The Rain with the Ash of Enchantment

ACT 1

SCENE 1

Night. A boy and a girl are talking.

c.1 — I absolutely must have many, many little shirts. She said it would be cold tonight, and I have to take care not to catch cold.

f.1 — Rubbish.

c.1 — No reason, but why shouldn't I dress, when I have what to dress in. And on top of that, I really must dress.

f.1 — Dress, you?

c.1 — Yes, I absolutely need more, many more little shirts... many more.

f.1 — Come on, you won't die if you stay undressed tonight. After all, it wouldn't be the first time.

c.1 — What?

f.1 — All right, I know a cold like tonight's has never been, and between us, it never will be again, but don't worry, you'll hold out.

c.1 — But how can I not do as I must? I must have little shirts on me, as many as can be. I must, I must! As many little shirts as can be... little shirts.

f.1 — Come now, it's not must-must, it's just must. Once. And if it's only-once-must, and it'll only-once ever be this cold, then you needn't.

c.1 — (puzzled, then as if catching on) Fine, fine... But listen, if not little shirts, then at least buttons... the buttons, may I do them up? may I do them up?

f.1 — Do them up to what? do them up to what?... Listen to him — buttons...

c.1 — (crestfallen) But what's wrong with the buttons, that I can't do them up? Not even those? No little shirts, no buttons... but what can I do then? What can I do then, on this night, then?

At this moment a strong wind makes itself heard, which from now on will persist with brief lulls, throughout this whole scene. The little girl and the boy hear this roar of wind and try with their eyes to find it, to see where it is blowing.

c.1 — This wind, yes, this wind is a sign that I need both buttons and little shirts. Surely I need both buttons and little shirts. Surely, surely.

f.1 — Surely, surely you don't need them, I've told you already. What of it if the wind blows? As if it had never blown before, as if it had never roared so hard before.

c.1 — But...

f.1 — It'll just carry the dust off into the rain, if it rains, and it'll frighten this scatterbrain (pointing at c.1) (laughs)

c.1 — (laughing too, foolishly, seeing her) Oh fine, but it's true that story won't be heard even tonight, is it? It'll go to sleep, won't it? Yes? Right?

f.1 — No, because it'll tell you of dragons and serpents and it'll frighten you... Of course it'll fall silent. What, were stories ever seen in spring? Listen to him — stories in spring.

c.1 — Well...

f.1 — Well wait now, in autumn... wait now, in autumn...

At this moment a loud thunderclap is heard. The children hear it.

f.1 — (thoughtful) You can, you can for instance... make like the rain. Yes, make like the rain!

c.1 — (brightening) Like the rain? But how does the rain go? How does the rain go?...

f.1 — (thoughtful) Well the rain goes... like... it goes like this (at this moment she begins to blow through pursed lips, making a loud noise)

The boy looks at her and begins to imitate her. At first with difficulty, but then better and better. In the end, once he succeeds, the joy can be read on the boy's face. Now he, as though he had discovered a new toy, seems to have forgotten the little shirts and the buttons. The two of them leave the stage, the boy making like the rain, and the girl gazing after him. Two spotlights follow the children until they exit, then go dark. On the stage then a light comes up, a white light. A few trees can be seen on the stage. After a few moments, the white light suddenly turns into a yellow light. Little by little, as though because of the yellow light, the trees begin to shed their leaves (and this must be clearly seen). For a considerable time, this scene of trees shedding their leaves in a yellow light remains before the audience. Then the curtain falls.

SCENE 2

With the curtain down, the auditorium is kept dark, and from the ceiling of the hall (as far as possible) many, many leaves are released. They fall among the spectators. On the stage, behind the curtain, the patter of rain, thunder and strong winds are heard. Now and then lightning flashes. A grave voice makes itself heard:

voice — « As out of fallings of leaves, as out of fallings of leaves, that the wind once tore away, that the wind once tore away... On which the dew sits drop by drop, on which the waters laid them, on which the dew sits drop by drop, on which the waters laid them... » (pause) « ...there has risen ash from the fire on the stones, there has risen ash from the fire on the stones... Ash from the leaves, ash from the leaves... »

The curtain rises, the same scene comes into view, with trees whose leaves fall without cease. Day is breaking. The child c.2 sits on a stump.

c.2 — Well, how about that. (pause) (watches the falling leaves) Well, how about that.

