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قراءة كتاب For Love of the King: A Burmese Masque

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For Love of the King: A Burmese Masque

For Love of the King: A Burmese Masque

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 7

The children stand passive in their gay dress, but are bewildered and afraid.

mah phru has risen to her feetShe appears as if turned to bronzea model of restraint and dignity, blent with colour and beauty and infinite grace.

the curtain descends slowly

SCENE II

The same night.

The home of the Chinese Wizard, hip loong, by the rivera place fitted with Chinese things: Dragons of gold with eyes of jade gleaming from out dim corners, Buddhas of gigantic size fashioned of priceless metals with heads that move, swinging banners with fringes of many-coloured stones, lanterns with glass slides on which are painted grotesque figuresThe air is full of the scent of joss sticksThe Wizard reclines on a divan, inhaling opium slowly, clothed with the subdued gorgeousness of Chinablue and tomato-red predominateHe has the appearance

of a wrinkled walnutHis forehead is a lattice-work of wrinklesHis pigtail, braided with red, is twisted round his headHis hands are as clawsThe effect is weird, unearthly.

Enter mah phru.

The Wizard silently motions her to some piled-up cushions at a little distanceHe listens to what she tells himHe appears unmoved, at a recital apparently full of tragedyOnly the eyes of the dragons move, and the heads of the Buddhas go slowly like pendulumsWhen she has finished speaking, hip loong makes reply.

“This is how passion always ends.  I have lived for a thousand years; and on this planet it is ever the same.”

mah phru is not listening.

“How can I go to my children?” she demands, once again.

“I can turn you into a bird,” the Wizard says.  “You can fly to the palace and walk and watch ever on that terrace in the rose gardens above the sea.”

“What bird?” she asks, trembling.

“You shall have the form of the white paddy bird, because, though a woman and foolish as women ever are, you are very pure ivory.  O! daughter of man and of love.”

To this mah phru dissentsShe paces the long room.

“Transform me into a peacock; they are more beautiful.”

The Wizard, leaning on his elbow, smiles, and the smile is a revelation of a mocking comprehension.

“So be it.”  He bows his head.

The lights fade one by one.

curtain

SCENE III

The Gardens of the Palace of the King.

Time: late afternoon.

Colonnades of roses stretch away on every sideFountains play, throwing a shower on water-lilies of monstrous sizePeacocks walk with stately tread across the green turfOnly one, larger and more beautiful than the rest, is perched alone, with drooping head and folded tail, on the broad-pillared terrace that overhangs the seaThe scene is aglow with light and colour, yet holds a shadowed

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