DRAGANADRAGANA
KRSENKOVIC BRKOVIC
THE SECRET OF A BLUE CRYSTAL
(Translator: Nada Crvenica)
I
(The palace. It is the Prince’s birthday party. The feast is in the full swing. Courtiers dance. The Prince is with them. He dances unnaturally, with no enthusiasm. It’s obvious that he is bored.
The King and the Queen sit on the throne. A magician is next to them.)QUEEN: How lovely his dancing is! What grace... what sensitivity...
KING: As if each movement flows out from the music.
MAGICIAN: Your son...
KING (with pride) Yes, my son...
QUEEN: My sweetheart...You see, we’ve lived long enough to see this day - he’s eighteen. (sighs) It’s true. It seems like yesterday when I held him in my arms.
MAGICIAN: Our Prince has grown into a handsome young man...
KING: ...and a brave one. Though - we must admit - he hasn’t had a chance to prove it yet...
(The music stops. The dancers give a bow to their ladies. The Prince comes up to the throne.)QUEEN: Well done, my son... Well done. Your dance is a feast for the eyes.
KING: I hope you’re enjoying your birthday party.(The Prince sits down. He looks around the ballroom, disinterested. He yawns.
The King and the Magician looks at each other puzzled).MAGICIAN: The whole kingdom is celebrating this great day today. Songs are resounding in the squares, in all the houses, even in the remotest villages. Every citizen shouts for joy and sends you good wishes for a long life and happy days in the future.
PRINCE: My respectable Magician, what’s the point of so many words? Of so much excitement? It’s so normal that my birthday is being celebrated and stirring the blood in the citizens, since they were born to rejoice happy moments in the Royal family, weren’t they?(The Magician is silent and stares at the Prince contemplatively. The Prince watches the courtiers dancing, lost in thought. The King stands up, takes the Magician by his arm and leads him to one corner of the ballroom.)
KING: Listen to me. You watch the stars, you know the wisdom from old books, make predictions easily...use magic and magic potion... Tell me what the matter with my son is.
(The Queen makes her son stand up and join the other dancers. They both dance slowly, dignified).
MAGICIAN: (he sighs and shrugs his shoulders) I’m afraid of one thing only...
KING: Which thing? Speak out... Frankly...
MAGICIAN: Frankly?
KING: You mustn’t hold back anything from me... no matter how cruel and hard it may be.
MAGICIAN: (after a short hesitation) Your Majesty, our Prince suffers from something which can hardly be cured.
KING: Suffers, you say...? Is he ill?
MAGICIAN: You mean...? Oh, it’s nothing of the kind. His body is sound, and his spirit too. But...
KING: But what...? Come on, tell me, don’t keep me in suspense...
MAGICIAN: His heart is empty. Our glorious and honorable heir to the throne is lonely...
KING: Lonely? How can he be lonely? What about me? And the Queen? Look at all these noblemen around him... all these courtiers... pages... He can’t be alone any single moment.
MAGICIAN: It’s true - he is never alone. He’s always surrounded by the court. Yet, his heart longs for...
KING: For what?
MAGICIAN:... and craves...
KING: Craves, you say?
MAGICIAN: The Prince is restless. He craves for new excitements. The routine suffocates him. He is fed up with this court, with the same faces he meets every day, with these chambers, the furniture in them... even with the strict protocol...
KING: We have to obey the protocol. There has to be law and order!... And the furniture... It can’t be replaced every day, can it? We have to be thrifty...
MAGICIAN: As your Majesty wishes. But... (he shrugs his shoulders), youth...
KING: Hmm... (he watches his son thoughtfully) Interesting. And you say the Prince craves for...
MAGICIAN: ... for distant places... unknown lands. He knows that the world is full of excitement which makes life worth living. He seems to think that each minute spent in this palace is a waste of time...(The music stops. The Prince and the Queen stop dancing. They come up to the table and take their seats. The Queen strokes her son’s head as if he were still a boy. The Prince soon falls asleep).
KING: Interesting... Such a thing’s never occurred to me. (he picks his beard thoughtfully)
(The Queen stands up silently and comes up to the King)
QUEEN: Our son’s fallen asleep...Shall we leave him alone...Let him take some rest.
KING: You’re right. (They leave the ballroom, hand in hand) He’s had a busy day today.
QUEEN: First the reception, then receiving presents...so many guests. It’s not easy for someone who’s only 18...(The courtiers silently leave the ballroom, tiptoeing. The Prince sleeps on the throne. The Magician watches him for a little while, smiling. Then he comes up to him. He raises his palm and makes circling movements above the Prince’s head. Smiling and contented, he leaves the room.)
II
(The Prince sleeps. The light changes. A blue mist covers the space. Silent, pleasant music can be heard. It always announces the arrival and presence of the Princess during the play. The Princess comes out on the stage. The whole scene is dreamlike. The Princess’s face is covered with a veil, so that her beautiful features can hardly be discerned. Her movements are slow, dreamy.
She slowly comes up to the Prince, touches him. As he keeps sleeping, she goes to another corner of the room. She is cresting fallen and siting down saddened. She starts playing the lyre and singing sadly.)PRINCESS: My fate is now sad
the cruel dragon threatens me
I’m longing for, withering and waiting for my luck
but, my knight, I won’t hold out.Oh, my knight, where are you? Where are you?
Hurry, rush over, overcome all the obstacles
the fateful hour is getting closer
don’t let the monster win
send it all to ashes and powder.My knight, where are you? Where are you?
