Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 25

But about which the dreamer's world revolves.

MARQUISE.

I do not dream, I wish....

POET.

I know well what I wish....

MARQUISE.

Well then, we wish that it should not be merely a consonant.

POET.

No, rather that it should be poetry.

MARQUISE.

Suppose that it were so, would it content you?

POET.

It is enough for me, and yet I fear That this pale poetry, untried, unlived, Can have no driving urge.

MARQUISE.

Why then should we refuse to live it?

POET.

I shall tell you. It is not in high-born taste To trifle with a heart.

The love of a marquise is the problematic Love of elegance and froth, And like other love a sort of mathematic Love of addition, subtraction and division.

It is not rude pa.s.sion, fierce, emphatic, Song and orchestral counterpoint of life.

It is what the world would name platonic, Love without fire, without virility, With nothing of creation, nothing tonic, One-step love, love of society.

And I will have none of this love sardonic, None of its desperate futility.

MARQUISE.

I do not fear you though you are a poet, And I say things to you, no other ears would endure.

You were not born, poor anchorite, To say to a woman: "Be mine."

And such is your secret vanity, You are a servile va.s.sal of your own Utopia.

You pretend to transform women Into laurel branches meaningless, And with your cynic's blare You thread upon the needle of your pride Dregs from the utter depths of the abyss.

POET.

Marquise, a poet's love has led you astray.

MARQUISE.

Oh, don't be vain and fanciful. I swear That in my placid life, happiness brings no joy.

What I longed for was a love, profound and mature, The profound love of a poet come to being, And not the incongruities of adolescence in verse....

The radiant synthesis of a pungent existence And not the disloyalties of a dispersed dream.

What woman has not dreamed of loving a poet Who would be conqueror and conquered all in one?

What woman has not wished to be humble and forgiving With the man who sings the great pa.s.sions he has known?

We need you poets.... We are tormented by the desire Of a harmonious life, filled with deep sound, With the vigor and strength of wine poured out Into bowls of truths, deep with the depth of death.

We crave no water, lymphatic, pure, In gla.s.ses of wind, frail as life.

Better the vintage of the rich Served in vile gla.s.ses of gold. And if the mind be coa.r.s.e, Perchance the hands will glitter with many stones.

And if I may not have a fragrant and well-ordered nest Filled with clear rhythm and little blond heads, Then let me have my palace where luxurious pleasure Lends to love of earth, grief and deep dismay.

Why do you not love living, poets? Why is it, The dullard who nor loves nor lives poaches your kisses?

POET.

I do not comprehend, marquise. Why love living, If that is to live loving? We know that life and love Are wings forever fledging out In a bird neither swan nor hawk.

I am resigned to my unequal destiny, for I know That my two eyes cannot perceive the same color.

For even when there is calm, anxiety arises And then, I am not master, not even of my pain.

I would be your friend, but there are obstacles, Captious dynamics, that put a check upon my words.

I yield to the dumb pride of my huge torment, The song without words, the sonorous silence, And I do not desire any one to penetrate The garden wherein flowers the mystery I adore.

MARQUISE.

Conserve your mysteries, poet; they will have no heirs.

POET.

Death is the heir of everything impenetrable.

MARQUISE.

But only during life do the words of the sphinx Possess a meaning for our ears.

POET.

I am terror-stricken by the sphinx.

MARQUISE.

Coward! The sun blinds him who cannot hearken to the sphinx.

[_Sounds of music in the distance._]

POET.

Does not the music tempt you?

MARQUISE.

It does, and I feel sure My lover must be waiting. Will you come with me?