Sounds of breaking branches.

c.2 — Halloo?

Again, sounds of breaking branches.

c.2 — (surprised) Halloo, halloo?... Halloo?

No answer.

c.2 — Well, how about that.

He settles more comfortably on the stump.

c.2 — Well, how about that.

He takes a big dry log from the ground beside him and tries to break it in two with his hands. He can't, and so he helps with his knee. Still he can't break it. Annoyed, he stands up and begins to slam it against the ground. Then against the stump, and then the ground again.

c.2 — Come on, break already! Come on now, break!... (pause) Halloo? (pause) Well how about that!... Halloo!... Halloo!

The log being wet from the rain, dirtying himself on it, he wipes his hands in disgust. Into the forest comes c.3, as though he had heard himself called by someone.

c.3 — What's all this "halloo-halloo"? (looking reproachfully) Hey, you, lately you've been kind of... (groping for the expression) carried off with the raft.

c.2 — (absent) Raft, me? Raft?...

The leaves keep falling. Many. Of spring.

c.2 — ...the raft once flew through the air... and it was ripening at the cold black of...(he doesn't know what to say)

c.3 — With the raft, yes! With the raft!

The two of them seem not to know what they are talking about. Not to know what to say.

c.2 — What raft, hey? What raft?

c.3 — Halloo... with the raft, hey... with the raft.

c.2 — Well, how about that.

The child c.2 sits down on the stump again.

c.3 — (mimicking c.2) Well, how about that... how about that... You didn't see what I saw...

c.2 — (as if dozing off) Well, how about that...

c.3 — Yes, yes. I went to the brook (pointing somewhere toward the forest) to drink water.

c.2 — (absent) ...to drink water, and then the fire took him...

c.3 — (surprised) What? What did you say?

c.2 — (absent) Yes, that the fire took him and burned his lea...

c.3 — (shaking c.2) Hey, you! What are you doing, sleeping on your feet?

c.2 — (as if waking) What, what?

c.3 — What "what"? You're sleeping like... (he doesn't know what to say)

c.2 — (shaking himself as if waking) Halloo?

c.3 — What?

c.2 — Halloo? (laughs)

c.3 — So then. Well, I went to the brook to drink water. And on a stone I just see some little shirts. And so lovely, with big blue buttons.

c.2 — Were the little shirts undone or done up?

c.3 — Let me think... Well, I think undone, since they were taken off after all... Anyway.

c.2 — Not "anyway," it matters. If they were undone it was warm, and if they were done up it was cold.

c.3 — Warm and cold? For whom? For what?

c.2 — (shrugging) No idea. But what does it matter? Were they undone or done up?

c.3 — (not hearing the last question) And, seeing them, I thought they belonged to someone. And so I drew near the brook much more slowly, so as not to frighten anyone who might be about.

c.2 — But what do you think, that without their shirts someone would be frightened...? Rubbish, they wouldn't be frightened...

c.3 — And then I just see a girl by the brook. That is, in the middle of the brook, where there was a big stone, she was standing on it and watching the way the water flows below.

c.2 — And?

c.3 — (gesturing) And then at one point I see her spinning round in a circle on the big stone and she begins to say: « I turn, I turn, I turn... the water's spell I set astir, dead leaves, may they heap to me... no one reckons them, no one reckons them... dead leaves, may they be reckoned, dead leaves, may they be reckoned... », and so again once more. I got frightened, of course. Because the brook had just stopped flowing. Listen to that — stopped flowing.

c.2 — Stopped flowing...

c.3 — (as if mimicking the girl) « Bear them, bear them, bear them away, other leaves to it now bring... bear them, bear them, bear them away, other leaves to it now bring... », she said then.

c.2 — Stopped flowing...

c.3 — The brook began to flow again. And looking, I don't know, at the brook or at its water, the girl was no longer there.

c.2 — Did she go? did she leave?

c.3 — I don't know, maybe she left. Because I... I was thirsty and went to drink water...

c.2 — (interrupting him) You drank water? You drank water after all you saw?

c.3 — Yes, from thirst. Well what, water's water. As long as the world lasts, no?

c.2 — You shouldn't have drunk, no. No.

c.3 — Oh no, but thirst is thirst...

