through a gray twilight . . . How strangely my limbs are becoming benumbed? All is vanishing, vanishing . . . except that anguish here, where until now my heart beat . . . Ah, is this death? In my memory there is a buzzing as of a fly . . . Some word is . . . (More and more faintly) Radúz . . . Radúz . . . Radúz . . .
Toward the end of her speech Mahulena gradually changes into a slender poplar, in which her form entirely disappears. The leaves of the tree tremble and in their rustling the word Radúz gradually dies away.
ACT IV
The same setting as at the close of Act III, with the poplar in which Mahulena lives enchanted. It is night: the royal palace is brilliantly lighted within; otherwise the stage is dark. From the palace a chorus of guests is heard singing.
Song in the Palace
O youth, thou art the golden bird of morning
That greets the sun in eager, mounting flight;
But far below the forest darkens, warning
That thou shalt fall into its gloom at last
And learn its depths. Then seldom will the light
Of thine own image flash upon thy sight,
For thou art falling, falling through the night
That we call past.
O youth, why is thy spring of dreams so brief,
When thou must wake so soon to lingering grief?
Why speeds thy ship so fast,
Only to fade more swiftly out of sight?
Alas, that all must vanish into night,
Night and the past!
As the strains of this song gradually die away the moon rises and lights up the park. The trunk of Manulena’s tree becomes transparent and the maiden can be seen in it, apparently half asleep. The leaves rustle as if with an unusually strong gust of wind, and the maiden speaks as if in a trance.
Mahulena.—My heart is a bloody flower. What pains me, what pains me? Why do I continually tremble? When the clouds float above my head, I would follow them—I know not why nor whither. My longing, like my branches, continually aspires
