Scene 1: Klingsor’s Magic Castle
Inside the inner keep of a tower open to the sky. Stone steps lead to the battlements on the tower wall. The stage represents the projecting wall of the tower, which leads down into darkness below. There are implements of magic and necromancy.
KLINGSOR:
(sitting before a metal mirror)
The time has come. My magic castle lures the fool, whom I see approaching from afar, shouting boyishly. In deathlike sleep the woman is held fast by the curse whose grip only I can loosen. Up then! To work!
(He descends slightly towards the center and lights incense, which instantly fills the background with blue smoke. Then he seats himself again before his magic mirror and call with mysterious gestures into the depths:)
Arise! Arise! To me! Your master calls you, nameless one, primeval witch, rose of hell! You were Herodias, and what else? Gundryggia there, Kundry here! Come here! Come hither, Kundry! Your master calls: obey!
(Kundry’s shape arises in the bluish light. She seems asleep. Gradually however she moves like one awaking. Finally she utters a terrible scream.)
Are you waking? Ha! To my power you fall again today, at the right time.
(Kundry utters a laud wail that subsides to a frightened whimper.)
Tell me, where have you been roaming again? Tsk tsk! There among the knights and their circle where you let yourself be treated like beast! Do you not fare better with me? When you captured their master for me — ha ha! - that chaste guardian of the Grail — what drove you forth again?
KUNDRY:
(hoarsely and brokenly, as if striving to regain speech)
Oh! Oh! Blackest night! Madness! Oh, rage!... Oh, misery!... Sleep... Sleep... Deep sleep!... Death!
KLINGSOR:
Then someone woke you, eh?
KUNDRY:
Yes... My curse!... Oh! Yearning... Yearning!
KLINGSOR:
Ha ha! For the saintly knights?
KUNDRY:
There... There I served.
KLINGSOR:
Yes, to make good the wrong that you had maliciously done them? They will not help you; if I bid the right price they are all venal; even the strongest falls when he sinks in your arms, and so to be brought low by the spear I myself seized from their master. Now today we have the most dangerous to conquer; he is shielded by his foolishness.
KUNDRY:
I... will not... Oh!... Oh!
KLINGSOR:
Indeed you will, because you must.
KUNDRY:
You... cannot... force me.
KLINGSOR:
But I can force you.
KUNDRY:
You?
KLINGSOR:
Your master.
KUNDRY:
By what power?
KLINGSOR:
Ha! Because only against me does your power avail you nothing.
KUNDRY:
(laughing shrilly)
Ha ha! Are you chaste?
KLINGSOR:
(furiously)
Why do you ask this, accursed witch?
(He sinks into gloomy brooding)
What fearful fate! So now the fiend mocks me, because once I strove after holiness? What fearful fate! The torture of untamed desire, most horrible, hell-inspired impulse, which I had choked to deathly silence: does it now laugh aloud and mock through you, bride of the devil?
Beware! One man already repents his contempt and scorn, that proud man, strong in sanctity, who once drove me out. His race I ruined; unredeemed shall the guardian of the holy treasure languish. And soon, I think, I will guard the Grail myself! Ha ha!
How did you like the hero Amfortas whom I ensnared to your charms?
KUNDRY:
Oh, anguish! Anguish! He too was weak!... Weak are they all! All fallen with me beneath the curse!
Oh endless sleep, my only release, how can I win you?
KLINGSOR:
Ha! He who defies you will set you free: attempt it with the boy who is drawing near!
KUNDRY:
I... will not!
KLINGSOR:
(hastily climbing the tower wall)
He is already climbing the tower.
KUNDRY:
Alas! Alas! Did I wake for this? Must I? Must I?
KLINGSOR:
(looking down)
Ha! The boy is handsome!
KUNDRY:
Oh! Woe is me!
KLINGSOR:
(leaning out, blows a horn)
Ho, guards! Ho, knights! Heroes! Up! Foes are at hand!
Ha! How they rush to the ramparts, my deluded garrison, to defend their beautiful witches!
