SCENE 15: CEREMONY
1973
An opera house production of "The Feathered Serpent". The Aztecs on stage this time are obviously part of a production. The procession of sacrifice begins. The sacrificial victim heroically going to his death.
CHORUS
Will our life on earth be long?
Our life on earth will not be long;
Only a moment on earth
Only a moment.
Will the world we know be gone?
The world we know will soon be gone;
Only a moment on earth
Only a moment
Only a moment on earth.
Our life on earth
Is like the flower that dies ,
The jade that splinters,
The blood that spills
From a still beating heart
PRINCESS
Oh cruel,
Oh cruel gods!
Must you always take the best
The strongest hearts?
Spare my love the hero’s death
Give him back to me.
Give him back to me!
CHORUS
The songs we sing are sweet
But over soon.
Our dream on earth is over soon.
Only a moment on earth,
Only a moment.
PRINCESS
Oh callous gods!
Will you crush the bud
Of our sweet love
Before it opens?
CHORUS
Even the earth will end.
Even the earth will end.
PRINCESS
Ahhhhh....
CHORUS
Even the gods can't stop
The flood of fire ,
The day of terror.
The stones of the gods will crumble to dust.
PRINCESS
He is lost to me,
Lost forever,
He will never return.
What kind of world is this
That revels in sacrifice?
Is it not enough
Our enemies lie wasted?
Must we then take the knife
And turn it on ourselves?
HIGH PRIEST
In earth your feet are bedded,
But your spirit flies out towards the sky,
Borne high:
An offering to the visitor God
Quetzalcoatl,
The stranger.
The stranger who will return.
PRINCESS
They took you for a god, my prince
Until you bled like a mortal man
And proved yourself
Worthy enough to be slain.
CHORUS
Take now our god
The strength of this heart,
The life giving food
The most sacred hope.
Take now our god
The blood of this heart
That the earth might live on
One moment longer.
So the earth can bring forth
One more yellow flower,
And the dreamers on earth
Can sing one more song.
PRINCESS
My prince,
My hero,
My love.
Though you are cruelly stolen,
Stolen from my embrace
In dreams and song
Your memory will live.
The Architect appears on stage in the clothes he wore in the first Aztec scene. He is oblivious to the chorus of singers and they to him.
ARCHITECT
Whoever dreamt all this
Dreams on in each stone;
In its stone heart,
The dreamer's heart still beats.
HIGH PRIEST
In earth your feet are bedded
But your spirit flies out towards the sky,
Borne high,
An offering to the visitor God:
Quetzalcoatl,
The stranger.
The stranger who will return.
PRINCESS
In earth your feet are bedded
But your spirit flies out towards the sky,
Borne high,
Borne high,
To join the gods
Among the stars in heaven.
CHORUS
When the dream is over,
Do we wake to life or death?
PRINCESS
In song I’ll consummate our holy love.
The heavens will ring with your name.
The victim is sacrificed.
CHORUS
ah ah ah ah
PRINCESS
It’s done,
It’s over;
His spirit rising,
Freed from the earth.
And my song
Will soar
Into the sky.
His soul ,
His soul will hear my voice
Among the constellations;
Completing the circle
They tried to break.
Reaching ,
Rising,
Floating to the sky,
Until the heavens are
Ringing, ringing with your name!
CHORUS
Our dream on earth
Is over soon.
Only a moment on earth,
Only a moment.
And when our dream
On Earth is over,
Do we wake to life or death?
To the earth we know,
Or the sky we've seen?
PRINCESS
And my song will never die,
Never die.
ARCHITECT, EARTH, SKY, CHORUS
Between earth and sky
It's here we live and here we die,
And the spirit of man
Is torn between:
Is torn between
The earth we know
And the sky we've seen.
PRINCESS
I’ll fulfill his dream.
THE END.