Scene 5

N: He leaves her there, sure of his victory. He leaves her tied, bound, with a meatl brace between her feet to prevent her walking even a few steps away. And as he boards the ship to see if her place is secure in his cargo, he dreams of profit, and dreams of pleasure. And while he dreams, she stands upon the shore, a third time.

Mestra lowers her mask, accompanied by sounds of the sea setting the scence.

M: Oh Lord Poseidon,

Ruler of the waters

King of the waves and the oceans wide:

Oh my salvation,

Thee will I honor

Great master of the sea and tide.

P: I hear you my child, and now you may hurl

Into my waves, the very last pearl

But heed this watnign, hear well what I say:

You must not return to your father today-

Not today, nor tommorow, nor ever again.

If you value your life then you better had run

Far away from the curse which your father’s unleashed

You must flee to wherever you cannot be reached.

M: But I must return, my father still needs me.

He still loves me, protects me, will care for me and feed me.

P: your father is a man accursed

Not by men, but by gods, which is far, far, worse.

I advice you mourn for his spirit and pray

For his tortured soul while still you may.

He shall never return to you,

The gods and fates have decreed it so,

He hath signed their writ and bloodied the land

With the pride and unholiness of his own hand.

Do not go back.

M: But Lord Poseidon,

Of all my hopes there is left only one: (long pause)

Poseidon says nothing.

M: Before you first appeared here at the shore, I

Had given up all hope, of seeing my

Beloved lover Solones again.

I know not where he’s gone, I know not when

He will come back or how he will return,

But how within my aching heart I yearn

To see him once again. So to my home,

I go in hopes that I shall see him soon.

P: Abandon that hope to be burned in fire.

Now I must leave, I’ll say no more.

Conceive the shape that you desire.

And cast your pearl as before;

But hear this truth you deeply dread:

Your lover Solones is dead.

Poseidon will raise his mask and the sounds of the sea will cease, leaving Mestra

facing the audience alone, shocked. She begins to sob. She stops suddenly and dries

her eyes. She murmurs or repeats his name aloud.

M: Once, long ago, the nightingale

Would sing her song to you

She sang of love and happiness

Her words rang clear and true.

When we first met, ‘twas in the grove

Beneath the ancient tree

The nightingale taught us her song

And shared your love with me.

The seasons came and passed again

From winter into spring

While on the highest branch of all

The nightingale would sing

The spring had filled the tree with bloom

And the summer soon drew nigh

The nightingale and the fragrant blooms

Where cast to earth to die.

Now summer’s died and autumn’s filled

The air with whispering sound

The branches of the silver tree

Lay broken on the ground.

I long to hear the nightingale

Sing out her song again

Instead I hear the sighing wing

And weeping in the rain.

Now there isn’t any nightingale

And there isn’t any tree

And now you are gone forevermore

And there’s nothing left of me. (remains with mask lowered.)