Norma Opera by Vincenzo Bellini Libretto

Cast:  POLLIONE (Tenor)  OROVESO (Bass)  NORMA (Soprano)  ADALGISA (Soprano)  CLOTILDE (Mezzo Soprano)  FLAVIO (Tenor)  TWO CHILDRERN, sons of Norma and Pollione (silent roles)  CHORUS  druids, bards, eubages, priestesses, virgins, warriors, soldiers Overture  ACT ONE  SACRED FOREST OF THE DRUIDS  SCENE I  OROVESO  To the hills, o Druids,  To watch over the Heavens;  When the new moon reveals  Her silver disk,  With the first smile  Of her *** face...  Let the mystic priestly gong  Sound its triple signal....  DRUIDS  Will Norma come  To cut the sacred mistletoe?  OROVESO  She will.  Yes she will. Yes. Yes.  DRUIDS  Will Norma come?  OROVESO and CHORUS of DRUIDS  Inspire her, O terrible God,  With Thy prophetic spirit;  Inspire her, O Irminsul,  With hate and anger against the Romans,  That this peace, fatal to us,  May be broken, yes.  OROVESO  Yes, God will speak in anger,  From these ancient oaks;  He will free this land  Of the hated Roman eagles.  The sound of his mighty shield,  Like the crash of thunder,  OROVESO and CHORUS of DRUIDS  In the cities of Caesar,  Shall echo at last...  ALL  O moon, hasten, rise!  Norma will come to the altar...  SCENE II  POLLIONE  The voices have died away. The path  Now is free through the awful wood.  FLAVIO  In this forest lurks Death.  Norma told you so.  POLLIONE  You have spoken a name  Which chills my heart.  FLAVIO  What are you saying? Your beloved,  The mother of your children!  POLLIONE  There is no reproach  Which you can make me that I do not  Already feel. But in my heart  The flame is dead - extinguished by a God  Who is the foe of my peace. At my feet  I see the abyss, and therein I cast myself.  FLAVIO  Do you love another?  POLLIONE  Speak softly!  Ah yes, another ? Adalgisa!  You will see her ?  Innocent and laughing with sweetness  And love. She is a priestess in the temple  Of this blood?maddened God ? yet she seems  Like starlight in a troubled sky.  FLAVIO  My wretched friend! And does she  Love you as you do her?  POLLIONE  I am sure she does.  FLAVIO  Do you not fear  The wrath of Norma?  POLLIONE  It will be terrible,  As my remorse already shows me.  In a dream ?  FLAVIO  Tell me.  POLLIONE  Even recalling it, I tremble!  Adalgisa was with me, in Rome,  At the altar of Venus,  Dressed in pure white  With flowers in her hair.  As she heard the hymns of ***  And breathed the holy incense,  Her senses were enraptured  With the joy of love...  Suddenly between us there descended  A horrible shadow,  And the great Druidic mantle  Enfolded her like smoke.  Lightning flashed on the altar,  And the day was veiled in darkness.  Silently, all around,  Rose a tomb?like horror.  The beloved maiden  as no longer at my side.  From afar I heard a sob,  Mingled with the weeping of my children.  Then a monstrous voice  Echoed through the temple, saying:  This is the vengeance of Norma  Upon her faithless lover!  FLAVIO  Do you hear it? Norma is coming now  From the temple to perform her rites.  VOICES  distant  The moon has risen, o Druids!  Let none stay here, unless he believe.  FLAVIO  Come...  POLLIONE  Let me be.  FLAVIO  Listen to me.  POLLIONE  Barbarians!...  FLAVIO  Let us go....  POLLIONE  I shall defeat their plans!  FLAVIO  Come, let us go.  Here they will find you!  POLLIONE  The barbarians are plotting against me,  But I shall defeat their plans.  FLAVIO  Oh, come let us go.  If found here we are both lost.  POLLIONE  A Power greater than they  Protects me, defends me.  It is the thought of her,  It is Love itself, which inflames me!  I shall burn the evil forest  Of that god who would  Take her from me,  And I shall destroy his blasphemous altars!...  