Bernarda+Alba+-+the+text

=THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA=


 * (La Casa de Bernarda Alba)**

By Federico Garcia Lorca

In a new translation by Caridad Svich

Contact: New Dramatists 424 West 44th Street, NY, NY 10036 E-mail: newdramatists@newdramatists.org

Or VM: 212-886-1814 csvich21@aol.com

February 2003.

=THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA=

__Characters:__ BERNARDA, sixty years old MARIA JOSEFA, Bernarda’s mother, eighty years old ANGUSTIAS, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty-nine years old MAGDALENA, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty years old AMELIA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-seven years old MARTIRIO, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-four years old ADELA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty years old SERVANT, fifty years old PONCIA, sixty years old PRUDENCIA, fifty years old BEGGAR WOMAN with LITTLE GIRL WOMEN MOURNERS WOMAN 1 WOMAN 2 WOMAN 3 WOMAN 4 YOUNG GIRL

__Author’s note__: These three acts are intended as a photographic document.

=ACT ONE=

An extremely white inner room in Bernarda’s house. Solid walls. Arched doorways with jute curtains edged with tassels and ruffles. Cattail chairs. Nonrealistic landscapes of nymphs and fairy-tale kings. It is summer. A great ominous silence fills the stage. When the curtain rises, the stage is empty. The sound of tolling bells is heard. The Servant enters.

SERVANT The sound of those bells is right inside my head. PONCIA (Appears eating bread and sausage) They’ve been tolling for more than two hours now. Priests have come from all the villages. The church looks beautiful. During the first response Magdalena fainted. SERVANT She’s the one who will be the most alone. PONCIA She was the only one her father loved. Ay! Thank God we’re alone for a little while! I have come to eat. SERVANT If Bernarda were to see you…! PONCIA Since now she’s not eating, she wants us all to starve! She is so bossy, so domineering! Well, she can go to hell. I have opened her sausage jar. SERVANT (With sad longing) Poncia, why don’t you give me some for my little girl? PONCIA Go ahead. And take a fistful of chickpeas too while you’re at it. She won’t notice a thing today! VOICE (From off) Bernarda! PONCIA The old woman. Is she locked up properly? SERVANT With two turns of the key. PONCIA You should put the bar across as well. Her fingers are like five picklocks! VOICE Bernarda! PONCIA (calling out) She’s near! (To Servant) Make sure everything is sparkling clean. If Bernarda doesn’t see everything shining here she’ll pull out what little hair I’ve got left. SERVANT Oh, that woman! PONCIA Tyrant of all she surveys. She could sit on your heart and watch you die slowly for a year and not once unfix that cold smile from her damn face! Go on, go on, and clean those dishes! SERVANT My hands are blood raw from washing-up all the time. PONCIA She’s the cleanest, she’s the most decent, and she’s the most superior of beings! Her poor husband has earned himself a good long rest. [The bells stop.] SERVANT Have all the relatives come? PONCIA Only those on her side of the family. His family hates her. They came to make sure he was dead, and send him on his way. SERVANT Are there enough chairs? PONCIA More than enough. Let them sit on the floor. No one has ever set foot in this house Since Bernarda’s father died. She doesn’t want anyone to see her on her own stomping ground. Damn her to hell! SERVANT She’s always been good to you. PONCIA Thirty years I have washed her sheets; thirty years I have eaten her scraps. I’ve spent many a sleepless night when she’s had a cough; I’ve spent whole days spying on the neighbors through the window slits so I could bring her all the gossip. There have been no secrets between us, and yet, I still say damn her to hell! I’d like to stick a burning nail in her eyes! SERVANT Woman! PONCIA But I’m a good bitch: I bark when I’m told, and when she sets me upon them; I bite the heels of those who come begging at our door. My sons work in her fields; they’re both married now. One day I will have enough of this. SERVANT And on that day… PONCIA On that day I will lock myself up in a room with her and spit at her for an entire year: ‘Bernarda, this is for this, and for that, and for that other thing.” I’ll spit on her until she looks like one of those lizards the children have squashed. That’s what she is: a lizard. Her and her whole family. Not that I envy the life she leads. She has five girls on her hands, five ugly daughters, and only the eldest, Angustias, has any money to her name because she’s her first husband’s daughter. The rest of them: lots of fine lace and linen camisoles, but nothing to their names but bread and water. SERVANT Wouldn’t I give to have what they have! PONCIA We’ve got only our hands and a hole in God’s earth. SERVANT That’s the only land those who have nothing are allowed to inherit. PONCIA (by the cupboard) This glass still has some spots on it. SERVANT Not even with soap or a rag will they come off. [The bells ring.] PONCIA The last prayer. I’m going to hear it. I love how the priest sings. In the paternoster his voice went up and up and up like a pitcher slowly being filled with water. Of course, in the end, his voice cracked unbearably, but it still was a joy to listen to him. However, there’s no one like Tronchapinos, the old sexton. He sang at my mother’s mass, God rest her soul! The walls used to shake and when he’d say the Amen it was as if a wolf had entered the church. (Imitating him) A-a-a—a—me-e-n! [She begins to cough] SERVANT You’re going to strain your windpipe. PONCIA I used to strain something else! [She goes out laughing] [The servant cleans. The bells ring.] SERVANT (Picking up the bells’ rhythm) Ding, ding, dong. Ding, ding, dong. May God forgive him! BEGGAR WOMAN (With a little girl in hand) Praise be to God! SERVANT Ding, ding, dong. May He wait for us many years from now! Ding, ding, dong. BEGGAR WOMAN (Loudly, with frustration) Praise be to God! SERVANT (Annoyed) May He be always! BEGGAR WOMAN I’ve come for the leftovers. [The bells stop.] SERVANT That’s the way out. Today’s scraps are for me! BEGGAR WOMAN Woman, you’ve got someone to take care of you. My little girl and I are alone in this world. SERVANT So are the dogs and they survive just fine. BEGGAR WOMAN They always give me the scraps. SERVANT Get out of here. Who told you you could come in? Look at the mess you’ve made with your dirty feet! (Beggar Woman leaves. The Servant cleans) Floors, cupboards, pedestals, iron bed frames polished with oil, while those of us who live in huts of mud with only a spoon and a plate to our name have to swallow the bitter pill. I pray for the day when none of us is left to tell the tale! [The bells peal again] Yes, yes, ring those bells! Bring the wooden box with its fine gold trim and silk straps to carry it! We’ll both end up the same! You can rot, Antonio Maria Benavides, stiff in your woven suit and your high boots! You can rot! Never again will you lift my skirt behind the doors to your stable!

[At the back of the stage, two by two, the Women Mourners enter. They wear voluminous black skirts, and shawls and carry black fans. They enter slowly until they have filled the stage.] SERVANT (Begins to wail) Oh, Antonio Maria Benavides! Never again will you see these walls or eat the bread of this house! Of all the women who served you, I was the one who loved you the most. (Pulling at her hair) Must I go on living after you’ve gone? Must I go on living?

[The two hundred women are now inside the house. Bernarda enters with her five daughters. Bernarda leans on a walking stick.]

BERNARDA (To the Servant) Silence! SERVANT (Weeping) Bernarda! BERNARDA Less howling and more work! You should have made sure this place was much cleaner for the mourners. Get out. This isn’t your place. [The Servant exits weeping] The poor are like animals. It’s as if they’re made of different stuff. WOMAN 1 The poor feel their sorrows too. BERNARDA But they forget them when you put a plate of chickpeas in front of them. YOUNG GIRL (Timidly) You can’t live without eating. BERNARDA A girl of your age doesn’t speak in front of her elders. WOMAN 1 Child, be quiet. BERNARDA I have never let anyone lecture me. Be seated! [They sit. Pause.] (Forcefully) Magdalena, don’t cry. If you want to cry, get under your bed. Do you hear me? WOMAN 2 (To Bernarda) Have you started the threshing? BERNARDA Yesterday. WOMAN 3 The sun beats down like lead. WOMAN 1 It’s been years since it’s been this hot. [Pause. They all fan themselves] BERNARDA Is the lemonade ready?

PONCIA Yes, Bernarda. [Poncia enters with a large tray full of small white pitchers, which she hands out.] BERNARDA Give some to the men as well. PONCIA They have some in the courtyard. BERNARDA Make sure they leave the way they came in. I don’t want them coming through here. YOUNG GIRL (To Angustias) Pepe el Romano was with the mourners. ANGUSTIAS Yes, he was. BERNARDA His mother was. She saw his mother. Neither of us saw Pepe. YOUNG GIRL I thought… BERNARDA The one who was there was the widower from Darajali. Very close to your aunt. We all saw him. WOMAN 2 (Aside, whispering) Wicked woman. Worse than wicked! WOMAN 3 (Aside, whispering) A tongue like a knife! BERNARDA Women in church should not look at any other man except for the priest, and only at him because he wears a skirt. Those who look elsewhere seek the warmth of a pair of trousers. WOMAN 1 (Whispering) Dried up old lizard! PONCIA (Muttering) Like a twisted vine reaching out for a man’s heat! BERNARDA (Beating the floor with her stick) Praise be to God! ALL (Crossing themselves) Praised and blessed may He be forever and ever. BERNARDA Rest in peace, with the heavenly host above you. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With Saint Michael the Archangel And his sword of justice. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With the key that opens all doors, And the hand that closes them. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With those that are blessed And the little lights of the field. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With our holy charity, And the souls on land and sea. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA Grant peace to your servant Antonio Maria Benavides and give him the crown of your blessed glory. ALL Amen! BERNARDA (Rises, and chants) Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.

ALL (Rise and chant in Gregorian fashion) Et lux perpetua luceat eis. [They cross themselves] WOMAN 1 God grant you health to pray for his soul. [They begin to file out] WOMAN 3 You shall never want for a loaf of bread. WOMAN 2 Nor a roof over your daughters’ heads.

[They all file out past Bernarda. Angustias goes out through the door that leads to the courtyard.] WOMAN 4 May you still enjoy the blessings of your marriage. PONCIA (Entering with a bag) I bring this on behalf of the men: a bag of money for prayers. BERNARDA Thank them and pour them a glass of brandy. YOUNG GIRL Magdalena. BERNARDA (To Magdalena, who is starting to cry) Shhh.

[She hits the ground with her stick. The Women Mourners leave.]

(As they leave) Run back to your caves and criticize everything you have seen! May years pass before you cross my threshold again! PONCIA You can’t complain, Bernarda. The whole village came. BERNARDA Yes, to fill my house with the sweat of their underskirts and their venomous tongues. AMELIA Mother, don’t speak that way! BERNARDA It is the only way to speak when you live in a cursed village without a river, without wells, where one is always drinking water with the fear it might be poisoned. PONCIA Look what they’ve done to the floor! BERNARDA As if a herd of goats had walked across it. [Poncia scrubs the floor] Child, give me a fan. ADELA Take this one. (She hands her a round fan decorated with red and green flowers) BERNARDA (Hurling the fan to the floor) Is this the kind of fan you give a widow? Hand me a black one, and learn to respect the mourning of your father. MARTIRIO Take mine. BERNARDA And you? MARTIRIO I don’t feel hot. BERNARDA Then find another one. You’re going to need it. In the eight years this mourning will last not a breeze will enter this house. Imagine we have sealed the doors and windows with bricks. That’s how it was in my father’s house and in my grandfather’s too. In the meantime you can embroider your trousseaus. I have twenty pieces of linen in the chest so you can cut out sheets and veils. Magdalena can embroider them. MAGDALENA It’s all the same to me. ADELA (Bitterly) If you don’t want to embroider them, then leave them just as they are. That way yours will look much better. MAGDALENA Neither yours nor mine. I know I’ll never get married. I’d rather carry sacks to the mill. Anything but sit here day after day in this dark room. BERNARDA That’s what it means to be a woman. MAGDALENA Cursed be all women. BERNARDA Here you will do what I say. You can’t go telling tales to your father anymore. A needle and thread for women. A whip and a mule for men. That’s how it is for people that are born with means. [Adela goes out] VOICE (From Off) Bernarda, let me out! BERNARDA (Loudly) Let her out now! [The Servant enters] SERVANT I could hardly keep her down. She may be eighty, but your mother is as tough as an oak tree. BERNARDA It runs in the family. My grandmother was the same. SERVANT Several times while the mourners were here I had to gag her with an empty sack because she kept wanting to call out to you so you could give her the dishwater and dog-meat she says you always give her. MARTIRIO She’s a troublemaker. BERNARDA (To Servant) She can let off steam in the courtyard. SERVANT She’s taken her amethyst earrings and fine rings out of the jewelry box, and put them on. She says she wants to get married. [The daughters laugh] BERNARDA Go with her. Make sure she doesn’t go near the well. SERVANT Don’t worry. She won’t throw herself in. BERNARDA Oh, it’s not that. I just don’t want the neighbors to see her from their windows.

