— the child (c.1), the child (c.2), the child (c.3), the child (c.4), the figure (p.1), the figure (p.2), the figure (p.3), the figure (p.4), an old man.
— voice 1, voice 2
ACT ONE
SCENE 1
The curtain is up. In an undefined set, four figures move on their feet without cease, by no particular rule. The only elements of scenery are many stones strewn everywhere. Small stones and middling ones. The four figures turn, twist, cross sideways, backwards, forwards, in every direction. But they never collide. For a sound-bed there can be a very loud, rhythmic music, or strong noises of every kind. At a certain moment p.1 snaps his fingers toward p.2. P.2 drops to the ground as if thunderstruck, as though he had died.
p.1 — So, this winter's come on very early. With a deal of snow.
Those who remain go on with their aimless wandering. After a while, p.1 snaps his fingers toward p.3. P.3, he too drops as if struck.
p.1 — For the roads have opened. That's a sign of openings.
p.4 — Look at him for the last time. As always. Fix him well in your head. You'll not see him again.
p.1 — And so that's why it was so warm. And lovely. But I don't know whether someone called them, or whether they let themselves be carried off.
p.4 — Even so, not quite like that.
p.1 — Yes, yes. The more it snows, the lovelier it is.
p.4 — To go off like that... Not even in such a state.
p.1 — We don't see it anyhow. It's all one to us.
p.4 — It shows itself lovely. That much you can see.
p.1 — It shows itself, but for nothing. (snaps toward p.4, who falls as well). Well, isn't it all one?
Left alone, he begins to wander about, at a brisker pace than before. All at once he snaps his fingers at his own self, and he too drops as if struck. They all lie there, fallen on the ground, without stirring at all. The rhythmic music or the noises cease. The lights go out. In one corner of the stage, which is lit only now, somewhere back right, on a slight rise, c.1 and c.2 can be seen sitting in the depths, back to back.
c.1 — He'd gone into the clouds. He'd lost his way, that's all. They even said he flows up there. Forever and always.
c.2 — Could you not believe him?
c.1 — He used to say he can catch clouds. Carry them along with him. Down the length of...
c.2 — And the fish?
c.1 — They thrashed about from fear. From fear that the sky might not shine on them. From the sun... They swam only in the deeps, from fear. From the tail of a fish...
c.2 — Past it... Yes, it seems they caught a path. Past the sun. It kept on going. It went... It caught onto a path.
c.1 — Do you see the sky's red?
c.2 — From a path that, they say... (realizing it was c.1 who had asked) No, it's blue.
c.1 — With your eyes shut, when you look at the sky, don't you see it red?
c.2 — How's that?
c.1 — You look at the sky like this, and the moment you shut your eyes, doesn't it turn red? Hasn't it ever happened to you? You try it too!
C.2 looks, not upward, and begins to shut and open his eyes.
c.2 — It's from the eyes, that I'm shutting them in the light.
c.1 — That doesn't matter.
c.2 — It's true! Blue, red. Blue, red.
c.1 — Red, blue. Red, blue.
c.2 — It's as if I see the clouds in two colors. Once on the blue, once on the red.
c.1 — Isn't it fine, the way it is?
c.2 — Mm-hm.
The light over the two children goes out. At this moment a few red and blue lights come on. They begin to move about everywhere. Like restless lanterns. A fitting music-bed may come in. Suddenly p.2 stands up. At this moment the lights settle.
p.2 — Hey, you there! Have you seen how much snow's fallen here? Have you, now?
The others don't hear him.
p.2 — How lovely this snow is! Oh, and how I can pelt myself with snowballs. (he begins to laugh). Look, I land one on my own head (gestures as if he were doing it), one I throw to my hand (again gestures as if he were doing it), and so on with all of them (he throws himself belly-down as into snow)---
P.2 does not rise again. After a while, p.3 suddenly stands up.
p.3 — Maybe I'd have gone faster on the raft. But I didn't have it. For it was lost. Somewhere, I don't know. And they say I could've climbed onto it, that it had room for me. But it went off. It went off... And now, look, it snows without me. Without me... (he lowers himself slowly to the ground, as into snow)
P.3 does not rise again. After a while, p.1 stands up sharply and begins to run around the three on the ground.
p.1 — Make way! Make way!... Clear off! Make way! Make way!
P.4 rises in the depths and snaps his fingers toward p.1. He drops as if struck, as though he had died on the spot. One by one, one after another, the lights go out slowly. Then the curtain falls. Only after the curtain is down does the sound-bed stop.
SCENE 2
The curtain rises. Darkness is kept on the stage. One hears the murmur of a stream and the chirping of little birds. Slowly day breaks. On a raft, two children sleep peacefully. The raft drifts down the length of the stream. In the rocking of the waves, the children, half woken, settle into other sleeping positions. They drop off again. The raft drifts down the length of the stream. The light on the stage goes out. Two voices are heard:
voice 1 — You know, that's why I love the rains, because the sky clears after them.
voice 2 — Yes, you can see it that way too.
voice 1 — How do you mean?
voice 2 — How do I mean?, well, after the rain I see mud and damp. You see clear skies.
voice 1 — You ought always to see only the sky after the rain, you too. For that's where it rains from. But you'll learn. It isn't hard.
voice 2 — I know it rains down from the sky, but for that I needn't see where it rains from, but who it rains on. No?
voice 1 — Well, it can rain on anyone, and need not be damp afterward.
voice 2 — How do you mean?
voice 1 — How do I mean? well, after the rain, if it rains on a stream, in it, in its water, then it doesn't change it. It doesn't make it any damper, no? For it's wet even before the rain.
voice 2 — Yes, that's so...
voice 1 — And so you can say that even after the rain it's still dry. In truth it stays dry of the rain. After any rain, no?
voice 2 — Yes, that's so...
