BRÜNNHILDE
[Begins to raise her head a little, and, commencing timidly, gains confidence as she proceeds.
Was the offence
So shameful and foul
That to such shame the offender should be
doomed?
Was what I did
So base and so vile
That I must suffer abasement so low?
Was the dishonour
Truly so deep
That it must rob me of honour for aye?
[She raises herself gradually to a kneeling posture.
O speak, Father!
In my eye looking,
Calming thy rage,
Taming thy wrath,
Explain why so dark
This deed of mine
That in thy implacable anger
It costs thee thy favourite child!
WOTAN [His attitude unchanged, gravely and gloomily.
Ask of thy deed,
And that will show thee thy guilt!
BRÜNNHILDE
I but fulfilled
Wotan's command.
WOTAN
By my command
Didst thou fight for the Wälsung?
BRÜNNHILDE
Yea, lord of the lots,
So ran thy decree.
WOTAN
But I took back
The order, changed the decree!
BRÜNNHILDE
When Fricka had weaned
Thy will from its purpose;
In yielding what she desired
Thou wert a foe to thyself.
WOTAN [Softly and bitterly.
I thought thou didst understand me,
And punished thy conscious revolt;
But coward and fool
I seemed to thee!
If I had not treason to punish
Thou wouldst be unworthy my wrath.
BRÜNNHILDE
I am not wise,
But I knew well this one thing—
That thy love was the Wälsung's;
I knew that, by discord
Drawn two ways,
This one thing thou hadst forgotten.
The other only
Couldst thou discern—
What so bitterly
Wounded thy heart:
That Siegmund might not be shielded.
WOTAN
And yet thou didst dare
To shield him, knowing 'twas so?
BRÜNNHILDE [Beginning softly.
Because I the one thing
Had kept in my eye,
While by twofold desire
Divided wert thou,
Blindly thy back on him turning!
She who wards thy back
From the foe in the field,
She saw alone
What thou sawest not:—
Siegmund I beheld.
Bringing him doom
I approached;
I looked in his eyes,
Gave ear to his words.
I perceived the hero's
Bitter distress;
Loud the lament
Of the brave one resounded;
Uttermost love's
Most terrible pang,
Saddest of hearts
Defying all odds—-
With my ear I heard,
My eye beheld
That which stirred the heart in my breast
With trouble holy and strange.
Shamed, astonished,
Shrinking I stood.
Then all my thought
Was how I could serve him;
Triumph and death
To share with Siegmund—
That seemed, that only,
The lot I could choose!
Faithful to him
Who taught my heart this love,
And set me
By the Wälsung's side as friend—
Most faithful to him—
Thy word I disobeyed.
WOTAN
So thou hast done
What I yearned so greatly to do—
What a twofold fate
Withheld from my desire!
So easy seemed to thee
Heart's delight in the winning,
When burning woe
In my heart flamed fierce,
When terrible anguish
Wrung my soul,
When, to save the world
That I loved, love's spring
In my tortured heart I imprisoned?
Against my own self
When I turned, to my torment,
From swooning pain
Arose in a frenzy,
When a wild longing
Burning like fire
The fearful design in me woke
In the ruins of my own world
My unending sorrow to bury,
[Somewhat freely.
Thy heart was lapped
In blissful delight.
Trembling with rapture,
Drunken with joy,
Thy lips drank laughing
The draught of love,
While I drank of divine woe
Mixed with wormwood and gall.
[Dryly and shortly.
By thy lightsome heart
Henceforth be guided:
From me thou hast turned away!
I must renounce thee;
Together no more
Shall we two whisper counsel;
Apart our paths lie,
Sundered for ever,
And so long as life lasts
I, the God, dare nevermore greet thee!
BRÜNNHILDE [Simply.
Unfit was the foolish
Maid for thee,
Who, dazed by thy counsel,
Grasped not thy mind
When, to her, one counsel
Alone appeared plain—
To love what was loved by thee.
If I must forth
Where I shall not find thee,
If the fast-woven bond
Must be loosed,
And half thy being
Far from thee banished—
A half once thine and thine only,
O God, forget not that!—
Thy other self
Thou wilt not dishonour,
Dealing out shame
That will shame thee too;
Thine own honour were lowered,
Were I a target for scorn!
WOTAN
The lure of love
Thou hast followed fain:
Follow the man
Who shall wield its might!
BRÜNNHILDE
If I must go from Walhall,
No more in thy work be a sharer,
And if as my master
A man I must serve,
I braggart base
Abandon me not!
Not all unworthy
Be he who wins!
WOTAN
With Wotan no part hast thou—
He cannot fashion thy fate.
BRÜNNHILDE
By thee has been founded a race
Too glorious to bring forth a coward
One day must a matchless hero
From Wälsung lineage spring.
WOTAN
Name not the Wälsungs to me!
Renouncing thee,
Them too I renounced;
Through envy they came to naught.
BRÜNNHILDE
She who turned from thee
Rescued the race;
[With an air of secrecy.