[The Servant goes out] MARTIRIO We’re going to change. BERNARDA Very well, but not your headscarves. [Adela enters] Where’s Angustias? ADELA (Pointedly) I saw her peeping through the crack in the main door. The men have just left. BERNARDA And why were you at the door? ADELA I went to see if the hens had laid. BERNARDA But the men must have left already! ADELA (pointedly) There was a group still standing outside. BERNARDA (Furiously) Angustias! Angustias! ANGUSTIAS (Entering) What do you want? BERNARDA What and who were you looking at? ANGUSTIAS No one. BERNARDA Is it proper for a woman of your class to be throwing a man the bait on the day of her father’s funeral? Answer me! Who were you looking at? [Pause] ANGUSTIAS I… BERNARDA Yes, you. ANGUSTIAS No one! BERNARDA (Advancing with her stick) You spineless, syrupy creature! (She strikes her) PONCIA (Running) Bernarda, calm down! (She holds her) [Angustias is crying] BERNARDA All of you: out! [They leave] PONCIA She did it without thinking. It was wrong, of course. It was a shock to see her sneaking away towards the courtyard. Then she stood by a window, listening to the men’s conversations, which are, as always, not fit to hear. BERNARDA That’s what they come to funerals for! (With curiosity) What were they talking about? PONCIA They were talking about Paca la Roseta. Last night they tied her husband to a manger, and they carried her off on horseback to the top of the olive-grove. BERNARDA And she…? PONCIA She was willing. They say she went with her breasts exposed, and Maximiliano was holding her tight, as though he was strapping on a guitar. Disgusting! BERNARDA And then what happened? PONCIA What was bound to happen. They came back when it was almost daybreak. Paca la Roseta had her hair down and a crown of flowers on her head. BERNARDA She is the only loose woman in our village. PONCIA Because she’s not from here. She’s from far away. And the men who went with her are also sons of foreigners. The men from here aren’t capable of such things. BERNARDA No, but they like to witness it and talk about it, and they suck their fingers when it happens. PONCIA They were saying a lot of other things too. BERNARDA (looking about with some apprehension) What sort of things? PONCIA I’m ashamed to mention them. BERNARDA And my daughter heard them. PONCIA Of course! BERNARDA She takes after her aunts: white and dripping sweet and making goo-goo eyes at any common barber’s least bit of flattery. How we have to suffer and struggle to make sure people behave decently and don’t run wild! PONCIA Your daughters are old enough to deserve such things. They hardly give you any trouble. Angustias must be well over thirty by now. BERNARDA Thirty-nine to be exact. PONCIA Imagine. And she’s never had a suitor… BERNARDA (Furiously) No, none of them has ever had a suitor, nor have they need of one! They do just fine as they are. PONCIA I didn’t mean to offend you. BERNARDA There’s no one for a hundred miles around that can compare to them. The men around here are not of their class. Would you have me offer them to just anyone? PONCIA You should have gone to another village. BERNARDA To sell them, oh yes! PONCIA No, Bernarda, for a change… Of course, somewhere else they would be the poor ones! BERNARDA Hold your tormenting tongue! PONCIA There’s no reasoning with you. Are we or are we not friends? BERNARDA We are not. You serve me and I pay you. That’s all! SERVANT (Entering) Don Arturo’s here to discuss the will. BERNARDA Let’s go then. (To Servant) Start whitewashing the courtyard. (To Poncia) And you, put all the clothes of the deceased in the big chest. PONCIA We could give some of the things… BERNARDA Nothing. Not a button! Not even the handkerchief we used to cover his face! [She goes out slowly, leaning on the stick. As she goes, she looks back at her servants. The servants leave. Amelia and Martirio enter.] AMELIA Have you taken your medicine? MARTIRIO For the good it will do me! AMELIA You have taken it, then. MARTIRIO I do things without believing in them, but I do them anyway, like a clock. AMELIA Since the new doctor came, you seem a bit livelier. MARTIRIO I feel the same. AMELIA Did you notice? Adelaide wasn’t at the funeral. MARTIRIO I knew she wouldn’t be. Hr fiancé won’t let her out of the house. She used to be happy. Now she doesn’t even powder her face. AMELIA It’s hard to know any more if it’s better to have a fiancé or not. MARTIRIO It’s all the same. AMELIA Gossip is to blame. It makes life impossible. Adelaide must have had a bad time. MARTIRIO They’re terrified of our mother. She’s the only one who knows the truth about her father and how he got his land. Whenever she comes here, Mother sticks the knife right in. In Cuba her father killed his first wife’s husband in order to marry her. Then, when they got here, he abandoned her and went off with another woman who had a daughter, and he had an affair with the girl, Adelaide ’s mother, and he married her after his second wife had gone mad and died. AMELIA And why isn’t the bastard in jail? MARTIRIO Because men cover up for each other when it comes to such things. No one’s willing to speak out. AMELIA But Adelaide ’s not to blame for that. MARTIRIO No, but stories repeat themselves. Everything is just one horrible repetitive cycle. Her fate is the same as her mother’s and her grandmother’s, both wives to the man who fathered her. AMELIA It’s too horrible! MARTIRIO It’s better never to look at a man. Ever since I was a child I have been frightened of them. I would see them in the stable-yard yoking the oxen and lifting the sacks of wheat, shouting and stamping their feet, and I was always afraid to grow up and find myself suddenly in one their arms. God has made me weak and ugly and has kept them away from me forever. AMELIA Don’t say such things! Enrique Humanes was after you once, and I know he liked you. MARTIRIO People like to make up stories! I stood in my nightgown, and waited at my window once all night because he told his farmhand’s daughter he’d stop by, and he never did. It was all just talk. Then he married another girl who had more money than I. AMELIA And ugly as hell. MARTIRIO What’s ugliness to them? All they care about is land, oxen, and to have a submissive bitch to feed them. AMELIA Oh! [Magdalena enters] MAGDALENA What are you doing? MARTIRIO As you see. AMELIA And you? MAGDALENA Just walking through the rooms. To stretch my legs a bit. I’ve been looking at the pictures Grandmother used to embroider on canvas – the little poodle, the black man fighting the lion – the ones we liked so much when we were children. That was a happier time. A wedding used to last ten days and malicious gossip wasn’t in fashion. Today everything’s more refined, brides wear white veils like they do in the bigger cities, we drink bottled wine, but we waste away thinking about what people might say about us. MARTIRIO God only knows what went on in those days! AMELIA (To Magdalena) Your shoelace is undone. MAGDALENA What of it! AMELIA You’ll step on it and fall! MAGDALENA One less… MARTIRIO Where’s Adela? MAGDALENA Ah! She put on her green birthday dress, ran out to the stable-yard and started to shout: ‘Hens, hens, look at me.’ I had to laugh. AMELIA If Mother had seen her! MAGDALENA Poor girl! She’s the youngest of us all and is filled with hope. I’d give anything to see her happy! [Pause. Angustias crosses the stage carrying some towels.] ANGUSTIAS What time is it? MAGDALENA It must be twelve by now. ANGUSTIAS That late? AMELIA It’s about to strike. [Angustias leaves] MAGDALENA (Pointedly) Have you heard…? (Indicating Angustias) AMELIA No. MAGDALENA Come on! MARTIRIO I don’t know what you’re talking about! MAGDALENA You know more than I. You are always together, head to head, like little sheep. But you never tell anybody anything. This business with Pepe el Romano! MARTIRIO Ah! MAGDALENA (Imitating her) Ah! It’s the talk of the town. Pepe el Romano is to marry Angustias. He was outside the house last night, and I think soon he will be sending someone to ask for her hand. MARTIRIO I’m glad. He’s a good man. AMELIA Me too. Angustias has some fine qualities. MAGDALENA Neither of you is glad. MARTIRIO Magdalena ! MAGDALENA If he wanted Angustias for Angustias, I would be glad, but the only reason he’s after her is for her money. Angustias is our sister, but we’re all family here, we know she is old and ailing, and has always been the one with the least amount to offer as a woman, anyway, among all of us. If she looked like a broomstick wrapped in a dress when she was twenty, what’s she look like now that she’s forty? MARTIRIO Don’t talk like that. Luck comes to the one who least expects it. AMELIA She’s right, though! Angustias has her father’s money, she’s the only rich one in the house, and now, that our father has died and his estate is being shared out, they’re after her. MAGDALENA Pepe el Romano is twenty-five years old and the handsomest man for miles around. It would be natural for him to be courting you Amelia or Adela, since she’s only twenty years old, but not to go after the dullest thing in the house, a woman who talks through her nose, like her father did. MARTIRIO Maybe he likes her! MAGDALENA I have never been able to put up with your hypocrisy! MARTIRIO Heaven preserve us! [Adela enters] MAGDALENA Have the hens seen you yet? ADELA What was I supposed to do? AMELIA If Mother sees you, she’ll drag you by the hair! ADELA I was so delighted with the dress. I was planning to wear it the day we go to eat watermelons by the waterwheel. There wouldn’t have been another one like it. MARTIRIO It’s a lovely dress! ADELA And it becomes me. It’s the best thing Magdalena has ever made. MAGDALENA And what did the hens have to say to you? ADELA They gave me some of their fleas. My legs are covered in bites. [They laugh] MARTIRIO What you can do is dye it black. MAGDALENA The best thing she can do is give it to Angustias for her wedding with Pepe el Romano! ADELA (Suppressing emotion) But Pepe el Romano…! AMELIA Haven’t you heard? ADELA No. MAGDALENA Well, now you know! ADELA But it’s not possible! MAGDALENA Money makes everything possible! ADELA Is that why she followed the mourners out and looked through the door? (Pause) And is that man capable of… MAGDALENA He’s capable of anything. [Pause] MARTIRIO What are you thinking, Adela? ADELA I think this time of mourning has come at the worst possible time in my life. MAGDALENA You’ll grow accustomed to it. ADELA (Bursting into tears of rage) No, I will not grow accustomed to it! I don’t want to be shut out. I don’t want my skin to become like yours. I don’t want to lose my pallor in these rooms. Tomorrow I will put on my green dress and I’ll go for a walk down the street! I want to go out!

[The Servant appears] MAGDALENA (With authority) Adela! SERVANT Poor child! She misses her father so much! (She goes out)

MARTIRIO Be quiet! AMELIA What will be for one will be for all.

[Adela calms down]

MAGDALENA The servant almost heard you. SERVANT (Appearing) Pepe el Romano’s at the top of the street. [Amelia, Martirio and Magdalena run quickly] MAGDALENA Let’s go and see him! [They run out] SERVANT (To Adela) Aren’t you going? ADELA It doesn’t matter to me. SERVANT When he turns the corner, you can see him better from the window of your room. ( She leaves) [Adela remains. She is in doubt. After a moment she rushes out and toward her room. Bernarda and Poncia enter] BERNARDA Damn the will! PONCIA So much money for Angustias! BERNARDA Yes. PONCIA And for the others quite a lot less. BERNARDA You’ve told me that three times already, and I have chosen not to answer you. Quite a lot less, much less. Don’t remind me again. [Angustias enters, her face is made up.] Angustias! ANGUSTIAS Mother. BERNARDA How dare you powder your face? How dare you even wash your face on the day of your father’s funeral? ANGUSTIAS He wasn’t my father. Mine died a long time ago. Don’t you remember him anymore? BERNARDA You owe this man, the father of your sisters, much more than your own father! Thanks to this man you have a fortune. ANGUSTIAS That remains to be seen. BERNARDA If only for decency’s sake! Out of respect. ANGUSTIAS Mother, let me go out. BERNARDA Go out? After I have scrubbed that powder off your face. Rouge-faced little hypocrite! You are the spitting image of your aunts! (With a handkerchief she violently rubs the powder off Angustias’ face) Now get out! PONCIA Bernarda, don’t meddle so much. BERNARDA My mother may be crazy but I’m not. I know exactly what I’m doing.

[The other daughters enter]

MAGDALENA What’s happening? BERNARDA Nothing’s happening. MAGDALENA (To Angustias) If you’re arguing about the inheritance, you are the richest one anyway, you can keep it all. ANGUSTIAS Stick your tongue in your hole! BERNARDA (Banging on the floor with her stick) Don’t you think you can get the better of me! Until I leave this house feet first, I will control my own affairs and yours! [Voices are heard and Maria Josefa, Bernarda’s mother, appears. She is very old, and is decked out with flowers in her bosom and hair.] MARIA JOSEFA Bernarda, where is my mantilla? I don’t want anything of mine to be yours. Not my rings, nor my black moiré dress. Because none of you will get married. Not one! Bernarda, give me my pearl choker! BERNARDA (To Servant) Why did you let her in? SERVANT (Trembling) She got away from me! MARIA JOSEFA I got away from her because I want to get married, because I want to get married to a handsome man from the sea, because the men here run away from women. BERNARDA Be quiet, Mother! MARIA JOSEFA No, no, I won’t be quiet. I don’t want to see these unmarried women, foaming at the mouth for a wedding, letting their hearts turn to dust. I want to go back to my village. Bernarda, I want a man to marry and be happy with! BERNARDA Lock her up! MARIA JOSEFA Let me go out, Bernarda!

[The Servant takes hold of Maria Josefa]

BERNARDA Help her, all of you!

[They drag the old woman away]

MARIA JOSEFA I want to leave this place! Bernarda! I want to get married by the seashore, by the sea…

[Quick curtain.]

A white inner room in Bernarda’s house. The doors on the left lead to the bedrooms. Bernarda’s daughters are seated on low chairs, sewing. Magdalena embroiders. Poncia is with them.
 * ACT TWO **

ANGUSTIAS I have finished cutting the third sheet. MARTIRIO It’s for Amelia. MAGDALENA Angustias, shall I put Pepe’s initials as well? ANGUSTIAS (Tersely) No. MAGDALENA (Calling out) Adela, aren’t you coming? AMELIA She’ll be lying on her bed. PONCIA There’s something wrong with her. She’s restless, and walks around frightened as if she had a lizard between her breasts. MARTIRIO She has what all of us have. MAGDALENA All of us except Angustias. ANGUSTIAS I feel fine, and anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell. MAGDALENA Well, one has to admit that the best things about you have always been your figure and your sensitivity. ANGUSTIAS Fortunately, I will soon be out of this hell. MAGDALENA Maybe you won’t leave it! MARTIRIO Let’s change the subject! ANGUSTIAS Besides, an ounce of gold in the coffers is worth more than having a pair of pretty dark eyes. MAGDALENA In one ear and out the other. AMELIA (To Poncia) Open the door to the courtyard. Let’s see if we can get some fresh air in here. (Poncia does so) MARTIRIO Last night it was so hot I couldn’t sleep at all. AMELIA Me neither! MAGDALENA I got up to cool myself off. There was a black storm cloud and even a few drops of rain fell. PONCIA It was one in the morning and fire was coming out of the ground. I also got up. Angustias was at the window with Pepe. MAGDALENA (Ironically) So late? What time did he leave? ANGUSTIAS Magdalena, why do you ask if you saw him? AMELIA He left around one thirty. ANGUSTIAS Yes. How do you know? AMELIA I heard him cough, and I heard the sound of his mare’s hooves. PONCIA But I heard him leave around four! ANGUSTIAS Then it wasn’t him! PONCIA I’m sure of it! AMELIA I thought so too. MAGDALENA That’s strange! [Pause] PONCIA Angustias, what was it he said to you the first time he came to your window? ANGUSTIAS Nothing. What would he say? Everyday things. MARTIRIO It truly strange that two people that don’t know each other would suddenly see each other at a window and become engaged. ANGUSTIAS It’s not strange to me. AMELIA I don’t know what I’d feel. ANGUSTIAS No, because when a man comes to your window he already knows from what he’s been told that you’ll say ‘yes.’ MARTIRIO Well, but he had to ask you. ANGUSTIAS Of course! AMELIA (with curiosity) And how did he ask you? ANGUSTIAS Nothing special: ‘You know I’m after you, and that I need a good modest woman at my side, and you’re that woman, if you agree.’ AMELIA I get embarrassed by such things! ANGUSTIAS I do too, but you have to put up with them! PONCIA Did he say anything else? ANGUSTIAS Yes, he did all the talking. MARTIRIO What about you? ANGUSTIAS I couldn’t have. My heart was in my mouth. It was the first time I was alone at night with a man. MAGDALENA And such a handsome man. ANGUSTIAS He’s not bad. PONCIA That’s what happens between people who know a bit about the ways of the world and can talk, and wave their hands… The first time I saw my husband Evaristo de Colorin he came to my window… ha, ha, ha. AMELIA What happened? PONCIA It was very dark. I saw him come near and as he did so he said “Good evening.” And I said to him “Good evening.” And we fell silent for half an hour. The sweat was running down my entire body. Then Evaristo came near again, much nearer, as if he wanted to squeeze through the bars of the window, and he whispered, “Come, let me feel you!” [They all laugh. Amelia rises, runs to the door and peers out.] AMELIA Oh! I thought Mother was coming. MAGDALENA She’d have given us a piece of her mind, no doubt! [They continue laughing] AMELIA Shh… She’ll hear us! PONCIA Afterwards he behaved himself. Instead of being interested in other things, he took to breeding linnets until the day he died. You single women, it would be good for you to know that two weeks after the wedding a man leaves the bed for the table, and the table for the tavern. And the woman who can’t get used to this will waste away in a corner crying. AMELIA You got used to it. PONCIA I could handle him! MARTIRIO Is it true you hit him a couple of times? PONCIA Yes, and I almost put his eye out. MAGDALENA That’s the way all women should be! PONCIA I’m of the same upbringing as your mother in that regard. One day he said something to me, I don’t even remember what, and I killed all his linnets with a rolling pin. [They laugh] MAGDALENA Adela, child, what you’re missing… AMELIA Adela. [Pause] MAGDALENA I’ll go and see. [She goes out]

PONCIA That child is not well! MARTIRIO How can she be? She barely sleeps! PONCIA What does she do, then? MARTIRIO How do I know what she does! PONCIA You would know better than I. You sleep with just a wall between you. ANGUSTIAS Envy is eating away at her. AMELIA Don’t exaggerate. ANGUSTIAS I can see it in her eyes. She’s starting to get the look of a crazy woman. MARTIRIO Don’t talk of crazy people. This is the only place where that word cannot be mentioned. [Magdalena enters with Adela] MAGDALENA You weren’t asleep, then? ADELA I don’t feel well. MARTIRIO (Pointedly) Didn’t you sleep well last night? ADELA Yes. MARTIRIO Then? ADELA (Forcefully) Leave me alone! Asleep or awake, what I do is my business! I’ll do what I like with my body. MARTIRIO I only speak out of concern for you. ADELA Concern or inquisitiveness? Weren’t you sewing? Well then, get on with it. I wish I were invisible so I could walk through these rooms without you asking me where I’m going! SERVANT (Entering) Bernarda wants you. The man with the lace is here. [They go out. As they do so, Martirio stares at Adela.] ADELA Stop looking at me! If you want I will give you my eyes, which aren’t tired, and I’ll give you my back so you can improve that hump of yours. Turn your head when I go by.