SCENE III  CHORUS  Norma comes now, her hair  Girt with the mystic verbena;  In her hand, shining like the crescent moon,  Gleams the golden sickle.  She comes: and the star of Rome  Veils itself in terror;  Irminsul courses the fields of heaven.  Like a comet, the prophet of doom.  SCENE IV  NORMA  Are there those who dare  To raise seditious voices,  Warlike voices, before the altar of God?  Who dares to question my inspired words,  Seeking to hasten the ordained fate of Rome?  That will not come through human efforts.  OROVESO  How long, then, must we remain oppressed  By Rome? Have not the Roman eagles  Sullied enough our native shores,  Our ancestral temples? Brenno's sword  Can remain no longer idle.  ALL  Let that sword, for once, be brandished!  NORMA  And broken,  If one of you should draw it  Before the destined time. Not yet  Is the moment of our vengeance.  The Roman spears are still  Stronger than the Druids axes.  ALL  What command has God given you?  What prophecy?  NORMA  In the secret books of Heaven,  On a mortal page, I read  The name of proud Rome.  One day she shall die; but not at your hands.  She will die, consumed  By her own vices, Await that hour,  That fatal hour decreed by God.  And meanwhile, peace! I cut the sacred mistletoe.  NORMA and PRIESTESSES  Chaste goddess, who dost bathe in silver light  These ancient, hallowed trees,  Turn thy fair face upon us,  Unveiled and unclouded...  Temper thou the burning hearts,  The excessive zeal of thy people.  Enfold the earth in that sweet peace  Which, through Thee, reigns in heaven....  NORMA  The holy rites are ended.  From the sacred wood  Let every unbeliever go.  When God, in his dark anger,  Shall demand the Romans' blood,  Then from the Druid temple  My voice will thunder forth.  ALL  Let it thunder, and not one of the cursed race  Shall escape the holy slaughter.  And first to fall before our wrath  Shall be the Proconsul of Rome.  NORMA  Yes, he shall fall. I can punish him –  (But my heart can never do it.  Ah! bring back to me  The beauty of our first love.  Then, against the world itself  I shall be your defense.  Ah! Bring back to me  The peace and warmth of love,  And in that love I shall find again  Life, fatherland and heaven itself!)  CHORUS  But a wrathful god is hastening  To condemn the power of Rome.  NORMA  (Ah, be once more as you were  When first I gave my heart to you!)  CHORUS  But the wrathfuI day is near,  Which will condemn the power of Rome.  SCENE V  ADALGISA  The rite is finished, the sacred wood  Is empty.  Now I can sigh, unseen  At last, here where first he came to me,  My fatal Roman whose love  Made me a traitor to my vows, my God.  Had that first time been the last!  A vain desire - for I am powerless  Before that force. My heart feeds  On the sight of him, and the breeze  Repeats to me his dear voice.  Ah, protect me, God, for I am lost -  Great God, take pity, for I am lost.  SCENE VI  POLLIONE  (There she is. Go, now: leave me.  I can no longer listen to reason.)  ADALGISA  You - you here?  POLLIONE  What is this?  Were you weeping?  ADALGISA  I was praying. Ah,  Leave me now; let me pray.  POLLIONE  You pray  To an atrocious god, foe of your desire,  And of mine. O beloved, your God  Should be the God of Love.  ADALGISA  Love! Ah, be silent.  I shall listen to you no more.  POLLIONE  You shun me? Where  Can you flee that I shall not find you?  ADALGISA  To the temple,  To the holy altar whose sworn bride I am.  POLLIONE  The altar? And our love?  ADALGISA  Ah, forgotten!  POLLIONE  Go, cruel woman, shed my blood  As offering to your heartless god;  All my blood may be spilt,  But I can never leave you,  No, no, I can never leave you.  