The Old French Piramus and Tisbe

The Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Piramus and Tisbe (translated by Míceál F. Vaughan [September 1999], from the edition of C. de Boer)

In the city of Babylon
Lived two well-regarded men,
Two citizens of the upper ranks
In terms both of parentage and wealth.
The noble men had two children	5
Of similar beauty and similar character;
The one was a boy, the other a girl:
No king or queen had children more beautiful.
The noble men had two children,
Whom Ovid names in his book	10
And says they were called,
The one Piramus, the other Tisbe.
Before they were seven years old
Love touched the two children
And wounded them in such a way	15
As would not have been expected at their age.
The similarity in ages, the noble hearts,
The great beauties, the grand ancestries,
The words, the smiles, the games
And the suitability of the place	20
As well as the frequent meetings
Bestowed on them the gift of sighing.

Oh, Love, before your eyes
Neither young nor old can survive;
There is no youth or adult	25
Who may not be wounded by your dart.
Against your dart neither double hauberk
Nor double mail armor provides any protection;
Your arrow is incapable of missing,
Against it no one can be protected;	30
It inflicts wounds without piercing
Which no herb or potion can heal;
It makes one draw deep sighs without feeling sad,
It makes one grow pale without blood being spilled.
The point of your dart carries fire;	35
The shaft in the middle, sighs;
The feathers, plotting and praying;
The notch at the end, sweet love.
The point wounds through the eyes;
The shaft plunges into the thoughts;	40
The feathers are for display;
The notch initiates secret planning.
With such an arrow and such a spear
Loves wounds the boy
And the girl in their youth,	45
Until their death was right next door.

Still, they knew nothing about love,
And this caused them considerable anxiety:
For the present it pleases them to rise in the morning
And the one to think about the other;	50
And they go without eating, longer than is good for them
And more than their age can endure.
Mornings, each of them slips away
And they go to play all day together,
Enjoying themselves with children	55
Of their own age and size.
They pass the day looking at each other,
With which they cannot satisfy themselves;
They return late to their homes
Because separating them is difficult;	60
It pleases them to do may things
For which they are reproached and criticized.
As much as a gem surpasses glass,
Gold silver, rose primrose,
So much do these two surpass	65
In beauty all those who live in the city.
With great understanding and with great care
And with great wisdom Nature made them,
And said: 'My power will be manifested here,	68a
And my genius will be seen in them.'	68b
They are both from the same mold.
Truly wonderful is their nature.	70
As long as their age was an obstacle
To what Love requires them to do,
And they were less than ten years old,
Their freedom was so great that they were able
To walk together and to talk,	75
To amuse themselves and to play.
The sweet looks, the innocent feelings,
And the inconvenient times--
And the fact that no good thing is free from envy
And no servant free from deceit--	80
These caused them to be kept apart and watched
So that they could not speak together.
A servant noticed their behavior
And said: 'Now I know clearly, without a doubt,
That these children greatly love each other;	85
And if they were somewhat older
And had the same freedom,
It would be a difficult matter to keep them apart:
They would demonstrate such unanimity
That it would produce a very bad result.'	90
The servant brought this news
To the mother of the young girl
And she told him: 'Now take care of this,
That they never come together again!
Their love affair is a joke!	95
They are very young to be beginning to act the fool!'
Then she told a chambermaid:
'If you hold me dear in any way at all,
See to it that Tisbe does not go out of the house,
And that Piramus does not see her.	100

