Richard Wagner

“ But in thy sleep A thief might slip up And steal slyly the ring.
Say, how wouldst thou save thyself then?
Alberich Most shrewd to himself seems Loge;
Others always Figure as fools. If I had to ask for Advice or aid On bitter terms, How happy the thief would be! ”

“ On hills of delight Your home is, where gladness Softly lulls; The dark elves Ye despise, O deathless carousers!
Beware! Beware! For first your men Shall bow to my might; Then your women fair Who my wooing spurned The dwarf will force to his will,
Though frowned on by love. ”

“ An increasing clamour, as of smiths at work, is heard on all sides. The clang of the anvils dies away. A vast subterranean chasm becomes visible which seems to open into narrow gorges on all sides. Alberich drags the screaming Mime out of a side cleft. ”

“ He sits down calmly on a stone. Alberich, who has taken the Tarnhelm from his head and hung it on his girdle, is brandishing his scourge and driving before him a band of Nibelungs fro m the gorges below. These are laden with gold and silver treasure, which, urged on by Alberich, they pile up so as to form a large heap. Alberich Hither! Thither! Héhé! Hoho! Lazy herd! Haste and heap Higher the hoard. ”