libretti

The Spidermaiden and the Runaway Plum Blossom

by Paul Smith

Spidermaiden:
Ah...Let Spring end. Let strands come together!
The strands weave, weave, weave together!
Hear the cicada song! Song.
Hear, before dawn, hear the echoes of echoes of song. A step joins heaven and earth. Blooms in upward quests. Her soul is shown, reaching for light.

Giving life to blooms, born, they yearn then fade away. Caught! Caught! Balance is lost while in bloom
She, stumbling around, waiting to wilt.
One soul takes flight, one world to the next.

Step, she cannot speak. Step. Step. Yearn. Nature she. Yearn upward she. Step. Step. Step.

Plum Blossom
Ah! Oh Spider help am I caught in your web?

SM: yes little blossom! You are caught in my web
PB: Please set me free
SM: What and odd predicament
PB: Please spider help it is the last day of spring
SM: Hmmm. What do you hope to achieve with a short time till dawn

Plum Blossom:
My time is so short. I took to the wind, took to the wind to see the world. Spider. I want to see the world.
In spring the world is tinged with colours of grass.
See the sun. Bright and glistening.
Feel the warm sun.
Soon the sun will rise! And I will shrivel on your web.
Soon the sun will rise.

SM: Calm yourself blossom. So little time for what?

Plum Blossom:
Spider, I do not wish to fall to fall to the ground.
Spider, I was not happy with my lot. My place!.
Spider when the sun rises I cannot bear the heat, the heat, the suffering heat.
Torturous heat.

SM: And how have you come to my web?

PB: You see the dew drops shine on your web.
Like a thousand eyes they implore my soul to float over the sky.

SM: Look closely to my dew drops and see there a rainbow PB: I see nothing but dewdrops

SM: But little blossom, you don’t see the world for what it is. You see the world for what it could be, and oh, what it could be!

PB: How could I know.What could it be? The world what could it be?
Now please set me free! Please set me free! My time is so short.

Spidermaiden:
But Blossom to see the world is pointless.
You are young and naive. But Blossom. Barely bloomed. But blossom. Do you want more time or do you want to see the world?
You can’t have both!
And when the sun rises, the sweet scent,
sweet scent of your bloom will attract all the flies to my web.

Plum Blossom:
But Spider, I fled my branch to see the world and behold its wonders. Before the Autumn comes.

Spidermaiden:
Shh! Your time is so short compared to me. My time is short. I have now. But Blossom I am feeling kind!
I will give you one chance to earn your freedom.
Earn your freedom now if you can listen to a melody.
And tell me what this melody is!
What is this melody. What do you hear in this melody?

Plum Blossom: I will listen
Spidermaiden: Ah... (sings a wordless melody)

Plum Blossom: I hear the sea. Yes. The blue sea.
I see the waves, feel the spray. I see the glare of the sun on the water. Well there you have it, this melody is the song of the sea.

SM: Hmmm...Wrong!
This is not the song of the sea!

PB: What! But I heard the waves. Felt the breeze! The world how could it be

SM: Weave, weave together Giving life to blooms! But I am feeling kind! I will give you another chance.

PB: I will listen.

Spidermaiden: Ah... (sings the wordless melody again)
I hear the clouds. Yes. The white clouds. I see the birds. Feel the cold. I see the small little world on the land below.
Well there you have it, this melody is the song of the clouds.

SM: Hmmm...Wrong!
This is not the song of the clouds!

PB: But I saw them float! Touched their white form. The world how could it be?

SM: Weave, weave together Giving life to bloom.

PB: Soon the sun will rise and I will shrivel. No spider no!, I will fall to the ground..
You do not understand.

SM: We all fall. Understand blossom we call fall. Soon the sun will rise.

Both:
Fall, we fall. We fall. Watch them turn swirl Fall, we fall. We fall. As we chase we fall. Turn, turn, they turn and swirl
Colours will blend and petals will fall.
My limbs.
The long descent is cold, your eyes are warm. Warm.

A snatch. A wave. Suns rays.
A glimpse. A touch. a blush. a sigh. A sight, a grab, a catch.
Fall.

Turn your face. Fall from limbs. Swirl in you. Swirl in me. Fall, we fall, we fall.

SM: Now blossom, will you try again?
What is this melody? Be ready little blossom. (sings a wordless melody)

PB: I hear it, I feel it. I know now, spider. I know of what this song is.
Yes I know now.

SM: Look Blossom, see the sun rise. Feel the warm sun.

PB: I have known the world.
Spider, I have seen the world in your song. Felt the world. Touched the world. Spider,
I am ready to die.