Yes! Courage! Courage! Ha ha! He is not afraid; he has seized the sword of brave Sir Ferris, and now sturdily wields against the throng.
(Kundry breaks into wild hysterical laughter, which turns to a convulsive cry of woe.)
How badly the fools fare against his ardor! He has slashed one in the arm, another in the thigh! Ha ha! They weaken; they flee.
(Kundry vanishes. The bluish light is extinguished, leaving total darkness below, in contrast to the bright blue sky above the walls)
Each has a wound to take home! How willingly I grant you it! May thus the whole breed of knights slaughter themselves!
Ha! How proudly he now stands on the rampart!
How happily flushed are his cheeks as in childish amazement he gazes at the deserted garden!
Ho, Kundry!
(He turns towards the far background, but she is not there)
What? Already at work? Ha ha! I chose that spell well, that forever binds you to serve me!
(looking out again)
You there, innocent lad, let the prophecies say what they will! Too young and stupid, you fall into my power! Stripped of your purity, then you are mine!
Scene 2
He rapidly sinks with the whole tower. At the same time, the magic garden rises and fills the whole stage. Tropical vegetation, luxuriant display of flowers; towards the rear the scene is bounded by the battlements of the castle walls, flanked by projecting parts of the castle itself, with terraces.
Upon the rampart stands Parsifal, gazing down into the garden in astonishment. From all directions lovely maidens rush in, first from the garden, then from the palace, in wild confusion, singly then in numbers. They are clad in delicately colored veils hastily donned, as if just startled out of sleep.
FLOWER-MAIDENS:
(entering from the garden)
Here was the uproar! Here! Here! Weapons! Angry clamor! Woe is us!
FLOWER-MAIDENS:
(entering from the castle)
Who is the wrongdoer? Where is the wrongdoer? Revenge!
SOME FLOWER-MAIDENS:
My beloved was wounded?
OTHERS:
Where shall I find my own?
OTHERS:
I awoke alone! Where are our darlings? Where have they fled?
OTHERS:
Inside the palace! Alas! Alas! We saw them with bleeding wounds. Up, to their aid! Who is our foe?
(They see Parsifal and point him out.)
There he stands! See him there, see him there! My Ferris’s sword is in his hand! I see my beloved’s blood on it.
I saw him; he climbed the rock! I heard the master’s horn.
My knight ran hither, they all came, but each encountered his weapon.
He wounded my lover. He struck my friend.
Still bloody is his weapon!
You there! You there! Why create such distress? May you be cursed!
(Parsifal jumps down lower into the garden.)
FLOWER MAIDENS:
Ah, you are bold! How dare you approach! Why did you strike our lovers?
PARSIFAL:
Lovely children, how could I not smite them?
They barred my way to you, my fair ones.
FLOWER MAIDENS:
Were you seeking us? Have you seen us before?
PARSIFAL:
Never have I seen so pretty a group: If I call you beautiful, does that seem fitting?
FLOWER MAIDENS:
Then you do not mean to harm us?
PARSIFAL:
I could not do so.
FLOWER MAIDENS:
Yet you have caused us many injuries! You struck our playmates! Who will play with us now?
PARSIFAL:
I will, gladly!
The maidens’ surprise has changed to gaiety and now burst into laughter. As Parsifal comes nearer to the excited groups, the maidens of the first group slip away unperceived behind the banks of flowers to complete their floral garb.
FLOWER MAIDENS:
(second Group and Chorus)
Are you our friend? Then do not stray far!
And if you do not chide us, we will repay you.
We do not play for gold, we play for love’s reward.
If you bring us comfort, that is what you shall win from us!
The girls of the first group return dressed in flowers, looking like flowers themselves, and throw themselves at Parsifal.
THE ADORNED MAIDENS:
(one at a time)
Leave the boy! - He belongs to me!
No! No! To me! To me!
THE OTHER MAIDENS:
Ah, how cunning! They secretly dressed up.
(the girls leave to adorn themselves similarly)
FLOWER-MAIDENS:
(As they dance round Parsifal in ever-changing circles with the charm of children at play)
Come, come, handsome boy! I’ll be your flower! My labor of love is your delight and bliss! Come, come, handsome boy!
