Richard Wagner
Tristan and Isolde
Act II
Translated by Abigail Dyer © Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved.
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Contents
Act II, Scene 1
‘King Marke's castle’
Nicholas Roerich (Russian 1874-1947)
WikiArt
A garden with high trees in front of Isolde's rooms, which have stairs leading up to them on one side. It is a lovely, bright summer evening. A burning torch has been placed at the open door. Hunting horns. Brangäne, on the chamber steps, watches the hunting party as they recede into the distance. Isolde enters from her rooms in a state of fiery emotion and approaches Brangäne.
ISOLDE Hear you the horns?
I think they're far away.
BRANGÄNE (listening)
No, they're still near.
Clearly they resound.
ISOLDE (listening)
Worry and angst confuse your ear.
You're fooled by trees in whispering wind
That, laughing, rustles their tops.
BRANGÄNE You're fooled by desire's recklessness
Into hearing what you want.
(she listens)
I still hear the hunters' horns.
ISOLDE (listens again)
No hunter's horn sounds so good.
The brook's benign ripples, its murmur,
Is the sound soft we hear.
Could I hear that if horns still blasted?
In night's quiet hush, just rushes the brook.
My love, who waits in night's quiet hush
Though the horn calls have long retreated,
Far from me would you keep him?
BRANGÄNE Your love waits on but heed my warning:
Spies wait to trap him at night!
Do you, love-blinded, think the world's sight
Has darkened just for you two?
Out there aboard the ship,
From Tristan's trembling hand
The pale bride, nearly unconscious,
Was by King Mark received.
They all stared, confused, at the wavering bride.
The gentle king was worried, too.
The long journey here, he said,
Clearly took its toll on you.
One man alone, yes, I marked him well,
Looked in Tristan's eyes and noticed.
With malice and guile, searched Tristan's eyes
To find in his expression
A clue that might condemn him.
Lurking near you both he has been.
He plans you both grave harm.
Of Melot, be forewarned!
ISOLDE Mean you Sir Melot?
Oh, but you're wrong!
Is he not Tristan's most faithful friend?
When my love must avoid me,
You'll find him with Melot alone.
BRANGÄNE What makes me suspect him
Makes you adore him.
'Twixt Tristan and Marke
Does Melot plant
His seed of malice dark.
He took King Mark
This night to go hunting.
In haste was Mark invited.
But the beast they hunt
Is a nobler one
Than you could dare to think.
ISOLDE For friendship's sake
He made up the rouse.
Sir Melot pitied his friend,
So you'd scold the faithful fellow?
Better than you he cares for me.
He opens doors that you'd keep closed.
Oh, spare me, spare me waiting's pain!
The signal! Brangäne! Oh, send the signal!
Put out the final flickering light!
Give nighttime its signal fully to fall!
Already its hush flows through house and grove
And fills up my heart with horrible hope.
Oh, stamp out the torch's glow!
Snuff out the standoffish sun!
Let my beloved come!
BRANGÄNE Oh, let the warning light flicker!
Let it forewarn you of danger!
Oh, sorrow! Sorrow!
Oh, my poor soul!
Oh, most unhappy potion!
Just that once, unfaithful
To my mistress's request!
Had blindly I obeyed,
I would have caused her death.
But all your shame,
Your dishonoring distress,
I caused, and my guilt I acknowledge.
ISOLDE You caused? Oh, foolish maid!
The Lady Love know you not?
Know not her magic power?
The queen of clever courage, she?
Who reigns o'er all that comes to be?
Life, also death, submit to her rule.
This she weaves from joy and pain.
To love, she envy does change.
The work of death I took into my own hand.
But Lady Love gave me her own command:
She held the death-bound girl in her sway
And used the work in her own way.
How she may use it,
How she'll conclude it,
What she intends and
How e'er this ends,
To her I'm dedicated.
Now I'll show how I obey her.
BRANGÄNE Well, if Lady Love's duplicitous drink
Put out the light of your reason;
If you can't see it though I have warned you,
This once, this once, how I implore you,
Leave the danger sign alight!
This once, ah, once! Don't put out the torch out tonight!
ISOLDE In my breast she sparked a burning bright.
She set my heart aflame, alight.
My day is she, my soul's delight.
Love's Lady says, "Let it be night!"
(hurries to the torch)
So brightly she may shine on
The place she chased your light from.
(takes the torch from the door)
A watch go keep!
