(Alone.)
The tower, the tower!
And quick. He comes from there. Soon 'tis too late.
[She looks searchingly about her, walks
slowly at first to the left, then runs through
the shrubbery. The old slave, who has
watched her attentively, slowly follows
her.]
Gardener (through with his work).
Come here and help me, wife.
Wife.
Yes, right away.
[They take up the barrow and carry it along
toward the right.]
Merchant (enters from the right.)
I loved her so! Ah, how this life of ours
Resembles dreams illusory. Today
I might have had her, here and always, I!
Possession is the whole: slow-growing power
That sifts down through the soul's unseen and hidden
Interstices, feeds thus the wondrous lamp
Within the spirit, and soon from such eyes
There bursts a mightier, sweeter gleam than moonlight.
Oh, I have loved her so! I fain would see her,
See her once more. My eye sees naught but death:
The flowers wilt before my eyes like candles,
When they begin to run: all, all is dying,
And all dies to no purpose, for she is
Not here—
[The old camel-driver comes running from
the left across the stage to the gardener
and shows him something that seems to be
happening rather high in the air to the left;
the gardener calls his wife's attention to it,
and all look.]
Merchant (becomes aware of this, follows the direction of
their glances, grows deathly pale).
God, God! Give answer! There, there, there!
The woman on the tower, bending forward,
Why does she so bend forward? Look, look
there! [Wife shrieks and covers her face.]
Gardener (runs to the left, looks, calls back).
She lives and moves! Come, master, come this way.
[The merchant runs out, the gardener's wife
following. Immediately thereafter the
merchant, the gardener, and his wife come
carrying Sobeide, and lay her down in the
grass. The gardener takes off his outer
garment and lays it under her head. The
old camel-driver stands at some distance.]