Parsifal

Act 2: Kundry's Seduction Scene
[Flower maidens fighting over Parsifal]
Parsifal Stand back!
You'll catch me not!
💿 Act 2: “Parsifal! – Weile!”
Kundry Parsifal!
Stay here!
Parsifal “Parsifal”?
This name, in dreaming, spoke once...
My mother!
Kundry Stay here with me, Parsifal!
Now greets your salvation and joy withal!
You wooers parading, begone from him;
Blooms soon to be fading,
For you, he is not plaything destined!
Go home, tend to the wounded,
Lonely await you many knights.
Flower Must we leave you?
Maidens Must we part so?
Oh woe! Oh woe!
Oh woe, the pain!
Alas! From all men we would gladly part,
To be with you alone!
Farewell! Farewell!
You handsome, you proud one!
You... fool!
💿 Act 2: “Dies Alles – Hab' Ich Nun Getraümt?”
Parsifal Of all this,
Have I now but dreamt?
Did you call for me—the nameless?
Kundry I called you, foolish pure one,
“Fal parsi.”
You purest fooled one:
“Parsifal.”
With this, when in Araby's land as he fell,
Your father Gamuret did name his son,
Whom in the mother's womb still guarded,
His final breath in dying greeted.
For years I've waited, to proclaim you so.
What drew you here, if not the wish to know?
Parsifal I've seen not, nor dreamed of that, which now
I view, and that which fear in me instills.
Did you too bloom with all these garden-flowers?
Kundry No, Parsifal, you troubling pure one!
Far, far is my own homeland.
That you might find me, I only waited here;
From afar came I, and where much, I've seen.
💿 Act 2: “Ich Sah Das Kind An Seiner Mutter Brust”
I saw the child nursing at his mother's breast,
How his first lalling laughs still in my ear!
Through sorrow and craving,
She laughed then also Herzeleide,
Her heart's aching
Alleviated as her eyes were delighted!
Bedded gently on tender grasses,
She lulled him to sleep with soft caresses,
She kept, dire in warning,
His slumber guarded by a mother's yearning,
And woke him at morning
With the hot tears of his mother burning.
All-mourning was she, child of sorrow,
Weeping your father's love and fall.
To such a fate, you must not follow,
And so she found her highest call:
Keep weapons far, hide men of fight and fury,
She would in stillness shield you from all worry.
Uneasy, was she! Ah, and restless!
No, never should knowledge reach you, her defenseless.
Hear you still not, her lamenting cries,
When late and far you did wander?
Alas! How great her joy and laughter did rise
After seeking, she found you yonder?
In arms she clasped you frantically again,
Did you perhaps dread her kisses then?
Yet, her worry—you'd no concern,
Nor for her woe, so anguished,
When at last you did not return,
And every trace had vanished.
She'd wait all night and all day,
Her plaint fell faint in dismay,
Grief's pain would not depart,
For still of death she cried,
Her sorrow broke her heart,
And... Herzeleide died.
💿 Act 2: “Wehe! Wehe! Was Tat Ich?”
Parsifal Woe! Woe!
What did I? Where was I?
Mother! Sweetest, dearest mother!
Your son! By son it was that you were murdered!
Oh fool! Stupid, blundering fool!
Where wandered you to—her but forgotten?
Yourself... yourself forgotten?
Dearest, beloved mother!
Kundry If from pain kept apart,
Sweet consolation
Could not comfort your heart.
The guilt of your grief,
Let it be redeemed in
The solace that love does release!
Parsifal My mother... my mother!
Could I forget her?
Ha! What else might I have forgotten?
What then am I not mindful of?
But dullest folly dwells in me.
Kundry Confession...
Lets guilt find ease in remorse.
Understanding...
Lets sense be folly's recourse.
Now learn to know the loving,
On Gamuret bestowed,
In Herzeleide burning,
That raged and overflowed!
Her life hard-striven
Now to you given,
Let death and folly yield to this:
Today...
Sends she...
The mother's greetings, that you miss...
Her love in... love's first kiss!
💿 Act 2: “Amfortas! – Die Wunde!”
Parsifal Amfortas!
The wound! The wound!
It burns within my heart's core!
Oh, sorrow! Sorrow!
Frightful sorrow!
From deep in bosom, cries to me out!
Oh! Oh!
Wretched one!
Most miserable!
The wound I saw bleeding,
Now bleeds it—in me!
Here! Here!
No! No!
Not the wound's pain is this!
Let that blood in streams rush away!
Here! Here in heart is the blaze!
The yearning, the dreadful yearning,
By which my senses are grasped and forced!
Oh! Love's anguish!
Everything shudders, shakes, and quakes
In sin's profane desire!
I've seen it... my gaze... dull...
On the Holy Grail!