Watch faithfully!
The torch, ah, if it were my life's own light,
Blithely I would put it out tonight!
(throws the torch to the ground where its flame slowly goes out)
(Brangäne turns away, upset, and climbs up another staircase into the watchtower. She slowly disappears from view.)
(Isolde listens and watches, at first shyly in a copse of trees. As her longing grows, she steps out from the trees and watches with increasing confidence. She waves a handkerchief, at first sporadically then more often. Finally, with passionate impatience, she waves it ever faster. Her gesture of sudden delight tells us that she has seen her friend in the distance. She cranes higher and higher to see further into the distance. She hurries back to the steps and from the top of the staircase waves to the figure who approaches.)
Act II, Scene 2
TRISTAN (rushes in)
Isolde!
ISOLDE (bounding toward him)
Tristan!
(in a tempestuous embrace they move Downstage)
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE : Beloved!
ISOLDE Are you mine?
TRISTAN Will you be with me?
ISOLDE Dare I embrace you?
TRISTAN Can I believe it?
ISOLDE Finally! Finally!
TRISTAN Come to my arms!
ISOLDE I really touch you?
TRISTAN I really see you?
ISOLDE Do I behold you?
TRISTAN Is this your mouth?
ISOLDE Is this your hand?
TRISTAN Is this your heart?
ISOLDE Am I? Are you here in my arms?
TRISTAN Am I? Are you not a mirage?
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE Not just a dream?
O soul's highest blessing!
O noblest, bravest,
Most audacious,
Sweetest delight!
TRISTAN Blissful, endless...
ISOLDE Overwhelmed with...
TRISTAN Overjoyed for--
ISOLDE Ever!
TRISTAN Ever!
ISOLDE Unimagined,
Never fathomed!
TRISTAN Overflowing,
Most ennobling!
ISOLDE Joyful shouting!
TRISTAN Sweet enchantment!
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE : Heaven-highest
World-abandon!
Mine! Tristan mine!
Isolde mine!
Yours and mine,
Ever we unite!
ISOLDE So far apart!
Apart so long!
TRISTAN How far, so near!
How near, so far!
ISOLDE O foe of friendship, evil distance!
Drawn-out time's long lingering moments!
TRISTAN O distance, nearness, never mixing!
Blessed nearness! Empty distance!
ISOLDE In darkness, you.
In light am I!
TRISTAN The light! The light!
Damnable light,
How long it cursed the night!
The sun went down.
The day was done.
Yet with its jealous hand it roused
Its sign of danger,
Set it alight before the beloved's enclosure
So I would not approach her.
ISOLDE But my loving hand
Put out the light
Though the maid's dared not to.
So, without fright,
In Dame Love's protective sway,
Did I defy the day!
TRISTAN To daytime, to daytime, to treasonous daytime,
That bitterest foe, all scorn and hate mine!
You doused the torch.
May I put out daylight,
On love's behalf wreak it vengeance
And wicked daytime extinguish!
Is there no hurt,
Is there no pain
That day won't wake
With its bright ray?
Even in night's
Darkening sight
Did my love from her house
Hang it, threatening, out!
ISOLDE Harbored your love
Daylight at her house?
In his own heart, so bright and loud,
Harbored daylight once my dearest Tristan,
Traitor to me!
Did he not gleam
With day's deceit
That day in Ireland when he gained
For Marke my consent,
When truth to death he condemned?
TRISTAN While day, while day did 'round you shine,
Out there where, like the sun, your light
Glowed full of honor's glory bright,
Isolde from me turned!
She who my eye enchanted so,
She dealt my heart a heavy blow.
In daytime's glaring shine,
How could Isold' be mine?
ISOLDE Was she not yours who chose you well?
What evil lie did daytime tell?
And how did daytime make you
To your beloved a traitor?
TRISTAN The glow 'round you of splendor bright,
Of great renown and glory's might--
To love the light 'round you was
My spirit's mad delusion.
Bold daylight's glow of worldly fame
Bored through my head, into my brain,
Where daytime's rays of earthly honor
Deployed their beams of empty rapture.
Through head and brain they wormed their way
Into my heart's most sacred place.
What once the chaste, dark night
Had hidden from my sight,
Unknown of and undreamed,
Did slowly dawn on me:
An image of such luster,
I wondered, could I trust it
As, revealed by daytime's dawning,
It shining lay before me.
