my yearning, limitless.
To fan the fire of my ardour
I’ll drink forever at that stream.
So that’s what, Wolfram, I regard as
What love’s true nature means to me!
(He sits. Elisabeth gestures as if to praise his song but the others receive him with silence. Embarrassed, she takes the gesture back.)
WALTHER That fountain, the one Wolfram praises,
Is one my spirit also saw.
But with your thirsty, burning blazes,
You, Heinrich, know it not at all.
So take my counsel, I implore it:
That fountain’s made of virtue pure,
So you should fervently adore it.
Renounce your fire forevermore!
Touch not that fountain with your lips, then,
To cool your sinful passion’s flame!
If you took just a tiny sip, then
Its wondrous purity would fade!
If you should seek after refreshment’s mercy,
Water your heart and let your lips go thirsty.
CHORUS: Hail! Hail Walther! Worthy is your ballad!
TANNHÄUSER (rising forcefully)
You, Walther, sang with lofty language
Yet cruelly love you have deflowered.
While timid at that font you languish,
The whole wide world could well dry out!
Give praise to God in His celestial distance.
Look up to heaven and see its starry vision.
Save piety and lofty speech
For them, because they’re out of reach.
Instead, give in to blissful touches,
To what your heart and dreams desire.
Give in to supple flesh—it’s luscious!
Give in to passion's burning fire
And ecstasy, for, by my measure,
The one true form of love is pleasure!
BITEROLF (rises quickly, angrily)
Get up and fight! We’re all against you!
Who here could stand such blasphemy?
Or, if your haughty pride will let you,
Then listen, sinner, now to me!
When I’m by courtly love inspired,
It fortifies my knightly strength.
To keep love’s purity undefiled
I’d proudly die in its defence.
Our ladies’ virtue is a treasure
I’d give my knightly life to guard.
But to defend your puerile pleasure—
For that, I’d not unsheathe my sword!
CHORUS Hail Biterolf! Here are our swords!
TANNHÄUSER (with increasing scorn)
Ha! Foolish braggart Biterolf!
Sing you of love, you grizzled wolf?
I’m certain that you did not speak
Of what seems pleasurable to me!
What pleasure, poor man, could you fathom?
You’ve never been loved or adored.
As for the paltry joys you've managed,
For them, I’d not unsheathe my sword!
CHORUS Don’t let him finish!
Silence this effrontery!
LANDGRAVE (to Biterolf, who has drawn his sword)
Put down your swords!
You singers, keep it peaceful!
(Wolfram rises and, as he begins his song, the room becomes profoundly quiet.)
WOLFRAM O heaven, deep in prayer I ask you:
Grant me your blessing on my song!
May sinfulness and lust be cast out
From this, our pure and noble throng!
Let now, O love celestial,
Your name my song extol!
Your loveliness angelic
Has pierced my humble soul!
God sent you to be near us.
I follow from afar,
Knowing you’ll chastely steer us
To heaven, where shines your star!
TANNHÄUSER (in a state of ecstasy)
You, Goddess of Love, alone receive my praises
As, long and loud, your glory I intone!
Your sweet allure begets all that is gracious
And all things beauteous come from you alone!
Who’s held you close in all your fiery refulgence
Knows love’s true nature there alone is found!
Poor souls who never savoured love’s indulgence,
Get ye, get ye into the Venus Mount!
(General outrage and horror. The women leave the hall, greatly distressed and disgusted. Of them, Elisabeth alone remains behind and observes the confrontation with increasing anxiety. Pale, she leans against a marble column, using all her strength to remain upright.
The Landgrave, knights and Singers have left their seats and come together. Tannhäuser, standing far Right, remains for a moment in his ecstatic trance.)
CHORUS Ha! He’s a madman!
Flee from him!
You heard: He was in Venusberg!
Away! You heard yourself!
His sinful rhyme
Exposes his most sinful crime!
He sampled devilish lust most vile:
In Venusberg he stayed a while!
The horror! Awful! Damnable!
So thrust your swords up to the hilt!
Return him to hell's fiery gates!
He is condemned, he is disgraced!
(They unsheathe their swords and point them at Tannhäuser. Elisabeth throws herself between Tannhäuser and the men.)
ELISABETH Stay your hand!
CHORUS (shocked)
What is this! What? What is this?
Elisabeth, the virgin chaste, speaks for the sinner?
