Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) by Bertolt Brecht

Night. Ekart asleep in the grass. Baal comes across the fields as if drunk, his clothes open, like a sleepwalker
.
    BAAL : Ekart! Ekart! I’ve got it! Wake up!
    EKART : What’s the matter? Are you talking in your sleep again?
    BAAL
sits down by him
: This:
    When she had drowned, and started her slow descent
    Down the streams to where the rivers broaden
    The opal sky shone most magnificent
    As if it had to be her body’s guardian.
    Wrack and seaweed cling to her as she swims
    Slowly their burden adds to her weight.
    Coolly fishes play about her limbs
    Creatures and growths encumber her in her final state.
    And in the evening the sky grew dark as smoke
    And at night the stars kept the light still soaring.
    But soon it cleared as dawn again broke
    To preserve her sequence of evening and morning.
    As her pale body decayed in the water there
    It happened (very slowly) that God gradually forgot it
    First her face, then the hands, and right at the last her hair
    Then she rotted in rivers where much else rotted.
    The wind
.
    EKART : Has the ghost risen? It’s not as wicked as you. Now sleep’s gone to the devil and the wind is groaning in the willows like an organ. Nothing left but the white breast of philosophy, darkness, cold, and rain right up to our blessed end, and even for old women nothing left but their second sight.
    BAAL : You don’t need gin to be drunk in this wind. I see the world in a soft light: it is the excrement of the Almighty.
    EKART : The Almighty, who made himself known once and for all through the association of the urinary passage with the sexual organ.
    BAAL
lying down
: It’s all so beautiful.
    Wind
.
    EKART : The willows are like rotten teeth in the black mouth of the sky. I shall start work on my Mass soon.
    BAAL : Is the quartet finished?
    EKART : When did I have the time?
    Wind
.
    BAAL : It’s that redhead, the pale one, that you drag everywhere.
    EKART : She has a soft white body, and at noon she brings it with her under the willows. They’ve drooping branches like hair, behind which we fuck like squirrels.
    BAAL : Is she more beautiful than me?
    Darkness. The wind blows on
.
Young Hazel Shrubs
    Long red switches hanging down. In the middle of them, Baal, sitting. Noon
.
    BAAL : I’ll satisfy her, the white dove
… He looks at the place
. You get a good view of the clouds here through the willow … when he comes there’ll only be skin left. I’m sick of his love affairs. Be calm!
    A young woman comes out of the thicket. Red hair, a full figure
.
    BAAL
without looking round
: Is that you?
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : Where’s your friend?
    BAAL : He’s doing a Mass in E flat minor.
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : Tell him I was here.
    BAAL : He’s too thin. He’s transparent. He defiles himself.
    He’s regressing into zoology. Do sit down!
He looks round
.
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : I prefer to stand.
    BAAL : He’s been eating too many eggs lately.
He pulls himself
    up by the red switches
.
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : I love him.
    BAAL : You’re no concern of mine.
He takes her in his arms
.
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : Don’t touch me! You’re too dirty!
    BAAL
slowly reaches for her throat
: Is that your throat? Do you know how they put down pigeons, or wild ducks in the wood?
    THE YOUNG WOMAN : Mother of God! Leave me alone!
She struggles
.
    BAAL : With your weak knees? You’re falling over already.
    You want to be laid in the willows. A man’s a man, in this respect most of them are equal.
He takes her in his arms
.
    THE YOUNG WOMAN
shaking
: Please, let me go!
    BAAL : A shameless bird! I’ll have it. Act of rescue by desperate man!
He takes her by both arms and drags her into the thicket
.
Maple Trees in the Wind
    Clouded sky. Baal and Ekart, sitting among the roots
.
    BAAL : Drink’s needed, Ekart. Any money left?
    EKART : No. Look at the maple in the wind!
    BAAL : It’s trembling.
    EKART : Where’s that girl you used to go around the bars with?
    BAAL : Turn into a fish and look for her.
    EKART : You overeat, Baal.