(the second group returns and sings)
Come, come, fair lad! Let me bloom for you! Your delight and bliss shall be my labor of love!
PARSIFAL:
(standing in happy calm amidst the maidens)
How sweet you smell! Are you flowers then?
FLOWER MAIDENS:
The jewels of the garden, fragrant spirits, our master plucked us in springtime! We grow here in summer and sunlight to bloom for your delight. Now be friendly and kind, do not grudge the flowers their due! If you cannot love and cherish us, we shall wither and perish.
(they compete for his attention)
Let me blossom for you!
Let me cool your brow!
Let me touch your cheek!
Let me kiss your lips!
No! I! I am the prettiest.
No! I am the most beautiful!
I am prettier!
No! My fragrance is sweeter
No! I!
Yes! I!
PARSIFAL:
(gently restraining their graceful advances)
You wild throng of lovely flowers, if I am to play with you, give me some room!
MAIDENS:
Why do you scold us?
PARSIFAL:
Because you are quarreling.
MAIDENS:
We are only quarreling over you.
PARSIFAL:
Then do not!
FIRST MAIDEN:
Let him be: see, he wants me!
SECOND MAIDEN:
No, me!
THIRD MAIDEN:
Rather me!
FOURTH MAIDEN:
No, me!
SOME MAIDENS:
(to Parsifal)
You avoid me?
SOME OTHERS:
You drive me away?
SOME OTHERS:
What, are you afraid of women?
SOME OTHERS:
Can you not trust yourself?
FIRST MAIDEN:
You are naughty to be hesitant and cold!
Would you have the flowers woo the butterfly?
SOME OTHERS MAIDENS:
How faint-hearted he is! How cold he is!
SOME MAIDENS:
Leave him to his folly!
OTHER MAIDENS:
We give him up for lost.
OTHER MAIDENS:
Then let him be our choice!
MANY MAIDENS:
No, he belongs to me! No, ours! And me!
PARSIFAL:
(half angrily driving the maidens off)
Enough! You shall not trap me!
(He makes to escape, but on hearing Kundry’s voice pauses in surprise.)
KUNDRY:
Parsifal! Stay!
(The maidens are terror-struck and shrink back at once from Parsifal)
PARSIFAL:
“Parsifal”...? Once in a dream my mother called me that.
KUNDRY:
Stay here! Parsifal! Bliss and surpassing delight await you.
You childish flirts, let him be; flowers soon to wither, he is not destined for your sport. Go home, tend the wounded; many lonely knights await you.
FLOWER MAIDENS:
(reluctantly leave Parsifal)
Must we leave you? Must we not see you?
Alas! Oh what sorrow!
We would gladly be parted from all men, to be with you alone.
Farewell, farewell!
You charming, fair boy, you fool!
(With this last, the maidens disappear laughing into the castle.)
PARSIFAL:
Have I just dreamt all this?
He looks round timidly to the side from which the voice came. There now appears, through an opening in the banks of flowers, a young woman of great beauty Kundry, completely transformed - on a couch of flowers, wearing a light, fantastic, veil-like robe of Arabian style.
PARSIFAL:
Did you call me, who am nameless?
KUNDRY:
I named you, foolish pure one, “Falparsi,” you pure fool, “Parsifal.”
Thus when he fell in Arabia your father Gamuret called his son, to whom, still in his mother’s womb, he gave his dying greeting with this name. I waited for you here to tell you this. What drew you here, if not the wish to know?
PARSIFAL:
Never have I seen or dreamed what I now behold — and it fills me with dread. Did you also bloom in this grove of flowers?
KUNDRY:
No, Parsifal, foolish and pure! Far, far away, is my home. I tarried here only that you might find me. I came from afar, where I have seen much. I saw the child on its mother’s breast, its first lisping still laughs in my ear.
Though sad at heart, how Herzeleide [Heart’s Sorrow] also laughed, that in her grief the apple of her eye should cry for joy!