Then a very bad feelings arose
Between the fathers of the children,
Dispute and hatred
That lasted from then on for their entire lives.
This situation prevented	105
The two children from coming together,
From joining together in marriage
And from sending messages back and forth between them.
The two children are in distress,
One neither hears nor sees the other:	110
The separation that their parents had imposed on them
Seems to them altogether unbearable;
But the fact that some one is watching them, moreover,
So that Tisbe dares not go out of the house,
Nor Piramus look toward her:	115
That makes their love to flame more strongly.
In time both of them grow up:
Their ages grow, and their intelligence grows,
Their ardor grows, and their wounds grow,
And the fire grows which nothing can assuage,	120
Their love grows, their ages grow:
And now they were more than fifteen.
And as soon as they reached adolescence
And were able to take responsibility for their actions,
And their arrived at the age	125
When nature gives birth to Love,
Then they were no longer able to escape its consequences.
The long thoughts, the grievous sighs,
The great sorrows, the weighty complaints,
The fierce torments all burden their hearts.	130
They go mad with grief both night and day,
Their entire lives are lived in sorrow;
They weep, they lament, each to themselves,
And they do not know, the two of them, any comfort,
Nor can they find any remedy	135
In any medicine or from any doctor.
The fire lies shut up inside
And it does not give them any rest,
But torments them day and night
And bakes them with fatal ardor.	140
This fire and this flame by itself
Contracts muscles and dries up bone marrow,
Weakens strength, deforms beauty,
And chases away all light-heartedness.

Piramus is filled with sadness,	145
Filled with sighs and filled with tears,
Filled with heavy thoughts and filled with cares.
He goes mad with grief to this extent
Repeatedly:

'Alas! Coward, how long will I suffer	150
This torment in sadness and sorrow?
I feel sorrow all the time, joy not at all,
And the more I'm in sorrow, the more love
Inflames me.
Is Love its name? Rather, it is hot desire,	155
Which gets hotter day by day.
It makes my face and color grow pale,
As frost does a delicate flower.
Alas!
So, Piramus, what are you going to do about it?	160
How are you going fight it?
Ah, father, who gave me this life,
Why
Don't you now have some pity on me?
If you do not get me some comfort soon,	165
Either by ingenuity or by force,
Tisbe,
Beautiful one, I will find a way to see you.
Know that, if I am not to have you for love,
I will carry you off by force;	170
Or, if not this, I will for your sake achieve
My death:
That will be my refuge and my comfort,
If this terrible situation continues to trap me
And inflicts on me such injustice for so long.	175
Do I act unjustly?
O God, why hasn't there been some reconciliation,
So that our families might be at peace?
Let us not have so much spying.
Spying?	180
I could never get far enough
By making promises, or by paying bribes,
As to find a messenger
Whom I could send to her.
What does it matter?	185
The more I complain the less good it does me!
Ah, father, who endures on high,
Put out the fire which assaults me,
The fire
Which has taken away both my smiles and my games.	190
I cannot get a cure anywhere.
Friend,
On your account all my color has faded away,
My heart has been wounded, my flesh has been pierced.
Tisbe, because of you I spend my life	195
In tears.
May the God of Love accept my plea
That I might hold her sometime, by night or day,
In happy times or in sad!
Right now	200
I can do nothing except faint; I can't say another word;
One minute I am happy, the next I want to cry,
One minute I feel quite warm, the next I want to shiver.'
Before he is able to end his moaning
His face begins to grow pale.	205
In tears, in groans,
He falls unconscious to the floor.
After a long time he gets up again,
Pale, troubled, without any color;
He takes off to the temple of Venus,	210
Lays himself on the brown marble,
Offers prayers, vows and promises
And sacrifices to the goddess,
So that she might grant him permission
To speak to his friend Tisbe.	215