The child c.3 goes out of the forest, and off the stage. The child c.2 remains on the stage, seated on a stump.

SCENE 3

After a while (a sense of moments in which nothing happens is to be suggested according to the director's art), during which c.2 just sits on the stump and seems only to sit and nothing more. Somewhere a knocking of wood is heard. As though someone were striking a tree with a piece of wood. In the sky the sun climbs, as though noon were appearing. Somewhere a knocking of wood is heard again. The child c.2 stretches out, a little beyond the stump, on a slope of ground, belly in the grass. Lying as he is, after a while he seems asleep. As he lies with his head pressed to the ground, his ear pressed to the ground, asleep as he is, he wakes and listens to something. Gestures as if he were settling himself to hear better.

c.2 — (as if to himself) It sinks ever deeper inward... ever deeper inward... It hides from the branches... It hides from the branches... it fears the leaves will drown it... (pause) For perhaps they will run over it in clouds, too brim-full of green, kindred ones... on clouds too brim-full... It draws itself by them into the depths... by them into the depths...

He rises to his feet, and agitated, unable to find his place, he begins to shout.

c.2 — Where is my place? whom shall I take after?... The whirlwind will seize me, the swirling will seize me!... Never mind places, never mind soul (taking leaves from the ground and putting them on his head), in vain the falling, in vain the decking-out with leaves... The whirlwind will seize me, the whirlwind will seize me... the swirling will seize me... whom shall I take after?...

After a moment of searching, the child c.2 approaches a tree and at its root begins to make water.

c.2 — Quiet the thunder and the cracking of wood!... quiet the leaves out of all the falling... Now wet your earth crosswise, not one dry patch, not one forsaken spot... (finishing making water) It holds you by leaves, it holds you by leaves!... All done, and it holds by leaves!

Suddenly in the forest a roar of winds is heard. All the leaves stop just for a moment (a visible thing), after which they begin to fall again. The child, after for a moment seeming hopeful, despairing that the leaves do not stop falling, says:

c.2 — I made myself after you, after you, to take after... I gave of myself, I gave of myself... In vain this too, in vain this too... a falling of leaves, of unripe leaves, a falling of leaves...

Onto the stage comes the child c.3, who had heard c.2's last words.

c.3 — Why didn't you lie down? I thought we'd agreed you'd lie down the moment I left. Why didn't you lie down?

Drawing near to c.2, he notices at the root of the tree what he has done.

c.3 — (laughing) In vain you try... I've told you already it can't be done... You can wet it all you like... you can wet them all, they still won't stop shedding leaves. It's their time, this, to shed their leaves... It's their time.

c.2 — It's not so, it's not so! Because I know when their time is. And it's not this, it's not this! it's not! (leaping in despair after the leaves that fall around him) Stop, stop already! I gave to you, I gave to you... stop!

c.3 — (observing c.2) Well, well, you just won't understand. Yes, you're so much one of theirs... it flows in you too... it flows in you but in vain... in vain...

Meanwhile c.2 begins to weep.

c.3 — (taking pity on him) There, there, it passes, there, it passes...

c.2 bursting into sobs.

c.2 — But that's just it — it passes... it passes... and I don't want it to pass... I don't want it to pass... (pause) (recovering a little) That tale of yours, with the girl at the brook. That's the only thing I've dreamed of all this time... You know, that's the only thing I've dreamed of all this time...

Suddenly a yellow light on the stage, then as if at a signal all the leaves stop falling. Not one falls any longer. At first the two children don't realize it. After a while, c.2 notices first, then c.3. The actor's art will make the passage from the previous despair to a boundless joy be very clearly suggested. Somewhere behind the backdrop a girl's shadow comes into view. She passes serenely, yet without the boys being able to notice her. With this, the curtain falls.