Silence. Little by little, the little birds are heard again, the murmur of the stream. The light too comes up gradually.
voice 2 — Well now, the sky's cleared. And what of it?
voice 1 — It's cleared?...
voice 2 — Yes, and the cold's stayed all the same.
voice 1 — It's cold from after the rain. What, have you never seen such a thing?
voice 2 — Well, how am I to see clearness and cold both at once?
voice 1 — It's cold from how clear it is, that's why.
voice 2 — It's clear from how cold it is. That's why.
voice 1 — Cold, not cold, what does it matter. The sky is clear. It's cleared. That's what matters.
The children on the raft wake slowly. They look around, but they are not amazed.
c.2 — Brrr, how cold it is!
c.1 — (serene) It seems we're floating.
c.2 — (knowing) We're not floating.
c.1 — (serene) It seems we're floating, all the same.
c.2 — (serene) We're not floating.
Again the two voices are heard, yet without the two children hearing them.
voice 2 — Well now, fine, the sky's cleared. Have it your way.
voice 1 — That's it, that's it. I'm fond of you.
Silence a few moments. C.1 rubs his eyes, sleepy. C.2 looks around amazed, stands up, and from some waves loses his balance a little. He falls onto c.1 and begins to hit him, and then, in play, to grapple him. From here a tussle starts between the two. At the end of it, the two seem quite merry.
c.1 — You know, the way she fluttered like that in the wind, at one moment, I don't know but it was as if all that I'd ever dreamed had taken shape like this, had come into flesh. A girl with long hair, she stood like this between the sun and the sky, between the water and the earth, I don't know, she wasn't floating, she didn't walk on the earth like that, you couldn't trace her step by step, she was somewhere only — maybe only in my imagining. Somewhere off to one side there, in the streak. There in the streak, in the streak of cloud, between water and sky.
c.2 — And, and, did you go to touch her? Did you go to lay your hand on her?
c.1 — No, but how was I to go and lay my hand on her? I couldn't reach her. I told you, it was as if she were only a wisp of smoke, fluttering like that in the wind... As if the wind were carrying her along with it... And I wanted, you know, to run, to run after her, to catch her, to touch her as you say, to go to her and tell her, to drag myself at her feet and beg her to bide with me. But you know I couldn't, I hadn't the strength, I stayed nailed to the spot, and she, as she stood there in the streak, in the streak of sky, drew away like that, little by little. In time, it came to where I couldn't see her at all anymore. And I stood there the way I stood, nailed down, and I understood that, yes, she, she is the first, and only she will be, and only her will I know like that, she'll be the first for me. She is the only one and I don't think there'll be another. (pause) For you know, once the earth folds, you know, once it just folds, the earth, and then if you see it, once you see it folding. For only once it folds, and only once you see it fold. And the stones, you know, and all the stones, you know, the mounds of earth, the clods and all the stones, you know, they roll then, they fall inward like this, they fall in..., in...., that fold, that deep crack. But not like an abyss, you know, just a fold like that. And everything falls, all the stones, you know? And the waters have nothing left to winnow, nothing to polish, you know, they've nothing left, and off they go to seek others, off in search of others. For everything, you know, everything rolls, everything falls into the crack. But you know, since the earth is folded, and the waters are gone to seek other stones, you know then they no longer flow like that from the spring toward seas and oceans, you know they flow backward now, the seas flow toward the springs, the rains into the wells...
c.2 — The rains into the wells?
c.1 — Yes, yes, the rains into the wells, for you know the well drains off into the rains, you know it, yes. For that's why the well drains into the rains, to water the flowers. No, but that's another story, that's another story. (pause) And just as the waters flow backward after other stones, just as the earth fills up with stones, swallowing them, so she'd appeared there, in the streak of cloud, between sun and sky, between earth and waters, and there in the streak, in that streak I saw her, and then I understood that only she will be the one whom I..., she... whom she... will be my first... she was, she is my first... be the first...
c.2 — Listen, but tell me please, how is it that the wells fall into the rains to water the flowers? No, it's never been so since the world began. The rains fall into the well, no? The rains fall into the well, not the wells into the rains.
c.1 — (not hearing c.2) And the clouds, you know, ran after her... they'd lost her trail, they ran after her without knowing her... they'd taken her shape and gave themselves to the wind to be carried... (amused) You know, for a moment I even took them for her... I leapt after the clouds to push them... No, to push them, not to pull myself... To push them... but they let themselves be poked through... by me... I put my hand through them, as through nothing... and I laughed... it's the clouds, it's not her... it's the clouds... she was vanishing into the streak of clouds, into the streak of clouds, not into them...
c.2 — Hey, with those rains, hey. You said the wells fall into the rains, not the rains into the well. Well that's not so!
c.1 — What did you say? What were you saying?
c.2 — ...
c.1 — (remembering) They flow backward, so the fish get turned head over heels... Until all the fish had caught on to it, they saw their own tails before their eyes... They threw themselves about through the empty air, these waters tried to polish something... backward...
c.2 — Will you tell me or not?
c.1 — What?
c.2 — About the well.
c.1 — Ahh... That's another story, that's another story...
c.2 — But tell it to me, how is it? For I don't understand, no, it's no good.
c.1 — Hey, it's... it's clear, hey, it's clear. The rains don't fall into the well, the well falls into the rains. It isn't hard, just try, try to think a little, mind it now. Does the well have fish?
