Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/213

 Well then, from Troy-it was there I left off-
 * [Rises and listens.]
 * What is that strange sort of murmur that's rushing-?
 * [Sunrise.]

MEMNON'S STATUE [sings].
 * From the demigod's ashes there soar, youth-renewing,
 * birds ever singing.
 * Zeus the Omniscient
 * shaped them contending
 * Owls of wisdom,
 * my birds, where do they slumber?
 * Thou must die if thou rede not
 * the song's enigma!

PEER
 * How strange now,-I really fancied there came
 * from the statue a sound. Music, this, of the Past.
 * I heard the stone-accents now rising, now sinking.-
 * I will register it, for the learned to ponder.
 * [Notes in his pocket-book.]
 * "The statue did sing. I heard the sound plainly,
 * but didn't quite follow the text of the song.
 * The whole thing, of course, was hallucination.-
 * Nothing else of importance observed to-day."
 * [Proceeds on his way.]