ACT 2

SCENE 1

On the stage there are three figures. The décor suggests a glade in the middle of a forest. It is daybreak, and the three figures give the impression of doing something, but in fact they do nothing. They may seem to be gathering grass or flowers, collecting dew, or whatever else — they may seem to be doing anything at all. In fact they do nothing, and this impression of aimless activity must come across clearly. Suddenly c.1 enters. He looks frightened at the figures, stops among them, watches them, tries to tell them something, fails, and runs out. The figures notice him, look at him inattentively, and after he goes out, return to what they were doing before, as though they had not seen him at all. Time passes, and after a while, the child c.1 enters again, but now from the opposite side, the one by which, then, he had gone out before. And he searches for his words to say something; with difficulty now he manages:

c.1 — Uhh... It rained with the ash of enchantment!... (pause) ...It rained with the ash of enchantment!

No one pays him any attention.

c.1 — ...It rained with the ash of enchantment!...(pause) Hey! Hey, you! (here the words seem to begin coming to him normally) It rained with the ash of enchantment! (weeping)

By mistake, a few leaves are thrown toward c.1 by one of the figures, but without touching him.

c.1 — And it got me wet, you, it got me wet! On my pajamas, you, on my pajamas!

At the sound of the word "pajamas," the three figures turn toward him questioningly.

c.1 — (released now, showing with gestures what he is saying) It was that I was coming from the forest. Night had fallen, but the path seemed to shine as in the light of day. And I reached the end of the path, and just as I was about to step on past it, I suddenly saw nothing. As though I had somehow slipped round in a circle, I don't know, and as though I had stepped into the void... Then I no longer know what happened, only that I woke up face-down, as I was, on my belly. And when I got to my feet, as after a strange dream, I knew I was no longer the one from before, I knew I was somehow different now, but I don't know from where or how. And I didn't realize this until after I had met you. Because I met you and only afterward did I realize. And after I saw that I can keep the leaves from falling... (pause) that I can keep the leaves from falling? (amazed, as though he were speaking without knowing it, as though at the moment he spoke he was actually realizing what he was saying) Or that I can eddy the river, make circles in its sheen? (a pause in which he seems to be calling this very thing to mind) ... Why yes, it had rained with the ash of enchantment, and only I was out at that time in the night. In my pajamas, because I was ready for bed, and it got me wet all, all, all over. To the skin. Because you, as you were sleeping, it didn't get you wet, and you found out only from me. And after I realized, that's why I wept so hard. And I shouted to you that it rained with the ash of enchantment. And you wouldn't believe me, you wouldn't believe me... (to the figures) you wouldn't believe me.

p.1 — (ironically) And how's that, hey, you say you can keep the leaves from falling?

p.2 — (ironically) That you can... eddy the river, make circles in its sheen, eh?

p.3 — (amused) Maybe over poverty. Don't you see he's a halfwit?

p.1 — (ironically) Well how should they fall, hey, in spring? Leaves falling in spring.

p.2 — (to p.1) Well yes, hey, if they fall, they fall. In spring and any time. They fall. That's all there is to it (begins to laugh)

p.1 — Oh, then it's understood... it's understood (he begins to laugh too)

p.3 — (to p.1 and p.2) Word is, no, someone struck wood on stone and it was decreed that from now on leaves fall in spring. It's mandatory now.

p.1 — Ooo, well then here we're dealing with a breach of the mandatory. A serious one! (looking at c.1, threateningly)

p.2 — Serious, to put it mildly. Very serious.

p.1 — Well, and that's trouble too.

p.3 — But... he's lucky we didn't see the leaves falling. He's lucky. (to c.1) Clear off out of here!