The sacred blood did gleam!
Salvation's wonder, pure and mild,
Through all souls trembles, far and wide!
But here—in heart's depths—does my torment not yield!
The Savior's cry—I can now perceive!
The lament! Oh, the lament...
For the defiled sanctum:
“Redeem Me!
Rescue Me—
From their guilt-tainted fingers!”
So called out God's commandment,
Frightful, loud, deep in my being!
And I—the fool, the coward?
To wild and childish mischief, I fled!
Redeemer! Savior! Lord of grace!
How is a sinner's guilt erased?
Kundry My honored one! Give up this chase!
Look up, find grace in women's embrace!
Parsifal Yes, this was the voice! Thus calling him!
And that glance... plainly I recognize...
As that one... which cries with fretful laughter!
These lips too... how they quivered for him...
The neck was bent toward him,
So boldly rose the head...
So laughingly fluttered the locks' curls...
So wrapped around neck was the arm...
So softly the cheek was caressed...
With every torment's pain united...
His soul's salvation...
Your mouth kissed away!
Ha! Oh, your kiss!
Debaucheress! Depart from me!
Never!
Ever tempt me!
💿 Act 2: “Grausamer! Fuhlst Du Im Herzen”
Kundry Cruel shamer!
Feel you the arrows
Of others' sorrows?
So feel in chest aching—my pain!
If you're redeemer,
What keeps you, schemer,
From me now—to unite in salvation?
Through endless lifetimes have I waited!
The Savior, oh! So late...
Whom once I dared berate!
Oh! Fathomed you the curse,
Which binds through sleep and waking,
Through death and living,
Pain and laughing,
To new afflictions newly steeled...
Endless torment without yield!
I saw... Him!
Him... and...?
Laughed! Ah!
Then struck me...
His stare!
Now seek Him I, from world to world,
So again, I'll find Him!
In utmost need,
Dream, I... those eyes drawing near.
That look on me once more.
Then comes forth the accursed laughter again:
A sinner sinks deep in my embrace!
Laugh, I... laughing!
Yet not crying!
But screaming, raving,
Storming, raging,
In ever-renewing madness’ night,
For which I atone, yet still blight.
He whom I yearn with deathly longing,
He whom I saw, and mocked with wronging:
Let me weep on his bosom, righted,
For just one hour, let's be united,
Though before God and world a fiend,
In you—be cleansed of sin, and redeemed!
Parsifal For evermore
Would you be damned with me
If for one hour
I forgot my mission
Within your arms' embraces!
I'm sent for your salvation too,
If from the longing's rule, turn you.
The relief which sees suffering ended
Grants not the spring from which it flows,
Salvation will not be extended
Until that spring to you is closed.
Another spring... another... ah!
One sought with wailing plaint, I saw...
The brethren there in gruesome distress...
Their flesh tormented in their redress!
Yet who can perceive clear such thing
To find our salvation's one true spring?
Oh sorrow, for all rescues cursed!
Oh world-madness' veiled anguish!
For with salvation's fervent thirst...
After damnation's spring, we languish!
Kundry Was it by my kiss
That world-clearsighted you have become?
My fullest loving's embracement
Would grant you godhead's attainment!
Redeem the world then, if that's your goal:
Become a god this hour!
For this, be forever damned my soul,
My wound left to devour.
Parsifal Redemption, blasphemer, I'll seek for you!
Kundry Then as a god let me love you,
Salvation you would give to me.
Parsifal Love and salvation shall be given
If you show...
Where Amfortas' way is found!
Kundry No, shall you not find him!
The fallen one, let him perish!
Wretched! Shame-lecherous!
He whom I mocked—laughing, laughing! Ha ha!
Him pierced by the Holy Spear!
Parsifal Who dared then to wound him with the sacred lance?
Kundry He... he... who once did punish my laugh.
His curse... ha, it grants me craft,
And against you too, I'll weapons hail
If you give sinners compassion's wail!
Ha... madness!
Pity! Pity for me?
One hour only mine!
One hour only thine...
And then afterwards,
You'll know the ways divine!
Parsifal Away, miserable wretch!
Kundry Help me! Help me! This way!
Halt the bold one! This way!
Bar him the passage!
Block him the pathways!
And flee you from here and find you
All the ways of the world,
The way that you seek—
Those pathways shall you not discover!
Those paths and ways forth
Which draw you from me,
Those I curse for you!
Stray now!
Wander!
Him... so well known...
To him I give you away!
Klingsor Stop there! I bind you with the proper gear!
The foolish one shall fall to his master's Spear!
Parsifal Now with the Spear, I banish all your magic!
May the wounded it restore,
Whom with it you caused sore,
To sorrow and rubble
Falls your deceit's splendour!
You know
Where you can find me once again!