cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

And hangs nicely in the man's strong arms,
And trembles sweetly like the green rush,
But bends, like it, before the storm's anger.
Do you understand, Clara? Shall I beg for
The favor which is my right, my possession?
CLARA.
Go away. I am tired, dead-tired.
THE COUNT.
Even this tiredness makes you more charming!
Like an ethereal veil which rests over
Pale features, where half-closed lips sleep
And the eye dreams like a sigh of longing.
Do you believe that I can part from you now?
No! I have longed for this hour,
Like the bedouin for the cistern of water.
It is mine now, I have paid dearly for it!
Only rest in peace, do not speak, I shall talk
And I shall feed my eyes on you,
And drink of the soothing reconciliation.
It is a long time, dear wife,
Since we sat so cosily like married folks,
Here by our own hearth. This room
Now smiles so familiarly on its lords,
And the ceiling arches so faithfully over us.
(He looks around.)
What thoughts am I having? Yes, by Our Lady!
Yet how strange, how very curious!
In this same castle, within these walls,
Several hundred years ago, they
Played the same scene as tonight!
And time, like its own apparition,
Wanders through these noble halls
And plays ever and again its old scenes;
Only something was adjusted after the change,
Which separates our time's stream from the source of
ancient energy.
282