Tisbe is shut up indoors;
She doesn't dare go out of the palace.
Frequently she calls to mind her loving desires,
Frequently each day she changes color,
Frequently she complains and frequently cries:	220
'Alas!' she says, 'in what a terrible time
I was born!
Oh, God, what a terrible destiny,
What a hard life has been given me!
But never before was there any woman alive	225
Kept isolated,
Who by means of ingenuity or mad impetuousness
Could not figure out some escape--
Except me.
But the more I think about it, the less I see	230
How I will be able to find the comfort,
Sweet beloved, of speaking to you.
-- Speaking?
Tisbe, you idiot, do you want to go mad?
Do you want to violate your chastity	235
In bringing shame to your family?
Don't do it!
Preserve Reason, who is against you!
Do not be concerned with inspiring in yourself
The courage	240
To commit such an outrage,
For no woman of your family
Was ever accused of prostitution.
Accused
I will not be for any reason.	245
I would prefer to be killed a hundred times.
-- Tisbe,
Where have you picked up this idea?
You have quickly forgotten Piramus!
Alas, why have I mentioned his name?	250
Friend,
I never indeed did speak it!
Now you can say correctly,
I think,
That women have no constancy in love.	255
Fair sweet friend, take as your due
This pledge.
Accept it, my lord, in payment for this excess of mine:
Here I offer you my virginity.
Too soon have I become proud-hearted!	260
Proud!
Before you I ought to humble myself.
Blame would be very precious to me,
If I heard myself accused.
On the contrary,	265
So t seems and appears to me,
No one ought dare heap blame on me,
If he knew my situation.
-- Madwoman!
Tisbe, fool, shameless one,	270
What passion has transformed you?
Now you have gone completely mad!
I will abandon
Completely this thought that I have.
I am confident that through my father's help	275
I will have a friend as noble.
-- As noble?
I'll be in trouble if Piramus hears me!
Yes, I am trembling, I feel it clearly.
If I spoke out of line, I now repent it.	280
Oh, my handsome one!
Fragile rose and fresh lily,
Flower of all other young maidens,
Forgive me!
Do not pay attention to anything I say;	285
I have blackened my heart with fear.
I will never have another friend
Besides you.
But your parents are envious
And mine are jealous on my account.	290
What does it matter?
It does not add up to anything, so help me God:
I will soon, because of you, do something drastic.
Oh, alas!
What have I said now? Nothing can cure me	295
Of the sickness which so often makes me miserable.
Woe is me!
Let the God of Love grant me this,
Either let it please me or let me repent of it,
So that I might yet feel him in my arms	300
For a time.
Here I end my complaint in tears.
I'm going to pass out, this very minute.
Doing
So is necessary for me everyday:	305
Such is the fief I hold from my friend!'
The girl fainted three times;
And when she has gotten up again,
She lifts both her hands towards heaven:
She prays to the gods very humbly	310
That they might allow her to find a way
To be able to speak to her beloved.

The two palaces were right next to each other,
And constructed in such a manner,
That a single house wall and a single wall only	315
Was the partition between the two of them.
In the main room within,
Where many people came and went,
Where the girl was kept enclosed,
The house wall was slightly cracked.	320
The crack was not very large,
And it had stayed unnoticed for many years,
Until Love, from whom nothing
Can hide itself, caused it to be discovered.
What is it that love does not find out?	325
The two lovers were the first
Who discovered this hole in the wall.
First Tisbe, then Piramus.
Tisbe found the crack,
Took the loose end of her belt,	330
And made the tip of it appear on the other side of the wall,
So that her friend could see it.
Piramus comes back from amusing himself,
From comforting himself from his sorrows.
He goes into the room, lies down,	335
Turns his eyes to the wall,
Looks, and notices the sign
Which the crack shows him.
He goes to the spot, takes the loose end of the belt,
Sees the hole, and then says:	340

'Tisbe, sweetheart, fair creature:
Masterpiece of Nature,
With the sign of this belt
I have come here to pay my fine
For not finding the crack.	345
Yours is the good luck
Of discovering this hidden passage.
If you care for me very much,
No lock will hold you back
From coming here with confidence,	350
Without intermediary, without concealment.
With a low voice and with murmurs
Let us speak of our woe;
Then you will come to know in what a heat
Love has put me, without my having broken any of his laws.	355
Oh, God, how hard life is
For one who must endure such injustice for so long!'

The girl, on the other side,
Is listening to this and paying attention to it;
The content of the speech disturbs her,	360
She draws herself closer to the wall,
She puts her eye to the crack:
She examines the face of her friend.
She wants to speak, but she cannot:
Love strikes her suddenly speechless.	365
At the very first glance
She quivers and sighs and burns with love,
She recoils and trembles all over and perspires;
She blushes and then grows pale,
She thinks over what she might say to him:	370
She completely forgets about herself.
In all these ways Love, who conquers
All things, oppresses her.
At the very end she comes to a decision
And recovers her confidence somewhat;	375
She puts her mouth up to the fissure,
Then speaks in this fashion:

'Friend (thus I dare to name you;
They cannot see me,
Those who guard me from you)	380
I cannot conceal myself better for you:
I would like to tease you about your slowness.
I was the first to find the means
For us to be able to come together here,
For the one who loves more sees more clearly.	385
I hear you bitterly lamenting,
But you little know what it is to love:
You are still able to enjoy yourself!
Beloved, leave the grieving to me
To whom nothing can give comfort!	390
I have traded joy for weeping,
For delivering sorrowful complaints,
And I have traded happiness for lamentation,
Joy and delight for sighing,
Calm slumber for heavy thoughts.	395
Friend, I cannot stay here longer now:
Tears deprive me of sight,
Sighs deprive me of speech.
Think of coming back tomorrow;
We will be able to speak more freely	400
And each comfort the other.'

