Read The Tragedy of Mister Morn for Free Online Page B

I bring him with me?
    I never noticed before—only just now,
    in feeling jealousy on his behalf,
    did I at long last see that some secret
    reverberating sound connects Midia
    to swift Morn … All this is strange …
    DANDILIO [ comes out, looking for someone ]:
Did
    you see? Did that Foreigner come past here?
    ELLA:
    I didn’t see him …
    DANDILIO:
What a curious fellow!
    He slipped away like a shadow … We were
    just having a conversation with him …
[ ELLA and DANDILIO pass on .]
    EDMIN [ leads MIDIA to a chair ]:
    You do not dance tonight, Midia?
    MIDIA:
While you,
    as always, are mysteriously silent—
    perhaps you would like to tell me what
    Morn does all day?
    EDMIN:
What does it matter?
    Whether he’s a businessman, a scholar,
    an artist, a warrior, or just an impassioned man—
    isn’t it all the same to you?
    MIDIA:
And what
    is it you do yourself? Stop it—stop shrugging
    your shoulders! Conversation with you
    is such a bore, Edmin …
    EDMIN:
I know …
    MIDIA :
    Tell me, when Morn is here, you guard, alone
    beneath the window, and after leave with him.
    Friendship is friendship, but this …
    EDMIN:
I like it this way.
    MIDIA:
    Is there not a woman—unknown to us—
    with whom you would more pleasantly spend
    the nights, while Morn is here, than with the spectre
    of someone else’s happiness? … How foolish—
    you’ve grown pale …
[ MORN enters, wiping his brow .]
    MORN:
What is happiness?
    Klian ran past me and, like the wind,
    took Ella from me …
[ to EDMIN ]
Friend, brighten up!
    Your face is painfully contorted, as though
    you were about to sneeze … Go dance …
[ EDMIN exits .]
    … Oh, my Midia, how you do resemble
    happiness! No, do not move, do not spoil
    your splendour … I am cold from happiness.
    We are on the crest of a wave of music … Wait,
    don’t speak. This very moment is the peak of two eternities …
    MIDIA:
A mere two moons
    have rolled by since that vivid day, when
    mysterious Edmin brought you to me. That day
    you conquered me with the piercing glance
    of your deep eyes. In them, an intense force
    sparkles around the pupils with a yellow light …
    Sometimes it seems to me that, walking
    down the street, you could, with the even breath
    of your eyes alone, inspire in passers-by
    whatever you wanted: happiness, wisdom,
    the heat of passion … I’ll put it this way—
    but don’t laugh: my soul has fixed itself
    to your eyes, as when in childhood
    one’s tongue sticks to cloudy metal if,
    for a lark, you lick it in the flaring frost …
    Now tell me, what do you do all day?
    MORN:
    And your eyes—no, show me—are
    slightly slanted, satin-like … Oh, my dear …
    May I kiss the rays of your collarbone?
    MIDIA:
    Wait, be careful—that black tragedian
    is watching us … soon the guests will leave …
    Be patient!
    MORN [ laughing ]:
Well, that should not be hard:
    A whole night will make me tire of you
    yet …
    MIDIA:
Don’t joke like that, I don’t like it …
[ The music dies down. The GUESTS exit the salon .]
    DANDILIO [ to the FOREIGNER ]:
    Wherever did you disappear to?
    FOREIGNER:
    I had woken up. The wind roused me.
    It rattled the window frame. I barely
    fell back asleep …
    DANDILIO:
People here will find
    that hard to believe.
    MORN:
Ah, Dandilio …
    I haven’t had a chance to talk with you …
    What new things have you collected? What
    rusty screws, what bracelets of pearl?
    DANDILIO:
Things
    are bad. Recently I found a fiery parrot—
    huge and sleepy, with a crimson feather
    in his tail—I found him in a little shop,
    where he sits remembering the tunnel
    of a smoking tropical river … I would have
    bought him but I have a cat—these two
    divine, mysterious creatures could not live
    together … Each day I go and admire him:
    he is a sacred parrot, he does not speak.
    FIRST GUEST [ to the SECOND GUEST ]:
    Time to go home. Take a look at Midia,
    I think her smile is a suppressed yawn.
    SECOND GUEST:
    No,