What seemed so laudable to me
I pointed out for all to see.
Thus I proclaimed her far and wide
The world's most lovely royal bride.
My jealousy awoke that day.
My envy chased my joy away
And threatened the destruction
Of my good reputation.
I swore to resist
And promised this:
To keep my fame and honor,
To Ireland back I'd wander.
ISOLDE Conceited slave of day!
I'm fooled by that which fooled you, too.
How much I, loving, for you suffer!
He who in day's deceptive glory
Became a captive to its folly,
There, though the heat of love embraced him,
I, in my heart's bright light, did hate him.
Ah, in my heart's cocoon he
Struck painfully to wound me!
He whom I hid away
Seemed like my foe that day!
There in daylight phony,
My cherished one and only
Before my eyes became
My enemy, my shame!
When your betrayal I did see,
The light of daytime I longed to flee
And into the night take you with me.
There, delusion ends: so my heart guarantees.
There would we escape deceit infernal.
There would we drink to love eternal.
There would we pledge our troth.
There to our death we'd toast.
TRISTAN Your dear hand proffered death so sweet
And I knew what you had offered me.
A premonition clear and inspired
Showed me what this atonement required.
Then did night's gentle grace and power descend
Into my breast, and so my day did reach its end.
ISOLDE But, ah, it fooled you, the potion false,
So to you newly the night was lost.
He begged for him death to take,
But death returned him to day!
TRISTAN O hail to the potion! Hail to the bane!
Hail to its magic power's reign!
Through the doors of death it flowed to me,
Wide and rolling, as from the sea.
It brought what only dreaming I'd spied:
The wondrous realm of night.
Thus the image my heart concealed deep inside
Overcame daytime's shimmering lie.
My eyes could see right through it,
So I saw darkness truly.
ISOLDE It took vengeance on you, rejected day.
And with your sins a pact it made:
All you were shown in burgeoning night,
Did the day-star's shining, royal might
Order you to relinquish,
And, lonely, on barren heights,
Make you keep on living.
Could I stand it then? Can I stand it now?
TRISTAN Oh, to night were we consecrated!
Though treacherous day with jealous hatred
Still may part us with guile,
It no more fools us with lies!
For day's empty pomp and its shimmering lies
By all will be mocked who treasure night.
Daytime's shimmering light
And flickering brightness
Dazzle us no more.
We who death's dark night look on with love,
We're to whom death its secret entrusts.
To us, day's lies, its dazzling might,
Power and fame so shimmering bright,
To us they no more matter
Than dust in sunbeams scattered!
Amid daytime's vain delusion
We long for one true union.
We must return to holy night
Where one true, eternal love fills us with its delight!
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE Descend, O night of love, upon me,
Blot all thought of living from me,
Clasp me in your waiting arms,
Free me from these worldly bonds!
TRISTAN Extinguished are the final embers...
ISOLDE ...of our thoughts, of our remembrance.
TRISTAN Over reveries,
ISOLDE O'er reminders,
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE Does the thought sublime of twilight
Break delusion's hold
And redeem the world.
ISOLDE In our breast the light of the sun hid
Sparkling, smiling stars of our love's bliss,
TRISTAN Which gently mingled with your magic
And then, before your eyes, they vanished.
ISOLDE Heart on heart and
Mouth on mouth,
TRISTAN Bonded by a single breath,
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE : Eyes grow dim, by wonder blinded,
The brilliance of the world grows pale.
ISOLDE Light that the day, lying, unfurls,
TRISTAN We scorn as deceit, as 'round us it whirls.
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE I become, then, the world:
Woven with elation,
Life to love consecrated,
Sober, sweet deliberate
Wish to never wake again.
(Tristan and Isolde sink down together, enraptured, head to head on a flowerbed.)
BRANGÄNE (from the watchtower)
All alone the watch at night
Guards the dreaming pair's delight.
Mark it well, her warning cry,
For a wicked wind has come
Warning them to waken soon!
Mark her cry!
Mark her cry!
Soon the night's flown by!
ISOLDE (softly)
Hark, beloved!
TRISTAN (also softly)
Let me die here!
ISOLDE (gradually picking herself up a little)
Envious watchman!
TRISTAN (remains lying down)
Never waken!
ISOLDE Must the day not waken Tristan?
TRISTAN (picks his head up a little)
Let the day give way to dying!
ISOLDE Day and death, two equal powers,
Could they harm the love that's ours?
