Editor's Note: We are looking for any drama, be it an actual stageable play, closet drama or philosophical dialogue. One Act Plays are ideal, but any sort of scene from a larger work that can stand on its own is also good. As with all of the Thirty First Bird Review's content, religious themes are encouraged, but take this in the widest possible sense.
The Prince & The Fool is the final part of my five part drama BUDDHA.
Poetic drama involves a mix of realism & symbolic, exemplified by the masks
they are wearing (the Mask of the Prince is that of the Moon, the mask of
the Fool is that of the sun).
Any production would have to reflect this mix –none the less I think it is
worth presenting this scene as independent of its allies.
Therefore the poetic nature of the language is in keeping with these demands
Music, slow and simple, the prince and the fool take their position on
opposite sides of the stage and face the public
The light comes on full
There is silence
Prince: My palace is my prison
I am a prince – but a prince in a gilded prison
I am a prisoner of who and what I am
I was born to this life
It was not of my choosing
I am not the one that I would like to be
Sometimes I hear the echo of a music in my heart
And I long to follow it
But it fades and dies
All things fade, all things die in this life
Why should music be any different?
Fool: Not yet myself to myself
Not yet my self
Not yet
Not
Not yet but perhaps will be
I live with that hope
I live with a fool’s hope
Not yet myself to myself
Prince: Even the moonlight can be oppressive
This ring on my finger is oppressive
The expectation of people is oppressive
The expectation which I have of myself is less than nothing
I feel the sorrow of the world but can offer no healing balm
I hear the cry of pain from each heart
But what can I say in reply?
I can make no reply
I have only my silence
I hang my head in shame
Fool: Yet to be what I can be!
More than a fool
A fool with a wisdom he would give to the world
But the world turns away
I seek that prince of hearts who will unite me to himself
Together we will sing a gladsome song
Together we will offer compassion to the world
Prince: Some thief has stole my heart
I don’t know where to look for it
Everywhere I look I see only the hollow misery of the world
Such suffering is oppressive
Such suffering weights heavy on my mind
I see the suffering of the world but have no remedy
This pains my heart
This burdens my mind
Where is the enduring song of healing?
Where is the singer of the world?
Fool: Not yet myself to myself
Not yet my self
Not yet
Not yet
Not yet
King’s fool but a prince in my secretive heart
Which holds all secrets dear
No one knows my secret
It is a longing I do not share with the world
Even so I hope to meet myself some day in a princely guise
I hope to find the lost part of my soul
Prince: What do I hold but the emptiness of the world?
There is no laughter in my mind
There is only sorrow in my heart
I am burdened by what I am
Even the moonlight can offer no hope this night
I must leave this prison so as to seek the wisdom of the world
If wisdom is there to be found
Fool: There is sorrow in my heart because I know a joy the world does not
know
It will not listen
It holds itself aloof from what I know
I know a song that the world should sing
But the world will not sing with me
Who sings with a fool?
Who pays attention to the wisdom that I carry
Prince: Who can I sing with when ashes are in my mouth?
What song might be pleasing to my ears?
My heart is sorrowed
My mind is sorrowed
Ashes are in my mouth and I cannot sing
Fool: Who will sing a fool’s song with a fool?
The moon brings its song to the world
There is joy in each heart
Above all things I love the moon
And am its willing servant
Everything I know, everything I sing
I have gotten from the moon
I have gotten so much
I have gotten this foolishness
But the world does not understand
It condemns me for this
It say’s I am a fool but no more than that
Whereas I am all that every fool can be
I know the secrets of moonlight
I know the songs of the night
But who can abide such knowledge
Without being a fool to the world?
Prince: Ashes in my mouth
An empty mind-
This is the fate of the prince
I am that prince of an empty fate
The hollow clang of gold
The foolishness of politics
The voices that vie for elusive power
Yes
I know the secrets of their hearts –those at my court
They come fawning for favours
They seek positions of power
They come with flattery but all flattery is empty
This serves to burden my heart even further
Yet what do I seek?
I cannot name what I do not know
I cannot name what I long for
Yet longing burdens my soul
I seek a knowledge that the world will not offer
I seek a song that will calm the heart
But I know of no such knowledge
I know of no such song
A soft and haunting flute music now plays
Prince: Did I hear music and what did it say?
Fool: Did I hear music and what did it play?
Prince: Did it offer hope to the charred heart?
