nothing but evil. No matter,

for the next hour will prove to you

that I am not. Snow White, come.

Prince, if you will allow me now,

I shall call her my dear child.

We were just pretending before!

Trust me, and you played your parts well.

That was just for fun, a dagger

waved around in a hunter’s hand.

So he’s the villain—ha, ha, ha.

Come, come all into the garden.

Prince:

But I still don’t quite trust you yet.

Queen:

Come, little rabbit prince! Come too,

Hunter. Laughter will lead the way.

Hunter:

Indeed, my Queen.

They exit.

Change of scene. A garden like the one in the first scene. The Queen and Snow White enter.

Queen:

You lament again as before,

are bitter, and give me this sad look.

Why such a change without a word?

You know I don’t hold any grudge.

You have no reason to be sad.

Once more the Prince has turned to you

in love anew and yet you sulk

and don’t see that love’s drawing near,

approaching you from every side.

Snow White:

Oh, but the thought of you hating

and pursuing me I can’t shed.

In my troubled mind it follows

me and never, so long as I live,

can I get this out of my mind.

It sticks like this black in my heart.

It darkens every joyful note

of my soul and I am so tired.

I long for that open coffin,

laid out as this frozen image.

Were I but with my dwarfs, then

I would have peace and give you yours.

I plague you. I see you want me

a thousand miles away from here.

Queen:

No, no.

Snow White:

Ah, if I could be with the dwarfs.

Queen:

How was it there? Nice and quiet?

Snow White:

There sleep lays as quiet as snow.

I would be with them, like brothers

they were and so kind; there it shines,

having a cheerful cleanliness.

Pain, like some foul leftover food,

unpleasant to a refined sense,

was strange to that life’s white table.

Like a bedsheet, the happiness

was so clean you fell into sleep,

into this realm of colored dreams.

Unknown among the people there

was any ungenerous nature.

Each cherished their gentility,

good manners. Sweet conversations

found upon their lips a response.

I would still be there, but I was

driven in tears to you again,

back into this world where a heart

has to wither away and die.

Queen:

So among your dwarfs hate did not

exist? Perhaps love to them, too,

was something entirely foreign.

As you know, hate nourishes love,

and love rather prefers to love,

as you well know, cold, bitter hate.

Snow White:

I never felt a harsh word there.

Hate never tarnished love. If love

was there, that I don’t really know.

Hate makes love perceptible first.

There I didn’t know what love was.