TRISTAN (sitting up more)
Our love harm?
Tristan's love harm?
Yours and mine, Isolde's love harm?
What harm could death wreak it
That would make it weaken?
(ever more to himself as he lays his head against Isolde)
If death stood here and stared me down,
Threatened to claim my life for his own,
My life for love I'd at once relinquish.
What blow could death e'er strike, then,
That love itself e'er could die from?
If I should die, if for love I perish,
How ever could love's life in me vanish?
Immortal love does live on forever.
If death there has no dominion,
How could it kill love, which lives in Tristan?
ISOLDE But is our love's name
Not known as Tristan and Isolde?
That dearest little "and,"
What it binds fast,
Our bond of love,
If Tristan dies,
Will death not take it, too?
TRISTAN But what would death kill except the things
That bar Tristan's eternal love for Isolde,
Living ever to love her?
ISOLDE Ah, but that little "and," if it should die,
How else but joined with Isolde's life, to Tristan
Would death as a gift be given?
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE (with a meaningful gesture, Tristan takes Isolde gently to himself; Isolde gazes at him enraptured)
Then let us die so we'll go on
Bound eternally as one!
Without waking, without fearing
Nameless, yet by love held dearly!
Unto one another given,
To love alone still living!
(Isolde, overwhelmed, lays her head on his breast.)
BRANGÄNE (as before)
Mark her cry!
Mark her cry!
Soon the night's flown by!
TRISTAN (smiling, bending toward Isolde)
Should I hearken?
ISOLDE (looks gushingly at Tristan)
Let me die here!
TRISTAN Must I waken?
ISOLDE Never waken!
TRISTAN Must the day not waken Tristan?
ISOLDE Let the day give way to dying!
TRISTAN So shall we hold off the menace of day?
ISOLDE (with growing excitement)
It's deceit ever to flee!
TRISTAN : By burgeoning light undaunted we'll be!
ISOLDE (rising with a grand gesture)
May our night go ever on!
(Tristan follows her; they embrace in gushing excitement.)
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE Eternal night,
Gentle night,
High-exalted
Loving night!
Those you enfolded,
Those whom you prized,
How could they behold the
Light of day without fright?
Now banish all fright, you
Noble death,
Highly exalted, loving death.
By you embraced,
By you set free.
By you we are blessed and
From awaking's threat, redeemed.
How to grasp it,
How to clasp it,
This delighting
Far from sunlight,
From tomorrow's
Parting sorrows!
Free from falseness,
Longing calls us.
Free from terror,
Yearning ever.
No more sighing,
Blissful dying.
No more suffering,
Sweetest nothing.
No contention,
No dissension,
Loved alone,
Ever home
In time and space unmeasured,
Blissful dreams we enter:
TRISTAN Tristan, you;
I, Isolde!
No more Tristan!
ISOLDE You, Isolde;
Tristan, I!
No more Isolde!
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE No more names,
No separations,
New, bright flames,
New revelations,
Ever-endless,
Sensing this:
Ardor's glowing kiss,
Utmost loving bliss!
(they remain as if entranced)
Act II, Scene 3
(Brangäne emits a shrill scream. Kurwenal rushes in, sword drawn.)
KURWENAL Save yourself, Tristan!
(Kurwenal glances, horrified, Off. Marke, Melot and courtiers in hunting costume enter rapidly from the copse of trees and cross Down. They stop, outraged at the sight of the lovers. Brangäne comes straight down from the watchtower and runs to Isolde. Isolde, seized by involuntary shame, turns her face away and leans against the flowers. Tristan, in a similarly involuntary gesture, stretches his cloak out over his arm and uses it to shield Isolde from the view of those who've just arrived. He stays in this position for a long time, his gaze fixed on the men who, in various poses, have fixed their eyes on him. Dawn.)
TRISTAN (after a long silence)
Vain, empty daylight one last time!
MELOT (to Marke)
Now then, my lord, do tell me,
Did I accuse him well,
After I pledged my head as your security?
I caught the man red-handedly;
Your reputation I preserved from shame most faithfully.
MARKE (deeply shaken, with a tremulous voice)
That's what you've done here? Think you so?
Look at this most faithful man of all men.
Look at this most steadfast friend all friends.
That man's most unfaithful deed
Pierced the heart it heartlessly betrayed!
How, if Tristan has betrayed me,
Can the cost e'er be repaid me?
