SIEGFRIED

[Who has been listening thoughtfully, now bursts involuntarily into hearty laughter.

Thy foolish talk sets me laughing!
But come, this nonsense must finish.
At once show me my way;
Then proceed thou too on thine own;
For me further
Use thou hast none:
So speak, or off thou shalt pack!

WANDERER [Gently.

Child, didst thou know
Who I am,
Thy scoffs I had been spared!
From one so dear,
Insult hard to endure is.
Long have I loved
Thy radiant race,
Though from my fury
In terror it shrank.
Thou whom I love so,
All too fair one,
Rouse my wrath not to-day;
It would ruin both thee and me.

SIEGFRIED

Still art thou dumb,
Stubborn old man?
Stand to one side, then;
That pathway, I know,
Leads to the slumbering maid;
For thither the wood-bird
Was guiding when he flew off.

[It suddenly becomes dark again.

WANDERER