but, finding his fingers unapt at
the task, solves his difficulty by aid of Nothung. With delicate
care he cuts through the iron and lightly removes the corslet. "This
is no man!" he cries, starting away in amazement. Such emotion seizes
him, with sensations of dizziness and faintness--such a pressure on
the heart, forcing from it burning sigh upon sigh, that, with a
sense of having no resource in himself, he casts about for help
in this all so unfamiliar exquisite distress: "Whom shall I call
on that he may save me? Mother! Mother! Remember me!" Swooning, he
sinks with his forehead against Bruennhilde's breast--to be roused
again by the goad of his desire to see the eyes of the sleeper
unclose. "That she should open her eyes?" He hesitates, in tender
trouble. "Would her glance not blind me? Have I the hardihood?
Could I endure the light?..." He feels the hand trembling with
which he is trying to quiet his agitated heart. "What ails me,
coward? Is this fear? Oh, mother! Mother! Your bold child! A woman
lies folded in slumber,... she has taught him to be afraid!...
How shall I bring this fear to an end? How shall I gain back my
courage? That I may myself awake from this dream I must waken the
maid!" But awe of the so august and quiet sleeper again restrains
him. He does not touch her, but lingeringly gazes at her "blossoming
mouth," bows till the warm fragrance of her breath sweeping his face
forces forth his impulsive cry: "Awake! Awake! Sacred woman!" He
waits with suspended breath. She has not heard. She does not stir.
An infinite weakness overtaking him, a mortal coming less, "I will
drink life," he sighs, "from sweetest lips, though I should swoon
to death in the act!" With closed eyes he bends over Bruennhilde's
lips.

Twelve bars, the tempo of which is marked "_Sehr maessig,_" very
moderate, sing themselves delicately and gravely to an end. Bruennhilde
opens wide her eyes. Siegfried starts from her, not guiltily or
to move from his place, only to stand erect and, absorbed, watch
her movements.

Slowly she rises to a sitting posture and with beatific looks takes
account of the glorious world to which she has reawakened. Solemnly
she stretches her arms toward the sky: "Hail to thee, sun!" A great
pause, of drinking in further the loveliness of the scene and the
joy of life returned to, then: "Hail to thee, light!" And after
another great pause of wondering ecstasy: "Hail to thee, radiant
day!... Long was my sle