(After the song, the silence subdues. Bent to the ground, the Princess silently weeps. After a while she raises her head and starts talking in a sad, painful voice).
PRINCESS: My Prince...! Can you hear me...? Can you feel my sorrow?... This grief and misery that are burdening me...? He’s been torturing me for a year. (Pause) The whole year! It was long time ago. I was walking along the flowery alleys of the palace, and a huge red ball of the sun was at the bottom of the horizon, when suddenly a dark shadow of the cruel dragon appeared in front of me, and the dragon himself before me... and I remember my flight in his arms... I’ve been languishing in his chambers for a year. Many have tried to rescue me but no one has succeeded. The dragon is too cunning... powerful. I’m so scared of everything. Everything. I’m afraid that I’ll have to stay with him, here... at the end of the world. To sing to him, to play to him ... to recite poems to him. And that he won’t let me see the sun... the clouds floating in the sky, the slow swaying of hundred-year old fir-trees and pine-trees. I’m afraid that I’ll never ever hear the gurgling of streams, the singing of birds, or be able to touch the dewy grass. Oh, Prince! You are the only one who can stop this monster. (She slowly stands up and leaves the stage). Later can be too late... And - remember! You’ll have to go to the end of the world as far away as to the Big tree... Prince! Can you hear me?
(Her voice trails off. The light changes, the blue mist vanishes).
III
(The Prince wakes up and jumps to his feet at once. He looks around excitedly, looking for the princess.)
PRINCE: What’s happened? Dream or reality? What a breathtaking girl!! I’ve never seen a more beautiful one...It’s unfair that such a beauty has to suffer so much... (Pause) I must set off to find her! I must rescue her... Father!... Mother...! Where are you?
(The King and Queen rush in. The whole court follows).
QUEEN: What’s the matter, my son?
KING: You look so excited...What’s happened?
PRINCE: I’ve made up my mind. I’m leaving. A princess is in trouble and I must rescue her.(The cry of amazement passes through the chamber.)
QUEEN: My dear child, what’s the matter with you? (she feels his forehead) Have you had a fever?
PRINCE: Mother, let me remind you that I’m eighteen.
QUEEN: I know, we’ve been celebrating that great event the whole day.
PRINCE: Then I kindly ask you not to treat me like a child. I resent it.
KING: He’s right, my dear. Our son’s a grown-up young man and deserves to be treated with respect... (He takes his son by the arm and leads him to a corner of the ballroom. He talks to him silently.) What’s all this nonsense about leaving? About the princess?... Danger? My son to be exposed to danger? It’s ridiculous! You must have had too many cakes. Too much fat can go to one’s head, and then one says...whatever occurs to him. But, it will pass soon and you’ll forget all this...(The Prince pushes his father’s hand aside and stands firmly in the middle of the room. The magician watches this from aside. He smiles.)
PRINCE: I’ve made up my mind. Nothing’s going to stop me from setting out...
QUEEN: But, son...How can you do it... so suddenly...
KING: One doesn’t set off on a journey without long preparations. The King’s son has to have a royal journey.(The sound of acclamation in the ballroom)
PRINCE: No! I’m going on my own... at once. I’ll saddle my white horse, mount up and ride out through the front gate...
QUEEN: (desperately) Where for? But you don’t know where you’re going either.
PRINCE: To the end of the world. She’s sent me a message...
QUEEN: She? Who? The princess? She was here then?
PRINCE: Of course she wasn’t. She’s been taken a prisoner. She confided in me in my dream...
QUEEN: (laughs) My dear child, you shouldn’t trust your dreams. You see, during the day we get tired and when we fall asleep, our body takes a rest. Then our mind plays its games. It sends us dreams.
KING: It’s like...like trying to keep the foam in your hand...or the grains of sand. Or, soapsuds bubbles. In a jiffy, they’re gone...vanished... like a smoke.
PRINCE: I’ve had enough of this...(The Prince goes angrily to another corner of the room.
The Magician walks up to the King and Queen. He whispers something to them. The King and the Queen look at each other and shrug their shoulders).MAGICIAN: Our Prince is eighteen years old. Remember that it’s the age of maturity when serious decisions are made. If our beloved...honorable heir (he makes a low bow with a sweeping movement) has made up his mind to leave - we have to accept his decision. But, we have to bear in mind that one mustn’t set out on such a journey empty-handed... In this solemn moment, let me give our most beloved citizen this wonderful sword...
(He raises it high up. A cry of admiration and acclamation passes through the chamber.)
It’s not an ordinary sword. It was forged a long time ago, long before people could remember. It was sharpened by sunrays and tempered with the Moon’s dew. That’s why it has a magic power. With soma (he raises a goblet up), holy drink that gives life, our most honorable prince needn’t worry.
(He pours the drink from the goblet into a small bottle which he later hands to the Prince. The courtiers acclaim again. He takes the Prince aside.)
There is something more...
PRINCE: Something more?
MAGICIAN: (whispers) There’s a secret passage in the court. There’re lots of spies...evil thoughts. If you pass through the front door on your own, you may easily fall a victim. But this secret passage leads to the road. Go in disguise and no one will recognize you. You’ll be safe.
PRINCE: I’ll keep this in mind.
QUEEN: Do you really have to...?
PRINCE: Mother...Father...Don’t bother to see me off. The magician will get me out...(The Prince and the magician leave)
QUEEN: Take care...
...
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