c.2 — It hasn't.
c.1 — Good, so it hasn't. Well then it's clear.
c.2 — Well now, well now I don't understand. Well now here you've lost me... I understand nothing.
c.1 — Hey, it hasn't any fish, has it?
c.2 — It hasn't.
c.1 — Well isn't it clear? If it hasn't any fish... It's clear then.
c.2 — Hey, I don't know what you keep saying, but it's not clear at all.
c.1 — Now then, mind it. The water in the well comes out of the earth, is that right?
c.2 — That's right.
c.1 — Now then, and the sun shines it, yes?
c.2 — Yes.
c.1 — Now then, and from the way it shines it, the rain is born.
c.2 — (stops a bit and thinks) How's that, hey, rain out of the shining of a well?
c.1 — Yes, hey!
c.2 — (amazed) Ahhh?
c.1 — Now then, you see it's simple.
c.2 — Aha, now I think I get it.
c.1 — Now then, that's it, hey, that's it. That's it, hey.
Each child looks for another spot to settle more comfortably.
c.2 — Good, hey, but what have the fish to do with it?
c.1 — Well, the sun shines in the water of the well.
c.2 — But what about the fish?
c.1 — Well hey, how's it to shine in a water with fish? For there's no room left there for the shining of the sun, there the fish shine. In water that's been shone once, you can't shine twice.
Again the two voices are heard. The light on the stage drops a little in intensity.
voice 1 — It's for nothing, your doing it the way I see it. If you didn't say it first, it's for nothing.
voice 2 — How can it be for nothing? In the end, if it was so?
voice 1 — If it's cleared, it's cleared!
voice 2 — That's so.
voice 1 — Say it after me. It's cleared.
voice 2 — It's cleared.
voice 1 — Not like that. All at once.
voice 1 and voice 2 — It's cleared.
The curtain falls.
SCENE 3
Somewhere on dry land, two children, c.3 and c.4, stand beside a raft set on several stones gathered in one place, on a heap of stones. Around it there are no other stones but those beneath the raft. To the raft is tied a string that c.3 holds in his hand. C.4 tries to steal the string from c.3's hand, but c.3 fends him off successfully.
c.4 — You know, I nearly fell.
c.3 — You nearly fell? Where?
c.4 — Eh, not where, I nearly fell. I nearly fell, when.
c.3 — When?
c.4 — When it happened to me to run up against a tree.
c.3 — It happened to you to run up against a tree?
c.4 — Yes, to run up against a tree. But not a green tree, one that had dried up already. Which, being dry, and time having passed, the winds had cut it down, and there was left only a stump. Only a stump of root, of its own.
c.3 — And you ran up against a tree.
c.4 — For I nearly tripped on the stump of root, and then I saw something. I saw something and I really did nearly fall.
c.3 — What?
c.4 — It was a flower. A flower had grown beside it.
c.3 — A flower?
c.4 — For you don't know what happened and that's why you say only a flower. For if you knew you wouldn't be like that.
c.3 — But how do you know? As if you'd been there.
c.4 — I wasn't, but I know!
c.3 — How do you know, hey? how?
c.4 — I know because if that's how the story went, that's how I know.
c.3 — What story, hey? For you're making this up yourself. Ha, ha, ha...
c.4 — And what of it, hey, what of it! If it's a story then it is! You'll see!
c.3 — Come, I'm listening. Now then, say what happened to the flower.
c.4 — (cross) But will you hear me out to the end?
c.3 — Yes, yes, I'll hear you to the end. Speak.
c.4 — Fine. As I came upon that stump of root of a dried tree cut down by the winds, I saw that flower. And I went to pick it. But it so fell out that just as I went to take it, a teardrop... of a girl, I think, fell onto one of its petals. And in that moment it was as if the flower started, and looked at the tear on its petal. I think it asked itself whether it was its own somehow, whether its own leaves had made it, for as it pressed like that on the petal, it had let it fall down to its stem, to the root. And now it was as if it tasted it and felt that it was salt. I go again to pick it. I bend down, stretch out my hand toward it, and again a girl's tear, I think, I see falling onto a petal. The flower, it was as if it started and, wondering, asked whether it was its own. As it pressed like that on the petal it let the tear fall down to its stem, to its root. And it felt it was salt again. Then I fell. To you I said I nearly fell, not that I fell. But I fell. And so I lay there, fallen, gazing all the while at the flower, until the morning...
c.3 — (curious) When?...
c.4 — When I saw how the flower wakes. For that's why I waited, to see how it wakes. I love how the flowers wake, you know. Waking, it was as if all at once it looked at one of its petals, at the bead of dew that had appeared on it overnight. And since it had only just bloomed, and didn't know what that was, it looked at it and asked itself whether it was its own.
c.3 — But how do you know it had only just bloomed?
c.4 — (without hearing c.3) And as it pressed on the petal, it let the bead of dew fall to its stem, to its root. But it felt it was sweet, not salt. Then you should've seen the flower's distress... It trembled all over, it sighed, it all but failed to touch the earth with its petals. I was overcome with pity, nothing less. I wanted to help it. But before I could do anything, it was already too late. It had wilted. It had wilted, you see, from longing for that tear, I think... that tear... of a girl. All its petals had fallen to its stem, to its root. But I think it sent them to ask the bead of dew why it too wasn't salt but sweet. It hadn't managed in time, for I saw it had wilted. For it didn't know how it is with petals. For without them it dies...
c.3 — (caught up in the story) Without them it dies...
c.4 — But I think any flower, if it's watered with salt water, dies. And I put the blame on that tear... of a girl, I think. But you know, it saw how it had wilted, that dry tree too. And it began to weep for it, out of love. They'd likely come to love one another over time. And it began to drip tears on its petals. There below, the way they lay. It began to drip, there at the stem, at the root of the flower. And the flower, before it lost its balance, felt again the salt of a tear, salt. And it stretched out once, as if, you know, it wilted at peace. It was as if it looked like that at the stump of root of the dry tree, cut down by the winds, and let itself fall into its arms. (pause) But you know what the flower didn't know? For I saw, when I picked it — for I picked it in the end. For its stem, and its root, were none other than the root of the tree beside it. It was the same as its own dry tree, cut down by the winds. It had grown from the very same root as it, and had risen up beside it... Or upon it?... So I saw, now I'm not quite sure... And then I took the flower with me, its petals.