You were but promised to your god:  Your heart you really gave to me.  Ah, you do not know what it would cost me,  Ever to have to renounce your love...  ADALGISA  And you, you do not know the pain  Which loving you has cost me.  Happy and innocent was I, destined  To the altar which I have profaned.  My thoughts rose up to heaven,  Into the very presence of God.  Now for me, guilty violator of my oath,  Both heaven and God are veiled from sight  POLLIONE  A purer heaven and holier gods  I offer you, in Rome. I am going there now.  ADALGISA  You are leaving?  POLLIONE  At dawn -  ADALGISA  You are leaving! - and l?  POLLIONE  You will come with me.  Love is more sacred than your rites ?  Yield to Love, ah, yield to me!  ADALGISA  Do not say it!  POLLIONE  I shall say it,  So many times that you will listen...  ADALGISA  Ah, leave me!  POLLIONE  No, yield,  Yield to me.  ADALGISA  Ah, I can not;  Just Heaven, protect me!  POLLIONE  Can you abandon me like this?  Abandon me like this, Adalgisa?  Come with me to Rome, O my love,  For there is love, and joy, and life;  We shall vie with each other  To know the greater joy in life.  Do you not hear a voice in your heart  Which promises eternal happiness?  Ah! Have faith in that sweet voice  And take me, as husband, to your heart!  ADALGISA  (Heavens! Thus I hear his voice  Always, everywhere, even in the temple –  His eyes, his face ? his image  I see even upon the altar.  He triumphs over my tears,  He conquers my sorrow.  God, take away from me this delight –  Or else forgive my sin.)  POLLIONE  Adalgisa!  ADALGISA  Have pity!  Spare me further pain!  POLLIONE  Adalgisa! You will not leave me?  ADALGISA  I? Oh no, I can not - I shall come.  POLLIONE  Here - tomorrow - at this same hour -  You will come?  ADALGISA  I promise you.  POLLIONE  Swear!  ADALGISA  I swear!  POLLIONE  Oh joy!  You will remember -  ADALGISA  I shall remember,  My God I shall renounce,  But to you I shall be always faithful.  POLLIONE  Your love gives me courage  And I shall dare to defy your god.  ADALGISA  But to you I shall be always faithful.  SCENE VII  NORMA  Go, now ? hide them both. I tremble  Tonight to embrace them.  CLOTILDE  What strange fear  Troubles you, that you send your children away?  NORMA  I do not know. Many passions  Torture my soul. I love and yet I hate  My children! I suffer when I see them,  I suffer when I do not,  I feel pain  Together with joy, as never before,  In being their mother.  CLOTILDE  Are you their mother?  NORMA  If only I were not!  CLOTILDE  What an evil strife!  NORMA  Which no one can imagine.  O Clotilde! Pollione has been  Recalled to Rome.  CLOTILDE  Are you leaving with him?  NORMA  He keeps  His thoughts a secret. Oh, if he tried to flee –  Leaving me here? If only I could forget  These sons of his!  CLOTILDE  Do you think he will?  NORMA  I dare not.  It is too much ?  Such a doubt is too horrible. Someone is coming.  Go ? hide them now!  SCENE VIII  NORMA  Adalgisa!  ADALGISA  (Glorious faith!)  NORMA  Come here, my child,  Come. Why are you trembling? They told me  You had a secret to tell me.  ADALGISA  Yes ? but oh, look upon me  Without this priestly austerity which shines  In your eyes. Give me courage, that I  May reveal my heart wholly to you.  NORMA  Come, embrace me  And speak. What is it?  ADALGISA  Love ?  Do not be angry - I fought long  To stifle it. It conquered all my strength,  All remorse. Ah! You do not know the oath  I swore just now! To flee from the temple,  To betray the altar to which I am sworn,  To leave my fatherland.  NORMA  Ah, unhappy girl!  The morning of your life  Is already clouded! How and when  Did this love come to you?  