c.1 starts a little, but instead of leaving, he sinks to the ground in their midst, in despair. Bitter that they don't believe him, he sets to talking as if to himself. Each of the others, after a while, as though finishing his task, sits down in turn on the ground, beginning to mumble too, as if under a spell. First p.1, then p.2, then p.3, but all the same mumbling. The boy stops, amazed, looks at the three, and begins to mimic them in their mumbling, loudly and ostentatiously. (The director's art will prompt the actors that their mumblings should be clearly different from the boy's and from the other figures'. Something on the order of: the first mumbling having more "A" letters, the others having more "E" letters.) The three, as if caught up in the spell of their mumbling, take no notice of him. Then the boy waves his hand in weariness, ceasing to mimic them. He rises to his feet and begins to jump up in the air several times. In turn, as if under a spell again, the three notice him and begin to jump just as he does. At first he doesn't notice them, but after a while c.1 stops again, amazed, and irritated tries to make them stop, without success however. Indifferent then, he sinks to the ground in their midst, and begins to mumble again as before. After a while, during which the three keep jumping and jumping, noticing c.1 mumbling, again as if under a spell, they go on jumping but mumbling now too. c.1, hearing them, stops his mumbling, claps his hands over his ears in despair so as not to hear them any longer, closes his eyes and stretches out as though he wanted to fall asleep among them. Time passes, and after the child seems to have fallen asleep, the three also put their hands over their ears and stretch out to fall asleep, just like c.1. Suddenly the light on the stage goes out. A spotlight comes on, lighting only the face of the sleeping c.1. Unlit and unknown to the audience, the three figures go off the stage. The spotlight's light lingers a little longer on the child's face, after which it slowly goes out.

SCENE 2

The same scene, with the child c.1 in the same place. Small differences in the décor, such as the appearance of a sapling (represented by a small tree from one branch of which a board will actually be hung, reading "sapling"), plus the noonday light that has come up all around. The child c.1 sleeps in the shade of the sapling. Onto the stage come two children, chasing one another.

c.2 — So you think I can run like you?... So you think I can run like you, hey?...(pause) Hey, scatterbrain! Scatterbrain!...

They go on chasing one another. Laughter, noise.

c.2 — Hey, scatterbrain!... You think I can run like you?...

c.3 — We'll catch the sun's going-down in the valley on the path... in the valley on the path... (peals of laughter)

c.2 — We'll catch the path in the valley beside the sun... in the valley beside the sun... (laughs)

After a while, they tire and begin to walk one behind the other, at an ever slower pace. At one point, the one who was chasing the first stops at the sapling and begins to look at it closely. He doesn't see c.1. The one who was chased then notices, for his part, a dandelion, which he picks from the ground. As the dandelion had already gone to seed, its down is very fine, and the grass is white.

c.3 — Dandelion, dandelion, what do I give to you? what do I give to you?... Flutter away so you may pass on!... flutter away so you may pass on!... (he blows over the dandelion, which scatters in the air)

The other child meanwhile begins, with great curiosity, to break off a leaf here and there from the sapling. He is silent and merely breaks leaves curiously. c.1 seems to wake, amazed, at the two children.

c.2 — (singing) Here's a sapling, oh here's a sapling! For myself I pull it down, for myself I pull it down! And to you I show it off, and to you I show it off!

c.1 — (to c.3) Hey, you, stop! Stop! Get away from that fruit-tree! Get away!...

At the same time,

c.2 — (singing) Here's a sapling, oh here's a sapling! For myself I pull it down, for myself I pull it down! And to you I show it off, and to you I show it off!

c.3 — (noticing c.1) Just gently, just gently. Because it's not your fruit-tree. Because it's a tree. Look, that's what it says. It's not a fruit-tree, and you, the way you said it's a fruit-tree, and it's not a fruit-tree, it's a tree, it's not yours.

c.2 — (to c.3) And so then, and so then, let's break leaves off it, come on.

c.1 — Hey, you, stop, stop. Give me time too... (stopping, frightened, as though a word had slipped out that he shouldn't have said)

c.3 — Time? What do you need time for?

c.2 — Listen to him, hey, he needs time! (laughs)

c.3 — Time, hey? time?

c.1 — (not knowing what to answer) Time, yes... time...