C.4 takes from a pocket a few petals and a withered stem, looks at them a while, after which he puts them back where he took them from. C.3 seems taken up with the string he holds in his hand, tied to the raft. C.4 sees it again, and once more tries to take it from him.
c.4 — Give it to me, hey, this raft!
c.3 — This raft is mine!
c.4 — But I know, and give it to me a little, me too. Please.
c.3 — I cleaned it, and that's why it's mine. For wholly, wholly it isn't mine. Since he carries it, and it's his.
c.4 — It's his? Whose, hey, whose?
c.3 — Whose, whose...
c.4 — But give it to me, hey, a little, me too.
c.3 — I'd give it to you, but you'll break it on me.
c.4 — Where do you get that I'll break it on you. For I won't break it, I won't break it.
c.3 — Fine, then take it. Take it.
C.4 comes up to the raft. He wants to lift it off the stones it rested on, but he gets tangled in them and drops it. As it falls, because of the stones beneath it that roll off in every direction, the raft breaks, its timbers come apart from one another. Frightened, c.4 tries desperately to hold it so it won't unravel, now trying to gather the stones beneath it again, now stretching out to set it back in place. In the end, for a remedy, he finds nothing better than to lie over it, in this overturned position, with his belly down.
c.3 — I knew that if I gave it to you you'd break it.
c.4 — But how did I break it if it goes?
c.3 — How does it go? I don't see that it goes.
c.4 — ...
c.3 — Well it goes, for carry it the stream still carries it. But its timbers have come apart. The buds got thoroughly soaked and rotted...
c.4 — But the road is still good. It still goes down. Down all the same.
c.3 — Only, I gave it to you and already it's spoilt. You don't understand...
c.4 — Eh, I don't understand. Why shouldn't I understand?
c.3 — You don't understand...
c.4 — But I do understand, only you're so crooked. And mean. You think only of timbers and such foolishness, instead of seeing how beautifully it flows down the stream.
c.3 — It flows, it flows?... You don't understand. It doesn't just flow... it doesn't just flow...
C.4 can be seen struggling, lying there belly-down on the raft, holding it so it won't unravel.
c.3 — The thing is, it's mine. Mine! And you break it! And it's mine, its reason to flow! There's no use in its flowing anymore! No more use...
c.4 — What do you mean, flowing, flowing?
c.3 — You don't understand. You think I'm mean and that that's why I won't give it to you. But you don't understand...
c.4 — (begins to laugh) Ohh, do give over with all this not-understanding!
c.3 — (cross) For yes, how's it to flow if it doesn't flow well. Flow it cannot, save well. If it flows, but not well, then it doesn't flow... it doesn't flow... It only floats like that, for nothing. Only for nothing.
c.4 — Eh, for nothing. What matters is that it floats. It still goes down the stream. It goes down the stream. And that's what matters. (pause) But you don't care for me and that's why you say I'm breaking your raft. That's why, that's why. I know, I know.
c.3 — I'm mean and I don't care for you, is that it? Is that it?
c.4 — Yes!
c.3 — Don't say that... Here, I'll give it to you. Here now, take it. Take it!
c.4 — No, for now I don't need it anymore. I know you don't care for me... I know.
c.3 — Come now, don't be cross. Look, I'll give it to you, I'll give it to you.
c.4 — No, for I don't need it anymore. For I'll break it on you.
c.3 — Never mind, you won't break it. You won't break it. It doesn't break so easily.
c.4 — Yes it does, for look, already it's without buds, the water shows between its timbers...
c.3 — No, for if you're cross, the spoiling is all the greater. For you, if you flow cross, then not only does the raft break, but I do too. So hold it, hold the raft. Here. (and he gives him the string the raft is tied to)
C.4, taking the raft's string in his hand, lifts himself off it, where he had been lying belly-down, and the raft, right after, unravels at their feet. Distracted, c.4 looks at c.3, who little by little begins to be amused at how the raft's timbers have scattered.
c.3 — (laughing) These stones, they're to blame.
c.4 — (laughing too) I'd land you one on the head. Not to crack your head, but to grind them to dust. For they're to blame.
c.3 — You'd land me one on the head, you poor thing. For I'll give you one.
c.4 — Only have something left to do it with. For I'll finish them off before then.
c.3 — Eh, you'll finish them off, you poor thing. These won't run out even by tomorrow.
c.4 — Want to see?
c.3 — Want me to see?
The children make to come up to the stones to take them, but all at once the stones begin to roll on their own. Now to one side, now to the other. At first only a few, and then nearly all of them. These rollings, the director's craft will make to be suggested very clearly. The children look on, amazed at first, then, as the stones' rolling doesn't stop, they show signs of fright. The director's craft will see to it that these rolling stones don't appear to be moved by anyone outside them, but seem to move of themselves. Now to one side, now to the other. The children, frightened, make to flee (off the stage) but they stop, they turn back, again they make to go out (off the stage) but again they change their minds. They look at one another, and, agreeing with their eyes, resolved, they come slowly up to the stones, and onto these, together with a loud clap of thunder that will then be heard on the stage, they leap. At that moment the light goes out. The curtain falls.