ADALGISA  At the first glance,  At the first sigh, in the sacred wood,  Before the altar, as I was praying.  I trembled ? my prayers fell mute  On my lips. Lost in beholding  His beauty, I seemed to find  A new heaven in his face.  NORMA  (Oh what memories! I too  Felt that when I first saw his face.)  ADALGISA  But you are not listening to me?  NORMA  Yes, go on.  ADALGISA  Secretly, alone at the temple  I often waited for him.  Every day the fire of love  Burned with a greater flame.  NORMA  (I too  Felt that: her enchantment is like mine.)  ADALGISA  "Come," he would say, "let me  Throw myself at your feet.  Let me breathe the breath  Of your sweet sighs,  Give me the curls  Of your hair to kiss."  NORMA  (Oh dear words!  So my lover spoke to me -  Opening the way to my heart.)  ADALGISA  His words were sweet to me  As the music of a harp;  In his eyes I thought to find  A new, a lovelier sun.  NORMA  (Her enchantment is like mine).  ADALGISA  I was lost, I still am lost.  NORMA  Ah, do not weep.  ADALGISA  I need your forgiveness.  NORMA  I shall have pity.  ADALGISA  Ah, you are my staff, my guide.  NORMA  Ah, do not weep.  ADALGISA  Comfort me or reproach me,  Save me from myself,  Save me from my own heart.  NORMA  Ah ' do not weep: you are not yet bound  To the altar by an eternal knot.  ADALGISA  Repeat, oh heaven, repeat  The joyous words:  NORMA  Yes ? take heart, embrace me.  I forgive you and weep for you.  From your vows I free you,  I break the sacred bonds.  You shall live happy, forever,  Close to the man you love...  ADALGISA  Repeat, oh heaven, repeat  The joyous words:  Through you is quieted  The terrible torment.  You have given me life again,  If my love is not a sin.  NORMA  You shall live happy, forever,  Close to the man you love.  NORMA  But tell me - the youth you love -  Which one of us is he?  ADALGISA  He is not a Gaul -  His country is Rome.  NORMA  Rome!  Who is he? Tell me -  SCENE IX  ADALGISA  You see him now.  NORMA  He - Pollione!  ADALGISA  Why are you angry?  NORMA  You say you love him?  Have I understood you?  ADALGISA  Ah yes!  POLLIONE  Wretched girl! What have you done?  ADALGISA  I -  NORMA  You are trembling! For whom!  For whom are you trembling?  Do not tremble, faithless man,  No, not for her -  She is not to blame,  The guilty one is you.  Tremble for yourself, traitor ?  For your children - for me -  ADALGISA  What are you saying? Ah! speak! Tell me!  You are silent. You draw back? - Alas!  NORMA  What a cruel, infamous deception  Has entrapped you!  It would have been far better  To die than ever to have known him.  The source of eternal tears,  He opened, too, to you;  The wretch betrayed your heart, as well.  ADALGISA  What a ghastly mystery  Is hidden in your words!  My heart quakes to ask you,  My heart fears to know the truth.  Heartbroken, now I understand  The full depth of my misfortune,  My boundless misery,  If he has so deceived me.  POLLIONE  Norma, do not wound me  With your scorn.  Let there be peace  For this troubled girl.  Hide from that pure soul  Our shame, as if with a veil.  Let Heaven alone be judge  Of whose is the greater fault.  NORMA  Traitor!  POLLIONE  Enough for now!  NORMA  Stop!  POLLIONE  Come!  ADALGISA  Leave me - go away -  You are a faithless husband.  POLLIONE  What I was, I have forgotten -  ADALGISA  Leave me!  POLLIONE  But now I am your lover.  ADALGISA  Go now, traitor!  POLLIONE  It is my fate to love you,  It is my fate to leave her....  NORMA  Accept your fate, then ? go!  Follow him!  ADALGISA  Ah no ? I should rather die.  NORMA  Leave me, yes, worthless man!  Forget your children, your promises, your honour.  