Did it – did it?
Fool: Did it offer hope to the empty heart?
Did it – did it?
Prince: If only there was hope
If only there was a salvation I could believe in
If only
If only
Everything depends on if only
Fool: If only there was hope
If only there was salvation to be had in a song that I might sing!
If only I could unburden my heart to a brother soul
Prince: Salvation in a song?
Yes, why not
Why should music be excluded from the kingdoms of joy?
Fool: In the kingdoms of joy there is always music
Prince: The kingdom of joy –
Does such a kingdom exist and where is it?
Tell me
Tell me
I will go into the world and seek that kingdom
And who knows
Perhaps I will find it
Perhaps I will find a song to ease the pain in my heart
Fool: I would like to ease the pain in the heart of the world
I would like to do it with a song
I would like to do it with a word – but can that be done?
Will the world listen to the song of a fool?
Will the world listen to the word of a fool?
Perhaps somewhere there is one who will listen
Perhaps somewhere there is one who will sing with me
If I could find such a one then the world would be saved
If I could find such a one then there is hope for the world
Prince: To go into the world
To taste its bitterness
To sing its sorrow
To bring joy to its heart
But what joy can I bring when I have no joy in my heart?
Fool: If only there was someone who would listen
Prince: If only there was a song to which I could listen
Fool: Just one person
That’s all that is required
One person to sing the salvation of the world
That’s all
That’s everything
Nothing more than this could be hoped for
Prince: One song
That’s all it would take to fill my heart with joy
One song
One song – but what a song that would be!
Is there such a song?
In this empty world is there a song that can be sung?
This is what I will search for
This and nothing less than this
This and nothing more that this
Fool: I am looking for a singer
Prince: I am looking for a song
Fool: I am looking for a singer who knows what I do not know
Prince: I am looking for a singer who knows what I do not know
Fool and Prince together: I am looking for that part of myself which I do
not have
I am looking for that lost part of myself
I’m looking for the face I do not have
I’m looking
I’m looking
I’m looking
Music – light change – the prince and the fool exchange places on the stage
Everything is in shadow
The phantom enters
The Phantom Fools!
Fools in their knowledge
Fool in their foolishness
I deny their knowledge and their foolishness
I have no need of music
I have no need for a song
As for salvation – what of it?
It is an illusion
Something not worth discussing even as they search for it
Whatever they do I will undo for I am the prince of time
Who is no fool
Time is their enemy
They have no time that I do not allow
I see their intentions even if they do not
I see their hopes even if they also do
But what can they do against me
I am the force of the wind that chills their heart
I am the darkness they must face
Darkness and time – it is a lethal combination
I know what forces are at my command
And I will command those forces to undo what they do
I cannot be outdone
I cannot be ignored
I cannot be denied though I will deny them any peace of mind
Prince: Even the wind has a cold voice
I hear but do not understand-
Perhaps this is a message from heaven
Perhaps this is a message from hell
If so – how will I know the difference?
Phantom: Yes, I am that voice on the wind
I am the wind
I cannot be ignored
I cannot be denied
The egg of time will not split open for them
But they must not meet
The fool and the prince – yes, I know them
I know what they seek
I know what they hope for but I will not allow it
Fool: The wind is speaking
I hear but do not understand
Yet I understand all too well
What its cold intentions are
Phantom: He understands nothing
He hears a voice on the wind
That’s all
No more and no less
The fool is a fool if he thinks he can understand
A fool understands only foolish things
A prince understands only princely things
Both of which are illusions of time
And I am the time that marks them both
Time will give but time will take away
The breath of death moves over the world
It cannot be ignored
It cannot be avoided
It cannot be postponed
I am that breath
I bring death in my hands to all who live
I rob them of hope
I am the denial that cannot be avoided
I am the force they must face and fail before
I have been this in the past
I am that in the present
I will be that in the future
Fool: What future is there for a fool who is no fool?
Prince: What future is there for a prince who is no prince?
Phantom: All the futures are mine
I own time and control the wind
Who can oppose me?
Who can undo what I will do?
Who will unmake what I make and construct?
