The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie. The Ring of the Niblung, part 1

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Рихард Вагнер

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Зарубежная классика

Год написания книги

2018

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Leave me in peace, pray.

LOGE

So much is certain,
And more still. Hark!
Help I promise thee, Mime!

[He raises him with difficulty.

MIME

What help for me?
To do his bidding
My brother can force me,
For I am bound as his slave.

LOGE

But, Mime, how has he
Thus made thee his thrall?

MIME

By evil arts
Fashioned Alberich
A yellow ring,
From the Rhinegold forged,
At whose mighty magic
Trembling we marvel;
This spell puts in his power
The Nibelung hosts of night.
Happy we smiths
Moulded and hammered,
Making our women
Trinkets to wear—
Exquisite Nibelung toys—
And lightly laughed at our toil.
The rogue now compels us
To creep into caverns,
For him alone
To labour unthanked.
Through the golden ring
His greed can divine
Where untouched treasure
In hidden gorge gleams.
We still must keep spying,
Peering and delving:
Must melt the booty,
Which, molten, we forge
Without pause or peace,
To heap up higher his hoard.

LOGE

Just now, then, an idler
Roused him to wrath?

MIME

Poor Mime, ah!
My lot was the hardest.
I had to work,
Forging a helmet,
With strict instructions
How to contrive it;
And well I marked
The wondrous might
Bestowed by the helm
That from steel I wrought.
Hence I had gladly
Held it as mine,
And, by its virtue
Risen at last in revolt:
Perchance, yes, perchance
The master himself I had mastered,
And, he in my power, had wrested
The ring from him and used it
That he might serve me, the free man,

[Harshly

As now I must serve him, a slave!

LOGE

And wherefore, wise one,
Sped not the plan?

MIME

Ah! though the helm I fashioned,
The magic that lurks therein
I foolishly failed to divine.
He who set the task
And seized the fruits—
From him I have learnt,
Alas I but too late!
All the helmet's cunning craft.