The child c.1 makes some gestures of weariness and sleepiness. He yawns and stretches.

c.3 — (absent) Mister, is it true it rained last night...?

c.1 — (wearily) Why do you call me mister? I'm not a mister, I'm a child like you, and not a mister.

c.2 — (to c.3) Mister, mister, because whoever sleeps in the shade of the sapling is already grown.

c.3 — How is it, in fact, that you're already sleeping since morning? Like... (he doesn't know what to say) you go to bed in the morning.

c.1 — But who slept? not me...

c.2 — And if we see him in the shade of the sapling, we call him mister and we address him as "sir." (going on breaking leaves)

c.1 — (to c.3)...But not me...

c.3 — And he tried to sleep under the sapling (pointing to c.2, but c.1 not looking toward him), but the poor thing couldn't sleep because of the leaves that kept falling. And even though it wasn't autumn... even though it wasn't winter either. And now, since it's spring...(pause) Mister, is it true it rained last night with... enchanted ash?

c.2 — (curious, to c.3) Is it true? Is it true?

c.1 — (very amazed and frightened at the same time) But how do you know that? how do you know that?

c.2 — (frightened, toward the sapling) I don't know, I don't know... He knows, because he asked! I don't know, I don't know...

c.1 — (drawing near to c.3) How do you know, hey? you know, from where?... Come, tell me, from where?

c.3 — (absent) Well, I just know too... Like, because I dreamed it, I had a dream...

c.1 — You dreamed it?

c.3 — (absent) That it was raining with ash... of enchantment... (waking) But that's enough now, enough.

c.1 — (pleading) What "enough"? What "enough"? Come, tell me... Come, tell me what you dreamed...

Meanwhile the child c.2 indifferently breaks leaves off the sapling.

c.1 — Stop, you, don't break leaves! don't break leaves!...(making toward c.2)

Noticing him, c.2 circles round the sapling in such a way that c.1 can't catch him, breaking leaves all the while. Tired, c.1 sits down on the ground, leaning against the trunk of the sapling.

c.1 — Of all the trees, it was only this sapling that I then couldn't keep from shedding its leaves... For when the forest's were falling, and I stopped them, on this one, whose leaves weren't falling then, they began to fall... (to c.3) And I think it's because you tear them off, because you tear them off...

c.3 — Not us, not us... only him, because only he tears them off. I don't tear them, I don't tear them...

Absent, the child c.2 goes on tearing leaves off the sapling. The child c.3 watches c.2 tearing leaves and, as if under a spell, draws near the tree and little by little begins to tear leaves off the sapling too.

c.3 — Not us, not us... only him, because only he... I don't tear them, I don't tear them... because only... he...

Suddenly a grave voice makes itself heard. Meanwhile the light on the stage darkens a little.

voice — « It could not be, all at once, that there should fall from the branches either old yellow leaves, or black young buds — that the whole woody breath of the forest should give itself up to the wind's letting-go of departed leaves... » (pause) « It could not be that the sapling, the famed proud green one, should take after the old wood from the other forest... » (pause) « It came, borne by the waters, the seed in the guise of clouds, took hold in the earths, and the trees gave birth to saplings... » (pause) « It could not be that the place where the leaf falls should leave a void of the time that passes in vain! »

Onto the stage at this time come the three figures b.1, b.2, b.3 as well, who, as if under a spell, begin in turn to tear leaves off the sapling, together with c.3. c.2 withdraws slowly, by stealth, stealing some leaves. Then c.2 goes off the stage. The director's art will make this whole sequence resemble a ritual, at the end of which not a single leaf remains on the sapling, except one big one that is at the top of the sapling. The child c.1, sitting with his back to the sapling, does not see what is happening around it.

c.1 — (as if to himself) But if I keep the sapling from shedding its leaves, then the whole forest begins to shed again. Either way... they must fall...

