WHEN THE TIME HAVE NEEDED to entrust Iseult to the Cornish knights, her mother

I collected herbs, flowers and roots, put them in wine and brewed a powerful drink.
Having boiled it with the help of her witchcraft and medicine, she poured it into a
jug
and secretly said to Brangien:
- Girl, you will follow Isolde to the country of King Mark; you her
love with true love. Take this jug of wine and remember my words:
hide it so that no eye can see it and no mouth can touch it.
But when the wedding night comes, at the time when the spouses are left alone,
pour this wine infused with herbs into a goblet and offer it to King Mark and
Queen Isolde to have a drink together. Yes, look, my child, so that after
none of them tasted this drink, for such is its power that those who
drink it together, love each other with all their feelings and all
thoughts forever: both in life and in death.
Brangiena promised the queen to do as she ordered.
Cutting deep waves, the ship carried away Isolde. But the further away
girl from Irish soil, the more she grieved. Sitting in the tent where she
shut herself up with Brangien, her maid, she wept, remembering her
country.
Where were these foreigners taking her? To whom? What fate was in store for
her? When
Tristan came to her, wanting to calm her down with kind words, she was angry,
repelled him, and hatred filled her heart. After all, he is a thief
the murderer of Morold, by cunning tore her from her mother, from her homeland, and
did not honor her
save for himself, but carries her by sea, like prey, into the enemy
country...
- Unhappy! she said to herself. - Cursed be the sea, which
carries me; I would rather die where I was born than live there.
One day the winds died down; sails hung along the masts. Tristan ordered to
come
to the island. The Cornish knights and sailors, exhausted by the sea, disembarked
Coast. Only Isolde remained on the ship, and even a girl, her maid.
Tristan approached the queen and tried to calm her heart. Because
the sun was hot and they were thirsty, they asked for a drink; The girl started
looking
some drink and found a jug entrusted to Brangien by Iseult's mother.
- I found the wine! she called to them.
No, that was not wine - that was passion, burning joy, and endless
sadness and death.
The girl filled the goblet and offered it to her mistress. Isolde did
several long sips, then served the goblet to Tristan, who drained it
to the dregs.
At that moment Brangien came in and saw that they were looking at each other
in silence,
as if bewildered, enchanted. She saw in front of them almost empty
a vessel and a goblet beside it.
Grabbing the vessel and running to the stern, she threw it into the waves and
plaintively
exclaimed:
- I'm unhappy! Cursed be the day I was born, cursed
the day I boarded this ship! Iseult, my dear, and you, Tristan, you
drank your death!
And the ship again rushed to Tintagel. It seemed to Tristan that the living
thorns, with sharp thorns and fragrant flowers, took root in the blood
his heart and strong ties connected with the beautiful body of Isolde his body, his
thought, all his desires. And he thought: "Andrete, Denoalen, Genelon and Gondoin,
you slandered me as if I were seeking the domain of King Mark. But I still
more dishonorable: I do not thirst for his lands. My dear uncle, you who fell in
love
me, an orphan, before you recognized in me the blood of your sister Blanchefleur,
you,
who mourned me so tenderly when he carried me in his arms into a boat without oars
and
sails! Dear uncle. why didn't you drive away the wandering child from the very
first day,
who came to become a traitor? What did I think? Isolde is your wife, I -
your vassal. Isolde is your wife, I am your son. Isolde is your wife, and
She can't love me."
Isolde loved him. She wanted to hate him: didn't he neglect her
in an offensive way? She wanted to hate him, but she could not, for her heart
she was seized with that tender feeling, which is sharper than hatred.
Brangien watched them anxiously, even more tormented by the fact that
she alone knew what harm she had unwittingly done to them. She followed for two
days.
them, I saw that they refuse all food, all drink, all
consolation that they seek each other like blind men who reach out for each other
groping. Unhappy! They languished apart, but suffered even more when,
coming together, they trembled before the horror of the first confession.
On the third day, when Tristan went to the tent set up on the deck,
where Isolde was sitting, she, seeing him, said meekly:
- Come in, sir.
- Empress! Tristan said. - Why did you call me señor? Not me
or, on the contrary, your vassal and vassal, obliged to honor you, serve you and
love you like your queen and mistress?
Isolde replied:
- No, you know that you are my lord and master! You know that I
subject to your power and your slave! Oh, why didn't I irritate the wounds then
juggler, why didn't you let the killer of the monster die in the swamp grass? Why
not
lowered a sword on him, already raised when he bathed? Alas, I did not know
what I know now!
- Isolde, what do you know now? What is tormenting you?
- Alas, I am tormented by everything that I know, everything that I see. I'm
tormented
the sea, my body, my life!
She put her hand on Tristan's shoulder; tears clouded the rays of her eyes,
lips quivered.
He repeated:
- Sweetheart, what's bothering you? She replied:
- Love for you.
Then he touched his lips to hers.
But when for the first time they tasted the sweetness of love, Brangien, which
watched them, cried out and, stretching out her hands, all in tears, fell to their
legs.
- Unhappy, stop and, if still possible, return to the old!
But no, this is a path of no return! The power of love already draws you, and never
again
you will have joy without grief: wine infused with herbs has taken possession of
you, -
the love potion that your mother, Isolde, entrusted to me. Only one king
Mark was supposed to drink it with you, but the devil laughed at the three of us -
and
you drained the cup. My friend, Tristan, and dear Scholda, in punishment for
that I guarded the drink poorly, I give you my body and life, because through my
fault
you drank love and death in the cursed cup!
The lovers embraced; love desire fluttered in their beautiful bodies and
the power of life.
Tristan said:
Let death come!
And when the evening twilight shrouded the ship, swiftly rushing to the land
of the king
Mark, they are bound forever, surrendered to love.