'Tis I who awake thee
With song of magic,
That what in slumber
Was folded fast may rise.
The wide earth ranging,
Far I have roamed,
Seeking for knowledge,
Wisdom at fountains primeval.
No one that lives
Is wiser than thou;
Thou knowest all
In the hidden depths,
What moves on hill,
Dale, in water and air.
Where life is found,
There thou art breathing;
And where brains ponder,
There is thy thought.
Men say that all
Knowledge is thine.
That I might ask of thee counsel,
I have called thee from sleep.
ERBA
My sleep is dreaming,
My dreaming brooding,
My brooding wisdom's calm working.
But while I sleep
The Norns are wakeful:
They twine the rope,
And deftly weave what I know.
The Norns thou shouldst have questioned.
WANDERER
In thrall to the world
Sit the Norns weaving;
They cannot alter
What ordained is.
But I would fain
Be taught of thy wisdom
How a wheel on the roll can be stayed.
ERBA
Dark and troubled
My mind grows through men's deeds.
A God once subdued
The Wala's self to his will.
A wish-maiden
I bore to Wotan;
From fields of battle
She brought him slain heroes;
Bold is she
And wise to boot:
Why waken me?
Why seek not counsel
From Erda's and Wotan's child?
WANDERER