Part 22 (1/2)
MYTYL No, no!... Don't!... I want to go away!... I am so frightened, little brother!... I am terribly frightened!...
TYLTYL But there is no danger....
MYTYL I don't want to see the dead!... I don't want to see them!...
TYLTYL Very well, you shall not see them; shut your eyes....
MYTYL (_clinging to_ TYLTYL'S _clothes_) Tyltyl, I can't stay!... No, I can't possibly!... They are going to come out of the ground!...
TYLTYL Don't tremble like that.... They will only come out for a moment....
MYTYL But you're trembling, too!... They will be awful!...
TYLTYL It is time, the hour is pa.s.sing....
(TYLTYL _turns the diamond. A terrifying minute of silence and motionlessness elapses, after which, slowly, the crosses totter, the mounds open, the slabs rise up...._)
MYTYL (_cowering against_ TYLTYL) They are coming out!... They are there!...
(_Then, from all the gaping tombs, there rises gradually an efflorescence at first frail and timid, like steam; then white and virginal and more and more tufty, more and more tall and plentiful and marvellous. Little by little, irresistibly, invading all things, it transforms the graveyard into a sort of fairy-like and nuptial garden, over which rise the first rays of the dawn. The dew glitters, the flowers open their blooms, the wind murmurs in the leaves, the bees hum, the birds wake and flood the air with the first raptures of their hymns to the sun and to life. Stunned and dazzled,_ TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL, _holding each other by the hand, take a few steps among the flowers while they seek for the trace of the tombs_.)
MYTYL (_looking in the gra.s.s_) Where are the dead?....
TYLTYL (_looking also_) There are no dead....
CURTAIN
SCENE 3.--_The Kingdom of the Future_.
_The immense halls of the Azure Palace, where the children wait that are yet to be born. Infinite perspectives of sapphire columns supporting turquoise vaults. Everything, from the light and the lapis-lazuli flagstones to the s.h.i.+mmering background into which the last arches run and disappear, everything, down to the smallest objects, is of an unreal, intense, fairy-like blue. Only the plinths and capitals of the columns, the key-stones, a few seats and circular benches are of white marble or alabaster. To the right, between the columns, are great opalescent doors.
These doors, which_ TIME _will throw back towards the end of the scene, open upon actual life and the quays of the Dawn. Everywhere, harmoniously peopling the hall, is a crowd of_ CHILDREN _robed in long azure garments. Some are playing, others strolling to and fro, others talking or dreaming; many are asleep, many also are working, between the colonnades, at future inventions; and their tools, their instruments, the apparatus which they are constructing, the plants, flowers and fruit which they are cultivating or plucking are of the same supernatural and luminous blue as the general atmosphere of the Palace. Figures of a taller stature, clad in a paler and more diaphanous azure, figures of a sovereign and silent beauty move among the_ CHILDREN _and would seem to be angels.
_Enter on the left, as though by stealth, gliding between the columns in the foreground_, TYLTYL, MYTYL _and_ LIGHT. Their arrival causes a certain movement among the_ BLUE CHILDREN, _who come running up on every hand, form a group around the unwonted visitors and gaze upon them with curiosity_.
MYTYL Where are Sugar, the Cat and Bread?...
LIGHT They cannot enter here; they would know the future and would not obey....
TYLTYL And the Dog?...
LIGHT It is not well, either, that he should know what awaits him in the course of the ages....I have locked them all up in the vaults of the church....
TYLTYL Where are we?...
LIGHT We are in the Kingdom of the Future, in the midst of the children who are not yet born. As the diamond allows us to see clearly in this region which is hidden from men, we shall very probably find the Blue Bird here....
TYLTYL Certainly the bird will be blue, since everything here is blue....(_Looking all around him_.) Heaven, how beautiful it all is!...