Ondine
By Jean GiraundouxGiraudoux's play is a charming fairy tale with bittersweet consequences. The story is about a beautiful water nymph named Ondine and Hans, the handsome knight who falls irretrievably in love with her. Unable to remain in a world vastly different from her own, Ondine says goodbye to her lover.
ONDINE:
No, Hans. I have taken my precautions. You used to laugh at me because I always made the same movements in your house. You said I counted my steps. It was true. It was because I knew the day would come when I would have to go back. I was training myself. And now, in the depths of the Rhine or the ocean, without knowing why, I shall go on forever making movements that I made when I lived with you. When I plunge to the bottom, I shall be going to the cellar - when I spring to the surface, I shall be going to the attic. I shall pass through doors in the water. I shall open windows. In this way I shall live a little with you always. Among the wild Ondines there will be one who will forever be your wife.
Before I left, I took some of the things in our room. I threw them in the river. They seem strange to me in the water, these bits of wood and metal that speak to me of you, they float about aimlessly out of their element. It's because I'm not used o it yet: tomorrow they will seem as firm and stable as the currents in which they float. I shall not know what they mean, exactly, but I shall live among them, and it will be strange if I don't use them sometimes. I shall drink from your cup. I shall look into your mirror. Sometimes perhaps your clock will strike. Timeless, I shall not understand this sound, but I shall hear it. And so, in my way, though death and the infinite come between us, I shall be true to you always.
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