The Little Mermaid: a theatrical divertissement after the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen

text The Little Mermaid a theatrical divertissement after the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen Marguerite Yourcenar Translated by Dori Katz CHARACTERS: The Little Mermaid The Water Witch The Princess of Norway The Prince of Denmark The Count Ulrich The Page Egon The Dwarf Gog The Dwarf Megog A Chorus of Mermaids A Chorus of Bird-Angels 97 PART ONE At the Bottom of the Sea MERMAIDS: (Singing, shaking their long hair.) Ah, Ah, Ah, white, blue as waves. Ah, Oh, Hi, Gray as clouds and seagull wings! Ah, Ah, Black as the storms lashing at sails! We are purple as the sunset sea, when the fisherman, confused by so much transparency, wonders if he shouldn't cast his nets in the sky-and, at night, we are what shadows are made of, the luminous dark, the green eyes of the abyss, and the damp long hair of the moon in the East. On winter mornings, under a white sky, we leap like whales, a heavy sea herd and we jump, on summer days, like dolphins, on the rocks of Sicily. On stormy nights, in the open sea, far from sails, far from ropes, far from masts, far from all creakings or cries, far from the shores, from caves or reefs, far from all thunder echoing, our sharp voices erupt and sing, the silent waves only cry. Swallowed up, dilating our divine hearing powers, we prowl in submerged forests, like so many musing fish, spreading their pearly seeds in the cold womb of the sea. We rush like shark on the corpses of the drowned. Women of the abyss, eternal beasts, we speed along warm currents like amorous eels: opaline, swollen with dreams like jellyfish, we drift under the moon. FIRST MERMAID: Where? SECOND MERMAID: Hunting with whales among green blocks of ice. THIRD MERMAID: Where? FOURTH MERMAID: To gather coral twigs. SECOND MERMAID: And you, where are you going? FIFTH MERMAID: To a blond beach by a blue sea, where there are big tree trunks made of stone, the remains of a sunken city; trees white and smooth as human skin. I wrap my tail around them and rub my scales against the marble. FIRST MERMAID: You, where are you going? SIXTH MERMAID: To inspect the old ships, the wooden hull bearded sailors 98 call us from, stretching their hairy arms. I saw the battle: they are all dead; the prow is stuck in a sandbar. I slip in, like a fish, in the gutted hull; I look for golden helmets among the shattered skulls. THIRD MERMAID: Where do you go? SEVENTH MERMAID: I sleep on rocks. THIRD MERMAID: And you? SECOND MERMAID: Leave her alone. She's the crazy mermaid. She puts human words into her songs. Come. Let's go. FIFTH MERMAID: Faster. Help! A shadow crawls on the bottom of the sea. FIRST MERMAID: It's the water witch, the ugliest woman of the abyss, the beast with the shark teeth, with the crab eyes, with the octopus arms, the eater of mermaid flesh. Quick! SEVENTH MERMAID: Quick before her tentacles get in our hair. (They run away. THE LITTLE MERMAID remains seated in the hollow of a rock, she holds in her lap the head of a statue; it is covered with seashells and seaweed.) THE WATER WITCH: (Screaming.) Who are you, you who are not fleeing and who spoil my pleasure by not fleeing? I stir up quiet waters, chasing everything away by my appearance. Aren't you afraid of the ugliest of creatures, of the eater of blue and white flesh? (THE LITTLE MERMAID sighs.) THE LITTLE MERMAID: Why should I fear you? I am being eaten by my own heart. THE WATER WITCH: Your heart? Warm blooded beast, little female whale, what use is your heart except to pump this viscous liquid flowing iridescent on the sea when a fisherman hits you with a harpoon. What is the matter with you? THE LITTLE MERMAID: I'm in love. THE WATER WITCH: (Frightened.) No, not that, you betray your kingdom. No love allowed at the ocean's depth. THE LITTLE MERMAID: If I'm a traitor, I've been one for centuries. I...