The Poems of Schiller - First period Part 11

ZEUS. (Shrieking with alarm.) Unhappy one! Oh stay! oh stay!

SEMELE. Saturnia--

ZEUS. (Attempting to stop her mouth.) Be thou dumb!

SEMELE. Embraces thee.

ZEUS. (Pale, and turning away.) Too late! The sound escaped!--The Styx!--'Tis death Thou, Semele, hast gained!

SEMELE. Ha! Loves Zeus thus?

ZEUS.

All heaven I would have given, had I only Loved thee but less! (Gazing at her with cold horror.) Thou'rt lost--

SEMELE. Oh, Jupiter!

ZEUS. (Speaking furiously to himself,) Ah! Now I mark thine exultation, Juno!

Accursed jealousy! This rose must die!

Too fair--alas! too sweet for Acheron!

SEMELE.

Methinks thou'rt n.i.g.g.ard of thy majesty!

ZEUS.

Accursed be my majesty, that now Has blinded thee! Accursed be my greatness, That must destroy thee! Cursed be I myself For having built my bliss on crumbling dust!

SEMELE.

These are but empty terrors, Zeus! In truth I do not dread thy threats!

ZEUS. Deluded child!

Go! take a last farewell forever more Of all thy friends beloved--naught, naught has power To save thee, Semele! I am thy Zeus!

Yet that no more--Go--

SEMELE. Jealous one! the Styx!-- Think not that thou'lt be able to escape me. [Exit.

ZEUS.

No! Juno shall not triumph.--She shall tremble-- Aye, and by virtue of the deadly might That makes the earth and makes the heavens my footstool, Upon the sharpest rock in Thracia's land With adamantine chains I'll bind her fast.

But, oh, this oath-- [Mercury appears in the distance.

What means thy hasty flight?

MERCURY.

I bring the fiery, winged, and weeping thanks Of those whom thou hast blessed--

ZEUS. Again destroy them!

MERCURY. (In amazement.) Zeus!

ZEUS. None shall now be blessed! She dies-- [The curtain falls.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The allusion in the original is to the seemingly magical power possessed by a Jew conjuror, named Philadelphia, which would not be understood in English.

[2] This most exquisite love poem is founded on the platonic notion, that souls were united in a pre-existent state, that love is the yearning of the spirit to reunite with the spirit with which it formerly made one--and which it discovers on earth. The idea has often been made subservient to poetry, but never with so earnest and elaborate a beauty.

[3] "Und Empfindung soll mein Richtschwert seyn." A line of great vigor in the original, but which, if literally translated, would seem extravagant in English.

[4] Joseph, in the original.

[5] The youth's name was John Christian Weckherlin.

[6] Venus.

[7] Originally Laura, this having been one of the "Laura-Poems," as the Germans call them of which so many appeared in the Anthology (see Preface). English readers will probably not think that the change is for the better.

[8] t.i.tyus.