500
PARTISAN REVIEW
a vine: that's what she's really good at. I wouldn't mind having her
wrists. And animals she's good at, too: the young deer which fears
the wind and plays with the wind, or the bird in the net. Demonassa
is good when she can do a lot with her head and neck: she dances
something while Bacchis stands stiff and rigid in the middle, holding
the Medusa mask in front of her face and Demonassa comes dancing
along, unsuspecting, and suddenly she has to turn into stone; then
she makes a movement of throwing back her head, and a convulsive
stiffening, first of all down to her hips, then down to her feet, till you
feel the ice-cold shiver run down your back.
Laidion:
My God, how flat and futile all that is! There we dance
for twelve or twenty men, among them a few rich old dodderers and
the rest parasites. We dance and then we are tired and then every–
thing turns ugly: everything crowds in on me, the faces of the men,
the lights, the noise; like the beaks of greedy birds everything pecks
me in the face. I would rather die than lie with them and drink
and listen to their shrieks. Then I wish myself as far away as a bird
can fly. I have always known that somewhere there is an island
like the one he told me about.
Hymnis:
What kind of island is that?
Laidion:
Oh, I don't know. Leave me alone.
H
ymnis:
Sailors are great liars, you know.
Laidion:
I know perfectly well these were no lies he told me.
I would like to keep him here twenty nights, and I wouldn't allow
him to stop telling me.
Hymnis:
What do you care about these strange places? Surely
you woudn't like to be there! What would you do among those col–
ored barbarians?
Laidion:
Fool! What do you get out of dancing? Are you ever
happy for one moment?
Hymnis:
Oh, shut up! You've got your melancholia again! I have
fun when I dance, when they tear their wreaths from their heads
and throw them to me. Then I hold them, then I am really myself.
Laidion:
But inside yourself? Are you happy inside? Can you forget
yourself, can you get rid of all fear, get rid of the shadow that
darkens the blood in your veins?
Hymnis:
What fear? I have no fear when I dance.
Laidion:
But you have wishes, and wishes are fear. All your danc-