[Martirio leaves]

PONCIA Adela, she’s your sister, and what’s more, she’s the one who loves you the most! ADELA She follows me everywhere. Sometimes she looks into my room to see if I’m sleeping. She doesn’t let me breathe. And she’s always saying: “What a shame about that face! What a shame about that body that no one will ever see!” She’s wrong about that. My body will be for whomever I want! PONCIA (pointedly, quietly) You mean for Pepe el Romano? ADELA (Startled) What do you mean? PONCIA What I say, Adela! ADELA Be quiet! PONCIA (Loudly) Do you think I haven’t noticed? ADELA Lower your voice! PONCIA You should kill all those thoughts in your head! ADELA What do you know? PONCIA Old women can see through walls. Where do you go at night when you get up? ADELA You should be blind! PONCIA My head and my hands are full of eyes when it comes to such things. No matter how much I think about it, I still don’t know what you’re up to. Why were you standing half-naked with the window open and your lamp light on when Pepe stopped by the second time he came to visit your sister? ADELA That’s not true! PONCIA Don’t be childish! Leave your sister in peace, and if like Pepe el Romano, resign yourself. (Adela cries) Besides, who says you can’t marry him? Your sister Angustias is not well. She won’t survive the first birth. She’s narrow-waisted, old, and from my experience, I can tell you she will die. Then Pepe will do what all the widowers around here do: he’ll marry the youngest, the prettiest, and that’s you. Cling to that hope, and forget him. Do what you like, but don’t go against God’s law. ADELA Be quiet! PONCIA I will not be quiet! ADELA Mind your own business. You’re nothing but a nosy, treacherous creature! PONCIA I shall be your shadow! ADELA Instead of cleaning the house and going to bed to pray for the dead, you go around like a dirty old woman sticking your nose into what men and women do so you can drool over them. PONCIA I keep watch! So that people can’t spit as they pass this door. ADELA What tremendous affection you suddenly feel for my sister! PONCIA I feel no loyalty for any of you but I want to live in a respectable house. Now that I’m old I don’t want to be disgraced. ADELA Your advice is useless. It’s too late already. Not only would I leap right over you, after all, you’re only a servant, but I’d leap over my mother to put out this fire that rises through my mouth and legs. What can you say about me? That I lock myself in my room, and don’t open the door? That I don’t sleep? I’m smarter than you! See if you can catch a this hare with your hands. PONCIA Don’t defy me. Adela, don’t defy me! Because I can shout, I can light the lamps and make the bells ring. ADELA Bring four thousand yellow flares and put them on the walls of the stable-yard. No one will be able to stop what is inevitable. PONCIA You want this man so much! ADELA Yes, so very much! When I look at his eyes it is as if I am slowly drinking his blood. PONCIA I can’t listen to you. ADELA Well, you will listen to me! I was afraid of you. But now I am stronger than you! [Angustias enters] ANGUSTIAS You two are always arguing! PONCIA Of course. She insists that I go get her something from the store in all this heat. ANGUSTIAS Did you buy the bottle of perfume for me? PONCIA The most expensive one. And the face powder. I’ve put them on the table in your room. [Angustias leaves] ADELA Not a word! PONCIA We’ll see about that!

[Martirio, Amelia and Magdalena enter]

MAGDALENA (To Adela) Have you seen the lace? AMELIA The lace for Angustias’ wedding sheets is just beautiful. ADELA (to Martirio, who is holding some lace) And this? MARTIRIO It’s for me. For a petticoat. ADELA (Sarcastically) One has to have a sense of humor! MARTIRIO (Pointedly) For me to look at. I don’t need to show myself off to anybody. PONCIA No one sees you in your petticoat. MARTIRIO (Pointedly, looking at Adela) Sometimes! I adore underwear. If I were rich, I’d have it made of Dutch linen. It’s one of the few pleasures I’ve got left. PONCIA This lace is ideal for a baby’s bonnet, or for a christening gown. I could never dress mine in it. Let’s see if Angustias can use it for hers. If she starts having children, you’ll be sewing day and night. MAGDALENA I don’t intend to sew a stitch. AMELIA And much less look after someone else’s children. Look at the neighbors down the street, martyrs to their four little twerps. PONCIA They are better off than you are. At least they laugh down there, and you hear a fight every now and then! MARTIRIO Then go and serve them. PONCIA No. Fate has decreed I serve this convent! [Bells are heard in the distance, as if through several walls] MAGDALENA It’s the men going back to work. PONCIA It struck three just a moment ago. MARTIRIO In this heat! ADELA (Sitting down) Oh, if only I could go out to the fields too! MAGDALENA (Sitting down) Each class has its own obligations. MARTIRIO (Sitting down) Just so! AMELIA (Sitting down) Oh! PONCIA There’s nothing like being in the fields at this time of the year. Yesterday morning the harvesters came. Forty or fifty good-looking men. MAGDALENA Where are they from this year? PONCIA From a long way away. They came from the mountains. Joyous! Their skin the color of burnt trees! Shouting and throwing stones! Last night a woman arrived in the village dressed in sequins. She danced to an accordion, and fifteen of the men hired her and took her with them to the olive-grove. I saw them from a long way off. The one who arranged it was a young man with green eyes, lean as a sheaf of wheat. AMELIA Is that true? ADELA It’s possible! PONCIA Years ago another one of these women came to the village and I myself gave her some money so my eldest could go with her. Men need these things. ADELA They are forgiven everything! AMELIA To be born a woman is the greatest punishment. MAGDALENA Even our eyes aren’t our own. [From a distance, singing is heard. It draws near] PONCIA It’s them. They have some beautiful songs. AMELIA They are going out to reap now. CHORUS The reapers go They go harvesting And they will take with them The hearts of all the girls who are watching. [Tambourines and carrañacas are heard. Pause. All the women listen in a silence pierced by sunlight.] AMELIA The heat doesn’t bother them! MARTIRIO They reap in tongues of fire. ADELA I’d like to be a reaper so I could come and go at will. Then I’d forget what’s gnawing at us. MARTIRIO What do you have to forget? ADELA Each one knows her heart. MARTIRIO (With feeling) Each one of us! PONCIA Be quiet! Be quiet! CHORUS (Very distant) Village girls, open your windows and doors; The reaper wants your roses To decorate his crown. PONCIA What a song! MARTIRIO (Nostalgically) Village girls, open your windows and doors; ADELA (Passionately) The reaper wants your roses to decorate his crown.

[The singing grows faint]

PONCIA They are turning the corner now. ADELA Let’s go see them from the window of my room. PONCIA Be careful. Don’t open the window too much or they will push it to see who’s looking at them.

[The three of them leave. Martirio remains seated on the low chair with her head in her hands] AMELIA (Approaching) What’s wrong? MARTIRIO The heat is getting to me. AMELIA Is that all? MARTIRIO I can’t wait for November to come, the rainy days, the frost; anything but this endless summer. AMELIA It will pass and come round again. MARTIRIO Of course! (Pause) What time did you go to sleep last night? AMELIA I don’t know. I sleep like a log. Why? MARTIRIO Nothing. I thought I heard people in the stable-yard. AMELIA Really? MARTIRIO It was very late. AMELIA Weren’t you scared? MARTIRIO No. I’ve heard it other nights. AMELIA We should be careful. Could it have been the farmhands? MARTIRIO The farmhands come at six. AMELIA Perhaps a young mule that needs to be broken in. MARTIRIO (Muttering) Yes, yes, a young mule that needs to be broken in. AMELIA We should warn the others. MARTIRIO No, no. Don’t say anything. I might have imagined it. AMELIA Perhaps.

[Pause. Amelia starts to leave]

MARTIRIO Amelia. AMELIA (At the door) What? [Pause] MARTIRIO Nothing. [Pause] AMELIA Why did you call me? [Pause] MARTIRIO It slipped out. I wasn’t thinking. [Pause] AMELIA Rest a while. ANGUSTIAS (Entering furiously, so that there is a significant contrast with the previous silences) Where is the picture of Pepe that was under my pillow? Which one of you has it? MARTIRIO None of us. AMELIA It’s not as if Pepe was a silver Saint Bartholomew!

[Poncia, Magdalena, and Adela enter]

ANGUSTIAS Where is the picture? ADELA What picture? ANGUSTIAS One of you has hidden it. MAGDALENA How dare you say that? ANGUSTIAS It was in my room and now it’s gone. MARTIRIO Might not it have slipped away to the stable-yard at night? Pepe likes to walk in the moonlight. ANGUSTIAS Don’t waste your jokes on me! When he comes, I’ll tell him. PONCIA Don’t! It will turn up! (Looking at Adela) ANGUSTIAS I would like to know which one of you has it! ADELA (Looking at Martirio) Someone does! Not me! MARTIRIO (Pointedly) Of course not! BERNARDA (Entering with walking stick) What noise is this in my house midst the silence of the stifling heat? The neighbors must have their ears glued to the walls. ANGUSTIAS They’ve stolen my fiancé’s picture. BERNARDA (Fiercely) Who? Who? ANGUSTIAS Them! BERNARDA Which one of you? (Silence) Answer me! (Silence. To Poncia) Search the rooms, look in the beds. This is comes from not having you on a shorter leash. But I will haunt you in your dreams! (To Angustias) Are you sure? ANGUSTIAS Yes. BERNARDA You’ve looked for it diligently? ANGUSTIAS Yes, Mother.

[They are all standing. An awkward silence.]

BERNARDA At this stage of my life you have me drink the bitterest poison a mother could possibly swallow. (To Poncia) You can’t find it? PONCIA (Entering) Here it is. BERNARDA Where did you find it? PONCIA It was… BERNARDA Speak without fear. PONCIA (Surprised) Between the sheets of Martirio’s bed. BERNARDA (To Martirio) Is this true? MARTIRIO Yes, it is! BERNARDA (Advancing, striking her with her cane) May you be cut to pieces, you little good-for-nothing! Always making trouble in this house! MARTIRIO (Fiercely) Don’t you hit me, Mother! BERNARDA I’ll hit you as many times as I want! MARTIRIO If I let you! Do you hear? Get away from me! PONCIA Show your Mother some respect. ANGUSTIAS (Holding Bernarda) Leave her alone. Please! BERNARDA Not a tear left in your eyes. MARTIRIO I will not cry to please you. BERNARDA Why did you take the picture? MARTIRIO Can’t I play a joke on my sister? Why else would I want it? ADELA (Erupting with jealousy) It wasn’t a joke. You never liked jokes. There was something else that was boiling up inside you that was bursting to get out. Say it. MARTIRIO Be quiet. Do not make me talk, because if I do the walls will close in from shame. ADELA There’s no end to what an evil tongue will tell! BERNARDA Adela! MAGDALENA You’re both crazy. AMELIA And you bombard us with your evil thoughts. MARTIRIO There are others who do far worse things. ADELA Until they are stripped naked and let the river current carry them away. BERNARDA You are a wicked girl! ANGUSTIAS It’s not my fault Pepe el Romano took a shine to me. ADELA For your money! ANGUSTIAS Mother! BERNARDA Silence! MARTIRIO For your land and your orchards. MAGDALENA That’s the truth! BERNARDA Silence, I say! I could see the storm coming, but I didn’t know it would break so soon. Oh, what a shower of stones has rained down on my heart! But I’m not an old woman yet. I’ve got five chains – for each of you, and these walls that my father built so that not even the weeds would know my desolation. Get out of here!

[They leave. Bernarda sits in despair. Poncia is standing close to the wall. Bernarda composes herself, bangs the floor, and says:

I shall have to take a firm grip! Remember, Bernarda, it is your duty. PONCIA May I speak? BERNARDA Speak. I’m sorry you had to hear that. It’s not good to have an outsider in the middle of a family. PONCIA What I’ve seen, I’ve seen. BERNARDA Angustias has to get married at once. PONCIA Of course. You have to get her away from here. BERNARDA Not her. Him! PONCIA Of course, you have to get him away from here! That’s good thinking. BERNARDA I don’t think. There are things you cannot and should not think about. I command. PONCIA And you think he will want to leave? BERNARDA (Rising) What are you thinking about in that little head of yours? PONCIA He, of course, will marry Angustias! BERNARDA Speak. I know you well enough to know you’re ready to stick the knife in. PONCIA I never thought a warning could be called murder. BERNARDA You have to warn me about something? PONCIA I’m not accusing you, Bernarda. I only say: open your eyes, and you will see. BERNARDA See what? PONCIA You have always been clever. You could always see the worst in a person a hundred miles away. I often thought you could read people’s thoughts. But it’s different with your children. Now you are blind. BERNARDA You mean Martirio? PONCIA Well, Martirio… (With curiosity) Why did she hide the picture? BERNARDA (Wanting to protect her daughter) She says it was a joke, after all. What else could it be? PONCIA (Sarcastically) You believe that? BERNARDA (Vigorously) I don’t believe it. It’s true! PONCIA Fair enough. It’s your family. But if it was the neighbor across the street, what then? BERNARDA Now you are starting to draw the knife. PONCIA (With sustained cruelty) No, Bernarda: there’s something very serious going on here. I don’t want to blame you, but you haven’t let your daughters be free. Martirio falls in love easily, whatever you say. Why didn’t you let her marry Enrique Humanes? Why did you send him a message not to come, on the very day he was going to come to her window? BERNARDA (Forcefully) I’d do it a thousand times! My blood will not mix with that of the Humanes clan, not as long as I live! His father was a farmhand. PONCIA And what have your pretensions gotten you? BERNARDA I have pretensions because I can afford to have them. And you don’t have them because you know full well what your origins are. PONCIA (With hatred) Don’t remind me! I’m an old woman now. I have been always grateful for your protection. BERNARDA (Imperiously) It doesn’t seem that way! PONCIA (With hatred wrapped in sweetness) Martirio will forget this. BERNARDA And if she doesn’t forget it, the worse it will be for her. I don’t think this is the “Something very serious” that is going on here. Nothing is going on here. That’s what you’d like! And if one day something were to happen here, I assure you it will not leave these walls. PONCIA I don’t know about that! In the village there are those that also can read hidden thoughts from afar. BERNARDA How you would love to see me and my daughters walking to the whorehouse! PONCIA No one can predict where they will end up. BERNARDA I know what my end will be! And of my daughters too! The whorehouse is reserved for a certain dead woman… PONCIA (Fiercely) Bernarda, respect my mother’s memory! BERNARDA Then stop hounding me with your evil thoughts! [Pause] PONCIA It’s best if I keep out of everything. BERNARDA It is the best you can do. Work and keep your mouth shut. That’s the duty of anyone who is paid to work. PONCIA But I can’t. Don’t you think Pepe is better suited to marry Martirio or… yes, Adela? BERNARDA I don’t think so. PONCIA (Pointedly) Adela. She is Pepe’s true fiancé! BERNARDA Things are never as we wish. PONCIA But it’s hard for people to go against their true nature. I think it’s wrong that Pepe is with Angustias. Other people, even Nature would agree. Who knows if they’ll get what they want? BERNARDA Here we go again! …You slip words in to fill me with bad dreams. And I don’t want to understand you because if I were to grasp fully what you’re saying I would tear you to pieces. PONCIA It won’t come to that! BERNARDA Fortunately my daughters respect me and they have never gone against my wishes! PONCIA That’s true. But as soon as you set them free they will climb up to the rooftop. BERNARDA And I’ll bring them down with stones! PONCIA You’ve always been the bravest one! BERNARDA I always fought the good fight! PONCIA But funny how things turn out! At her age, you should see how excited Angustias is about her fiancé! And he seems taken with her as well. Yesterday my eldest son told me that at four thirty in the morning, when he went past with the oxen, they were still talking. BERNARDA At four thirty ? ANGUSTIAS (Entering) It’s a lie! PONCIA That’s what they told me. BERNARDA (To Angustias) Speak! ANGUSTIAS For more than a week now Pepe has been leaving at one. May God strike me dead if I’m lying. MARTIRIO (Entering) I also heard him leave at four. BERNARDA You saw him with your own eyes? MARTIRIO I didn’t want to look out. Don’t you talk now at the window facing the alleyway? ANGUSTIAS I talk to him from my bedroom window. [Adela appears at the door] MARTIRIO Then… BERNARDA What is going on here? PONCIA Be careful what you might discover! But, it’s clear that Pepe was at one of your windows at four in the morning. BERNARDA Are you sure about this? PONCIA You can’t be sure of anything in this life. ADELA Mother, don’t listen to her. She wants to destroy us all. BERNARDA Then I will find out for myself! If the villagers want to make false accusations they will find I am hard as rock. We will not talk about this any longer. Sometimes people sling mud at others so they will lose themselves. MARTIRIO I’m not a liar. PONCIA There must be some truth in it. BERNARDA There is nothing. I was born with my eyes open. Now I shall keep them open until the day I die. ANGUSTIAS I have a right to know what is going on. BERNARDA You have no right but to obey. Nobody tells me what to do. (To Poncia) And you, stick to the affairs of your own house. No one will take a step here without my knowledge! SERVANT (Entering) There’s a big crowd at the top of the street and all the neighbors are at their doors! BERNARDA (To Poncia) Run; see what’s going on! (The women run as if to go out) Where are you going? I always knew you were women who couldn’t wait to display themselves at the windows, and break your mourning. All of you to the courtyard! [They leave. Bernarda leaves. Distant noise is heard. Martirio and Adela enter. They stand listening, not daring to take another step towards the door that leads out.] MARTIRIO You should be grateful I didn’t speak up. ADELA I could have spoken up too. MARTIRIO And what would you have said? To want to do something is not the same as doing it! ADELA The one who does is the one who can, the one who gets there first. You wanted to, but you couldn’t. MARTIRIO You can’t go on much longer. ADELA I’ll have him all to myself! MARTIRIO And I’ll tear you away from his embrace! ADELA (Pleading) Martirio, leave me alone! MARTIRIO Never! ADELA He wants me to live with him. MARTIRIO I saw how he embraced you! ADELA I didn’t want him to. It’s as if I was dragged along a tightrope. MARTIRIO I’ll see you dead first! [Magdalena and Angustias appear. The noise outside grows louder.] PONCIA (Entering with Bernarda) Bernarda! BERNARDA What is it? PONCIA Librada’s daughter, the unmarried one, has had a child, and no one knows who the father is. ADELA A child? PONCIA And to hide her shame she killed it and buried it underneath some stones; but some dogs, with more heart than many a human being, rooted it out and left it on her doorstep, as if guided by God’s hand. Now they want to kill her. They are dragging her down the street, and the men are running along the paths and from the olive-groves, shouting so loudly they make the fields tremble. BERNARDA That’s right. Let them come with olive switches and pick-handles. Let them all come and kill her. ADELA No, no! Not kill her! MARTIRIO Yes. And let’s go out there too. BERNARDA And let the woman who tramples on her virtue pay the price.

[Outside a woman’s cry is heard, and great uproar]

ADELA Let her go! Don’t go out! MARTIRIO (Looking at Adela) Let her pay the price! BERNARDA (In the archway) Finish her off before the police arrive! Place a burning coal where her sin lies! ADELA (Clutching her stomach) No! No! BERNARDA Kill her! Kill her! [Curtain]
 * ACT THREE **

Four white walls, lightly bathed in blue, in the inner courtyard of Bernarda’s house. It is night. The setting should be absolutely simple. The doorways, illuminated by the light from inside the house, cast a soft glow on the scene. At center, a table with an oil lamp at which Bernarda and her daughters are eating. Poncia is serving them. Prudencia is seated to one side. As the curtain rises, there is complete silence, broken only by the sound of plates and cutlery.

PRUDENCIA I should go. I have overstayed my welcome. (She rises) BERNARDA Wait now, dear woman. We never see each other. PRUDENCIA Has the last call for the rosary sounded? PONCIA Not yet.

[Prudencia sits]

BERNARDA And how is your husband doing? PRUDENCIA Same as always. BERNARDA We never see him either. PRUDENCIA You know what he’s like. Since he quarreled with his brothers over the inheritance he hasn’t gone out the front door. He uses a ladder to climb the back wall. BERNARDA That’s a real man for you! And your daughter…? PRUDENCIA He hasn’t forgiven her. BERNARDA He’s right. PRUDENCIA I don’t know what to say. It makes me suffer so. BERNARDA A disobedient daughter stops being your daughter and instead becomes an enemy.

PRUDENCIA I let the water flow. There’s no other comfort left to me but to seek refuge in the church, but since I’m going blind I’ll have to stop going, so that the children won’t mock me. (A heavy blow is heard against the walls) What was that? BERNARDA The stallion. He’s locked in the stable and kicks the wall. (Calling out) Hobble him and let him out into the yard. (Quietly) He must be hot. PRUDENCIA Are you going to let him loose on the new mares? BERNARDA At dawn. PRUDENCIA You’ve managed to increase your stable. BERNARDA With plenty of money and grief to go with it. PONCIA (Cutting in) She’s got the best stable in the whole region! It’s a shame the prices are so low. BERNARDA Would you like some cheese and honey? PRUDENCIA I don’t feel like eating.

[The blow is heard again] PONCIA Dear God! PRUDENCIA It went straight to my heart! BERNARDA (Rising angrily) Must I say everything twice? Let him out to roll in the straw! (Pause. As though speaking to the farmhands.) Lock the mares in the stable, but let him loose, before he brings the whole house down. [She goes to the table and sits down again] What a life this is! PRUDENCIA Working like a man. BERNARDA Just so. [Adela gets up from the table] Where are you going? ADELA For a drink of water. BERNARDA (Calling out) Bring a jug of cool water. (To Adela) You may sit down. [Adela sits] PRUDENCIA And Angustias, when does she marry? BERNARDA They will be coming for her hand in three days. PRUDENCIA You must be happy. ANGUSTIAS Of course! AMELIA (To Magdalena) Now you’ve gone and spilled the salt! MAGDALENA Your luck can’t get much worse than it is already. AMELIA It always brings bad luck. BERNARDA Enough of that! PRUDENCIA (To Angustias) Has he given you the ring yet? ANGUSTIAS (Displays it) See for yourself. PRUDENCIA It’s beautiful. Three pearls. In my day pearls meant tears. ANGUSTIAS Things have changed. ADELA I don’t think so. Things always mean the same. An engagement ring should have diamonds. PRUDENCIA It’s more appropriate. BERNARDA With or without pearls, it’s all in what you make of things. MARTIRIO Or what God makes of them. PRUDENCIA They tell me your furniture is beautiful too. BERNARDA I’ve spent a fortune. PONCIA (Cutting in) The best piece is the wardrobe with the mirror. PRUDENCIA I’ve never seen one of those. BERNARDA All we had was a chest. PRUDENCIA What’s important is that everything works out for the best. ADELA One never knows. BERNARDA There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.

[Bells are heard in the distance]

PRUDENCIA The last call. (To Angustias) I’ll come again so you can show me your trousseau. ANGUSTIAS Whenever you wish. PRUDENCIA May God be with us all tonight. BERNARDA Goodbye, Prudencia. THE FIVE DAUGHTERS (In unison) God be with you.

[Pause. Prudencia exits.] BERNARDA We have eaten.

[They rise]

ADELA I’m going as far as the main door to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.

[Magdalena sits in a low chair against the wall] AMELIA I’ll go with you. MARTIRIO Me too. ADELA (With suppressed hatred) I’m not going to get lost. AMELIA The night desires company.

[They leave. Bernarda sits. Angustias clears the table.]

BERNARDA I have already told you I want you to speak to your sister Martirio. What happened with the picture was a joke and should be forgotten. ANGUSTIAS You know she doesn’t love me. BERNARDA Everyone knows their own heart. I never pry into anyone else’s, but I want appearances kept up, and harmony inside the family. Do you understand? ANGUSTIAS Yes. BERNARDA That’s settled, then. MAGDALENA (Half asleep) Anyway, you’ll be leaving before you know it! (She sleeps) ANGUSTIAS Not soon enough. BERNARDA What time did you stop talking last night? ANGUSTIAS Twelve-thirty. BERNARDA What does Pepe have to say? ANGUSTIAS He seems very distracted. He talks to me as if he’s thinking about something else. When I ask him what’s on his mind, he just says, “Men have their own worries.” BERNARDA You shouldn’t ask him. And when you get married, even less so. Speak if he speaks and look at him when he looks at you. You’ll be better off that way. ANGUSTIAS Mother, I think he hides things from me. BERNARDA Don’t try to find out what they are, don’t ask him anything, and by all means, don’t let him ever see you cry. ANGUSTIAS I should be happy and I’m not. BERNARDA It’s all the same. ANGUSTIAS Sometimes I look at Pepe through the bars of the window and he becomes blurred, as if he were obscured by a cloud of dust stirred up by the flocks of sheep. BERNARDA You’re not well, that’s all. ANGUSTIAS I hope that’s all it is. BERNARDA Is he stopping by tonight? ANGUSTIAS No. He went to the capital with his mother. BERNARDA Then we’ll go to bed early. Magdalena ! ANGUSTIAS She’s fallen asleep. [Adela, Martirio, Amelia enter] AMELIA What a dark night! ADELA You can’t see two feet in front of you. MARTIRIO A good night for thieves, or for someone who needs to hide. ADELA The stallion was in the middle of the yard. So white! And twice its size. He filled the darkness. AMELIA She’s right. It was frightening. He looked like a ghost! ADELA The sky has stars like fists. MARTIRIO She was staring at them so much she almost strained her neck. ADELA Don’t you like the stars? MARTIRIO I couldn’t care less what happens above the rooftops. I have enough with what goes on inside these rooms. ADELA That’s why you’re the way you are. BERNARDA She has her ways, and you have yours. ANGUSTIAS Good night. ADELA You’re going to bed already? ANGUSTIAS Yes, Pepe’s not coming tonight. (Exits) ADELA Mother, why is when there’s a shooting star of a flash of lightning in the sky people say: Blessed Santa Barbara You story is writ in the sky With paper and holy water? BERNARDA Our ancestors knew many things that we have now forgotten. AMELIA I close my eyes so as not to see them. ADELA I don’t. I like to see tings that have been dormant for years on end suddenly flash with fire. MARTIRIO These things have nothing to do with us. BERNARDA Best not to think about them. ADELA What a beautiful night! I would like to stay up late to enjoy the breeze from the fields. BERNARDA But it’s time for bed. Magdalena ! AMELIA She’s sleeping so well. BERNARDA Magdalena ! MAGDALENA (Annoyed) Leave me in peace! BERNARDA Time for bed! MAGDALENA (Getting up in a bad mood) You can’t let a person just be! (She goes out grumbling) AMELIA Good night. (She exits) BERNARDA You two, go on now. MARTIRIO Why isn’t Angustias’ fiancé coming by tonight? BERNARDA He’s away on a trip. MARTIRIO (Looking at Adela) Ah! ADELA See you in the morning. (Exits)

[Martirio takes a drink of water and goes out slowly looking towards the door of the stable-yard. Poncia enters]

PONCIA You’re still here? BERNARDA Delighting in the silence. I still have not been able to discern what is the “serious” thing that is going on here. PONCIA Bernarda, let’s leave that now. BERNARDA In this house everything is as it should be. My vigilance can cope with everything. PONCIA Nothing going on that you could see, that’s true. Your daughters live as if they were kept in a cupboard. But neither you nor anybody can see what is inside someone’s heart. BERNARDA My daughters breathe easily. PONCIA That’s important to you because you’re their mother. I have enough to do looking after this house. BERNARDA Now you’re silent. PONCIA I am in my place, and in peace. BERNARDA It’s that you have nothing to say, that’s what. If in this house there were weeds, you’d be the first one to bring the neighborhood’s sheep in here to graze. PONCIA I cover up more than you think. BERNARDA Does your son still see Pepe at four in the morning? Are people still reciting a litany of lies about this house? PONCIA Nobody says anything. BERNARDA Because they can’t. Because there isn’t anything they can sink their teeth into. My vigilance has paid off. PONCIA Bernarda, I don’t want to say anything because I’m afraid of what you are up to. All I can say is: don’t be so sure of things. BERNARDA I am very sure! PONCIA Maybe a bolt of lightning will strike! Maybe, all of a sudden, a blood clot will stop your heart. BERNARDA Nothing will happen here. I am quite aware of what you’re getting at. PONCIA Better for you, then. BERNARDA Absolutely! SERVANT (Entering) I finished washing the dishes. Do you need anything else, Bernarda? BERNARDA (Rising) No. I’m going to bed. PONCIA What time do you want me to call you? BERNARDA Don’t bother. I’m going to sleep well tonight. (Exits) PONCIA When you can’t fight the sea, the easiest thing to do is to turn your back against it. SERVANT She is so full of pride that she blinds herself to things. PONCIA I can’t do anything. I tried to stop things before they went any further, but they frighten me too much. You hear this silence? Well, there’s a storm in each one of these rooms. The day they break, they’ll sweep us all away. I have said what I’ve had to say. SERVANT Bernarda thinks no one can be a match for her, but she doesn’t know the power a man can have in a house full of single women. PONCIA It’s not all Pepe el Romano’s fault. It’s true that last year he was after Adela, and she was crazy about him, but she should have stayed in her place. She shouldn’t have provoked him. A man is a man. SERVANT Some people think he talked too many nights with Adela. PONCIA They’re right. (Whispering) And other things, too. SERVANT I don’t know what’s going to happen here. PONCIA I would like to cross the ocean and leave this house of war behind me. SERVANT Bernarda is rushing the wedding. It’s possible nothing will happen. PONCIA Things have gone too far. Adela’s mind is made up. She’s willing to do anything. And the others keep ceaseless watch all the time. SERVANT Martirio too? PONCIA She’s the worst. She’s a well of poison. She knows that Pepe is not for her and she’d sink the world if she could so that nobody else can have him either. SERVANT They are wicked girls! PONCIA They are men without women, that’s all. When it comes to these things, even blood ties are forgotten. Shh! (Listens) SERVANT What is it? PONCIA (rises) The dogs are barking. SERVANT Someone must have passed across the front door.

