Act 2 — SCENE I.—_A fountain in the park.
Richard Hovey translation
Enter_ PÉLLÉAS and MÉLISANDE.
PÉLLÉAS.
You do not know where I have brought you?—I often come to sit here, toward noon, when it is too hot in the gardens. It is stifling to-day, even in the shade of the trees.
MÉLISANDE.
Oh, how clear the water is!…
PÉLLÉAS.
It is as cool as winter. It is an old abandoned spring. It seems to have been a miraculous spring,—it opened the eyes of the blind,—they still call it "Blind Man's Spring."
MÉLISANDE.
It no longer opens the eyes of the blind?
PÉLLÉAS.
Since the King has been nearly blind himself, no one comes any more….
MÉLISANDE.
How alone one is here!… There is no sound.
PÉLLÉAS.
There is always a wonderful silence here…. One could hear the water sleep…. Will you sit down on the edge of the marble basin? There is one linden where the sun never comes….
MÉLISANDE.
I am going to lie down on the marble.—I should like to see the bottom of the water….
PÉLLÉAS.
No one has ever seen it.—It is as deep, perhaps, as the sea.—It is not known whence it comes.—Perhaps it comes from the bottom of the earth….
MÉLISANDE.
If there were anything shining at the bottom, perhaps one could see it….
PÉLLÉAS.
Do not lean over so….
MÉLISANDE.
I would like to touch the water….
PÉLLÉAS.
Have a care of slipping…. I will hold your hand….
MÉLISANDE.
No, no, I would plunge both hands in it…. You would say my hands were sick to-day….
PÉLLÉAS.
Oh! oh! take care! take care! Mélisande!… Mélisande!…—Oh! your hair!…
MÉLISANDE (starting upright). I cannot,… I cannot reach it….
PÉLLÉAS.
Your hair dipped in the water….
MÉLISANDE.
Yes, it is longer than my arms…. It is longer than I…. [A silence.
PÉLLÉAS.
It was at the brink of a spring, too, that he found you?
MÉLISANDE.
Yes….
PÉLLÉAS.
What did he say to you?
MÉLISANDE.
Nothing;—I no longer remember….
PÉLLÉAS.
Was he quite near you?
MÉLISANDE.
Yes; he would have kissed me.
PÉLLÉAS.
And you would not?
MÉLISANDE.
No.
PÉLLÉAS.
Why would you not?
MÉLISANDE.
Oh! oh! I saw something pass at the bottom of the water….
PÉLLÉAS.
Take care! take care!—You will fall! What are you playing with?
MÉLISANDE.
With the ring he gave me….
PÉLLÉAS.
Take care; you will lose it….
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; I am sure of my hands….
PÉLLÉAS.
Do not play so, over so deep a water….
MÉLISANDE.
My hands do not tremble.
PÉLLÉAS.
How it shines in the sunlight I—Do not throw it so high in the air….
MÉLISANDE.
Oh!…
PÉLLÉAS.
It has fallen?
MÉLISANDE.
It has fallen into the water!…
PÉLLÉAS.
Where is it? where is it?…
MÉLISANDE.
I do not see it sink?…
PÉLLÉAS.
I think I see it shine….
MÉLISANDE.
My ring?
PÉLLÉAS.
Yes, yes; down yonder….
MÉLISANDE.
Oh! oh! It is so far away from us!… no, no, that is not it … that is not it…. It is lost … lost…. There is nothing any more but a great circle on the water…. What shall we do? What shall we do now?…
PÉLLÉAS.
You need not be so troubled for a ring. It is nothing…. We shall find it again, perhaps. Or else we will find another….
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; we shall never find it again; we shall never find any others either…. And yet I thought I had it in my hands…. I had already shut my hands, and it is fallen in spite of all…. I threw it too high, toward the sun….
PÉLLÉAS.
Come, come, we will come back another day;… come, it is time. They will come to meet us. It was striking noon at the moment the ring fell.
MÉLISANDE.
What shall we say to Golaud if he ask where it is?
PÉLLÉAS.
The truth, the truth, the truth…. [Exeunt.