Cursed by my disdain, you will find  No joy in your sinful love...  Over the seas, borne on the winds,  My burning hatred will pursue you.  Night and day my fury  Will rage around you...  POLLIONE  Hate me if you will. Let your fury  Invoke eternal anguish upon me!  The love which is now my master  Is greater than you or I.  No god could ever fashion  Greater suffering than mine.  Cursed was I that day  When fate gave me to you.  ADALGISA  Never allow that I may be  The cause of such pain in your heart.  Seas and mountains forever  Will divide me from the traitor.  I shall stifle my cries  And swallow my anguish;  I shall die to bring back  This cruel man to his children, to you. ACT TWO  SCENE I  NORMA  They are both asleep. They will not see  The hand which strikes them. No remorse  O my heart;  They must not live. Anguish here ? in Rome,  Abuse far worse than anguish ?  Slaves of a stepmother. Ah no, never!  They must die. I cannot go nearer:  A chill seizes me, my hair  Stands with fright. To kill my children!  Tender babies, until now  The joy of my life ? they, in whose smile  I seemed to see Heaven's pardon,  Can I kill them? What guilt have they?  They are the children of Pollione:  That is their crime! For me, they have already died;  Let them die for him, too.  May his anguish be greater than any other.  Strike -  Ah no! They are my children, mine!  Oh, Clotilde! Come - quickly!  SCENE II  Enter Clotilde  NORMA  Bring Adalgisa to me.  CLOTILDE  She is nearby,  Walking alone, weeping and praying.  NORMA  Go ? let my sin be mended ? and then, to die.  SCENE III  ADALGISA  Were you calling me, Norma? How pale  And sad your face!  NORMA  The pallor of death  I must confess my shame to you. I ask  One thing, which you will do  If my present grief and my grief to come  Deserves pity.  ADALGISA  I promise to do anything.  NORMA  Swear!  ADALGISA  I swear!  NORMA  Then hear me. I have resolved  To cleanse this earth  Of my existence. I cannot take these poor children  With me: I entrust them to you.  ADALGISA  Oh Heaven!  To me?  NORMA  Take them to the Roman camp.  To him whom I dare not name.  ADALGISA  What are you asking?  NORMA  May he be  Less cruel a husband to you. I forgive him,  And now I shall die.  ADALGISA  Husband! No, never!  NORMA  For his children's sake, I beg you.  Ah, take them with you,  Succour them, protect them.  I do not ask for glory and Honours ?  That will be for your own sons.  I ask only that my children  Be not abandoned to wretchedness and slavery.  Remember that it was for you  That I was betrayed and cast aside!…  ADALGISA  Norma, ah Norma! for me  You will always be a beloved mother.  Keep your children. May I never  Leave this land.  NORMA  You swore -  ADALGISA  Yes I swore ?  But only to do good for you.  Now I shall go to the Roman camp  And assail him with your laments.  The compassion you have stirred in me  Will speak out in sublime tones.  Do not despair ? you will see  Love and nature reawakened in him.  I am sure I know his heart ?  And Norma, there, shall reign again!...  NORMA  I should beg him? Ah no ? never.  ADALGISA  Norma ? do not resist.  NORMA  I no longer hear you ? go now, go!  ADALGISA  No, never!...  ADALGISA  See, o Norma, at your knees,  These dear, dear children.  Let pity for them move you,  If you feel no pity for yourself...  NORMA  Ah, why do you try to weaken me  With such soft feelings?  Such illusions, such hopes  Are not for one about to die...  ADALGISA  Relent, ah yield!  NORMA  Ah, leave me.  He loves you.  ADALGISA  And already he repents  NORMA  And you?  ADALGISA  I loved him ? now I feel  Nothing but friendship.  NORMA  Child ? what will you do?  