[Adela enters in white petticoat and bodice]

PONCIA Weren’t you in bed? ADELA I’m going to take a drink of water. (She drinks a glass from the table) PONCIA I thought you were sleeping. ADELA Thirst woke me. Aren’t you two going to bed? SERVANT In a bit. [Adela goes out] PONCIA Let’s go. SERVANT We’ve earned our rest. Bernarda has me working all day. PONCIA Take the lamp. SERVANT The dogs are barking like mad. PONCIA They won’t let us sleep.

[They leave. The stage is almost in darkness. Maria Josefa appears with a lamb in her arms.] MARIA JOSEFA Little lamb, my little baby Let us go down to the seashore. The little ant will be at his door. I will give you my milk, and bit of bread. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. Little lamb. Baa, baa. We’ll go see the flowers that rest at Bethlehem ’s gates. (Laughs) Neither you nor I desire sleep The door will open all by itself And we will go down to the beach And hide inside a coral reef. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. Little lamb. Baa, baa. Let us go see the flowers that rest at Bethlehem ’s gates! [She goes out, singing. Adela enters. She looks around warily and disappears through the door to the stable-yard. Martirio comes in through another door and stands at center in a state of anguished watchfulness. She is also in her petticoat. She has covered herself with a waist-length black shawl. Maria Josefa enters.] MARTIRIO Where do you think you’re going? MARIA JOSEFA Are you going to open the door for me? Who are you? MARTIRIO What are you doing here? MARIA JOSEFA I escaped. And who are you? MARTIRIO Go to bed. MARIA JOSEFA You are Martirio. I see that now. Martirio: face of a martyr. And when are you going to have a baby? I’ve had this one. MARTIRIO Where did you get that lamb? MARIA JOSEFA I know it’s a lamb. But why can’t a lamb be a little baby? It’s better to have a lamb than nothing. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. MARTIRIO Don’t shout. MARIA JOSEFA It’s true. Everything is too dark. You think I can’t have children because my hair is white, but I can. I can have children, children and more children. This child will have white hair, and there will be another child and another and they will all have snow-white hair, and we will be like the waves of the sea, and we will all have white hair and we will be foam. Why isn’t there foam here? There’s nothing here but mourning shawls. MARTIRIO Be quiet now, quiet. MARIA JOSEFA When my neighbor had a child I would bring him chocolate and afterwards she would always bring me some, and that’s how it was forever and ever and ever. You will have white hair, but the neighbors won’t visit you. I must go, but I am afraid the dogs will bite me. Will you accompany me until we are past the fields? I don’t want fields. I want houses, open houses, and neighbors sleeping in their beds with their little children, and the men outside sitting in their chairs. Pepe el Romano is a giant. All of you want him. But he will devour you, because you are grains of wheat. No, not grains of wheat, but frogs without tongues! MARTIRIO (Vigorously) Let’s go. To bed! (She pushes her) MARIA JOSEFA Yes, but later you will let me out, won’t you? MARTIRIO Of course. MARIA JOSEFA (Weeping) Little lamb, my little baby Let’s go down to the seashore. The ant will be at his door. I will give you my milk, and bit of bread.

[She leaves. Martirio closes the door through which Maria Josefa has just gone out, and moves toward the door to the stable-yard. She hesitates, then advances a few more steps forward.] MARTIRIO (Whispering) Adela. (Pause. Advances to the door. Loudly) Adela!

[Adela appears. Her hair is tousled]

ADELA What do you need me for? MARTIRIO Leave that man! ADELA And who are you to tell me anything? MARTIRIO That’s not the place for a decent woman. ADELA Wouldn’t you like to be there yourself! MARTIRIO (Loudly) The time has come for me to speak. This cannot go on. ADELA This is just the beginning. I’ve had the strength to take what I want. The spirit and valor you don’t have. I have seen death under this roof and I have gone out to take hold of what is mine, what belongs to me. MARTIRIO That soul-less man came for another woman. You got in his way. ADELA He came for the money, but he always kept his eyes on me. MARTIRIO I won’t let you take him. He must marry Angustias. ADELA You know better than I that he doesn’t love her. MARTIRIO I know. ADELA You know, because you’ve seen it. He loves me. MARTIRIO (Desperately) Yes. ADELA (Coming closer) He loves me, he loves me. MARTIRIO Stick the knife in if that’s what you want, but don’t say those words again. ADELA That’s why you don’t want me to see him. You don’t care if he embraces someone he doesn’t love. Neither do I. He could live with Angustias for a hundred years. But the fact that he embraces me makes you crazy, because you love him too. You love him! MARTIRIO (Powerfully) Yes! I say it without shame. Yes! Let my heart burst open like a bitter pomegranate. I love him! ADELA (Impulsively, goes to embrace her) Martirio, Martirio, it’s not my fault. MARTIRIO Don’t embrace me! Don’t try to soften the hatred in my eyes. We are no longer bound by blood. Even though I want to see you as my sister, I can only see you now as just another woman. (She pushes her away) ADELA There’s no solution here. Whoever must drown, must drown. Pepe el Romano is mine. He will take me to the river’s edge. MARTIRIO I won’t let him! ADELA I cannot stand the horror of living in this house anymore, not after having tasted his sweet lips. I will be whatever he wants me to be. The whole village can turn against me; they can burn me with their fingers of fire. Those that call themselves honorable citizens can hound me. I will stand in front of them all with a crown of thorns on my head, the crown that women who are loved by a married man wear. MARTIRIO Be quiet! ADELA Yes, yes. (Quietly) Let’s go to sleep, let him marry Angustias. I don’t care anymore. But I will go live in a little house all by myself, where he can see me whenever he wants, when the need arises. MARTIRIO That will not happen, not as long as I’ve got a drop of blood left in my veins. ADELA You’re weak. I can bring a wild stallion to its knees with the strength of my little finger. MARTIRIO Don’t raise your voice like that. It upsets me. My heart is full of such an evil force that without my trying is drowning me. ADELA They teach us to love our sisters. God must have left me alone in the heart of darkness, because I see you, as I never have before. [A whistle is heard. Adela runs to the door, but Martirio gets in her way] MARTIRIO Where are you going? ADELA Get away from the door! MARTIRIO Get past me if you can! ADELA Get away! (She struggles) MARTIRIO (Loudly) Mother, mother! ADELA Let me pass!

[Bernarda enters. She wears petticoats and a black shawl.]

BERNARDA Calm down. Calm down. How unfortunate am I not to have a thunderbolt between my fingers. MARTIRIO (Pointing at Adela) She was with him! Look at her petticoat full of straw! BERNARDA A straw bed is a whore’s bed. (She approaches Adela with rage) ADELA (Confronting her) There will be an end to the warden’s voice here! (Adela seizes her mother’s walking stick and breaks it in half) This is what I do with the tyrant’s rod. Do not take another step. No one but Pepe governs me! [Magdalena appears] MAGDALENA Adela!

[Poncia and Angustias appear]

ADELA I am his woman. (To Angustias) You know this now. Go out there and tell him. He will govern this whole house. He’s out there, panting like a lion. ANGUSTIAS Dear God! BERNARDA The gun! Where is the gun? (She runs out)

[Amelia enters upstage, looking on in terror, her head against the wall. Martirio goes out] ADELA No one will stop me! (She starts to go out) ANGUSTIAS (Restraining her) You will not leave here with your body triumphant. You thief! You shame our house! MAGDALENA Let her go where we will not ever see her again!

[A gunshot is heard] BERNARDA (Entering) Dare to look for him now. MARTIRIO (Entering) Pepe el Romano has seen his end. ADELA Pepe! Dear God! Pepe! (She rushes out) PONCIA Did you kill him? MARTIRIO No. He rode off on his horse. BERNARDA It was my fault. Women don’t have good aim. MAGDALENA Why did you say that then? MARTIRIO For her sake! I’d have poured a river of blood on her head. PONCIA Cursed woman. MAGDALENA She-devil. BERNARDA It’s better this way. (A thud is heard) Adela! Adela! PONCIA (at the door) Open the door! BERNARDA Open it. Don’t think the walls can protect you from shame. SERVANT (Entering) The neighbors are getting up. BERNARDA (In a low, coarse voice) Open the door, or I will break it down! [Pause. Complete silence.] Adela! (She moves away from the door) Bring a hammer! [Poncia pushes the door and enters. As she does so, she screams and reappears] BERNARDA What is it? PONCIA (putting her hands to her throat) May we never see such an end!

[The sisters draw back. The Servant crosses herself. Bernarda screams and steps forward.] PONCIA Don’t go in! BERNARDA No. I will not! Pepe: you may run free through the dark tress, but on another day you will fall. Cut her down! My daughter has died a virgin! Take her to her room and dress her like a pure maiden. No one will say anything! She has died a virgin! Tell them the bells should ring twice at dawn. MARTIRIO She was a thousand times lucky to have had him. BERNARDA And I don’t want any tears. You have to look death in the face. Silence! (To another daughter) Be quiet, I said! (To another daughter) You can shed tears when you’re alone. We will drown in a sea of mourning! She, the youngest daughter of Bernarda Alba, has died a virgin. Do you hear me? Silence. Silence, I said. Silence!

[Curtain]
 * END OF PLAY **

=THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA=


 * (La Casa de Bernarda Alba)**

By Federico Garcia Lorca

In a new translation by Caridad Svich

Contact: New Dramatists 424 West 44th Street, NY, NY 10036 E-mail: newdramatists@newdramatists.org

Or VM: 212-886-1814 csvich21@aol.com

February 2003.

=THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA=

__Characters:__ BERNARDA, sixty years old MARIA JOSEFA, Bernarda’s mother, eighty years old ANGUSTIAS, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty-nine years old MAGDALENA, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty years old AMELIA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-seven years old MARTIRIO, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-four years old ADELA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty years old SERVANT, fifty years old PONCIA, sixty years old PRUDENCIA, fifty years old BEGGAR WOMAN with LITTLE GIRL WOMEN MOURNERS WOMAN 1 WOMAN 2 WOMAN 3 WOMAN 4 YOUNG GIRL

__Author’s note__: These three acts are intended as a photographic document.

=ACT ONE=

An extremely white inner room in Bernarda’s house. Solid walls. Arched doorways with jute curtains edged with tassels and ruffles. Cattail chairs. Nonrealistic landscapes of nymphs and fairy-tale kings. It is summer. A great ominous silence fills the stage. When the curtain rises, the stage is empty. The sound of tolling bells is heard. The Servant enters.

SERVANT The sound of those bells is right inside my head. PONCIA (Appears eating bread and sausage) They’ve been tolling for more than two hours now. Priests have come from all the villages. The church looks beautiful. During the first response Magdalena fainted. SERVANT She’s the one who will be the most alone. PONCIA She was the only one her father loved. Ay! Thank God we’re alone for a little while! I have come to eat. SERVANT If Bernarda were to see you…! PONCIA Since now she’s not eating, she wants us all to starve! She is so bossy, so domineering! Well, she can go to hell. I have opened her sausage jar. SERVANT (With sad longing) Poncia, why don’t you give me some for my little girl? PONCIA Go ahead. And take a fistful of chickpeas too while you’re at it. She won’t notice a thing today! VOICE (From off) Bernarda! PONCIA The old woman. Is she locked up properly? SERVANT With two turns of the key. PONCIA You should put the bar across as well. Her fingers are like five picklocks! VOICE Bernarda! PONCIA (calling out) She’s near! (To Servant) Make sure everything is sparkling clean. If Bernarda doesn’t see everything shining here she’ll pull out what little hair I’ve got left. SERVANT Oh, that woman! PONCIA Tyrant of all she surveys. She could sit on your heart and watch you die slowly for a year and not once unfix that cold smile from her damn face! Go on, go on, and clean those dishes! SERVANT My hands are blood raw from washing-up all the time. PONCIA She’s the cleanest, she’s the most decent, and she’s the most superior of beings! Her poor husband has earned himself a good long rest. [The bells stop.] SERVANT Have all the relatives come? PONCIA Only those on her side of the family. His family hates her. They came to make sure he was dead, and send him on his way. SERVANT Are there enough chairs? PONCIA More than enough. Let them sit on the floor. No one has ever set foot in this house Since Bernarda’s father died. She doesn’t want anyone to see her on her own stomping ground. Damn her to hell! SERVANT She’s always been good to you. PONCIA Thirty years I have washed her sheets; thirty years I have eaten her scraps. I’ve spent many a sleepless night when she’s had a cough; I’ve spent whole days spying on the neighbors through the window slits so I could bring her all the gossip. There have been no secrets between us, and yet, I still say damn her to hell! I’d like to stick a burning nail in her eyes! SERVANT Woman! PONCIA But I’m a good bitch: I bark when I’m told, and when she sets me upon them; I bite the heels of those who come begging at our door. My sons work in her fields; they’re both married now. One day I will have enough of this. SERVANT And on that day… PONCIA On that day I will lock myself up in a room with her and spit at her for an entire year: ‘Bernarda, this is for this, and for that, and for that other thing.” I’ll spit on her until she looks like one of those lizards the children have squashed. That’s what she is: a lizard. Her and her whole family. Not that I envy the life she leads. She has five girls on her hands, five ugly daughters, and only the eldest, Angustias, has any money to her name because she’s her first husband’s daughter. The rest of them: lots of fine lace and linen camisoles, but nothing to their names but bread and water. SERVANT Wouldn’t I give to have what they have! PONCIA We’ve got only our hands and a hole in God’s earth. SERVANT That’s the only land those who have nothing are allowed to inherit. PONCIA (by the cupboard) This glass still has some spots on it. SERVANT Not even with soap or a rag will they come off. [The bells ring.] PONCIA The last prayer. I’m going to hear it. I love how the priest sings. In the paternoster his voice went up and up and up like a pitcher slowly being filled with water. Of course, in the end, his voice cracked unbearably, but it still was a joy to listen to him. However, there’s no one like Tronchapinos, the old sexton. He sang at my mother’s mass, God rest her soul! The walls used to shake and when he’d say the Amen it was as if a wolf had entered the church. (Imitating him) A-a-a—a—me-e-n! [She begins to cough] SERVANT You’re going to strain your windpipe. PONCIA I used to strain something else! [She goes out laughing] [The servant cleans. The bells ring.] SERVANT (Picking up the bells’ rhythm) Ding, ding, dong. Ding, ding, dong. May God forgive him! BEGGAR WOMAN (With a little girl in hand) Praise be to God! SERVANT Ding, ding, dong. May He wait for us many years from now! Ding, ding, dong. BEGGAR WOMAN (Loudly, with frustration) Praise be to God! SERVANT (Annoyed) May He be always! BEGGAR WOMAN I’ve come for the leftovers. [The bells stop.] SERVANT That’s the way out. Today’s scraps are for me! BEGGAR WOMAN Woman, you’ve got someone to take care of you. My little girl and I are alone in this world. SERVANT So are the dogs and they survive just fine. BEGGAR WOMAN They always give me the scraps. SERVANT Get out of here. Who told you you could come in? Look at the mess you’ve made with your dirty feet! (Beggar Woman leaves. The Servant cleans) Floors, cupboards, pedestals, iron bed frames polished with oil, while those of us who live in huts of mud with only a spoon and a plate to our name have to swallow the bitter pill. I pray for the day when none of us is left to tell the tale! [The bells peal again] Yes, yes, ring those bells! Bring the wooden box with its fine gold trim and silk straps to carry it! We’ll both end up the same! You can rot, Antonio Maria Benavides, stiff in your woven suit and your high boots! You can rot! Never again will you lift my skirt behind the doors to your stable!

