The undine (an immortal, naïve, playful water spirit) is rendered in a gentle, flowing, thinner texture; the lady of the manor (a mortal, mature, rational noblewoman) is rendered in a rich, declamatory, thicker texture. Soon however, the undine’s rendering is fortified as she declares that she also has a palace and that her family is the caretaker of the natural environment.
The man is rendered with both qualities as he unfolds the undine’s marriage proposal and possible kingdom followed by the admission that he loves the lady of the manor. The work is brought to a close by dissolving the undine’s flippant tears of laughter into a spray that recalls the gentle, flowing, dream-like, surreal world from which she sprang.
Poem:
Listen! Listen! It is me, Ondine who brushes
your window pane with drops of water
in the pale light of the moon;
See there on the balcony the lady of the
manor in her dress of silk,
See how she ponders the beautiful starry night
and see how she ponders the lovely sleeping lake?
Each wave is an ondine swimming in the
current’s flow and each current is a pathway
winding towards my palace built so fluidly
within the lake in the triangle of fire, earth and air.
Listen! Listen! It’s my father whipping waters
with an alder branch and see how my sisters caress
with arms of foam the cool islands of grasses,
lilies and gladiolus and see how my sisters mock
the ageing, bearded willow fishing with a line!
Her song murmured begging me to take her ring
and be her husband so I could be with her there
at the palace and become the king of the lakes.
And when I told her that I loved a mortal,
vexed and sullen, she shed a few tears
and then she burst into laughter, and then
she disappeared in a sudden spray that streamed
down the length of my blue stained glass.