After they have picked the leaves, b.1, b.2, b.3 and c.3 slip off the stage unnoticed. The light on the stage comes up as at the beginning of a sunset. At one point, c.1, turning round, notices the sapling without leaves. Amazed and then frightened, he tries at once to put the leaves back, but without success. At this moment, the girl f.1 enters.

f.1 — Poor thing, it must be cold. There, there, dress it.

c.1 sees her and, upset, says to her.

c.1 — You know what, when a person needs you you're nowhere to be found, and now here you come too, just to get in my way!

f.1 — Get in your way? but what are you doing? You're putting...

c.1 — (taking the words out of her mouth) ... I'm putting the sapling's leaves back! So it won't be cold.

f.1 — But it's spring, how could it be cold?

Hearing this, c.1 stops, amazed, unable to believe it. Then as if calling something to mind:

c.1 — (bitter) Yes, yes... yes... not so that it won't be cold... no...

f.1 — No? Then what for?

c.1 — What for?

f.1 — Yes, what for.

c.1 — I don't know... that's what I thought I must do... That's what's needed, isn't it?...

f.1 — Needed, needed... With the little shirts it was needed, with the buttons it was needed, and now with these leaves again.

c.1 — Yes, for everything it was needed, for everything. Yes, (trying once more to put the leaves back on the sapling) it was needed for everything...

f.1 — No, you, it's not needed like that. Because I've told you, it's not must-must, it's just must, once, and if it's just-once, you needn't.

c.1 takes the sapling in his arms. From somewhere on the stage, a rustle of leaves.

c.1 — Gathered... Beside which rustle, from my own wind shall I part? Strippings of the fallen, forsaken you would gather... When and how many, borne off in the autumn just gone, did the same red sun beset with leaves?... Oh, scent-savored quiet (sinking to the ground) The circlings of my hand — from breasts shall I take myself?... I would go down with you... a secret furrow of shadows... But they are empty, without flesh... I covet in vain... (pause) Slow furrows soak me up, for the road is mine and the path beaten down by false moonlit nights... You, sun, colored with your green of red — a clod of rock to fall into my... leaf-litter?... Why does it not fall into my palm? to give it then from my mouth... Occasions of silence — may I have no more... have more?... Occasions of silence — may I have no more... have more?...

c.1 stretches out wearily on the ground among the fallen leaves. f.1 seems content, and looking toward the sapling, notices on it the big leaf at the top, the only one not fallen. After a while,

f.1 — But that big leaf, have you seen it?

c.1 takes no notice of her.

f.1 — Look here, you, that leaf at the top of the sapling!

c.1 — (absent) The big leaf? at the top?...

f.1 — (trying to reach the big leaf, but not succeeding) This leaf here, see, from here. Hey... look here, you, this one...

c.1 — (absent) A leaf? Still?...(as if waking) Still a leaf?! A leaf? Where, where?

f.1 — Look, here. Here.

c.1 — Unfallen, unfallen?

f.1 — Yes, you, unfallen, unfallen.

c.1 — Twice over unfallen, so then unfallen?!

f.1 — Yes, you!

Overjoyed, c.1 tries, for his part too, to reach it. He doesn't succeed, and so he gathers up the fallen leaves from the ground, makes a mound of them, and climbing onto them, tries again to reach the unfallen leaf.

f.1 — But what are you doing, you, are you trying to tear that one off too? To make this one fall too?

c.1 doesn't hear.

f.1 — Hey you, do you want to tear it off? Do you want to tear it down, you?

c.1 — (still trying) (as if calling something to mind)...And only if I catch the leaf, if I catch one big leaf, only then will they all stop their falling. (pause) Yes, only if I catch the leaf, if I catch one big leaf, will they all stop their falling... their falling...

Frightened, the girl f.1 draws near to the child c.1 and tries to stop him. A little squabble breaks out, during which the light darkens and a grave voice makes itself heard.

voice — « They had fallen, every one that there was, that remained after the storm. Only one is still unfallen, only one is whole upon the branch. Wildly the wind shakes it, wildly with a hurling, only one is still on the branch, only one is the one unfallen. » (pause) « As for the sapling that remained, with its one leaf, the so-many-times sought — the wind alone will tear it off, will tear it as far as it can, a storm of earths. And not by waters that are taken, by fires put out upon the stones... and not by water that is taken, by fires put out upon the stones! »

The children hear it, frightened, search for the voice with their eyes, and then flee, terrified, off the stage. The curtain falls.