ACT TWO
SCENE 1
C.1 and c.2 floating on the raft. Utter silence. The two are mute. Let this silence be felt by the audience. (Throughout this whole scene, by the way, the pauses between the two characters' lines I suggest should be fairly long. Let the silence appear as a third character on the stage.) They can stay silent for about three minutes. The raft drifts down the length of the stream. At a certain moment,
c.1 — Hey, you know how it is?
c.2 — I don't know.
c.1 — It's as if all at once you see how clear the water is. And you see yourself in it.
c.2 — ...
c.1 — As if all at once, hey. All at once.
c.2 — ...
c.1 — Tangled, you know how, but all at once everything clears. And it comes out clear. Like the tail of a fish.
c.2 — But hasn't it to do with that fold?
c.1 — What fold?
c.2 — The one where you woke and saw her all at once. That everything folded, you know how...
c.1 — Ahh, yes, I remember... Maybe, maybe it's alike.
c.2 — It's as if you'd stayed indoors during a storm. And outside it tore down with rain. And then, once it was done, you looked through the window and saw everything clear. Only broken. In two. As if something strong had struck against them. Like a bolt of lightning or some such.
c.1 — Like driving a knife hard into the soft kind of earth.
c.2 — Yes, yes.
c.1 — But the earth had risen up a little, too. And in the rift something looked like an abyss. But it wasn't an abyss. It was as if the forest had been torn in two. And silence... yes, there was a silence. The wind no longer blew, nothing. Everything seemed to have frozen still. And in the rift there was nothing left but... like that, all at once, I don't know... a folding...
c.2 — A folding? What's that?
c.1 — A folding?... I don't know...
c.2 — Well now?...
c.1 — Well now?... Ah, well now, and suddenly it was as if everything cleared. The air was warmer, just right after such a frost, and it was as if I felt like flying, nothing less.
c.2 — But how, hey, did it clear like that?
c.1 — What, hey, the water?
c.2 — Yes.
c.1 — ... And I saw myself in it, young as I am. Young, hey, young!
c.2 — Young! Young!
c.1 — But enough, hey, with all this topsy-turvy. Enough, hey, enough...
c.2 — Young! Young!
c.1 — Hey, life is lovely for the very reason that I look at myself in this clear water!
c.2 — That's why, hey, that's why!
c.1 — For look, hey! Do you see me?
c.2 — Yes!
c.1 — It's me, hey. Young! It's me!
c.2 — It's you, hey! You!
c.1 — That's it, hey! That's it! Clear water, hey, that's what I like to get myself drunk on!
C.1 seems to take water from the stream in his cupped hands and wets his face with it. After a while,
c.1 — (calm) But the tree was frozen. There, off to one side of me. And then I got frightened. As if it had frozen me too.
He asks c.2 with gestures whether he too doesn't want to wet his face. The other shakes his head no, and then c.1 wets his face a second time with water, with the water in his cupped hands.
c.1 — It spilled to the sides, and I thought it was only for her, but it touched me too. Yes, me too... (looking into the water of the stream) Yes, it's clear as a girl's eyes... the stream lengthens its tresses. Through the hair fish go flying...
c.2 — (looking into the water of the stream too) (knowing) This stream bears us toward the mouth of a girl, it carries us toward the sweet, red lips...!
c.1 — Quiet!... Quiet, you've nothing to say. Be quiet... (looking at c.2) Only look... look...
Two voices are heard without the two children hearing them.
voice 1 and voice 2 — For they're not warm, they're cold... For it's cold from clearness... For it's cold from clearness...
The sky clouds over. A sky with clouds. Now the sun appears, now it vanishes behind them.
c.1 — And I always believed it shows itself only for good. It had shown itself for ill that time. For ill...
c.2 — For ill...
c.1 — I did suspect something, but only in passing. I didn't reckon with such things.
c.2 — How do you mean?
c.1 — I mean I didn't trouble myself with what comes after. What comes after no longer mattered to me.
c.2 — Why?
c.1 — For maybe, you know, what if all at once it warmed, and the tree thawed? It simply thawed. And again it was green.
c.2 — Again it was green...
c.1 — But now I have to trouble myself with these things too. I have to trouble myself.
c.2 — To trouble yourself?
c.1 — I have to trouble myself. For I drag you along with me, too. (pause) And for I've been left without weeping, the leaves have gone. No more of the feathers and such. The sky went off with me and that one was left alone, only it. Ha, ha, ha, it's as if only the bare bodies fly, like flayed things. Poor wings, how they still beat. But the leaves have gone. Done.
c.2 — They haven't gone. They've only frozen. They've frozen.
c.1 — What?...(pause) And then in passing I howled battle at that depth... and at all that was there, at all the leaves and branches, frozen or however. (pause) At the stems scored by rains and winds, at the forest. I showed them clear that it can't go on like this. That it was, but only up to here. (pause) In truth I howled battle at the wind too. Let it carry no more. It knows what. Let it carry no more. For once it is, once it was, and once it will be. Let it carry no more. I howled the battle of the forest and the stream.