ADALGISA  Return to you what is yours,  Or hide myself, with you, from God and man.  NORMA and ADALGISA  You have won ? embrace me.  I have found my friend again.  For the rest of my life  I shall always stay with you.  The earth is big enough  To shelter us both from love.  Together with you, courageously,  We shall fight outrageous Destiny,  As long as in our ***  Our loving hearts shall beat...  SCENE IV  GALLIC WARRIORS ? CHORUS I  Has he gone?  CHORUS II  He is still in the camp.  To judge from the signs: the warlike chants,  The noise, the clang of arms,  The banners waving in the breeze.  ALL  Let us wait. This slight delay  Must not disturb us nor hold us back....  In silence let our hearts prepare  Fulfillment of our mighty task...  SCENE V  OROVESO  Warriors! I had hoped to come,  Bearer of better news.  The unselfish ardour,  The anger seething in your ***,  I had hoped to second ? but God's will is different.  CHORUS  What! The hated Proconsul  Still does not leave our land?  He is not returning to Rome?  OROVESO  A fiercer, crueler Roman  Will succeed Pollione  In command.  CHORUS  Does Norma know this? Does she still  Speak to us of peace?  OROVESO  In vain  I studied Norma's thoughts.  CHORUS  What must we do now?  OROVESO  Submit  To Fate ? disband, without revealing  To anyone the failure of our plan.  CHORUS  Always to pretend?  OROVESO  Cruel law! I feel it too.  Ah! I too chafe beneath the Roman yoke  And long from battle.  But Heaven is against us.  We must pretend docility.  CHORUS  Yes ? pretence if pretence serves us,  But keep our anger burning in our ***.  OROVESO  Let us keep our hatred covered  Until the Romans think it dead.  The day will come when it will blaze forth  To burn with a fiercer flame.  CHORUS  We shall pretend, for the pretence serves us...  SCENE VI  NORMA  He will return. Yes, I have faith  In Adalgisa. He will return, repentant,  Suppliant, my lover again. This thought  Cleaves the black cloud  Which weighted upon me, and the sun  Breaks through, bright as on the first day of love.  Clotilde!  CLOTILDE  O Norma! Be brave!  NORMA  What are you saying?  CLOTILDE  Alas!  NORMA  Speak!  CLOTILDE  It was in vain  That Agalgisa spoke to him and wept.  NORMA  Why did I trust her?  She left me and, made lovelier by her grief,  She went to him.  She betrayed me!  CLOTILDE  She is coming to the temple.  Sad and anguished, she begs  To offer up her vows.  NORMA  And he?  CLOTILDE  And he  Has sworn to carry her off,  Even from the altar of God,  NORMA  The traitor would go too far.  But my vengeance will strike first ?  And blood ? Roman blood ? shall flow like water!  SCENE VII  CHORUS  The sacred gong has sounded!  OROVESO and CHORUS  Norma, what has happened?  The shield of Irminsul has sounded.  What meaning does it have?  NORMA  War,  Plunder and death.  CHORUS  But only a few hours ago  Your lips bound us to peace.  NORMA  And now to anger -  To rage, to battle, to their death!  Raise your voices, o brave men,  In the hymn of battle!  ALL  To battle! to battle! In the forest of Gaul  Brave warriors outnumber the trees.  As hungry wolves fall upon the flock,  We shall strike at the soldiers of Rome.  Blood! Blood! The Gallic axes  Are bathed in the blood of the Roman...  Over the impure waters of the Liguri  It gushes with deathly sound.  Slaughter, extermination and vengeance  Already begin and will soon be fulfilled.  Like grain mowed down by the sickle,  The Roman legions shall fall.  With proud wings clipped with talons drawn,  Behold the mighty eagle on the ground!  And God will come on the rays of the sun  To behold the triumph of his men.  OROVESO  Will you not fulfil the rite now, o Norma?  Will you not tell us who the victim is to be?  