Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)

Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man - full text of the drama - Translated by Joseph Grosz

At the Black Death which decimates the city And at the fate the gods prepare for us.

(A new wailing outside.)

ADAM (for himself)

„...I feel as if in dream I am afloat;

On wings of songs I journey to the past Where under sunlit palms I rest at last...

My spirit yearned for...” Did you say that?

EVE

Yes.

(In the meantime it has become dark. A funeral procession passes with torches and women mourners before the open hall. For a few moments the revelers fall into a dead silence.)

LUCIFER (laughing aloud)

I notice that your mood is turning dark.

Is there no wine, or no more wit, so that Even your sour-faced guest must find you dull? Perhaps someone among us is afraid Or is converted!

ADAM (throwing his goblet at him)

Perish if you believe so!

LUCIFER

I shall invite another guest to join us;

Perhaps, he will restore our gaiety.

Well, servants, hurry! Bring that man inside,

That one who travels in the torches’ light;

And we should offer him a drink of wine!

(They bring a corpse in an open coffin and place it on the table. The mourners stand in the background. Lucifer raises his cup to the corpse.)

Tomorrow, I - Today, you! Drink, my friend!

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