[At the back of the stage, two by two, the Women Mourners enter. They wear voluminous black skirts, and shawls and carry black fans. They enter slowly until they have filled the stage.] SERVANT (Begins to wail) Oh, Antonio Maria Benavides! Never again will you see these walls or eat the bread of this house! Of all the women who served you, I was the one who loved you the most. (Pulling at her hair) Must I go on living after you’ve gone? Must I go on living?

[The two hundred women are now inside the house. Bernarda enters with her five daughters. Bernarda leans on a walking stick.]

BERNARDA (To the Servant) Silence! SERVANT (Weeping) Bernarda! BERNARDA Less howling and more work! You should have made sure this place was much cleaner for the mourners. Get out. This isn’t your place. [The Servant exits weeping] The poor are like animals. It’s as if they’re made of different stuff. WOMAN 1 The poor feel their sorrows too. BERNARDA But they forget them when you put a plate of chickpeas in front of them. YOUNG GIRL (Timidly) You can’t live without eating. BERNARDA A girl of your age doesn’t speak in front of her elders. WOMAN 1 Child, be quiet. BERNARDA I have never let anyone lecture me. Be seated! [They sit. Pause.] (Forcefully) Magdalena, don’t cry. If you want to cry, get under your bed. Do you hear me? WOMAN 2 (To Bernarda) Have you started the threshing? BERNARDA Yesterday. WOMAN 3 The sun beats down like lead. WOMAN 1 It’s been years since it’s been this hot. [Pause. They all fan themselves] BERNARDA Is the lemonade ready?

PONCIA Yes, Bernarda. [Poncia enters with a large tray full of small white pitchers, which she hands out.] BERNARDA Give some to the men as well. PONCIA They have some in the courtyard. BERNARDA Make sure they leave the way they came in. I don’t want them coming through here. YOUNG GIRL (To Angustias) Pepe el Romano was with the mourners. ANGUSTIAS Yes, he was. BERNARDA His mother was. She saw his mother. Neither of us saw Pepe. YOUNG GIRL I thought… BERNARDA The one who was there was the widower from Darajali. Very close to your aunt. We all saw him. WOMAN 2 (Aside, whispering) Wicked woman. Worse than wicked! WOMAN 3 (Aside, whispering) A tongue like a knife! BERNARDA Women in church should not look at any other man except for the priest, and only at him because he wears a skirt. Those who look elsewhere seek the warmth of a pair of trousers. WOMAN 1 (Whispering) Dried up old lizard! PONCIA (Muttering) Like a twisted vine reaching out for a man’s heat! BERNARDA (Beating the floor with her stick) Praise be to God! ALL (Crossing themselves) Praised and blessed may He be forever and ever. BERNARDA Rest in peace, with the heavenly host above you. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With Saint Michael the Archangel And his sword of justice. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With the key that opens all doors, And the hand that closes them. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With those that are blessed And the little lights of the field. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA With our holy charity, And the souls on land and sea. ALL Rest in peace! BERNARDA Grant peace to your servant Antonio Maria Benavides and give him the crown of your blessed glory. ALL Amen! BERNARDA (Rises, and chants) Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.

ALL (Rise and chant in Gregorian fashion) Et lux perpetua luceat eis. [They cross themselves] WOMAN 1 God grant you health to pray for his soul. [They begin to file out] WOMAN 3 You shall never want for a loaf of bread. WOMAN 2 Nor a roof over your daughters’ heads.

[They all file out past Bernarda. Angustias goes out through the door that leads to the courtyard.] WOMAN 4 May you still enjoy the blessings of your marriage. PONCIA (Entering with a bag) I bring this on behalf of the men: a bag of money for prayers. BERNARDA Thank them and pour them a glass of brandy. YOUNG GIRL Magdalena. BERNARDA (To Magdalena, who is starting to cry) Shhh.

[She hits the ground with her stick. The Women Mourners leave.]

(As they leave) Run back to your caves and criticize everything you have seen! May years pass before you cross my threshold again! PONCIA You can’t complain, Bernarda. The whole village came. BERNARDA Yes, to fill my house with the sweat of their underskirts and their venomous tongues. AMELIA Mother, don’t speak that way! BERNARDA It is the only way to speak when you live in a cursed village without a river, without wells, where one is always drinking water with the fear it might be poisoned. PONCIA Look what they’ve done to the floor! BERNARDA As if a herd of goats had walked across it. [Poncia scrubs the floor] Child, give me a fan. ADELA Take this one. (She hands her a round fan decorated with red and green flowers) BERNARDA (Hurling the fan to the floor) Is this the kind of fan you give a widow? Hand me a black one, and learn to respect the mourning of your father. MARTIRIO Take mine. BERNARDA And you? MARTIRIO I don’t feel hot. BERNARDA Then find another one. You’re going to need it. In the eight years this mourning will last not a breeze will enter this house. Imagine we have sealed the doors and windows with bricks. That’s how it was in my father’s house and in my grandfather’s too. In the meantime you can embroider your trousseaus. I have twenty pieces of linen in the chest so you can cut out sheets and veils. Magdalena can embroider them. MAGDALENA It’s all the same to me. ADELA (Bitterly) If you don’t want to embroider them, then leave them just as they are. That way yours will look much better. MAGDALENA Neither yours nor mine. I know I’ll never get married. I’d rather carry sacks to the mill. Anything but sit here day after day in this dark room. BERNARDA That’s what it means to be a woman. MAGDALENA Cursed be all women. BERNARDA Here you will do what I say. You can’t go telling tales to your father anymore. A needle and thread for women. A whip and a mule for men. That’s how it is for people that are born with means. [Adela goes out] VOICE (From Off) Bernarda, let me out! BERNARDA (Loudly) Let her out now! [The Servant enters] SERVANT I could hardly keep her down. She may be eighty, but your mother is as tough as an oak tree. BERNARDA It runs in the family. My grandmother was the same. SERVANT Several times while the mourners were here I had to gag her with an empty sack because she kept wanting to call out to you so you could give her the dishwater and dog-meat she says you always give her. MARTIRIO She’s a troublemaker. BERNARDA (To Servant) She can let off steam in the courtyard. SERVANT She’s taken her amethyst earrings and fine rings out of the jewelry box, and put them on. She says she wants to get married. [The daughters laugh] BERNARDA Go with her. Make sure she doesn’t go near the well. SERVANT Don’t worry. She won’t throw herself in. BERNARDA Oh, it’s not that. I just don’t want the neighbors to see her from their windows.

[The Servant goes out] MARTIRIO We’re going to change. BERNARDA Very well, but not your headscarves. [Adela enters] Where’s Angustias? ADELA (Pointedly) I saw her peeping through the crack in the main door. The men have just left. BERNARDA And why were you at the door? ADELA I went to see if the hens had laid. BERNARDA But the men must have left already! ADELA (pointedly) There was a group still standing outside. BERNARDA (Furiously) Angustias! Angustias! ANGUSTIAS (Entering) What do you want? BERNARDA What and who were you looking at? ANGUSTIAS No one. BERNARDA Is it proper for a woman of your class to be throwing a man the bait on the day of her father’s funeral? Answer me! Who were you looking at? [Pause] ANGUSTIAS I… BERNARDA Yes, you. ANGUSTIAS No one! BERNARDA (Advancing with her stick) You spineless, syrupy creature! (She strikes her) PONCIA (Running) Bernarda, calm down! (She holds her) [Angustias is crying] BERNARDA All of you: out! [They leave] PONCIA She did it without thinking. It was wrong, of course. It was a shock to see her sneaking away towards the courtyard. Then she stood by a window, listening to the men’s conversations, which are, as always, not fit to hear. BERNARDA That’s what they come to funerals for! (With curiosity) What were they talking about? PONCIA They were talking about Paca la Roseta. Last night they tied her husband to a manger, and they carried her off on horseback to the top of the olive-grove. BERNARDA And she…? PONCIA She was willing. They say she went with her breasts exposed, and Maximiliano was holding her tight, as though he was strapping on a guitar. Disgusting! BERNARDA And then what happened? PONCIA What was bound to happen. They came back when it was almost daybreak. Paca la Roseta had her hair down and a crown of flowers on her head. BERNARDA She is the only loose woman in our village. PONCIA Because she’s not from here. She’s from far away. And the men who went with her are also sons of foreigners. The men from here aren’t capable of such things. BERNARDA No, but they like to witness it and talk about it, and they suck their fingers when it happens. PONCIA They were saying a lot of other things too. BERNARDA (looking about with some apprehension) What sort of things? PONCIA I’m ashamed to mention them. BERNARDA And my daughter heard them. PONCIA Of course! BERNARDA She takes after her aunts: white and dripping sweet and making goo-goo eyes at any common barber’s least bit of flattery. How we have to suffer and struggle to make sure people behave decently and don’t run wild! PONCIA Your daughters are old enough to deserve such things. They hardly give you any trouble. Angustias must be well over thirty by now. BERNARDA Thirty-nine to be exact. PONCIA Imagine. And she’s never had a suitor… BERNARDA (Furiously) No, none of them has ever had a suitor, nor have they need of one! They do just fine as they are. PONCIA I didn’t mean to offend you. BERNARDA There’s no one for a hundred miles around that can compare to them. The men around here are not of their class. Would you have me offer them to just anyone? PONCIA You should have gone to another village. BERNARDA To sell them, oh yes! PONCIA No, Bernarda, for a change… Of course, somewhere else they would be the poor ones! BERNARDA Hold your tormenting tongue! PONCIA There’s no reasoning with you. Are we or are we not friends? BERNARDA We are not. You serve me and I pay you. That’s all! SERVANT (Entering) Don Arturo’s here to discuss the will. BERNARDA Let’s go then. (To Servant) Start whitewashing the courtyard. (To Poncia) And you, put all the clothes of the deceased in the big chest. PONCIA We could give some of the things… BERNARDA Nothing. Not a button! Not even the handkerchief we used to cover his face! [She goes out slowly, leaning on the stick. As she goes, she looks back at her servants. The servants leave. Amelia and Martirio enter.] AMELIA Have you taken your medicine? MARTIRIO For the good it will do me! AMELIA You have taken it, then. MARTIRIO I do things without believing in them, but I do them anyway, like a clock. AMELIA Since the new doctor came, you seem a bit livelier. MARTIRIO I feel the same. AMELIA Did you notice? Adelaide wasn’t at the funeral. MARTIRIO I knew she wouldn’t be. Hr fiancé won’t let her out of the house. She used to be happy. Now she doesn’t even powder her face. AMELIA It’s hard to know any more if it’s better to have a fiancé or not. MARTIRIO It’s all the same. AMELIA Gossip is to blame. It makes life impossible. Adelaide must have had a bad time. MARTIRIO They’re terrified of our mother. She’s the only one who knows the truth about her father and how he got his land. Whenever she comes here, Mother sticks the knife right in. In Cuba her father killed his first wife’s husband in order to marry her. Then, when they got here, he abandoned her and went off with another woman who had a daughter, and he had an affair with the girl, Adelaide ’s mother, and he married her after his second wife had gone mad and died. AMELIA And why isn’t the bastard in jail? MARTIRIO Because men cover up for each other when it comes to such things. No one’s willing to speak out. AMELIA But Adelaide ’s not to blame for that. MARTIRIO No, but stories repeat themselves. Everything is just one horrible repetitive cycle. Her fate is the same as her mother’s and her grandmother’s, both wives to the man who fathered her. AMELIA It’s too horrible! MARTIRIO It’s better never to look at a man. Ever since I was a child I have been frightened of them. I would see them in the stable-yard yoking the oxen and lifting the sacks of wheat, shouting and stamping their feet, and I was always afraid to grow up and find myself suddenly in one their arms. God has made me weak and ugly and has kept them away from me forever. AMELIA Don’t say such things! Enrique Humanes was after you once, and I know he liked you. MARTIRIO People like to make up stories! I stood in my nightgown, and waited at my window once all night because he told his farmhand’s daughter he’d stop by, and he never did. It was all just talk. Then he married another girl who had more money than I. AMELIA And ugly as hell. MARTIRIO What’s ugliness to them? All they care about is land, oxen, and to have a submissive bitch to feed them. AMELIA Oh! [Magdalena enters] MAGDALENA What are you doing? MARTIRIO As you see. AMELIA And you? MAGDALENA Just walking through the rooms. To stretch my legs a bit. I’ve been looking at the pictures Grandmother used to embroider on canvas – the little poodle, the black man fighting the lion – the ones we liked so much when we were children. That was a happier time. A wedding used to last ten days and malicious gossip wasn’t in fashion. Today everything’s more refined, brides wear white veils like they do in the bigger cities, we drink bottled wine, but we waste away thinking about what people might say about us. MARTIRIO God only knows what went on in those days! AMELIA (To Magdalena) Your shoelace is undone. MAGDALENA What of it! AMELIA You’ll step on it and fall! MAGDALENA One less… MARTIRIO Where’s Adela? MAGDALENA Ah! She put on her green birthday dress, ran out to the stable-yard and started to shout: ‘Hens, hens, look at me.’ I had to laugh. AMELIA If Mother had seen her! MAGDALENA Poor girl! She’s the youngest of us all and is filled with hope. I’d give anything to see her happy! [Pause. Angustias crosses the stage carrying some towels.] ANGUSTIAS What time is it? MAGDALENA It must be twelve by now. ANGUSTIAS That late? AMELIA It’s about to strike. [Angustias leaves] MAGDALENA (Pointedly) Have you heard…? (Indicating Angustias) AMELIA No. MAGDALENA Come on! MARTIRIO I don’t know what you’re talking about! MAGDALENA You know more than I. You are always together, head to head, like little sheep. But you never tell anybody anything. This business with Pepe el Romano! MARTIRIO Ah! MAGDALENA (Imitating her) Ah! It’s the talk of the town. Pepe el Romano is to marry Angustias. He was outside the house last night, and I think soon he will be sending someone to ask for her hand. MARTIRIO I’m glad. He’s a good man. AMELIA Me too. Angustias has some fine qualities. MAGDALENA Neither of you is glad. MARTIRIO Magdalena ! MAGDALENA If he wanted Angustias for Angustias, I would be glad, but the only reason he’s after her is for her money. Angustias is our sister, but we’re all family here, we know she is old and ailing, and has always been the one with the least amount to offer as a woman, anyway, among all of us. If she looked like a broomstick wrapped in a dress when she was twenty, what’s she look like now that she’s forty? MARTIRIO Don’t talk like that. Luck comes to the one who least expects it. AMELIA She’s right, though! Angustias has her father’s money, she’s the only rich one in the house, and now, that our father has died and his estate is being shared out, they’re after her. MAGDALENA Pepe el Romano is twenty-five years old and the handsomest man for miles around. It would be natural for him to be courting you Amelia or Adela, since she’s only twenty years old, but not to go after the dullest thing in the house, a woman who talks through her nose, like her father did. MARTIRIO Maybe he likes her! MAGDALENA I have never been able to put up with your hypocrisy! MARTIRIO Heaven preserve us! [Adela enters] MAGDALENA Have the hens seen you yet? ADELA What was I supposed to do? AMELIA If Mother sees you, she’ll drag you by the hair! ADELA I was so delighted with the dress. I was planning to wear it the day we go to eat watermelons by the waterwheel. There wouldn’t have been another one like it. MARTIRIO It’s a lovely dress! ADELA And it becomes me. It’s the best thing Magdalena has ever made. MAGDALENA And what did the hens have to say to you? ADELA They gave me some of their fleas. My legs are covered in bites. [They laugh] MARTIRIO What you can do is dye it black. MAGDALENA The best thing she can do is give it to Angustias for her wedding with Pepe el Romano! ADELA (Suppressing emotion) But Pepe el Romano…! AMELIA Haven’t you heard? ADELA No. MAGDALENA Well, now you know! ADELA But it’s not possible! MAGDALENA Money makes everything possible! ADELA Is that why she followed the mourners out and looked through the door? (Pause) And is that man capable of… MAGDALENA He’s capable of anything. [Pause] MARTIRIO What are you thinking, Adela? ADELA I think this time of mourning has come at the worst possible time in my life. MAGDALENA You’ll grow accustomed to it. ADELA (Bursting into tears of rage) No, I will not grow accustomed to it! I don’t want to be shut out. I don’t want my skin to become like yours. I don’t want to lose my pallor in these rooms. Tomorrow I will put on my green dress and I’ll go for a walk down the street! I want to go out!

