The Odyssey: A Stage Version by Derek Walcott & Homer

Author:Derek Walcott & Homer [Walcott, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466880382
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2015-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

SCENE XII

Interior. CIRCE prepares Odysseus’ drink, slipping in a powder. He chews the moly-flower. BILLY BLUE enters.

BILLY BLUE (Sings)

She give him shining bush to drink, she give him man-you-must

She fix him a liqueur of gooseberry wine

But his flag still at half mast

She pour in some sweet-oil and crush it with thyme

Coriander, basil and cerasee

But the flower of the moly slowly defy she

Power of matrimony

No, no, doux-doux

I have a message for you

As sweet as you are

And you sweeter than guava jam

I have a wife at home

And she begging me come

And I saving it all for she.

(ODYSSEUS sips the potion. CIRCE is undressing slowly.)

I have a wife at home

And she begging me come

And I saving it all for she.

She slip off she shoulder strap, she raise up she hem

She untangle she jewellery

All the time she keeping her big black eyes on him

Circe circling him for some revelry

With lavender, rosewater and cerasee

But the moly slowly, slowly strengthening him

He thinking as he drinking

No, no, doux-doux

I have a message for you

As fresh as you are

And you sweeter than sugar-plum

I have a wife at home

And she begging me come

So I saving it all for she.

CIRCE

Become this man to whom everything has happened.

ODYSSEUS

What I want is so simple. To reach my own bed.

CIRCE

You’ll learn more than the others. The swine I keep penned.

ODYSSEUS

What would I learn from this?

CIRCE

From a goddess? Godhead.

ODYSSEUS

But taking what form if not a man’s any more?

CIRCE

My nostrils flared the minute I saw you enter.

ODYSSEUS

Why?

CIRCE

Your head lifted. A stallion circling his mare.

ODYSSEUS

With your season on the wind?

CIRCE

Circling. Thudding her.

ODYSSEUS

This stallion’s married.

(CIRCE strokes his thigh.)

CIRCE

What did this?

ODYSSEUS

Boar. Hunting scar.

CIRCE

Hunt mine. We’re kindred spirits.

ODYSSEUS

Yes?

CIRCE

You know we are.

ODYSSEUS

Not kindred bodies. This pig-scarred adventurer.

CIRCE

Reason has never restrained you, Odysseus.

(ATHENA enters, disguised as a maid.)

ODYSSEUS

We have company.

CIRCE

She’s young. You’d like to try her?

ODYSSEUS

As well? Too exhausting.

CIRCE

Go about your business!

(ATHENA exits.)

ODYSSEUS

Madame, I’m sure this could be a night well spent.

CIRCE

You’re in your house. A house men’s desires built.

ODYSSEUS

Paradoxes in brothels. Why’s this different?

CIRCE

Deceit without sadness.

ODYSSEUS

Only swine feel no guilt.

CIRCE

When heaven flares from the charge of our joined bodies.

ODYSSEUS

What?

CIRCE

Your spasm’s force need not bring oblivion.

ODYSSEUS

And my wife?

CIRCE

My cold lips will be Penelope’s.

ODYSSEUS

Ah!

CIRCE

We’ll re-create the gendering of your son.

ODYSSEUS

No ‘home’ and no mercy. The white harbour. The heat.

(CIRCE lifts the bedsheet.)

CIRCE

After rough seas, rest. From this tangled linen, calm.

ODYSSEUS

To lie on my olive-tree bed, sun crossing its sheet.

CIRCE

Rest your head on the length of this ebony arm.

(She licks his body and rolls over. They make love, then sleep. ATHENA enters as a servant. She draws a circle around their bed, sprinkling it with flour, hides. CIRCE leaps up.)

ODYSSEUS

What’s wrong? You just leapt out of bed like a whirlwind.

CIRCE

Someone was here.

(She rises, paces, distracted.)

ODYSSEUS

The sheets are all soaked with your sweat.

CIRCE

I heard: ‘You’re a monstrous bitch. You’ll pay in the end.’

ODYSSEUS

Who?

CIRCE

A green-eyed goddess. You’re her favourite.

ODYSSEUS

Who was she?

CIRCE

She sprinkled it round this bed. White sand.

ODYSSEUS (Tasting it)

It’s not sand, it’s flour.

CIRCE

That girl crept back in here.

ODYSSEUS

You heard her whisper something? I didn’t hear a sound.

CIRCE

We’re ringed by an owl’s cold eye. Death is its centre.

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