The Crowning of Peace

Ciw-restr ar gyfer Maiden

(Child) Will it be long before she comes?
 
(Mother) How many weary days we've stood and watched and waited!
(1, 0) 13 Mother, we must believe!
(1, 0) 14 Did they not say that, if the young men went upon this quest, then they should find her?
(1, 0) 15 And they have gone.
(Child) And will they all come back when they have found the Queen?
 
(Child) And you were happy, too?
(1, 0) 44 Yes, little one.
(1, 0) 45 I was happy also.
(1, 0) 46 I walked with my lover in the closing of the day.
(1, 0) 47 I saw the light in his eyes when I came near.
(1, 0) 48 We were chosen, each for each.
(1, 0) 49 We had our own truth and trusted.
(1, 0) 50 We did not know the future, but we had no fear.
(1, 0) 51 It was a way, hidden not by darkness, but by a mist where a white lamp shone.
(1, 0) 52 Oh!
(1, 0) 53 It has been bitter for the lovers, and many such as I have nothing now but memory.
(Child) It is a great pity that men drove the Queen away!
 
(1, 0) 60 Here comes one whose face we know.
(Father) Yes; he walks in the public places.
 
(Man of Doubt) What was, shall be.
(1, 0) 81 You speak thus in the market place!
(1, 0) 82 You cloud the sky, when we look towards the sun.
(1, 0) 83 O Man of Doubt, will not there still be tears enough?
(1, 0) 84 Do you not see the people would have her Queen for evermore?
(Man of Doubt) Yes; once again the people dream.
 
(Mother) What sound is that?
(1, 0) 90 Voices, many joyful voices.
(Father) {Looking away left.}
 
(Mother) They come this way!
(1, 0) 95 Oh!
(1, 0) 96 If it should be the Queen.
(Mother) At last!
 
(Mother) Tell us —what can you see?
(1, 0) 106 A crowd of men and women.
(1, 0) 107 And they are glad!
(Child) Oh, yes!
 
(Father) Who walks before them?
(1, 0) 113 One clothed in white!
(1, 0) 114 Her face is calm and beautiful.
(1, 0) 115 They press about her.
(1, 0) 116 She smiles, and—oh!—her smile is blessing.
(Father) It is the Queen.
 
(Mother) O God, we thank Thee now, we, the mothers of men!
(1, 0) 120 O God, we thank Thee now; we who love them and are loved!
(Father) O God, we thank Thee now; we who build the world a temple to Thy plan!
 
(Father) Who walks beside the Queen?
(1, 0) 124 Someone who leads her by the hand towards the throne.
(Child) Poor man!
 
(Mother) Who is it leads her by the hand towards her throne?
(1, 0) 128 A young man, weary and broken, dressed in a soldier's clothes.
(Queen) I come again from exile.
 
(Mother) We learn it, and our need is great!
(1, 0) 153 Oh, give us back those smiling days whose joy was greater than we knew!
(Queen) All that I have, I give you!
 
(Mother) O son of some poor waiting mother, what do you ask of us who have waited for our sons?
(1, 0) 174 O lover of some lonely maid, what shall we give, whose loneliness is done?