[The Servant appears] MAGDALENA (With authority) Adela! SERVANT Poor child! She misses her father so much! (She goes out)

MARTIRIO Be quiet! AMELIA What will be for one will be for all.

[Adela calms down]

MAGDALENA The servant almost heard you. SERVANT (Appearing) Pepe el Romano’s at the top of the street. [Amelia, Martirio and Magdalena run quickly] MAGDALENA Let’s go and see him! [They run out] SERVANT (To Adela) Aren’t you going? ADELA It doesn’t matter to me. SERVANT When he turns the corner, you can see him better from the window of your room. ( She leaves) [Adela remains. She is in doubt. After a moment she rushes out and toward her room. Bernarda and Poncia enter] BERNARDA Damn the will! PONCIA So much money for Angustias! BERNARDA Yes. PONCIA And for the others quite a lot less. BERNARDA You’ve told me that three times already, and I have chosen not to answer you. Quite a lot less, much less. Don’t remind me again. [Angustias enters, her face is made up.] Angustias! ANGUSTIAS Mother. BERNARDA How dare you powder your face? How dare you even wash your face on the day of your father’s funeral? ANGUSTIAS He wasn’t my father. Mine died a long time ago. Don’t you remember him anymore? BERNARDA You owe this man, the father of your sisters, much more than your own father! Thanks to this man you have a fortune. ANGUSTIAS That remains to be seen. BERNARDA If only for decency’s sake! Out of respect. ANGUSTIAS Mother, let me go out. BERNARDA Go out? After I have scrubbed that powder off your face. Rouge-faced little hypocrite! You are the spitting image of your aunts! (With a handkerchief she violently rubs the powder off Angustias’ face) Now get out! PONCIA Bernarda, don’t meddle so much. BERNARDA My mother may be crazy but I’m not. I know exactly what I’m doing.

[The other daughters enter]

MAGDALENA What’s happening? BERNARDA Nothing’s happening. MAGDALENA (To Angustias) If you’re arguing about the inheritance, you are the richest one anyway, you can keep it all. ANGUSTIAS Stick your tongue in your hole! BERNARDA (Banging on the floor with her stick) Don’t you think you can get the better of me! Until I leave this house feet first, I will control my own affairs and yours! [Voices are heard and Maria Josefa, Bernarda’s mother, appears. She is very old, and is decked out with flowers in her bosom and hair.] MARIA JOSEFA Bernarda, where is my mantilla? I don’t want anything of mine to be yours. Not my rings, nor my black moiré dress. Because none of you will get married. Not one! Bernarda, give me my pearl choker! BERNARDA (To Servant) Why did you let her in? SERVANT (Trembling) She got away from me! MARIA JOSEFA I got away from her because I want to get married, because I want to get married to a handsome man from the sea, because the men here run away from women. BERNARDA Be quiet, Mother! MARIA JOSEFA No, no, I won’t be quiet. I don’t want to see these unmarried women, foaming at the mouth for a wedding, letting their hearts turn to dust. I want to go back to my village. Bernarda, I want a man to marry and be happy with! BERNARDA Lock her up! MARIA JOSEFA Let me go out, Bernarda!

[The Servant takes hold of Maria Josefa]

BERNARDA Help her, all of you!

[They drag the old woman away]

MARIA JOSEFA I want to leave this place! Bernarda! I want to get married by the seashore, by the sea…

[Quick curtain.]

A white inner room in Bernarda’s house. The doors on the left lead to the bedrooms. Bernarda’s daughters are seated on low chairs, sewing. Magdalena embroiders. Poncia is with them.
 * ACT TWO **

ANGUSTIAS I have finished cutting the third sheet. MARTIRIO It’s for Amelia. MAGDALENA Angustias, shall I put Pepe’s initials as well? ANGUSTIAS (Tersely) No. MAGDALENA (Calling out) Adela, aren’t you coming? AMELIA She’ll be lying on her bed. PONCIA There’s something wrong with her. She’s restless, and walks around frightened as if she had a lizard between her breasts. MARTIRIO She has what all of us have. MAGDALENA All of us except Angustias. ANGUSTIAS I feel fine, and anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell. MAGDALENA Well, one has to admit that the best things about you have always been your figure and your sensitivity. ANGUSTIAS Fortunately, I will soon be out of this hell. MAGDALENA Maybe you won’t leave it! MARTIRIO Let’s change the subject! ANGUSTIAS Besides, an ounce of gold in the coffers is worth more than having a pair of pretty dark eyes. MAGDALENA In one ear and out the other. AMELIA (To Poncia) Open the door to the courtyard. Let’s see if we can get some fresh air in here. (Poncia does so) MARTIRIO Last night it was so hot I couldn’t sleep at all. AMELIA Me neither! MAGDALENA I got up to cool myself off. There was a black storm cloud and even a few drops of rain fell. PONCIA It was one in the morning and fire was coming out of the ground. I also got up. Angustias was at the window with Pepe. MAGDALENA (Ironically) So late? What time did he leave? ANGUSTIAS Magdalena, why do you ask if you saw him? AMELIA He left around one thirty. ANGUSTIAS Yes. How do you know? AMELIA I heard him cough, and I heard the sound of his mare’s hooves. PONCIA But I heard him leave around four! ANGUSTIAS Then it wasn’t him! PONCIA I’m sure of it! AMELIA I thought so too. MAGDALENA That’s strange! [Pause] PONCIA Angustias, what was it he said to you the first time he came to your window? ANGUSTIAS Nothing. What would he say? Everyday things. MARTIRIO It truly strange that two people that don’t know each other would suddenly see each other at a window and become engaged. ANGUSTIAS It’s not strange to me. AMELIA I don’t know what I’d feel. ANGUSTIAS No, because when a man comes to your window he already knows from what he’s been told that you’ll say ‘yes.’ MARTIRIO Well, but he had to ask you. ANGUSTIAS Of course! AMELIA (with curiosity) And how did he ask you? ANGUSTIAS Nothing special: ‘You know I’m after you, and that I need a good modest woman at my side, and you’re that woman, if you agree.’ AMELIA I get embarrassed by such things! ANGUSTIAS I do too, but you have to put up with them! PONCIA Did he say anything else? ANGUSTIAS Yes, he did all the talking. MARTIRIO What about you? ANGUSTIAS I couldn’t have. My heart was in my mouth. It was the first time I was alone at night with a man. MAGDALENA And such a handsome man. ANGUSTIAS He’s not bad. PONCIA That’s what happens between people who know a bit about the ways of the world and can talk, and wave their hands… The first time I saw my husband Evaristo de Colorin he came to my window… ha, ha, ha. AMELIA What happened? PONCIA It was very dark. I saw him come near and as he did so he said “Good evening.” And I said to him “Good evening.” And we fell silent for half an hour. The sweat was running down my entire body. Then Evaristo came near again, much nearer, as if he wanted to squeeze through the bars of the window, and he whispered, “Come, let me feel you!” [They all laugh. Amelia rises, runs to the door and peers out.] AMELIA Oh! I thought Mother was coming. MAGDALENA She’d have given us a piece of her mind, no doubt! [They continue laughing] AMELIA Shh… She’ll hear us! PONCIA Afterwards he behaved himself. Instead of being interested in other things, he took to breeding linnets until the day he died. You single women, it would be good for you to know that two weeks after the wedding a man leaves the bed for the table, and the table for the tavern. And the woman who can’t get used to this will waste away in a corner crying. AMELIA You got used to it. PONCIA I could handle him! MARTIRIO Is it true you hit him a couple of times? PONCIA Yes, and I almost put his eye out. MAGDALENA That’s the way all women should be! PONCIA I’m of the same upbringing as your mother in that regard. One day he said something to me, I don’t even remember what, and I killed all his linnets with a rolling pin. [They laugh] MAGDALENA Adela, child, what you’re missing… AMELIA Adela. [Pause] MAGDALENA I’ll go and see. [She goes out]

PONCIA That child is not well! MARTIRIO How can she be? She barely sleeps! PONCIA What does she do, then? MARTIRIO How do I know what she does! PONCIA You would know better than I. You sleep with just a wall between you. ANGUSTIAS Envy is eating away at her. AMELIA Don’t exaggerate. ANGUSTIAS I can see it in her eyes. She’s starting to get the look of a crazy woman. MARTIRIO Don’t talk of crazy people. This is the only place where that word cannot be mentioned. [Magdalena enters with Adela] MAGDALENA You weren’t asleep, then? ADELA I don’t feel well. MARTIRIO (Pointedly) Didn’t you sleep well last night? ADELA Yes. MARTIRIO Then? ADELA (Forcefully) Leave me alone! Asleep or awake, what I do is my business! I’ll do what I like with my body. MARTIRIO I only speak out of concern for you. ADELA Concern or inquisitiveness? Weren’t you sewing? Well then, get on with it. I wish I were invisible so I could walk through these rooms without you asking me where I’m going! SERVANT (Entering) Bernarda wants you. The man with the lace is here. [They go out. As they do so, Martirio stares at Adela.] ADELA Stop looking at me! If you want I will give you my eyes, which aren’t tired, and I’ll give you my back so you can improve that hump of yours. Turn your head when I go by.

[Martirio leaves]

PONCIA Adela, she’s your sister, and what’s more, she’s the one who loves you the most! ADELA She follows me everywhere. Sometimes she looks into my room to see if I’m sleeping. She doesn’t let me breathe. And she’s always saying: “What a shame about that face! What a shame about that body that no one will ever see!” She’s wrong about that. My body will be for whomever I want! PONCIA (pointedly, quietly) You mean for Pepe el Romano? ADELA (Startled) What do you mean? PONCIA What I say, Adela! ADELA Be quiet! PONCIA (Loudly) Do you think I haven’t noticed? ADELA Lower your voice! PONCIA You should kill all those thoughts in your head! ADELA What do you know? PONCIA Old women can see through walls. Where do you go at night when you get up? ADELA You should be blind! PONCIA My head and my hands are full of eyes when it comes to such things. No matter how much I think about it, I still don’t know what you’re up to. Why were you standing half-naked with the window open and your lamp light on when Pepe stopped by the second time he came to visit your sister? ADELA That’s not true! PONCIA Don’t be childish! Leave your sister in peace, and if like Pepe el Romano, resign yourself. (Adela cries) Besides, who says you can’t marry him? Your sister Angustias is not well. She won’t survive the first birth. She’s narrow-waisted, old, and from my experience, I can tell you she will die. Then Pepe will do what all the widowers around here do: he’ll marry the youngest, the prettiest, and that’s you. Cling to that hope, and forget him. Do what you like, but don’t go against God’s law. ADELA Be quiet! PONCIA I will not be quiet! ADELA Mind your own business. You’re nothing but a nosy, treacherous creature! PONCIA I shall be your shadow! ADELA Instead of cleaning the house and going to bed to pray for the dead, you go around like a dirty old woman sticking your nose into what men and women do so you can drool over them. PONCIA I keep watch! So that people can’t spit as they pass this door. ADELA What tremendous affection you suddenly feel for my sister! PONCIA I feel no loyalty for any of you but I want to live in a respectable house. Now that I’m old I don’t want to be disgraced. ADELA Your advice is useless. It’s too late already. Not only would I leap right over you, after all, you’re only a servant, but I’d leap over my mother to put out this fire that rises through my mouth and legs. What can you say about me? That I lock myself in my room, and don’t open the door? That I don’t sleep? I’m smarter than you! See if you can catch a this hare with your hands. PONCIA Don’t defy me. Adela, don’t defy me! Because I can shout, I can light the lamps and make the bells ring. ADELA Bring four thousand yellow flares and put them on the walls of the stable-yard. No one will be able to stop what is inevitable. PONCIA You want this man so much! ADELA Yes, so very much! When I look at his eyes it is as if I am slowly drinking his blood. PONCIA I can’t listen to you. ADELA Well, you will listen to me! I was afraid of you. But now I am stronger than you! [Angustias enters] ANGUSTIAS You two are always arguing! PONCIA Of course. She insists that I go get her something from the store in all this heat. ANGUSTIAS Did you buy the bottle of perfume for me? PONCIA The most expensive one. And the face powder. I’ve put them on the table in your room. [Angustias leaves] ADELA Not a word! PONCIA We’ll see about that!

[Martirio, Amelia and Magdalena enter]

MAGDALENA (To Adela) Have you seen the lace? AMELIA The lace for Angustias’ wedding sheets is just beautiful. ADELA (to Martirio, who is holding some lace) And this? MARTIRIO It’s for me. For a petticoat. ADELA (Sarcastically) One has to have a sense of humor! MARTIRIO (Pointedly) For me to look at. I don’t need to show myself off to anybody. PONCIA No one sees you in your petticoat. MARTIRIO (Pointedly, looking at Adela) Sometimes! I adore underwear. If I were rich, I’d have it made of Dutch linen. It’s one of the few pleasures I’ve got left. PONCIA This lace is ideal for a baby’s bonnet, or for a christening gown. I could never dress mine in it. Let’s see if Angustias can use it for hers. If she starts having children, you’ll be sewing day and night. MAGDALENA I don’t intend to sew a stitch. AMELIA And much less look after someone else’s children. Look at the neighbors down the street, martyrs to their four little twerps. PONCIA They are better off than you are. At least they laugh down there, and you hear a fight every now and then! MARTIRIO Then go and serve them. PONCIA No. Fate has decreed I serve this convent! [Bells are heard in the distance, as if through several walls] MAGDALENA It’s the men going back to work. PONCIA It struck three just a moment ago. MARTIRIO In this heat! ADELA (Sitting down) Oh, if only I could go out to the fields too! MAGDALENA (Sitting down) Each class has its own obligations. MARTIRIO (Sitting down) Just so! AMELIA (Sitting down) Oh! PONCIA There’s nothing like being in the fields at this time of the year. Yesterday morning the harvesters came. Forty or fifty good-looking men. MAGDALENA Where are they from this year? PONCIA From a long way away. They came from the mountains. Joyous! Their skin the color of burnt trees! Shouting and throwing stones! Last night a woman arrived in the village dressed in sequins. She danced to an accordion, and fifteen of the men hired her and took her with them to the olive-grove. I saw them from a long way off. The one who arranged it was a young man with green eyes, lean as a sheaf of wheat. AMELIA Is that true? ADELA It’s possible! PONCIA Years ago another one of these women came to the village and I myself gave her some money so my eldest could go with her. Men need these things. ADELA They are forgiven everything! AMELIA To be born a woman is the greatest punishment. MAGDALENA Even our eyes aren’t our own. [From a distance, singing is heard. It draws near] PONCIA It’s them. They have some beautiful songs. AMELIA They are going out to reap now. CHORUS The reapers go They go harvesting And they will take with them The hearts of all the girls who are watching. [Tambourines and carrañacas are heard. Pause. All the women listen in a silence pierced by sunlight.] AMELIA The heat doesn’t bother them! MARTIRIO They reap in tongues of fire. ADELA I’d like to be a reaper so I could come and go at will. Then I’d forget what’s gnawing at us. MARTIRIO What do you have to forget? ADELA Each one knows her heart. MARTIRIO (With feeling) Each one of us! PONCIA Be quiet! Be quiet! CHORUS (Very distant) Village girls, open your windows and doors; The reaper wants your roses To decorate his crown. PONCIA What a song! MARTIRIO (Nostalgically) Village girls, open your windows and doors; ADELA (Passionately) The reaper wants your roses to decorate his crown.