At this moment the clouds gather suddenly, the light on the stage darkens, and a storm-wind begins (I suggest the very enacting of such a strong wind, if the technical means allow it). C.1 looks around. C.1 and c.2 suddenly seem to be other characters. As if spellbound,
c.1 — How it churns up foam! It pours over us, it climbs over us!...
c.2 — Look at the bird, carried off! It's taken the branch with it, and climbs...
c.1 — How it frights the stones! Let a water come, to burst this way...
c.2 — Another bird, another! It takes another, gone, takes, another! There are three now of the whole of them! But it takes another, one, another gone!
c.1 — That's four taken... Winds of waters! Winds of waters...(toward c.2) Winds of waters!
C.2, as if struggling, seems to tear himself, with difficulty, from c.1's gaze. Once torn loose he falls onto his back as if tired. After a while, in which he seems to wake, he says:
c.2 — It's as if these buds have no smell at all. You can draw your nose as close as you like, it's as if they didn't exist.
On the stage the sky clears, the wind blows weaker, dying down gradually.
c.1 — (still absent) For nothing, though, for me... A battle... for nothing... What is there to exist? Buds?
c.2 — Yes, hey, buds. What, haven't you seen them?
c.1 — On this raft, buds? Where?
c.2 — Look here (showing him a bud)
c.1 — (looking closely at it) Curious. Where have I seen such a thing before?...
c.2 — Yes, for you saw it there... there, you know...
c.1 — Where?... Where?
c.2 — Eh, where, there, you know.
c.1 — I don't know.
c.2 — But haven't you seen? Those birds. You know? they kept circling like that. Now down, now up the water. Down that channel of stream.
c.1 — (questioning) They let themselves drift down from flight beside an eddy. A little one... And they floated like that, turning round and round until past two more eddies. Little ones too...
c.2 — Up the water, down that channel of stream.
c.1 — (questioning) Of the stream. Then they rose, they circled high, and again they settled on the water.
c.2 — Which carried them always like that.
The wind blows again, harder and harder.
c.1 — It carried them always like that... Always... always... (as if to himself, in a whisper) Where are you? Where are you to me? You who leapt onto my eyes and misted them over!... you who, without meaning to, forgot your scales on my lashes... You who with your fish-tail stole my scent away... where are you? Where to me are you?
C.2, as if not hearing c.1,
c.2 — You know, if I put this timber in the water it stretches out twice as long (pause) I'd wish it that we didn't float on just one raft, I'd wish us to have two. (he looks at c.1)
The wind dies down.
c.1 — (sad, he dips his head into the stream, then lifts it out, looking toward c.2) That there'd be twice as many tears?... There aren't... For there are only once. Only once, tears... Only once...
Two voices are heard, yet the two children don't hear them.
voice 2 — It had no share of sun.
voice 1 — That's the only pity of it.
voice 2 — It gathered like that, aimlessly. And by the time it could gather, it had already stirred up.
voice 1 — They brought everything with them. Just everything.
voice 2 — Just.
voice 1 — No. That one wanted it to rain twice. In two places. And once it rained on dry land and once on the waters... Twice.
voice 2 — With those little ones.
voice 1 — But it rained. Twice... Twice...
The curtain falls.
SCENE 2
In an undefined set, but now without the many stones, the four figures are found together with c.3 and c.4. The four figures move about in every direction without cease, yet without striking one another, just as in the earlier scene of their appearing.
p.1 — You threw the stone!
p.3 — I saw it!
p.2 — Yes, yes.
p.1 — You're to blame!
p.4 — You threw them so that we couldn't find them anymore.
p.1 — You threw the stones.
p.3 — But they got lost.
p.2 — No one knows where.
p.4 — In any case we can't bring them back anymore.
p.1 — It's your fault and you'll be punished.
C.3 and c.4 seem contrite and frightened.
c.4 — But I didn't know.
c.3 — Well no, for I thought each leaf was just as important. That's why, when I laid one over another, not one was as before. So I gathered these timbers and made a raft. Bound with vines of leaves. With vines of leaves.
c.4 — (grown bold) Yes, with vines of leaves. And it burst into buds.
p.4 — Leave that, hey. Where are the stones?
c.3 — But which stones, for there was only one bigger one?
c.4 — Yes, yes, the one under the raft.
p.1 — How, hey, only one bigger one, for there were a great many.
p.3 — We saw them, after all.
p.2 — Surely, surely. We saw them.
p.4 — And the poor things, they were ours.
p.1 — And you've squandered them.
p.4 — If only you knew how we cared for them.
p.2 — If only you knew.
c.4 — We didn't...
c.3 — Didn't...
p.1 — Eh, leave it, leave it. You've done it, you've done it.
p.2 — The deed is consummated.
p.3 — Only a pity you didn't call us too.
p.4 — (delighted) For no other reason, but at least to have helped you.
p.1 — How could you have helped them? By not leaving them be.
p.2 — Yes, yes, that's more like it.
p.4 — That's more like it.
p.3 — And a pity, hey, about the snow.
p.2 — Oh yes!
p.3 — The poor thing, all that it was, stones and all.
p.4 — (toward c.3) And the raft, could you not have left it untouched?
p.3 — Yes, yes, for I lost it and I meant to leave it anyway. But now I can't anymore. I have to take it back.
p.1 — And so you're bound by it.
p.2 — You have to take it now.
p.3 — I left it with me. I lost it. But now you've put me in mind of it and you have to take it.
p.2 — You have to, you have to.
p.4 — So make ready to float on it.
c.4 — But how are we to float on it?
c.3 — (toward c.4) Quiet, hey...
p.4 — Since you lost the stones, now it's the raft, it's yours.
The four figures come up to the two, and they encircle them. A very loud sound-bed begins. The light drops in intensity. A crush follows. The two children clutch their heads as if dizzy and fall to the ground in a faint. The figures gather them into their midst, as if laying themselves over them. The curtain falls.