She fondly lulled to sleep with caresses the babe cradled gently on soft moss; with anxious care a mother’s yearning guarded its sleep, and the hot dew of a mother’s tears woke it at morn.
She was all tears, child of sorrow, for your father’s love and death.
To shield you from like peril she deemed it her highest duty’s task. Far from arms, the strife and fury of warriors, she hoped to hide and shelter you in peace.
She was all concern and foreboding lest you should ever acquire knowledge.
Do you not still hear her cry of distress when you roamed late and far?
Oh! How great was her joy and laughter when she sought and found you again; when her arms clasped you tight. Did you perhaps fear her kisses?
Yet you did not consider her woe, her desperate grief, when you finally did not return and left no trace behind! She waited night and day till her laments grew faint, grief consumed her pain and she craved for death’s release: her sorrow broke her heart, and Herzeleide [Heart’s Sorrow] died.
PARSIFAL:
(whose rising emotion has culminated in terrible shock, sinks overcome with distress at Kundry’s feet)
Woe is me! Alas! What have I done? Where was I? Mother! Sweet, dear mother! Your son, your son it was who killed you! Fool! Blind, blundering fool, where did you wander, forgetting her, forgetting yourself, too? Oh dearest, beloved mother!
KUNDRY:
If grief were still a stranger to you, the sweetness of consolation would never comfort your heart; now assuage that distress, that woe for which you grieve, in the solace which love offers you.
PARSIFAL:
(sinking deeper and deeper in his grief)
How could I forget my mother: my mother!
Ah! What else have I forgotten?
What have I ever remembered?
Only dull stupidity dwells in me.
KUNDRY:
(still half reclining, bends over Parsifal’s head, gently touches his forehead and fondly puts her arm around his neck)
Confession will end guilt with remorse, understanding changes folly into sense.
Learn to know the love that enfolded Gamuret when Herzeleide’s [Heart’s Sorrow’s] passion engulfed him in its fire!
She who once gave you life and being, to subdue death and folly sends you this day, as a last token of a mother’s blessing, the first kiss of love.
(She has bent her head completely over his and gives him a long kiss on the lips)
PARSIFAL:
(suddenly starts up with a gesture of the utmost terror: his demeanor expresses some fearful change; he presses his hands hard against his heart as if to master an agonizing pain.)
Amfortas! The wound! The wound! It burns within my heart! Oh sorrow, sorrow! Fearful sorrow! From the depths of my heart it cries aloud. Oh! Oh! Most wretched! Most pitiable! I saw the wound bleeding: now it bleeds in me! Here, here!
No, no! It is not the wound. Flow in streams, my blood, from it! Here! Here in my heart is the flame! The longing, the terrible longing that seizes and grips all my senses!
Oh torment of love! How everything trembles, quakes and quivers in sinful desire!
(As Kundry stares at Parsifal in fear and astonishment, he falls into a complete trance)
(in a low voice, with horror)
My dull gaze is fixed on the sacred vessel; the holy blood flows: the bliss of redemption, divinely mild, trembles within every soul around: only here, in my heart, will the pangs not be stilled.
The Savior’s lament I hear there, the lament, ah! The lamentation from His profaned sanctuary:
“Redeem Me, rescue Me from hands defiled by sin!”
Thus rang the divine lament in terrible clarity in my soul. And I — the fool, the coward, fled to wild childish deeds!
(He flings himself in despair on his knees)
Redeemer! Savior! Lord of grace! How can I, a sinner, purge my guilt?
KUNDRY:
(whose astonishment has changed to passionate admiration, hesitantly tries to approach Parsifal)
Promised hero! Throw off this spell! Look up and greet the approach of your beloved!
PARSIFAL:
(still kneeling, gaze fixedly at Kundry, who bends over him with the caresses he now describes)
Yes! This was the voice with which she called him; and this her look, truly I recognize it, and this, smiling at him so disquietingly; the lips — yes — thus they quivered for him, thus she bent her neck; and boldly rose her head; and laughingly fluttered her hair; thus her arms were twined around his neck, thus tenderly caressed his cheek! In league with the pangs of every torment, her lips kissed away his soul’s salvation! Ah, this kiss!
