YMA SUMAC.
Pitu Salla, beloved friend,
How long wilt thou conceal from me
The secret that I long to know?
Think, dearest, of my anxious heart,
How I shall be in constant grief
Until you tell the truth to me.
Within these hard and cruel bounds
Does some one suffer for my sins?
My sweet companion, do not hide
From me, who ’tis that mourns and weeps
Somewhere within the garden walls.
How is it she is so concealed
That I can never find the place?
PITU SALLA.
My Sumac, now I’ll tell thee all—
Only concerning what you hear,
And still more surely what you see,
You must be dumb as any stone;
And you too must be well prepared
For a most sad heart-rending sight—
’Twill make thee weep for many days.
YMA SUMAC.
I will not tell a living soul
What you divulge. But tell me all,
I’ll shut it closely in my heart.
SCENE 5
A secluded part of the gardens of the Virgins, (L.) flowers, (R.) a thicket of mulli[66] and chilca,[67] concealing a stone door.
(PITU SALLA and YMA SUMAC.)
PITU SALLA.
In this garden is a door of stone,
But wait until the Mothers sleep,
The night comes on. Wait here for me.
(Exit.)
(Yma Sumac reclines on a bank and sleeps.
Night comes on, Yma Sumac awakes.)
YMA SUMAC.
A thousand strange presentiments
Crowd on me now, I scarce know what—
Perhaps I shall see that mournful one
Whose fate already breaks my heart.