Nothing and no one
No one can undo the shape of the wind
No one can undo the breath of death
There is only a fool’s future for them both
Fool: I hear the wind and fear it
I do not understand what it says
But there is a coldness on my breath
That I fear
Prince: Yes, this coldness comes from hell
It chills my bones
It brings no comfort
The night is dark and the night will be long
I should be used to it but even so it chills my bones
Fool: Unending night in the coldness of the world
Prince: In the coldness of the night there is the unending breath of hell
Phantom: I am that breath
Have been before and will be again
Nothing will ever change that
Nothing will change
Nothing will change
Nothing will change
Fool: Is the wind speaking?
I hear a noise that might be a voice
But what it says I cannot understand
Even so I will go into the world
Phantom: Go where you will fool
And I will go before you and behind you
Prince: I shed the old skin of myself as I face the world
I will go naked before the wind
I abandon my past – it is of no use to me
I will go naked and seek a healing song
Phantom: Go where you will and I will be there
I will be there before you
I will be there when you leave
You cannot outdo my voice nor my power
Fool: I have found a mirror
Phantom: It will show him nothing
Prince: I have found a stone
Phantom: It will tell him nothing
Fool: I see the moon in my mirror
I see myself in the mirror
I have become one with the moon
Prince: What is the secret of the stone?
What does it say to the listening heart?
I listen and know that it speaks
I listen but hear nothing
Phantom: He will hear the echo of his empty mind
Prince: My heart is a stone
My mind is a stone
This stone is brother to my mind, to my heart
Phantom: What does the stone speak but death
Prince: Death is brother to the stone
I know this but I also know
That the stone speaks a secret
I would love to know
Fool: I have always loved the moon
It is the secret of my heart
My heart is also a part of the moon
Phantom: The stone speaks death
And nothing but death
I speak death and nothing but death
Death in a stone
Death under the moon
Death on the face of the moon
Death in the clouds that move across the moon
Prince: Death is moving across the world
The moon is blood red behind the clouds
Shadows fall on the world
Shadows fall on my heart
Shadows fall on the healing words that I would pronounce
So I pronounce nothing
My mind is cold
Somewhere in the distance a bell is ringing
But this is a music that no one hears
I am burdened by the sorrows of the world
Phantom: Who now is the fool – the fool or the fool of a prince?
All princes are fools who live a fool’s delusions
The fool is also a fool but in a way he does not understand
I control both
I keep them apart or bring them together as I see fit
And I see fit to do exactly what I please
Fool: What pleases the heart does not always please the world
Prince: There is nothing I can do to please the world
There is nothing I can do to please the pain in my heart
Everywhere I go I see pain and
Everywhere I go I bring pain with me
I have no joy to give to a needful world
Fool: Everywhere I go I see nothing but pain
I turn and turn but there is only pain and pain
Who will take the joy I bring?
Where is the one who will accept me for what I am?
Who is the one of wisdom that will heal the wailing of the world?
Phantom: Ah, those foolish ones, how they please me
I delight in what they do not know
Their pain please my fiendish heart
In the shadows of the world
In the clouds that hide the blood-red moon
In their unknowing resides my joy
Prince: What can this stone offer my stone heart?
What can this stone offer the world?
What can I offer the world when I have nothing but emptiness in my heart?
Fool: The moon in the mirror is the moon in my heart
I sing moon-songs but no one listens
Will I sing a moon-song?
Will I sing to the moon or to the lonesome heart of the world?
(sings)
moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
That is my moon-song to the moon
That is my moon-song to the world
But has anybody listened?
Will anybody sing with me?
Prince: Did I hear singing?
Is there somewhere singing in the world?
Is there warmth in all the coldness?
Is there hope where none is to be found?
Is there singing that might heal the world?
I will search out that singing
I will sing that song
Phantom: He must not sing!
No singing must be allowed!
I will not allow it
I will not allow it
I will not allow it
Prince: But now there is a cold voice on the wind
Was there singing?
Was there hope?
All singing brings hope to the heart
It is the heart’s natural prayer
I’ll make that prayer
I’ll sing that song
If I can find that singer
Fool: Something is stirring in my heart
Some answer that has no words but which gives me hope
I feel as if some revelation is at hand
I feel that somewhere someone wants to sing with me
If there can be singing then there can be hope
The one who listens is the one who will sing
I will sing with my heart
I will find the one who loves me
Phantom: They must not meet!
They must not sing!
There are brothers in search of each other but they must not meet!
If they meet there will be singing in the world
There will be the escape from the circle of pain
They will undo all that I have done and will yet do
This must not happen
This cannot happen!