SCENE 3

With the curtain rising slowly,

c.2 — Where's the blind tree? where's the blind tree?

c.3 — Green leaf-blade falling, where do you fell it where it hurts? where do you spy it, where you pass? you strike at it and leave it bare...

c.2 — Where, where's the blind tree?... the blind tree, where is it, where?

c.3 — It's all poor now, and stripped clean, the rain, the wind has left it so...

The curtain having reached all the way to the top, the stage lights up as in a sunset that is over and done. The children c.2 and c.3 notice the audience. They look at it closely and attentively. Then they look at each other knowingly.

c.2 — Go look for him, go and tell him he can show himself now. (pause) Because now it's all over.

c.3 looks attentively at c.2. He wants to ask something.

c.2 — It's all over! It's all over!

c.3 — But...

c.2 — What was, has come to pass, and now it's for us to announce it. That it's all over.

c.3 goes off the stage in a hurry.

c.2 — (talking to himself) It hasn't been found out yet, but it will be... It didn't spin round either... and it didn't fall... and neither did it make anything fall...

Seeing a tree-hollow nearby, c.2 draws near to it slowly. He seems to draw near to something dear, that belongs to him. He strokes the wood of the hollow, and suddenly thrusts his head into it. The director's art will see to it that the child's face is somehow visible to the audience.

c.2 — It sinks ever deeper inward... It hides from the branches... it hides from the branches... it fears the leaves will drown it... (pause) For perhaps they will run over it in clouds, too brim-full of green, kindred ones, on clouds too brim-full.... it draws itself by them into the depths... by them into the depths...

voice — « It leaves me remembrance and places... it leaves me the fallen fires... The too-full leaves I take after... the trunks, a cradle of voids... »

c.2, as he stands with his head in the hollow, seems frightened and seems to try to thrust his whole body into the hollow.

voice — « Ha, ha, ha... I see you. Don't be afraid, child. It is I, the tree. Not the blind one. I am the sapling. »

c.2 — (frightened) What sapling? what sapling?... It's wood, it doesn't speak...

voice — « Neither do I speak. You make yourself hear me. I am silent. Now I am silent. You only hear... you hear... »

c.2 — Maybe it's your leaves that speak... the fallen leaves... (to himself) Yes, they speak, and I do believe I hear you. Surely, that's how it must be. That's how it must be...

At this moment, onto the stage comes c.1.

c.1 — And you say it's all over? (looking for c.2) Hey, you, and you say it's all over?

c.2 — (quickly pulling his head out of the hollow) What?

c.1 — You sent for me. I came, since you said it's all over.

c.2 — Ahh...

c.1 — What's all over?

c.2 looks around. Seeing no one whose voice it could have been before, he calms down.

c.2 — (ironically) It's all over, you — time!

c.1 — (in a half-voice) Time?...

c.2 — Time, yes! Don't you know any longer? You said you had no time... you said we should give you time... Well, that's it, it's gone by!

c.1 — But...

c.2 — It's all over!

After which, all the voices of the other figures together, somewhere from behind the stage, suddenly cry out: « It's all over! » At this moment, as in a ritual (the director's art will create the necessary atmosphere on the stage as well), p.1, p.2, p.3 and c.3 appear, carrying in their arms, horizontally, the sapling with its single leaf left at the top facing forward, and there is seen hanging from one of its branches a board reading "former sapling" (the word "former" appears clearly to have been added later, on the same board with the writing "sapling" that hung there before). After one turn of the stage, or two (or other directed movements), during which c.1 seems to suffer terribly, writhing and squirming somewhere on the ground, c.2 draws near to the procession and, with great calm and an evident satisfaction, slowly begins to tear the leaf off the sapling. On the backdrop of the stage the shadow of f.1 appears. At the moment the leaf comes away from the tree, f.1 begins to shriek, long, like a moan of pain. After a strong flash of yellow, the lights on the stage go out.

The curtain does not fall.

--- THE END ---

ANDREI FODOREANU

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