NORMA  The victim  Will be here. The awful altar has never lacked its victims.  But what confusion!  SCENE VIII  CLOTILDE  Our temple has been desecrated  By a Roman: he has been captured  In the sacred cloister of the virgins.  ALL  A Roman?  NORMA  Who can it be?  If it were he?  ALL  They are bringing him here.  SCENE IX  NORMA  (It is he!)  OROVESO and CHORUS  It is Pollione!  NORMA  (Now I am avenged.)  OROVESO  Blasphemous enemy ? who led you  To violate the fearful threshold,  To challenge the wrath of Irminsul?  POLLIONE  Kill me!  But do not question me.  NORMA  It is I who must strike.  Make way.  POLLIONE  Whom do I see?  Norma!  NORMA  Yes, Norma.  ALL  Strike with the holy dagger,  Avenge our God!  NORMA  Yes, I shall strike.  Ah!  ALL  You tremble  NORMA  (Ah, I cannot!)  OROVESO  What is it? Why do you hesitate?  NORMA  (Can I feel pity now?)  CHORUS  Strike him!  NORMA  I must  Question him ? to know what accomplice,  What insidious priestess, spurred  This infidel to the worst of crimes.  Leave me for a moment.  OROVESO and CHORUS  (What is her plan?)  POLLIONE  (I am trembling.)  SCENE X  NORMA  At last you are in my hands.  No one else can break your bonds.  I can.  POLLIONE  But you must not.  NORMA  I shall.  POLLIONE  How can you?  NORMA  Listen to me:  For the sake of your God, your children,  You must swear that forever  You will avoid Adalgisa -  You will not take her from the altar -  Then I shall grant you life -  And I shall never see you again.  Swear it!  POLLIONE  No: I am not such a coward!  NORMA  Swear it, swear it!  POLLIONE  First I shall die.  NORMA  Do you not know  My fury is greater than yours?  POLLIONE  I am waiting for it to strike.  NORMA  Do you not know that I, with this dagger,  Your children -  POLLIONE  Oh God! What are you saying?  NORMA  Yes: I raised it over them -  See, see what I have become!  I did not strike ? but soon ? now ?  I shall commit the fearful excess,  Forgetting I am a mother.  POLLIONE  Cruel woman, it is into the father's breast  That you must plunge the dagger.  Give it rather to me.  NORMA  To you!  POLLIONE  Then I  Alone shall die.  NORMA  No ? all  The Romans, by the hundreds,  Shall be mown down, destroyed ?  And Adalgisa ?  POLLIONE  Alas!  NORMA  Having violated  Her vows -  POLLIONE  Yes, cruel woman?  NORMA  Adalgisa shall be punished;  She will die in the fire...  POLLIONE  Oh! Kill me, kill me,  But on her have pity...  NORMA  At last you are pleading? Too late ?  I'll strike your heart through hers...  Already, in your eyes, I feed upon  Your anguish for her death;  I can, at last I can make you  As unhappy as I myself am!...  POLLIONE  Be satisfied with my terror:  I am weeping at your feet...  Vent your fury on me,  But spare an innocent girl.  Let it suffice, for your vengeance,  That I kill myself now before you ....  NORMA  I'll strike your heart through hers ...  Already in your eyes I feed upon  Your anguish for her death!  I can, at last make you  As unhappy as I myself am!...  POLLIONE  Be satisfied with my terror!  Cruel one, vent your fury on me,  But spare an innocent girl!  Cruel woman!  Let it suffice, my tragedy,  That I kill myself before you.  Give me the dagger!  NORMA  How dare you?  Stand back.  POLLIONE  The dagger, the dagger!  NORMA  There!  Priests, come here now!  FINAL SCENE  NORMA  To appease your wrath,  I announce a new victim. A perjured  Priestess has broken her holy vows,  Has betrayed her nation and our fathers' gods.  ALL  A crime! Oh, what wrath! Tell us all.  NORMA  Yes ? but prepare meanwhile the pyre.  POLLIONE  Again I beseech you,  Norma ? have pity!  ALL  Who is she?  NORMA  Hear me! (Shall I,  So guilty, accuse her of my own sin?)  