ELISABETH (shielding Tannhäuser with her body)
Stay back! The threat of death means naught to me!
How could your weapons ever hurt me
After the mortal blow he struck me with his words?
SINGERS AND LANDGRAVE Elisabeth, how could you say this?
Have you been so infatuated
That you would shield the man who shamed you,
The villain who betrayed your trust?
ELISABETH What of my trust! Think of his soul!
Or would you keep salvation from him?
SINGERS AND LANDGRAVE He cast aside all hope of heaven.
Redemption he will never win!
He’s cast his lot in with the devil
So we’ll despatch him to his sin!
ELISABETH Stay back from him!
Not one of you can judge him!
Savages! Cast aside your raging swords!
Obey instead the virgin chaste and pure!
Now hear through me
The will of God decreed!
This broken soul has been imprisoned,
Held captive by a magic curse.
Why should salvation not be his if
He does his penance on this earth?
How could you strong, you pure upright men,
How could you so deny the Lord?
You’d crush a sinner’s hope to spite him
When none of you was by him hurt?
See me, the maiden, the fair blossom
He crushed without a single thought,
Into whose tender, loving bosom
He, laughing, dealt a mortal shock!
I plead for him; I plead he’ll go on living
To find the peace that penitence provides!
May bravely he believe in God’s forgiveness:
'Twas for his sake our Savior died!
'Twas for his sake, too, that our Savior died!
TANNHÄUSER (collapses, wracked with contrition)
Save, save this wretched sinner!
SINGERS AND LANDGRAVE An angel came from heaven’s aether;
The counsel pure of God she brought.
Look there, you dastardly deceiver!
Acknowledge all the harm you’ve wrought!
You caused her death; for your life she petitions.
Whose hardened heart won’t soften at her plea?
I won't forgive the sins that he committed
But I will do as heaven asks of me.
TANNHÄUSER To bring the sinner to salvation
God sent His angel down to me.
But, ah, a carnal conversation
With her I sought lasciviously!
To You do I send my petition skyward,
Whose saving angel went unrecognized!
Oh, pity me, in sin so deeply mired:
Cruelly I heaven’s messenger denied!
Oh, pity me! Oh, pity me! Pity, pity me!
LANDGRAVE (solemnly comes Center)
A most terrible crime has been committed.
It stole upon us with the two-faced, shifty smile
Of sin’s own curse-bedevilled son.
We banish you from here! With us tarry no longer!
You have stained our home and hearth with sin
And wrath will rain from heaven itself
Upon this house if you stay longer here!
To save yourself from flames of hell eternal,
A single path awaits.
Though I must spurn you,
I’ll point the way:
Walk it to save your soul!
A multitude has come together,
Penitent pilgrims from my lands.
The old have started their endeavour;
The young still in the valley stand.
Though they’ve but venal sins committed
Their hearts won’t let them live in peace.
Of sin to finally be acquitted
They’ll go to Rome to be redeemed.
SINGERS, LANDGRAVE AND CHORUS So join their great procession,
Find clemency and grace!
Kneel down and make confession
And penitence embrace!
Go kneel before the throne of
God’s vicar here below
But don’t you dare come home if
His grace he won't bestow!
Although our wrath subsided--
An angel intervened--
This sword is poised to smite you
If you persist in sin!
ELISABETH Receive him as a pilgrim,
O God of love and grace!
Pardon the mortal sinner,
His penitence embrace!
For him do I petition,
For him alone I pray.
Oh, save him from perdition
And from a wicked way.
Ah, joyfully, this proffer,
This sacrifice I make:
My life for his I offer.
Oh, take it for his sake!
TANNHÄUSER Ah, now that I’ve been banished
Ah, how can I repent?
Deliverance has vanished!
How can I make amends?
Ah! I’ll become a pilgrim.
I’ll walk the pilgrim’s way
Then kneel down in contrition,
In dust until I'm saved
And with her reconciled,
My guardian angel kind,
The one whom I reviled,
Who trades her life for mine.
(from far Upstage, off, as if echoing from the valley:)
CHORUS OF YOUNG PILGRIMS So at the feast of clemency
I’ll make confession humbly.
Oh, blessed be he who lives in faith.
Through penitence will he find grace.
(At the song, the general mood softens. The song fills Tannhäuser with hope and he races to the exit.)
TANNHÄUSER (hurrying away)
To Rome!
ALL (calling after him)
To Rome!
ACT II CURTAIN