Scene 1: Pygmalion, in the middle of the night, reaches the altar of Venus in her temple, and throws himself in front of her statue
Pygmalion :
Tonight I pray to thee Venus
Forgive this sorrowful heart
Who knew no one but Appolo
The giver of reason and of Art
And of ambitions ever unbound
who set my spirit on fire
to rise above this finite land
to seek over Mount Olympus
what is beyond the Genius
of both man and immortal god.
And I set within the marble stone
The music of Appolo’s lyre
day after day, with this mortal hand
I soared above what gods aspire
Galatea, the name I carved in words
Unadorned she was, unequal was pure gold
She was my victory, over all you gods
For no god ever made perfect man
Yet that night, perfection was mine to hold !
But where Genius rose ever higher
The void left was filled with desire,
One lonely night not before too long
I sang to her, she offer’d back no song
And where whisper’d tales with tears I told
Her eyes were idle, her palms were cold
Tonight I pray to thee Venus !
Take back all the Genius of my soul
Take back Appolo’s poisoned chalice
Of gods, I no longer wish the role
Breath in her the gift of love and life
That I may find by her, warmth in night
That I may know how mortal fates unite
Make imperfect this - my perfection
Take Galatea, my miracle of creation
Give me Galatea the human, the wife !
Scene 2 : Dialogue of Venus and Appolo, in front of a magic fountain showing both Venus’s temple and Galatea in Pygmalion’s cottage
Venus
Witness my victory god of Art
god of Genius, music and Mind
Your proudest creation has a heart
His vows to Appolo, this night unsigned
How unwise, brother, to think a man
May rise to take the role of god
When we spelled the frailties of mankind
Between heart and reason their choice was made:
Without reason, man may live his life
Yet not a day – by Cupid- from love apart
Appolo :
Our powers are vast but minds finite
While limitless is man’s imagination
gods create the man, who works the night
to rise above us in his own creation
Galatea her name –lifeless she stands
Yet holds Pygmalion’s genius and soul
He did not pray Venus, yet still knew love
For Is Galatea the work of just the hands,
When each night watered with the artist’s tears?
I ask you sister, not to hear his cries
For if you breath into her a mortal life
Happiness he may know, but for a day
If tonight he calls her his love, his wife
Tomorrow she’ll be a Memory of
your crime against labour and perfection
Begrudge him not the sorrows of his heart
Such is his fate to seek his happiness
In making the immortal, from a mortal mind
Do not destroy the miracle of his Art
In the name of the lonely winter’s tears
For if Galatea is the artist’s lasting miracle,
we the gods made the human’s fears
Venus :
I do not live to do favours for man
Be he a genius or a petty thief
But prayers of love I cannot deny
should they bring joy, misery or grief
You see in Galatea your victory
When the artist rose over Olympus high?
Yet Pygmalion shall be my triumph
In her love he’ll find eternal belief !
(She raises her hands)
Cupid ! Prepare your quiver for the game
Tonight thine arrows shall cover the sky !
Scene 3 Galatea, kneeling by the sleeping Pygmalion in their cottage
Galatea
What is the secret of existence
But a divine gift that was twice received ?
Once, the genius of Art gave instance
Thence, from gods’ breath the spirit conceived ?
Pygmalion, husband, creator, friend, and love
Is it a glimpse of sorrow on your face ?
My life span is a year, spent by your side
Wherein you showered me with kisses each dawn
Yet tonight, of your love, I see no trace
Tonight, I see the veil that masks a fear
but I shall ask not for the truth unveiled
Let not the eyes search for false happiness
That was not meant for a human to find
Swear an eternal love as you did the day
you forewent Reason in the will to pray
When with a breath of Venus I came to life
Know that if Galatea once was the work of the mind
None but the name remains in your wife
Ageless stone may tell of miracles, but will not love
Yet our mortal hearts are forever entwined
Scene 4: Pygmalion, walking alone under a moonlit night
Pygmalion:
One night I thought my genius rose
Above the fates of gods and their creation
For once the spirit denied the mortal laws
No god deterred a limitless imagination
Galatea was the child of my mind
Years I worked in the stillness of the night
When man and beast close their idle eyes
And lived without both man’s truth and lies
While I labored for an image of perfection
She was both companion to the mind and heart
With with the spirit content, with the labor done
I declared that over you gods I’d won
For there she stood, of my victory the annunciation
Yet when minds grow weary, the heart takes the stage
Hitherto freedom was a limitless quest
Yet now it was a human desire
I denied Appolo, and cursed my fate:
That while my spirit may roam far above
I shall be creator of beauty, yet know not love
And with a heart full of sorrow and of rage
I prayed Venus, to make human out of divine
An earthly love out of a perfect design
Thence for a year I saw happiness in Galatea
And embraced the bars of this blissful cage
But while Galatea received the gift of life
She no longer was the creature of my dream
Day after day, my gift to her the more withdrawn
conquered by a god’s curse: that she may know time
She could not show love when of marble stone
Yet she was my gift to a never-ending future
That ever lives in hope of a new dawn
Venus! My Galatea was eternal
But yours shall know that hourglass we call age
The Artist creates beyond the laws of time
But when gods conspire with the human inside
Everlasting Art, ever the victim of their crime!
Venus! No love is true with the spirit tied
Take back that which is a cruel imitation
Take back what you gave in the name of heart
Give back the product of Mind’s creation
Give back my gift to a distant generation
Return to me the genius of my Art!
(Scene 5, Appolo and Venus, looking at Pygmalion through his window)
Appolo
Your victory was but an illusion
And soon all is what it was meant to be
Needless was the divine intrusion
Unworthy was Venus’s inclusion
Of what Pygmalion’s heart was not to see
`
Give him back that Galatea of yore
Not the creature of heart but of his dreams
Although at your altar he might implore
His bliss is the mystery of lifeless stone
That carries mortal thoughts to an immortal shore
Venus:
He will get back his unmoving creation
Today, he renounced both Venus and love
What I gave him was the true liberation
From bondage of a never-ending quest
Of a mind ever weary and a heart oppressed
Your gift to him shall be his eternal curse
If today Reason triumphed over his heart
Think not that his first bliss he is to find
For if you give the blind one moment of sight
Will he ever be happy when back in the dark?
I shall take from Galatea life’s spark
Yet in his heart I shall keep that seed of love
That whenever his spirit rises far above
And while he swears to live from love apart
His gaze shall always be that of mortal man
He may create a perfect image from perfect stone
Yet shall know the memory of dispossession
His eyes forever searching for what he lost
Through a cruel prayer in a cruel night
If my work ruined the genius of his Art
Giving her a soul that knows the laws of time
His work too shall carry the recall of a crime
In a woman’s memory he shall live his days
That, Appolo, shall be your curse and my revenge
Until that eternal cycle is complete
The day Pygmalion kneels at my altar and prays!
By Comte Almaviva