SCENE 3
C.1 and c.2 on the raft. The raft drifts down the length of the stream.
c.1 — Have you seen, hey, these buds?
c.2 — (sleepy) Yes, hey. I'm the one who showed them to you.
c.1 — Look, they're putting out vines. They're starting to burst.
c.2 — How, but didn't they get soaked, didn't they rot from that?
c.1 — It seems not.
c.2 — Maybe we'll wake up with a floating tree.
c.1 — It'll give us shade and we won't be so cold.
c.2 — Maybe from its wood we'll be able to make ourselves a little bridge to reach the bank.
As they drift along like that, they come to a crossing of waters. On a little island in the middle of the crossing stands an old man, ancient, with a long beard and a bent staff. It's as if he were waiting for them. To c.2, the closer he drew to the old man, the less he could believe his eyes. At first he gestures for the old man to see him. Then c.2 begins to shout after him, not realizing that the raft is in fact flowing toward the old man's island. C.1 sits quietly in the depths, untroubled by c.2's agitation.
OLD MAN — Dear ones of mine, what are you seeking on this poor raft?
c.2 — I kiss your hand, grandfather. What are you doing there all alone?
OLD MAN — Catching you a little.
The raft stops suddenly somewhere in the middle of the stream. Rather far from the island. C.2 tries desperately to get down off the raft, to reach the old man's island. He doesn't manage it.
c.1 — Better you'd leave us be, for we've a long way to flow. And we've barely set off in whatever new direction it's heading now.
OLD MAN — What do you mean, new direction it's heading? For it's always flowed this way. Never once has this stream budged from its place.
C.1, after listening to the old man closely and surprised,
c.1 — Always, always... (as if to himself, soft and low) For she stood there for me, there, on the streak of sky, there in the shape of a girl, barely to be seen... The earth had folded... had rolled its stones... a face taken by the winds, barely to be seen... The first... my first... mine...
c.2 — But you, grandfather, what are you doing there with that staff? (making beseeching gestures for him to hold out the staff, to help him get down)
c.1 — (still as if to himself) ...I could have carried the leaves all the way to her... A sign from me... to take her in my arms, to stroke her hair... Hm, it was all one moment... It was all just one moment... So it was for me... we could have gone, up on the clouds... We could have, for it was possible... but I stayed put, she was waiting for me... seemed to wait for me... But no, for that's how she wanted it... that I should stay and watch her and she should lose herself in the mist... that's how she wanted it... (wanted it) she too... And those stones were falling, and that earth that swallowed them... Everything was crumbling before her... Only I stood there as if glued to the spot... and she could barely still be seen... barely still blinked in my eyes... Further and further off there, in the streak... That's how she wanted it... That's how I took her with me... took her with me like that.... yes, yes... that's how I took her with me... I knew...
OLD MAN — But what are you doing on that poor raft?
c.2 — We've no idea. For we just woke up on it all at once. One morning.
OLD MAN — Then why did you stay on it? Why don't you get down off it?
c.2 — We don't know. For if we got on without our knowing, neither can we get off by our knowing.
c.1 — (cross) Why don't you tell us, sir? Tell us, sir, and we'll get down.
OLD MAN — I can tell you only why you are on the raft. But how to get down off it, that you must find out yourselves.
c.2 — Then tell us why we are on this raft?
OLD MAN — Did you not get on of your own free will?
c.2 — No.
c.1 — (angry) We didn't get on of our own free will! But what's it to you! You too just appear all at once and we have to tell you everything that minute! Who are you?
c.2 — (toward c.1) Quiet, hey! (toward the old man) Pay him no mind. He's been like this for a while now. He has all manner of nonsense in his head.
OLD MAN — The old man doesn't hear him. The old man doesn't hear him.
c.1 — (angry, mimicking) The old man doesn't hear me... the old man doesn't hear me...
OLD MAN — To find out what you are seeking on the raft, you must first get down off it.
c.2 — But since we don't know how we got on, neither do we know how to get down.
OLD MAN — You can get down, dear ones of mine. You can, but first you must find...
C.1 at this moment pricks up his ears attentively,
OLD MAN — ...you must find the sign of a girl. (mysterious) A beautiful girl, a girl of mist... and tears.... A pure girl.
c.1 — (very surprised) What? What are you saying?
OLD MAN — (mysterious) A girl of tears, a girl of mist... strange... a girl, a pure girl.
c.1 — (thoughtful and calmer) You must find that girl... That girl... (softly) I knew... I knew...
c.2 — But how does this stream carry us toward the girl? Toward that girl, yes?
c.1 — (puzzled and soft, toward the old man) It carries us toward the girl?
OLD MAN — No, it doesn't carry you toward the girl. You can get down off the raft if you find the girl. But that doesn't mean the stream carries you to her.
c.2 — How's that?
OLD MAN — From afar. She will tell you. How and where you can climb down onto dry land. She will tell you.
c.2 — But how do we get there? How do we get there? We're prisoners on this raft in the middle of this cursed stream! We'll never find her as long as the world lasts! Never! (pause) However will we manage?
Meanwhile the raft begins to flow again. The old man gradually disappears while c.2 shouts and asks after him. Seeing that he gets nowhere, c.2 sinks down tired in the depths, and begins to cry.
c.1 — Come, don't be so sad anymore. You should've known we have no chance. We'll stay like this anyway.
c.2 — Why? Why won't you take the sign from the girl?
c.1 — (embittered) Oh, stop hammering so at my head! You know, I told you about the girl. There in the streak, between sun and sky, water and earth...