Now she can say no more to him;
And so they part, the two of them.
The day passes by, the night comes to an end.
In the morning both return	405
And come back to their hole in the wall.
First Piramus speaks:

'Friend, I am in terrible anguish,
For I am wounded to death because of you
*Whom I love.	410
From now on I will come immediately at your summons,
Like the hawk when it is hungry:
Love has captured me with his bait.
I have been caught
Indeed, because of you, I believe.	415
I do not know what joy and smiles are.
If he holds me any longer, I will not escape it alive.
I am dying!
The God of Love is not keeping his word,
For he makes us subject to his law.	420
We are caught in a snare,
The two of us.
I do not know to whom to pray, you or him.
Fair one, I make you my refuge:
If I die because of you, that would be too bad!	425
Friend,
It would be a very great injustice
If I should lose my life because of you,
When I might have been able to get help from you.
Sad fellow!	430
I am only too able to experience sorrow and torment,
I who have been in love so long,
And I am not able to have my desire fulfilled.
Poor wretch!
Oh, fair one, how I am overcome!	435
How I am overpowered by love for you!
Sadness
Does not leave me, night or day;
One minute I brood, the next I sigh and the next I weep;
I have completely lost my color.	440
Sleeping,
Drinking, and eating I must give up.
I cannot speak except to sigh;
I have become well acquainted with suffering badly!
Delight	445
And everything I desire runs away from me.
Oh, God, what a companion I am wrestling with!
I will never be cured if I do not run away from it.
Run away?
Love has no wish to let me give up on me;	450
Because of Love I must die.
Will I die?
If it pleases God and you, I will not.
Rather, I will implore you for this:
And not for long, I think, will I pray	455
In vain,
But I will hold my hand straight out,
Until you cure me of this sickness
And make me certain of your friendship.
Oh, wall,	460
How very thick you are, and hard!
But if I had any confidence at all,
This little fissure
Would be made so wide by my hands
That out of sight of those watching you	465
I would pull you through it.
Wall,
Have pity on these unhappy creatures!
Hole, how very narrow you are!
Stones, if you would open	470
Only enough
So that we might take joy in talking!
Friend,
If we could join company,
I would have help from my great sorrow;	475
But everything is against us!
House,
We ought to love you a great deal
Because you allow us to speak through you.
Crack,	480
Hide yourself well, so that not a single one
Of those who threaten us might know of you.
And I will guard that they do not see through you
The face
Of the one who has drawn	485
My heart and spirit to herself.
Wall,
How very cruel you are, and stuck up!
Why do you not open at my prayer
Enough so that I could kiss the face,	490
The mouth,
The one whose sweetness touches me to the heart?
Oh, noble one,
Grant me this without any delay,
And nothing else.	495
Let us pray now from here below
That Lady Venus might help us
So that no one might discover this hole in the wall.'

The young man complains and sighs;
Then he trembles, and he cannot say any more,	500
And when his recitation comes to an end,
Tisbe begins her complaint:

'Friend, you are suffering great discomfort;.
It is no surprise, since you love me so much!
I am well aware, you have received your wound from me,	505
From me,
And I from you, upon my faith.
I know no comfort in my life,
Nor am I any less afraid
Than you.	510
You are filled with sadness and tears,
And my heart is full of anguish.
Bitterly
You complain of these torments;
But I, I guess, more bitterly.	515
Friend,
You say that you have been overpowered;
My heart is more overcome by love.
Without any doubt
It is more overcome than straw is by fire.	520
Love kills me and harasses me.
Great God,
What is this anger, this disaffection
That you have had toward me for such a long time?
God the Father,	525
Who created me when I was not yet born,
Look at my sorrow and my misery,
My pain.
See how love masters me!
Mistreatment and misfortune	530
I received,
Friend, as soon as I became acquainted with you.
Since then, neither day nor night, was I
Without some injury,
And it gets worse the longer it lasts.	535
It is no surprise, then, if she becomes discouraged,
The young woman
Who because of you suffers such anguish,
That nothing can make her happy.
Undeservedly	540
Have I been deprived of joy and pleasure.
Nothing is able to bring me comfort.
By day
I am in tears and in distress
And in anguish and in sorrow,	545
In bitter martyrdom and sadness.
By night,
When I lay myself on my bed,
Thinking sleep will bring me some delight,
By my faith,	550
I am, instead, in pain and terror:
Then it seems to me I see you,
And you can reach out to touch me.
I tremble,
Perspiring from anguish and distress;	555
Then I reach out my hands that I might grasp you,
And when I am on the verge of taking hold of you, I am cheated of success.
Friend,
When I go back to sleep, then it seems to me
That you are right before my eyes,	560
In abject despair and completely dejected.
May God grant
That good fortune may come to us from this dream!
Then it seems to me I hear my name being called
Often,	565
But I do not know what voice or groan it is
That is saying this directly to me,
In these words:
"Tisbe, do you recognize your friend?
Wake up, and let us go from here.	570
Tisbe,
The gods have admonished us
To set out from the city
So that we might be able to get together."
Friend,	575
Tell me what you think of this.
I want you to have complete confidence in me.
In truth,
I will run away from here at the beginning of the evening:
In the middle of the night I will go to find out,	580
Out there,
If I will find you in person.
Friend, your life is my treasure.
Be careful
That you are not slow or forgetful:	585
Rise up from your first sleep,
Look for me at the spring
Under the mulberry in the middle of the fields,
Where Ninus was buried.'

In this way they affirm their covenant;	590
Then the two lovers go away.
But first they kiss the wall
At parting, each on their own side,
And they take leave of the hole in the wall
To which they will never return again.	595

The two lovers are weighed down by cares;
It seems to them that the day lasts too long.
They complain a lot about the sun,
Frequently calling him 'unfaithful,'
For delaying his setting so long	600
And making the night hold off so long.
They say he does this intentionally,
In order to upset their agreement.
Day departs, night returns,
And the time set for their undertaking.	605
The watchmen mount upon the walls.
Those who feel safe go to sleep
But neither of the two goes to rest;
Instead, they give their full attention to another matter.
Each one separately concentrates,	610
Preparing carefully for what they are about to do.
Now their hearts are hopeful,
But nevertheless they are teetering on the edge
Of doing it--or not:
Desire wrestles with Reason.	615
They take pleasure from contemplating
How they are about to meet,
And they imagine in their hearts
Their sorrow, death, and destruction.
The two of them experience both joy and sorrow,	620
But Love always triumphs:
Neither Sense nor Reason can hold them back
From what they have undertaken to do.

All the people are already asleep,
When Tisbe sets out:	625
She gets up from the bed where she was lying,
Departs very quietly from the bedroom.
No door or lock holds her back.
She leaves the bedroom completely unafraid,
Alone in the night, and without fear:	630
Such courage Love gives her!
When she has left the room
And is going down the stairs,
As soon as she puts her left foot forward,
She hears thunder above, off to the right,	635
Feels the whole palace shake,
And sees the moon grow pale,
Sees a horned owl, sees a screech owl:
But none of these omens frightens her--
No matter what their results might be--	640
Into giving up on what she has set out to do.
She has already gone as far as the wall,
When a watchman catches sight of her;
But when he sees her at this hour
He thinks she must be a goddess:	645
He pulls back, does not call out to her.
In this way the girl departs
Under the eyes of the nightwatch;
From there she goes down along a narrow path
And comes without delay to the place	650
Where their meeting was arranged to take place.
Now she has sat down upon the marble
Next to the well beneath the tree,
Where they were to meet;
Then she is starting to think	655
How she would tease
The young man, who has not yet arrived,
When a lion from the mountains,
That had killed a herd
Of beasts, comes into the meadow,	660
Still covered with blood
From the entrails and the fleece,
Looking for the water in the spring.
The girl lowers her head
When she sees the wild beast approaching.	665
Blood and color desert her:
It is no wonder if she feels afraid.
Off she goes, running away down a path,
And fearing that the lion might see her;
But she feels such terror and panic	670
That she lets her veil fall on the grass.
She goes in a hurry to hide herself
Under the shade of an almond tree.
The lion comes along in a fury,
Drinks his fill at the spring,	675
And when he is well satisfied,
He sets off to go back through the meadow.
He finds the veil on the path,
Tramples it and gets it all bloody.

