ALCESTIS
SHALL I never make him look at me again? | |
| I look at him, I look my life at him, | |
| I tell him all I know the way to tell, | |
| But there he stays the same. | |
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| Shall I never make him speak one word to me? | 5 |
| Shall I never make him say enough to show | |
| My heart if he be glad? Be glad? … ah! God, | |
| Why did they bring me back? | |
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| I wonder, if I go to him again, | |
| If I take him by those two cold hands again, | 10 |
| Shall I get one look of him at last, or feel | |
| One sign—or anything? | |
| |
| Or will he still sit there in the same way, | |
| Without an answer for me from his lips, | |
| Or from his eyes,—or even with a touch | 15 |
| Of his hand on my hand?… | |
| |
| “Will you look down this once—look down at me? | |
| Speak once—and if you never speak again, | |
| Tell me enough—tell me enough to make | |
| Me know that you are glad! | 20 |
| |
| “You are my King, and once my King would speak: | |
| You were Admetus once, you loved me once: | |
| Life was a dream of heaven for us once— | |
| And has the dream gone by? | |
| |
| “Do I cling to shadows when I call you Life? | 25 |
| Do you love me still, or are the shadows all? | |
| Or is it I that love you in the grave, | |
| And you that mourn for me? | |
| |
| “If it be that, then do not mourn for me; | |
| Be glad that I have loved you, and be King. | 30 |
| But if it be not that—if it be true … | |
| Tell me if it be true!” | |
| |
| Then with a choking answer the King spoke; | |
| But never touched his hand on hers, or fixed | |
| His eyes on hers, or on the face of her: | 35 |
| “Yes, it is true,” he said. | |
| |
| “You are alive, and you are with me now; | |
| And you are reaching up to me that I— | |
| That I may take you—I that am a King— | |
| I that was once a man.” | 40 |
| |
| So then she knew. She might have known before; | |
| Truly, she thought, she must have known it long | |
| Before: she must have known it when she came | |
| From that great sleep of hers. | |
| |
| She knew the truth, but not yet all of it: | 45 |
| He loved her, but he would not let his eyes | |
| Prove that he loved her; and he would not hold | |
| His wife there in his arms. | |
| |
| So, like a slave, she waited at his knees, | |
| And waited. She was not unhappy now. | 50 |
| She quivered, but she knew that he would speak | |
| Again—and he did speak. | |
| |
| And while she felt the tremor of his words, | |
| He told her all there was for him to tell; | |
| And then he turned his face to meet her face, | 55 |
| That she might look at him. | |
| |
| She looked; and all her trust was in that look, | |
| And all her faith was in it, and her love; | |
| And when his answer to that look came back, | |
| It flashed back through his tears. | 60 |
| |
| So then she put her arms around his neck, | |
| And kissed him on his forehead and his lips; | |
| And there she clung, fast in his arms again, | |
| Triumphant, with closed eyes. | |
| |
| At last, half whispering, she spoke once more: | 65 |
| “Why was it that you suffered for so long? | |
| Why could you not believe me—trust in me? | |
| Was I so strange as that? | |
| |
| “We suffer when we do not understand; | |
| And you have suffered—you that love me now— | 70 |
| Because you are a man.… There is one thing | |
| No man can understand. | |
| |
| “I would have given everything?—gone down | |
| To Tartarus—to silence? Was it that? | |
| I would have died? I would have let you live?— | 75 |
| And was it very strange?” | |
