Page:Pelléas and Melisande.djvu/45

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Oh, this stone is heavy… It is heavier than I am. It is heavier than all the world.—It is heavier than everything.

I see my golden ball between the rock and this naughty stone and I cannot reach it… My little arm is not long enough—and this stone will not be lifted—One would think it had roots in the earth…

(The bleating of sheep is heard in the distance.)

Oh, oh! I hear the sheep cry.—Hallo, there is no more sun!—They come, the little sheep; they come…what a lot…what a lot! They are afraid of the dark… They press together…they press together! They cry…and they go quickly!… There are some would go to the right… they all want to go to the right. They cannot!… The shepherd throws earth at them!…Ah! ah!… They will pass this way… I will see them near by.—What a lot there are!…—Now, they are all quiet. Shepherd! Why do they speak no more?

Because it is not the way to the stable!—

Where go they? Shepherd? Shepherd? Where go they?… He hears me no longer. They are already too far…they make no more noise—It is not the way to the stable…Where will they sleep to-night?… Oh. oh! it is too dark… I will go and say something to somebody!

(He goes out.)

It is the last evening…the last evening… It is needful that everything end… I have played like a child around a thing that I did not suspect… I have played in a dream around the traps of destiny… Who has awakened me all of a sudden? I shall fly crying with joy and sorrow like a blind man who runs from his house on fire… I will tell her that I mean to fly… It is late; she does not come… I would do better by going away without seeing her… I must look at her well this time…There are things I no longer remember…one would think, at times that a hundred years had gone since I had seen her… And I have not yet looked at her look… There remains to me nothing if I go away thus. And all these memories… it is as if I carried away a little water in a muslin bag… I must look at her one last time, to the bottom of her heart… I must tell her all that I have not told her…

(Enter .)

Pelléas?

Melisande!—Is it you, Melisande?

Yes.

Come here; do not remain on the edge of the moonlight.—Come here. We have so many things to say to one another. Come here in the shadow of the elm.

Let me remain in the light…