Fool: If only it can happen
If only I could meet the brother of my soul!
Prince:
If only this could happen
If only I could meet the true brother of my soul!
Fool: I will search out my brother
Prince: I will search out my brother
Fool: I will search out the lost part of my soul
Prince:
I will search out the brother I have never known
Fool: I will search out the brother I have never known
Prince: I will search out the lost part of my soul
Phantom: I will put a weight into their hearts
I will cast shadows on their paths
They will fall
They will stumble
The stone will shatter the song
Prince: I have heard singing so now I know that singing exists
Fool: Somewhere a heart has been moved
Some one has looked at the moon and now knows there is love
Prince: Love mixed with a song will giver birth to compassion
Phantom: Love mixed with a song will undo all that I have done
This must not happen!
Here, I will cast a spell upon the world!
I will block out the moon
There will only be shadows
No one will sing!
(intones)
Let there be dark!
Let there be dark!
Let there be darkness on the face of the earth!
The lights dim
Prince: Where has this sudden darkness come from?
Who spoke the dreadful word upon the waters of the world?
I hear wailing
I hear the sorrow of a voice that looks for light
I feel the sorrow of love that longs for an understanding heart
Fool: Again
Again
Those dark clouds!
The horse-shaped clouds
What dark phantom ride the night with an evil intent?
What can I cast against the dark?
Prince: This darkness –what can I cast against it
When this stone weighs heavy on my heart and in my hands
If only I could let it fall
If only I could cast away this stone and hear that singing once again
Phantom: Now they know fear
Now they know the darkness that will not end
They are cast in the pit of themselves
There is no way out
This is what I desire
This is what I long for
This dark-power gives meaning to my life
Prince: If only…
If only…
Fool: I am a fool with foolishness and wisdom
But I know this darkness is the dark that would swallow the moon
I will not let it!
I will sing!
I will sing the moon back into the sky
(sings)
moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
Phantom: No!
No!
No!
Prince: I hear singing
I have heard it before
I hear it again
It is a gladsome voice
It is a gently voice
Listen
Fool: (sings)
moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
Prince: Can I sing?
Can I?
Phantom: No!
No!
No!
(intones)
Let there be dark!
Let there be dark!
Let there be darkness on the face of the earth!
Fool: (sings)
moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
Phantom: No!
Darkness must prevail!
Silence must prevail!
There can be no singing!
(intones)
Let there be dark!
Let there be dark!
Let there be darkness on the face of the earth!
Fool: The darkness comes again but I will sing
Prince: The darkness comes again but I will sing
(sings)
moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
Phantom: No!
let there be no moon!
Let there be no heart that listens to song
Let there be no singing
Fool: Someone is singing my song
My brother is singing my song
The lost part of my soul is singing my song
Prince: Someone is singing my song
My brother is singing my song
The lost part of my soul is singing my song
Phantom: (intones)
Let there be dark!
Let there be dark!
Let there be darkness on the face of the earth!
The lights begin to come up slowly to full strength as the Prince and the
fool sing in unison
Fool and Prince moon of my heart
that loves the world
that loves the wandering stranger
to you I sing
to you I sing
to you I come
with the gifts of spring
spring has come with water and flowers
spring has come to bless the hours
moon of my heart that love the word
this is the song that I sing
Phantom: I am cast down
Darkness is undone
The moon rises over bamboo and reeds
The fishermen cast their nets once more
Harvest has come upon the land
I am undone
My power is undone
They will meet
Compassion will be born and enter the world
I will have no more power
I can only run from the light
Prince: My brother is near now
My brother is near
Fool: My brother is near
I can hear his breathing
The magus of time is cast aside
Beauty enters on a song
Joy is given back to the world
I wait to meet him I have never known
Prince: You have known me in your heart
You have known me in the secret places of your mind
You know me by the song I sing
Fool: He nears!
He nears!
I feel his presence in the wind
Prince: He nears!
He nears!
I feel his presence in the wind
They slowly move to centre stage
Prince: I see you!
I see you!
You are the lost part of my soul
Fool: I see you!
I see you!
You are the lost part of my soul!
They turn to face each other
Prince: My brother, welcome
Fool: My brother, welcome
They remove their masks, the advance towards each other and kiss
Fool and Prince: I kiss my brother
I kiss the lost part of myself
I kiss the self I have become
I have become the Buddha
© Martin Burke 2009