And when he has left the meadow	680
And Piramus has arrived there--
Oh. God, what a terrible misfortune!
What a sorrowful discovery!
In the light of the moon--
So had Fortune arranged it--	685
He looks under the shade of the mulberry
And sees the white veil glinting.
He looks in the dirt around it,
Recognizes the tracks of a lion,
Sees the sand scattered unevenly about,	690
The water of the spring rippling,
Finds the veil, trampled
And newly stained with blood,
Thinks it is the blood of his beloved,
Looks all around, and sees no sign of her.	695
Oh, alas, what a damnable delay!
If only she has not come at this hour!
She is so afraid of that wild beast
That she does not dare to come back yet.
When Piramus sees so clearly	700
Signs that his beloved is dead,
He turns more green than an ivy leaf
And turns as cold as a stone;
His blood stops flowing, his courage fails.
Then he burns with anger and rage;	705
Afterwards, he speaks in this way, as anger
And wrath permit him to speak:

'Night of sadness, night of torment,
Mulberry, tree of weeping
Meadow, stained with blood,	710
Spring,
Which has not delivered safe to me
Her whose blood lies in the sand!
How suddenly are my efforts rendered
Useless,	715
My hope, my love, my intended purpose!
Oh, God, what sorrow does this veil
I see stained with blood signify for me!
Friend,
How was the beast so daring	720
As to make this attack on you?
How evil, how sad, how unjust it is
That you have met your death in this way!
My darling,
It is a great crime that I go on living:	725
I, who gave you the confidence to come,
Alone, to such a place in the dark of night.
Alone!
Oh, alas! May that mouth be damned
That is glutted with your flesh!	730
Oh, alas!
Look, here is the blood; look, here is the cloth.
You, lion, who devoured her,
It's a wonder you left no more of her here;
Cruel moon, you saw it happen	735
And did not grow dark at that hour because of it.
It is wrong
That she is dead and I am not:
I do not know which is more cause for my sorrow.
Death is my greatest comfort.	740
I'm in despair
Because she is dead and I am alive!
Earth, for God's sake, swallow me up here and now!
Or you, lion, who killed her,
Come back!	745
I'm totally prepared, and would offer no resistance:
You may do what you want with me.
Return,
You who devoured that sweet creature!
You drank her blood; now drink mine!	750
My sorrowful,
Sweet beloved! I was too slow
And so I was not present at your death.
Death, what are you waiting for? Take me now!
Oh, Death,	755
Why do you delay? Something is very wrong,
If I do not now die immediately.
Sword,
If only I had remembered you,
I would have already long ago ended	760
My life.
To run away from death is cowardice.
Oh, my beautiful, sweet, dear friend,
You have perished because of me, a sinner.
Dear sister,	765
I have murdered you: I, who came late
To keep our appointment, when you came early.
Now I pray that my right hand may strike with true pride:
I will avenge you in this way.
Avenge?	770
But first I will pray the gods
That they will make this mulberry show
A sign of death and disaster,
Of weeping:
Let them make the fruit that color	775
Which belongs to sorrow.'

Such a lament and such a prayer he uttered,
Pulled out his sword in great anger,
And lifted up the veil
On the very tip of the sword,	780
Kisses the veil and then the blood;
He stabs himself through the side,
Until the sword can be seen sticking out
From the other side of his body.
All the time he is dying he kisses the veil.	785
Love is unchanging even in the face of death!
On the branches his blood spurts:
The fruit, which had been white, grows dark.
The mulberries had always been
White up to that moment;	790
It was then that they received their dark color
In witness of sorrow.