C.1 begins to stroke the timbers of the raft,
c.1 — (changing the subject) This water-wood is lovely. They say only wood floats. Did you know? They say only it does the water let the fish caress. Once, you know, I met a flower floating on the water. And I asked it how it is the water lets it do so. And it told me it's because she's a tree's daughter. She's like a leaf, a tree's daughter. I didn't take it in. It was a tree's flower, and looked like a leaf. (laughs) Hear, hey, what a foolish question I put to it. It hadn't dawned on me that leaves grow only on trees, and that only trees are wood. Ha, ha, ha...
c.2 — (revived, it seems, and amused) Something funny happened to me too. I had a dream, in fact, but it's as if it happened to me for real. I was walking like that across a field. And all at once at one moment I see a flower, lovely... a blaze. I go for it at once. To pick it. Now then, and as I go to stretch out my hand, to take it to me, to set it against my breast, to touch it with, as the saying goes, my heart, just as I'm about to make it mine, I see a tear fall on it. I don't know from where, but on the spot I was sure it wasn't its own. I get a little frightened, I draw aside, but after a while I go again to pick it. This time it's as if I see how it too could barely wait for me to touch it with my hand. I don't know but it was as if it trembled there from its little stem, it could barely wait for me to touch it. You should've seen how dear it was! Now then, I go to touch it, and again, out of the blue, a tear falls. I don't know whether on it or from it. In any case this time I get good and frightened and make to flee. And I turn my back, and I just hear it calling me. Yes, the flower called after me. Something like, to pick it, to set it against my breast, by, as the saying goes, my heart. Resolved, come what may, I head for it again and I break it off. I pick it and set it against my breast. Now then, and I go on my way calmly. (smiles, remembering) But I stop a way off and think to myself. How, hey, can a flower talk to you? How? (laughs) How? (pause) (serious) And how was there no longer, when I picked it, even one more tear?
C.1 begins to laugh. Caught by it, c.2 forgets the last thing he was thinking of, and the two children laugh together a while. After a while c.2 seems all at once to realize something, and stops short from laughing. His face tightens,
c.2 — But the tear... that tear really was! and it was a girl's! Yes, it was a girl's!...
C.1 looks at him, amazed,
c.2 — and that's why it fell no more... I should've realized at once... Then twice, perhaps... And only that many, only... (pause) ...and that means... yes, surely!
C.2 puts his hand to his breast and from there draws out a flower's stem, without petals though, withered. Frightened, c.1 searches somewhere on the raft for something, as if the very same flower. Then he looks at c.2 in great despair, that he has found and taken the flower in question.
c.2 — ... I have the sign of a girl... yes, yes, I have the sign of a girl!... I must know how to get down!... yes, yes!... (c.2 makes to jump down off the raft)
c.1 — Wait, hey, wait! (makes to take the flower from his hand)
c.2 — (tearing himself away from him) You've troubled yourself enough for me! You've troubled yourself enough with the tasks in my place. Now I'll trouble myself too. Now I have a flower to bring back to life. (daring and confident) I have a flower to bring back to life. (looking at the flower) Yes, yes...
c.1 — But...
c.2 — No, for I know how to get down! I know!
C.2 jumps down off the raft, and seems to drown. The director's craft will make such a thing be suggested to the audience. C.1 makes to catch him but doesn't manage it. Sad, he sits down in the depths on the raft. After a while he begins to whistle a sad song. Then he lies belly-down, stretched out on the raft. He watches the clouds mirrored in the water. Clear clouds. Louder and louder one hears the murmur of the stream and the chirping of little birds. The light on the stage slowly goes out.
c.1 — (looking at the spot where c.2 jumped into the water) There between sun and sky, earth and waters... I met her... Don't you remember?... I told you, I saw her... Everything is clear, but if I keep seeing her it all breaks... So we are, for want of another... A girl's not needed anymore, for there are two of us. And I didn't tell you... As if I didn't tell you...
Two voices are heard, yet without c.1 hearing them.
voice 2 — But it wasn't clear twice over.
voice 1 — Only once.
voice 2 — Nor was it cold twice over.
voice 1 — Nor cold.
voice 2 — Only the rain. Only it.
voice 1 — Twice over, on so many drops.
voice 2 — More, more...
voice 1 — On dry land and on the waters. Twice over.
voice 2 — Down to the little ones. And from that little one.
voice 1 — Those eddies.
voice 2 — On and on.
voice 1 — Just so.
voice 2 — And so.
voice 1 — Like those birds. You know, they kept circling like that. Now down, now up the water. Down that channel of stream.
voice 2 — They let themselves drift down from flight beside an eddy. A little one... And they floated like that, turning round and round until past two more eddies. Little ones too...
voice 1 — Up the water. Down that channel of stream.
voice 2 — Then they rose, they circled high, and again they settled on the water.
voice 1 — Which carried them always like that.
voice 2 — And it'll flow always. Backward. Without standing still.
The light on the stage goes out entirely.
voice 1 — It rains on it twice over. And cold and clear, only once.
voice 2 — Unless it's been rained on, and chilled and cleared, by now.
voice 1 — He'll see. He'll care, for there's nothing else to be done.
voice 2 — About whom?
voice 1 — About no one. About no one. (pause) About no one.
voice 2 — About no one.
The curtain falls.
--- THE END ---
For the director's information I note that the actor who plays the child c.1 will also play the child c.3. Likewise the actor who plays the child c.2 will also play the child c.4. The only differences will lie in the manner of playing and the costumes chosen. But these must be markedly different.
ANDREI FODOREANU
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