Can through Melot's word,
Honor be restored?
TRISTAN (convulsing violently)
Daytime's phantom!
Dream of morning!
Dazzling and false!
Get back! Be gone!
MARKE (deeply moved)
Why this? Why, Tristan, me?
Where then has faith gone,
Now Tristan has betrayed?
Where have gone fame, integrity
And honor's highest call,
Now Tristan lost them all?
(Tristan slowly casts his eyes down to the ground. As Marke goes on, Tristan's expression becomes one of increasing sadness.)
If Tristan was its bulwark tall,
To where has virtue now escaped
When from my friend it fled,
When Tristan broke his pledge?
What of your countless services,
The honor, fame and power
That for Marke you achieved?
Must honor, fame, power as well,
And your countless services
With Marke's shame be paid for?
Thought you so little of his thanks
When all that you won for the king and crown
He willed all and only to you?
When Marke's wife died childless,
He loved you so,
That no one new
Would Marke ever marry,
Though all the people in the land
Beseeched and begged him otherwise,
A queen to give the country,
A wife to heal his heartache.
Then you yourself
Pledged king and crown:
The people's wish,
The courtiers' will,
You'd gladly go fulfill it.
In spite of his people's wish
In spite of you yourself,
With gentle kindness did the king refuse,
Till, Tristan, you did threaten
Forever to leave his court and land
If you yourself Mark would not send
To fetch him a royal bride.
So Mark became resigned.
This beauty of a bride
You bravely won for me,
Who could but see her,
Who but know her,
Who could proudly be betrothed her
And not count his many blessings?
Me, I dared not to approach the lady.
All desire for her I quashed chastely.
But this lovely, lofty, lively
Girl who'd cheer me and revive me,
In spite of your foes,
You spirited her here into my arms.
Now with this prize you brought here, you made
My heart more susceptible to pain.
Here, where my heart was newly open,
Here it was broken.
Now it is hopeless.
Now it will never recover.
But why wound deeply, unhappy man,
Why wound one who loves you?
Here with your poisoned, torturous sword
You set my mind and senses aflame.
A friendly hand my open heart maimed
And flooded with mistrust and with spite.
So I came creeping in dark of night
My friend's secret to spy on
And my honor to be deprived of.
Where is heavenly grace?
Why to me comes this torment?
Where is clemency?
Why to me comes this shame?
The undiscovered, deep, dark motive for this blow,
Who in the world can know?
TRISTAN (raising his eyes to look at Marke sympathetically)
O Sire, this I can never tell you.
And what you'd ask about, you'll not discover.
(turns to Isolde, who looks longingly at him)
Wherever Tristan goes now,
Will you, Isolde, follow?
Go to the land I mean,
Where sunlight's never seen?
Go to the dark and shadowed shore
From which my mother brought me forth,
Where on her deathbed
She did birth him
Then died and left him
In daylight earthly?
Me she bore in that place,
Her loving fortress safe,
The kingdom of the night,
Where I first woke to light.
This offer Tristan makes,
That there for you he'll wait.
Whether she'll follow, faithful, bold,
That's what he asks Isold'!
ISOLDE When from a foreign land
Her lover won her once,
That fiendish foe,
Faithful, bold,
Did Isolde follow.
Now lead me to your own home,
Your heritage to show me.
How could I flee that ground
That spans the world around?
Where Tristan's homeland is,
That's where Isolde lives.
There she will follow,
Faithful, bold.
The way, just show Isold'!
(Tristan slowly bends over her and kisses her softly on the forehead. Melot charges him furiously.)
MELOT (draws his sword)
The traitor! Ha!
Take vengeance, Sire!
Dare you suffer this shame?
(Tristan draws his sword and turns around quickly.)
TRISTAN Who dares to bet his life against mine?
(looks at Melot)
My friend was he.
His love for me knew no limit.
And my good name, no one would defend like he did.
My heart, he spurred to daring deeds.
The crowd he led that pressed me on,
Greater fame to acquire,
Isolde to bring our sire!
Your gaze, Isolde, blinded him, too,
And, envious, betrayed me my friend
To Marke, whom I betrayed!
(challenges Melot)
Take arms, Melot!
(As Melot raises his sword to strike Tristan, Tristan lets his own sword fall. He sinks wounded into Kurwenal's arms. Isolde falls onto Tristan's chest. Marke holds Melot back. Act II Curtain.)
ACT II CURTAIN