Scene from the fifth Act

MRS. BALDE:
Oh dear husband, your gaze seems
So gloomy,
And even your weary steps
Betray the heavy burden on your soul.

CAPESIUS:
As so often before, today too
I bring you no joy, only gloomy thoughts
To your hospitable house.

FELIX BALDE:
Whether you seek cheerfulness or gloom
In our home,
You are always welcome. You were already so welcome back then,
When we were resigned to loneliness,
And you have remained dear to us,
Even since almost every day
A rich crowd of visitors
Approaches old Felix with questions.

CAPESIUS:
How is it that you,
The man who was once so closed off,
Has become an advisor to many?

MRS. BALDE:
Oh yes, good Felix
Once closed us off from the world
And now he opens his house so wide
That we can no longer know
Whether we still belong to ourselves.

FELIX BALDE:
You know Felicia,
How shaken in his soul
Many leave this place.
And in many souls
Curiosity far outweighs
the genuine thirst for knowledge,
After all I know today,
I can no longer
To dream in solitude,
I must trust the world
With what I think I know.

CAPESIUS:
How is it, dear friend,
That you could change
The nature of life?

FELIX BALDE:
It has become known to me
That we have reached a turning point
In the earthly existence of man.
Many fruits would be lost,
Eagerly sought after in the course of time,
If we did not succeed in guiding the human mind
Towards the realm of the spirit.
Each does so in his own way.
I have been granted a kind of knowledge,
To doubt the truth of which
Would seem to me a blasphemy against the spirit itself.
I know myself to be free of pride,
I will always confess
That I am but an instrument
Of the powers that give me words.

CAPESIUS:
Oh, may these powers
Speak to me from your mouth
In a way that my soul
Can understand,
Why my urge to enter the realm of the spirit
Punishes me with an abundance of misery.

FELIX BALDE:
As long as you do not want
to feel the secret workings of numbers
Within your inner being,
Confusion will extinguish the fire of your soul
Even before it has a chance to arise.
I know how I myself
In pious belief in the trinity of the soul
Explore the secrets of life.
I dampen all power of judgment
And turn to the foundations of my being
My inner eye waiting in patience,
Trusting in the Father,
Who lives within me.
I then feel at one with all beings.
The world has died for me.