(He has gradually risen and pushes Kundry away)
Destroyer! Get away from me!
Forever, ever away from me!
KUNDRY:
(with the utmost passion)
Cruel one! If in your heart you feel only the sorrows of others, then feel mine, too!
If you are a redeemer, what maliciously stops you from uniting us in salvation?
For eternities I have waited for you, the savior so late in coming, whom once I dared revile.
Oh! If you knew the curse that afflicts me, asleep and awake, in death and life, in pain and laughter, newly steeled to new affliction, endlessly through this existence!
I saw Him — Him! — and mocked...!
Then his gaze fell upon me! Now I seek Him from world to world to meet Him once again.
In darkest hour I feel His eyes turn on me and His gaze rest upon me.
Then the accursed laugher assails me once again: a sinner sinks into my arms!
Then I laugh — laugh! — I cannot weep, can only shout, rage, storm, rave, in an ever-renewed nightmare from which, though repentant, I scarcely wake.
One for whom I yearned in deathly longing, whom I recognized, though despised and rejected, let me weep upon his breast, for one hour only be united with you, and, though God and the world disown me, in you be cleansed of sin and redeemed!
PARSIFAL:
For eternity would you be damned with me if for one hour, unmindful of my mission, I yielded to your embrace!
For your salvation to I am sent, if you will turn aside from your desires.
The solace to end your sorrows comes not from the source from which they flow: grace shall never be bestowed on you until that source is sealed to you.
Another grace — ah, a different one, for which, pitying, I saw the brotherhood pining in dire distress, scourging and mortifying their flesh.
But who can know aright and clear the only true source of salvation?
Oh misery that banishes all deliverance! Oh blackness of worldly error, that while ferishly pursuing supreme salvation yet thirsts for the fount of perdition!
KUNDRY:
(in wild ecstasy)
Was it my kiss which thus revealed the world to you? The full embrace of my love then would raise you to godhead. Redeem the world, if this is your destiny: make yourself a god for an hour, and for that let me be damned forever, my wound never be healed!
PARSIFAL:
I offer redemption to you, too, in your sin.
KUNDRY:
Let me love you, godlike as you are, and you would then give me redemption.
PARSIFAL:
Love and redemption shall be yours if you will show me the way to Amfortas.
KUNDRY:
(breaking out in fury)
Never shall you find him! Let the fallen one perish, that woeful seeker after shame whom I derided, at whom I laughed! Ha ha! He fell by his own spear!
PARSIFAL:
Who dared wound him with the holy weapon?
KUNDRY:
He... he who once punished my laughter: his curse — ha! — gives me strength; I will call the spear against you yourself if you honor that sinner with mercy!
Ah, this is madness! Pity! Pity on me! Be mine for one hour! Let me be yours for one hour, and you shall be shown the way!
(She tries to embrace him. He thrusts her aside violently)
PARSIFAL:
Away, evil woman!
KUNDRY:
(starting up in wild fury and calling into the background)
Help! Help! Here! Seize the miscreant! Here! Bar his path! Bar his way!
And though you flee from here and find all the roads in the world, that road you seek, that path you shall not find, for any path and passage that leads you away from me I curse for you. Stray and be lost!
You whom I know so well, I give him into your power!
KLINGSOR:
(has appeared on the rampart and brandishes a lance at Parsifal)
Halt! I have the right weapon to fell you! The fool shall fall to me through his master’s spear!
(He hurls the spear, which hovers above Parsifal’s head.)
PARSIFAL:
(seizing the spear in his hand and holding it above his head)
With this sign I banish your enchantment. As the spear closes the wound that you dealt him, shall it destroy your fraudulent splendor into mourning and ruin!
He swings the spear in the sign of the cross; the castle collapses as if by an earthquake. The garden swiftly withers to a desert; faded flowers are strewn on the ground. - Kundry falls to the ground with a scream.
Parsifal hastens away, yet pauses at the top of the ruined wall to turn back to Kundry.
PARSIFAL:
You know where you can find me again!
He hurries away. Kundry has raised herself a little and gazes after him.