Tisbe, while this is happening, is coming back
So that she might not disappoint her lover;
She desires very much to tell him	795
About the danger from which she has been spared.
She thinks about fulfilling her wishes
For what she has so long desired;
Now the very moment draws near
In which their love is to be fulfilled!	800
Already it seems to her that she is with him
And that they are kissing each other
And speaking of their love.
But now she will experience sudden sorrow!
When she comes near the mulberry tree,	805
She notices the berries have become dark;
Then she thinks she has gone astray
Because the color she sees is changed.
Earlier she had noticed that the fruit
Was white, which now is dark with blood.	810
While she hesitates, wondering
Whether she has taken the right way,
She looks ahead of her in the path,
Sees the bloody grass all about.
She hears the young man sobbing,	815
Groaning, moaning, sighing deeply;
She sees the veil as he touches it
To his lips again and again;
And when she notices the wound,
It's no surprise if she is stricken with terror.	820
When she sees the sword through his body,
Her heart gives out and she falls down unconscious.
She gets up again, wild and raving,
Pulls her hair, beats at her face,
Tears her clothes, and weeps and cries out;	825
She loves death more than life.
Then she leans down over his body,
And pulls the sword out of it.
She lifts it high in the air,
And then speaks like a woman possessed:	830

'Sword, I have you in my power,
Now prove how brave you are!
Sword,
You have put an end to our love,
Be warmed again in my breast,	835
And stained with the blood of both of us.
Bloody instrument!
Oh, God, what an end and what a final scene!
How soon our youth has passed away!
Fair lord,	840
Anger could only hold you back a little
When you desired to murder yourself with your own hand.
Alas, how can I speak of anger
When I see that he is still breathing!
I see	845
Him suffering the agonies of death because of me.
What weak love, what poor fidelity
I would have,
Friend, if I were not to follow you,
If I were not to kill myself in very short order!	850
Fair beloved,
What great sorrow, what a disaster!
How bold you heart was!
Moon, well, meadow, mulberry,
Pale night,	855
Who sent me pale omens,
When I was setting out from the hall,
Listen!
I pray that you witness my death.
Tisbe, you poor wretch, why are you holding back?	860
Poor wretch,
Now you lack neither the place nor the opportunity:
Only dying brings any pleasure to you!
Dying!
I desire nothing so much	865
As bringing my sorrows to an end.
It's wrong that I hold myself back from striking,
It's wrong!
Love, make my hand strong enough
That with a single blow I can accomplish my death:	870
In this way his soul will gain great comfort,
If the two of us die in a single death.
Friend,
Sorrow and love have killed you.
Since we cannot be together in life,	875
Death will join us together: this I believe.
Parents,
Who thought to keep us under guard indoors,
You will feel sorry in a short time;
What sorrowful embraces	880
You will see,
When you find the two of us
Together, dead and enfolded in each others arms!
I pray you to grant us this gift:
Since we have been cut off from joy	885
And have been separated by death,
At least
Let a single tomb contain us,
A single urn receive us both.'

Then the girl leans down,	890
Kisses the wound, and calls him by name:
'Piramus, see, your friend is here:
Watch over her now and she will feel safe.'
The young man, at the moment he was dying,
Opens his eyes and so sees	895
That here is his friend Tisbe,
Lost in despair, who is calling out his name.
He wants to speak to her, but he isn't able,
Because death, which has hold of him, does not allow it.
But this much he does say: 'Tisbe, friend,	900
For God's sake, who brought you back to life?'
Then he grows silent, can say nothing more;
Still, he looks at her, and sighs.
His heart gives out on him, and he gives up his life:
It leaves, lost in despair.	905
He is dead and she is unconscious.
God, what a love is here brought to an end!
The girl lifts herself up again,
She takes the sword in both hands;
In the middle of her chest, below her breast,	910
The young lady stabs herself through.
From both sides the blood spurts out,
And she falls on top of his corpse.
She puts her arms about the corpse's neck and embraces him,
Kisses the eyes and mouth and face,	915
Kisses the mouth with great affection,
For as long as sense and life remain.
So long as sense and life remain
She shows herself a true friend.
This is the way the story of the two lovers ended.	920
How great was their faithful love!

10 September 1999