ALBERICH
Sweetest of maids!
FLOSSHILDE
Wert thou but mine!
ALBERICH
Wert mine for ever!
FLOSSHILDE [Ardently.
To be pierced by thy glance,
To be pricked by thy beard,
To see and to feel them for aye!
Might thy hair hard as bristles
Flow ever more
Enraptured Flosshilde wreathing!
And thy form like a frog's,
And the croak of thy voice—
O could I, dumb with amaze,
Marvel forever on these!
WOGLINDE and WELLGUNDE
[Dive down close to them and laugh.
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
ALBERICH [Starting in alarm.
Wretches, dare ye thus scoff?
FLOSSHILDE [Suddenly darting away from him.
A suitable end to the song.
[She swims up quickly with her sisters.
WOGLINDE AND WELLGUNDE [Laughing.
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
ALBERICH [In a wailing voice.
Woe's me! Ah, woe's me!
Alas! Alas!
The third one, so dear,
Does she too betray?
O sly and shameful
Worthless and dissolute wantons!
Live ye on lies
Alone, O ye false nixie brood?
THE THREE RHINE-MAIDENS
Wallala! Wallala!
Lalalelai leialalei!
Heia! Heia! ha! ha!
Shame on thee goblin,
Scolding down yonder!
Cease, and do as we bid thee!
Faint-hearted wooer,
Why couldst not hold
The maid, when won, more fast?
True are we,
And troth we keep
With lovers when once caught.
Grasp then and hold;
Away with all fear!
In the waves we scarce can escape.
Wallala!
Lalaleia! Leialalei!
Heia! Heia! Ha hei!
[They swim apart hither and thither, now lower, now higher, to provoke Alberich to give chase.
The Rhine-Maidens teasing Alberich.
ALBERICH
Fiercely within me
Passionate fires
Consume and flame!
Love and fury,
Wild, resistless,
Lash me to frenzy!
So laugh and lie your fill—
One of you I desire,
And one must yield to my yearning!
[He starts chasing them with desperate energy. He climbs with terrible agility, and, springing from rock to rock, tries to catch one maiden after another. They keep eluding him with mocking laughter. He stumbles and falls into the abyss, and clambers up quickly again and resumes the chase. They sink down a little towards him; he almost reaches them, but falls, back again, and once more tries to catch them. At last he pauses out of breath, and, foaming with rage, stretches his clenched fist up towards the maidens.
ALBERICH
If but this fist had one!
[He remains speechless with rage, gazing upwards, when he is suddenly attracted and arrested by the following spectacle. Through the water a light of continually increasing brilliance breaks from above, and, at a point near the top of the middle rock, kindles to a radiant and dazzling golden gleam. A magical light streams from this through the waves.
WOGLINDE
Look, sisters!
The wakener laughs to the deep.
WELLGUNDE
Through the billows green
The blissful slumberer greets.
FLOSSHILDE
He kisses the eyelid,
Making it open;
Bathed in splendour,
Behold it smiles,
Sending, like a star,
Gleaming light through the waves.
THE THREE RHINE-MAIDENS
[Swimming gracefully round the cliff together.
Heia jaheia!
Heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la leia jahei!
Rhinegold!
Rhinegold!
Radiant delight,
How glorious and glad thy smile,
Over the water
Shooting effulgence afar!
Heia jahei!
Heia jaheia!
Waken, friend!
Wake in joy!
That we may please thee,
Merry we'll play,
Waters afire,
Billows aflame,
As, blissfully bathing,
Dancing and singing,
We dive and encircle thy bed!
Rhinegold!
Rhinegold!
Heia jaheia!
Heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la heia jahei!
[With increasing mirthful abandonment the maidens swim round the rock. The water is filled with a glimmering golden light.
ALBERICH
[Whose eyes, strongly attracted by the radiance, stare fixedly at the gold.
What is it, sleek ones,
That yonder gleams and shines?
THE THREE RHINE-MAIDENS
Where dost thou hail from, O churl,
Of the Rhinegold not to have heard?
WELLGUNDE
Knows