ALL  Speak: who is she?  POLLIONE  Do not tell them.  NORMA  It is I!  CHORUS  You, Norma!  NORMA  Yes, I. Build the pyre.  ALL  (I am frozen with horror!)  POLLIONE  (My heart fails me.)  ALL  You ? a traitress!  POLLIONE  Do not believe her.  NORMA  Norma does not lie.  OROVESO and CHORUS  Oh, what shame!  NORMA  The heart you betrayed,  The heart you lost,  See in this hour  What a heart it was.  In vain you sought  To flee from me;  Cruel Roman, at last  You are with me.  A god, a fate  Stronger than you,  Wills us together  In life and death.  On the same pyre  Which consumes me,  And in the earth,  I shall be with you.  POLLIONE  Too late, too late  I have known you –  Sublime woman,  What a heart it was.  NORMA  The heart you betrayed,  The heart you lost,  See in this hour  What a heart it was.  POLLIONE  With my remorse,  Love is reborn,  A madder,  More desperate love.  Let us die together,  Yes, let us die:  My last word will be  That I love you.  But you, in dying,  Must not hate me.  Before you die,  Forgive me.  ALL  Oh, be your true self again, reassure us:  An aged father beseeches you.  Say you were speaking false, it is not true.  That the words you spoke were wild.  The austere God who hears you now  Is silent and holds back his thunder.  This is a sign, the clearest sign,  That He will not punish,Ah no, that God will not punish you!  CHORUS  Norma, ah Norma, vindicate yourself!  You are silent? You scarcely heed us!  NORMA  Heavens! And my children?  POLLIONE  Poor children! What anguish!  NORMA  Our children?  POLLIONE  What anguish!  CHORUS  Norma ? are you guilty? Speak!  NORMA  Yes ?  Beyond any mortal power to say.  OROVESO and CHORUS  Sinner!  NORMA  Do you hear me?  OROVESO  Away!  NORMA  Ah, hear me!  OROVESO  What sorrow is mine!  NORMA  I am a mother.  OROVESO  Mother!  NORMA  Be calm ?  Clotilde has my children.  Take them - save them -  Together with her ? from the barbarians ?  OROVESO  No, now go ? leave me.  NORMA  Ah, father! One last request ?  OROVESO and CHORUS  Oh, what horror!  NORMA  Oh, do not let them be victims  Of my cruel mistake ?  Oh, do not cut them down  In the innocence of childhood.  Remember that I am your blood,  Have pity on my children.  Oh father, have pity,  Have pity on my children.  Father, oh father ?  OROVESO and CHORUS  My heart is oppressed!  NORMA  Love conquered me!  OROVESO and CHORUS  Love conquered, yes!  NORMA  Ah, forgive me, your tears have told me.  I ask no more ? I am happy,  And gladly I shall ascend the pyre!  CHORUS  She weeps! She prays ? but what hope has she?  Her prayers will be rejected.  Tear from her brow the sacred wreath,  Place upon her the veil of death!  POLLIONE  I ask no more of you!  NORMA  Father, ah father!  OROVESO  No more, wretched girl!  NORMA  You promise me?  OROVESO  I promise you, yes.  NORMA  Ah, you forgive me! Your tears have told me, etc.  OROVESO  Go, wretched child!  NORMA  Father ? goodbye!  POLLIONE  Your pyre, o Norma, is mine.  There beyond, purer, holier,  Begins eternal love!  OROVESO  Break forth, at last, o tears!  You are a father's right.  CHORUS  Go now to the pyre and may your sacrifice  Cleanse the altar and the temple,  O you who shall be cursed in death!  NORMA  You promise me?  OROVESO  I promise you, yes.  NORMA  Ah, you forgive me! Your tears have told me, etc.  OROVESO  Go, wretched child!  NORMA  Father ? goodbye!  POLLIONE  Your pyre, o Norma, is mine.  There beyond, purer, holier,  Begins eternal love!  OROVESO  Break forth, at last, o tears!  You are a father's right.  CHORUS  Go now to the pyre and may your sacrifice  Cleanse the altar and the temple,  O you who shall be cursed in death!