Oh, I am the Moor Moraima,
young, and fair to behold …
“Are you singing, mistress?” “Oh, Lolilla, look how happy our mistress is, you’re alive again, mistress, and your happiness gives us pleasure.” “I am singing, my scrubbing maids, and laughing.” “We were terribly afraid for you, Señora, when we saw your husband enter your bedchamber for the first time, without knocking, as if seeking a…” “And see what he found, my duennas; just look at that creature lying upon my bed, fabricated from bits and pieces I stole from the sepulchers; see him as El Señor saw him: is this my lover, this mummy, this monster? Yes, Señor, he is my penitence, the proof of my loyalty to your proposals, Sire, the Oriental luxury of a bedchamber and upon the bed, a cadaver, my companion, Sire, the only choice you have left me, the reflection of your funereal will, luxury wherein death resides, the pleasures of the senses subjugated by the domination of a cadaver; see how well I understand you, see how I follow in your path, see how closely bound I am to your most intimate mandates … and now, Azucena, Lolilla, let us prepare ourselves for a great voyage, all is ended here; warm my bath water with hot charcoal; the most perfumed soap, Lolilla; clean my most elegant dress, Azucena, scrape well the wax stains left by the candles; bathe me, lather me with soap, take the
torche-cul, Lolilla, and wash well all my parts so that no odor of man cling there, not one drop of man’s love … my perfumes, Azucena, and that dress, the one with the lowest décolletage — they say that the eyes are the windows of the soul and décolletage the window of Hell — and my jeweled gloves, and the slippers that fit my feet so sleekly that common people will wonder how I put them on and off, and gold powder for my hair, and remove those precious glass panes from my windows and pack them away so no one will ever again look through them toward a garden that does not exist; the garden is beyond, in the other world, and we are going there.” “And this sealed green bottle, mistress; is there something in it?” “Don Juan brought that with him from the sea; leave it here on the sands of the chamber.” “And the monster, Señora; will he remain on your bed?” “Oh, Azucena, Lolilla, my homunculus knows everything, understands everything; he has already told me what we must do with my royal mummy; there will be time; let us make ready; take that cup, Lolilla, the one made from an ostrich egg; fill it and give it to me.” “Drink, Señora…” “Sing, mistress…”