[The singing grows faint]

PONCIA They are turning the corner now. ADELA Let’s go see them from the window of my room. PONCIA Be careful. Don’t open the window too much or they will push it to see who’s looking at them.

[The three of them leave. Martirio remains seated on the low chair with her head in her hands] AMELIA (Approaching) What’s wrong? MARTIRIO The heat is getting to me. AMELIA Is that all? MARTIRIO I can’t wait for November to come, the rainy days, the frost; anything but this endless summer. AMELIA It will pass and come round again. MARTIRIO Of course! (Pause) What time did you go to sleep last night? AMELIA I don’t know. I sleep like a log. Why? MARTIRIO Nothing. I thought I heard people in the stable-yard. AMELIA Really? MARTIRIO It was very late. AMELIA Weren’t you scared? MARTIRIO No. I’ve heard it other nights. AMELIA We should be careful. Could it have been the farmhands? MARTIRIO The farmhands come at six. AMELIA Perhaps a young mule that needs to be broken in. MARTIRIO (Muttering) Yes, yes, a young mule that needs to be broken in. AMELIA We should warn the others. MARTIRIO No, no. Don’t say anything. I might have imagined it. AMELIA Perhaps.

[Pause. Amelia starts to leave]

MARTIRIO Amelia. AMELIA (At the door) What? [Pause] MARTIRIO Nothing. [Pause] AMELIA Why did you call me? [Pause] MARTIRIO It slipped out. I wasn’t thinking. [Pause] AMELIA Rest a while. ANGUSTIAS (Entering furiously, so that there is a significant contrast with the previous silences) Where is the picture of Pepe that was under my pillow? Which one of you has it? MARTIRIO None of us. AMELIA It’s not as if Pepe was a silver Saint Bartholomew!

[Poncia, Magdalena, and Adela enter]

ANGUSTIAS Where is the picture? ADELA What picture? ANGUSTIAS One of you has hidden it. MAGDALENA How dare you say that? ANGUSTIAS It was in my room and now it’s gone. MARTIRIO Might not it have slipped away to the stable-yard at night? Pepe likes to walk in the moonlight. ANGUSTIAS Don’t waste your jokes on me! When he comes, I’ll tell him. PONCIA Don’t! It will turn up! (Looking at Adela) ANGUSTIAS I would like to know which one of you has it! ADELA (Looking at Martirio) Someone does! Not me! MARTIRIO (Pointedly) Of course not! BERNARDA (Entering with walking stick) What noise is this in my house midst the silence of the stifling heat? The neighbors must have their ears glued to the walls. ANGUSTIAS They’ve stolen my fiancé’s picture. BERNARDA (Fiercely) Who? Who? ANGUSTIAS Them! BERNARDA Which one of you? (Silence) Answer me! (Silence. To Poncia) Search the rooms, look in the beds. This is comes from not having you on a shorter leash. But I will haunt you in your dreams! (To Angustias) Are you sure? ANGUSTIAS Yes. BERNARDA You’ve looked for it diligently? ANGUSTIAS Yes, Mother.

[They are all standing. An awkward silence.]

BERNARDA At this stage of my life you have me drink the bitterest poison a mother could possibly swallow. (To Poncia) You can’t find it? PONCIA (Entering) Here it is. BERNARDA Where did you find it? PONCIA It was… BERNARDA Speak without fear. PONCIA (Surprised) Between the sheets of Martirio’s bed. BERNARDA (To Martirio) Is this true? MARTIRIO Yes, it is! BERNARDA (Advancing, striking her with her cane) May you be cut to pieces, you little good-for-nothing! Always making trouble in this house! MARTIRIO (Fiercely) Don’t you hit me, Mother! BERNARDA I’ll hit you as many times as I want! MARTIRIO If I let you! Do you hear? Get away from me! PONCIA Show your Mother some respect. ANGUSTIAS (Holding Bernarda) Leave her alone. Please! BERNARDA Not a tear left in your eyes. MARTIRIO I will not cry to please you. BERNARDA Why did you take the picture? MARTIRIO Can’t I play a joke on my sister? Why else would I want it? ADELA (Erupting with jealousy) It wasn’t a joke. You never liked jokes. There was something else that was boiling up inside you that was bursting to get out. Say it. MARTIRIO Be quiet. Do not make me talk, because if I do the walls will close in from shame. ADELA There’s no end to what an evil tongue will tell! BERNARDA Adela! MAGDALENA You’re both crazy. AMELIA And you bombard us with your evil thoughts. MARTIRIO There are others who do far worse things. ADELA Until they are stripped naked and let the river current carry them away. BERNARDA You are a wicked girl! ANGUSTIAS It’s not my fault Pepe el Romano took a shine to me. ADELA For your money! ANGUSTIAS Mother! BERNARDA Silence! MARTIRIO For your land and your orchards. MAGDALENA That’s the truth! BERNARDA Silence, I say! I could see the storm coming, but I didn’t know it would break so soon. Oh, what a shower of stones has rained down on my heart! But I’m not an old woman yet. I’ve got five chains – for each of you, and these walls that my father built so that not even the weeds would know my desolation. Get out of here!

[They leave. Bernarda sits in despair. Poncia is standing close to the wall. Bernarda composes herself, bangs the floor, and says:

I shall have to take a firm grip! Remember, Bernarda, it is your duty. PONCIA May I speak? BERNARDA Speak. I’m sorry you had to hear that. It’s not good to have an outsider in the middle of a family. PONCIA What I’ve seen, I’ve seen. BERNARDA Angustias has to get married at once. PONCIA Of course. You have to get her away from here. BERNARDA Not her. Him! PONCIA Of course, you have to get him away from here! That’s good thinking. BERNARDA I don’t think. There are things you cannot and should not think about. I command. PONCIA And you think he will want to leave? BERNARDA (Rising) What are you thinking about in that little head of yours? PONCIA He, of course, will marry Angustias! BERNARDA Speak. I know you well enough to know you’re ready to stick the knife in. PONCIA I never thought a warning could be called murder. BERNARDA You have to warn me about something? PONCIA I’m not accusing you, Bernarda. I only say: open your eyes, and you will see. BERNARDA See what? PONCIA You have always been clever. You could always see the worst in a person a hundred miles away. I often thought you could read people’s thoughts. But it’s different with your children. Now you are blind. BERNARDA You mean Martirio? PONCIA Well, Martirio… (With curiosity) Why did she hide the picture? BERNARDA (Wanting to protect her daughter) She says it was a joke, after all. What else could it be? PONCIA (Sarcastically) You believe that? BERNARDA (Vigorously) I don’t believe it. It’s true! PONCIA Fair enough. It’s your family. But if it was the neighbor across the street, what then? BERNARDA Now you are starting to draw the knife. PONCIA (With sustained cruelty) No, Bernarda: there’s something very serious going on here. I don’t want to blame you, but you haven’t let your daughters be free. Martirio falls in love easily, whatever you say. Why didn’t you let her marry Enrique Humanes? Why did you send him a message not to come, on the very day he was going to come to her window? BERNARDA (Forcefully) I’d do it a thousand times! My blood will not mix with that of the Humanes clan, not as long as I live! His father was a farmhand. PONCIA And what have your pretensions gotten you? BERNARDA I have pretensions because I can afford to have them. And you don’t have them because you know full well what your origins are. PONCIA (With hatred) Don’t remind me! I’m an old woman now. I have been always grateful for your protection. BERNARDA (Imperiously) It doesn’t seem that way! PONCIA (With hatred wrapped in sweetness) Martirio will forget this. BERNARDA And if she doesn’t forget it, the worse it will be for her. I don’t think this is the “Something very serious” that is going on here. Nothing is going on here. That’s what you’d like! And if one day something were to happen here, I assure you it will not leave these walls. PONCIA I don’t know about that! In the village there are those that also can read hidden thoughts from afar. BERNARDA How you would love to see me and my daughters walking to the whorehouse! PONCIA No one can predict where they will end up. BERNARDA I know what my end will be! And of my daughters too! The whorehouse is reserved for a certain dead woman… PONCIA (Fiercely) Bernarda, respect my mother’s memory! BERNARDA Then stop hounding me with your evil thoughts! [Pause] PONCIA It’s best if I keep out of everything. BERNARDA It is the best you can do. Work and keep your mouth shut. That’s the duty of anyone who is paid to work. PONCIA But I can’t. Don’t you think Pepe is better suited to marry Martirio or… yes, Adela? BERNARDA I don’t think so. PONCIA (Pointedly) Adela. She is Pepe’s true fiancé! BERNARDA Things are never as we wish. PONCIA But it’s hard for people to go against their true nature. I think it’s wrong that Pepe is with Angustias. Other people, even Nature would agree. Who knows if they’ll get what they want? BERNARDA Here we go again! …You slip words in to fill me with bad dreams. And I don’t want to understand you because if I were to grasp fully what you’re saying I would tear you to pieces. PONCIA It won’t come to that! BERNARDA Fortunately my daughters respect me and they have never gone against my wishes! PONCIA That’s true. But as soon as you set them free they will climb up to the rooftop. BERNARDA And I’ll bring them down with stones! PONCIA You’ve always been the bravest one! BERNARDA I always fought the good fight! PONCIA But funny how things turn out! At her age, you should see how excited Angustias is about her fiancé! And he seems taken with her as well. Yesterday my eldest son told me that at four thirty in the morning, when he went past with the oxen, they were still talking. BERNARDA At four thirty ? ANGUSTIAS (Entering) It’s a lie! PONCIA That’s what they told me. BERNARDA (To Angustias) Speak! ANGUSTIAS For more than a week now Pepe has been leaving at one. May God strike me dead if I’m lying. MARTIRIO (Entering) I also heard him leave at four. BERNARDA You saw him with your own eyes? MARTIRIO I didn’t want to look out. Don’t you talk now at the window facing the alleyway? ANGUSTIAS I talk to him from my bedroom window. [Adela appears at the door] MARTIRIO Then… BERNARDA What is going on here? PONCIA Be careful what you might discover! But, it’s clear that Pepe was at one of your windows at four in the morning. BERNARDA Are you sure about this? PONCIA You can’t be sure of anything in this life. ADELA Mother, don’t listen to her. She wants to destroy us all. BERNARDA Then I will find out for myself! If the villagers want to make false accusations they will find I am hard as rock. We will not talk about this any longer. Sometimes people sling mud at others so they will lose themselves. MARTIRIO I’m not a liar. PONCIA There must be some truth in it. BERNARDA There is nothing. I was born with my eyes open. Now I shall keep them open until the day I die. ANGUSTIAS I have a right to know what is going on. BERNARDA You have no right but to obey. Nobody tells me what to do. (To Poncia) And you, stick to the affairs of your own house. No one will take a step here without my knowledge! SERVANT (Entering) There’s a big crowd at the top of the street and all the neighbors are at their doors! BERNARDA (To Poncia) Run; see what’s going on! (The women run as if to go out) Where are you going? I always knew you were women who couldn’t wait to display themselves at the windows, and break your mourning. All of you to the courtyard! [They leave. Bernarda leaves. Distant noise is heard. Martirio and Adela enter. They stand listening, not daring to take another step towards the door that leads out.] MARTIRIO You should be grateful I didn’t speak up. ADELA I could have spoken up too. MARTIRIO And what would you have said? To want to do something is not the same as doing it! ADELA The one who does is the one who can, the one who gets there first. You wanted to, but you couldn’t. MARTIRIO You can’t go on much longer. ADELA I’ll have him all to myself! MARTIRIO And I’ll tear you away from his embrace! ADELA (Pleading) Martirio, leave me alone! MARTIRIO Never! ADELA He wants me to live with him. MARTIRIO I saw how he embraced you! ADELA I didn’t want him to. It’s as if I was dragged along a tightrope. MARTIRIO I’ll see you dead first! [Magdalena and Angustias appear. The noise outside grows louder.] PONCIA (Entering with Bernarda) Bernarda! BERNARDA What is it? PONCIA Librada’s daughter, the unmarried one, has had a child, and no one knows who the father is. ADELA A child? PONCIA And to hide her shame she killed it and buried it underneath some stones; but some dogs, with more heart than many a human being, rooted it out and left it on her doorstep, as if guided by God’s hand. Now they want to kill her. They are dragging her down the street, and the men are running along the paths and from the olive-groves, shouting so loudly they make the fields tremble. BERNARDA That’s right. Let them come with olive switches and pick-handles. Let them all come and kill her. ADELA No, no! Not kill her! MARTIRIO Yes. And let’s go out there too. BERNARDA And let the woman who tramples on her virtue pay the price.

[Outside a woman’s cry is heard, and great uproar]

ADELA Let her go! Don’t go out! MARTIRIO (Looking at Adela) Let her pay the price! BERNARDA (In the archway) Finish her off before the police arrive! Place a burning coal where her sin lies! ADELA (Clutching her stomach) No! No! BERNARDA Kill her! Kill her! [Curtain]
 * ACT THREE **

Four white walls, lightly bathed in blue, in the inner courtyard of Bernarda’s house. It is night. The setting should be absolutely simple. The doorways, illuminated by the light from inside the house, cast a soft glow on the scene. At center, a table with an oil lamp at which Bernarda and her daughters are eating. Poncia is serving them. Prudencia is seated to one side. As the curtain rises, there is complete silence, broken only by the sound of plates and cutlery.

PRUDENCIA I should go. I have overstayed my welcome. (She rises) BERNARDA Wait now, dear woman. We never see each other. PRUDENCIA Has the last call for the rosary sounded? PONCIA Not yet.

[Prudencia sits]

BERNARDA And how is your husband doing? PRUDENCIA Same as always. BERNARDA We never see him either. PRUDENCIA You know what he’s like. Since he quarreled with his brothers over the inheritance he hasn’t gone out the front door. He uses a ladder to climb the back wall. BERNARDA That’s a real man for you! And your daughter…? PRUDENCIA He hasn’t forgiven her. BERNARDA He’s right. PRUDENCIA I don’t know what to say. It makes me suffer so. BERNARDA A disobedient daughter stops being your daughter and instead becomes an enemy.

PRUDENCIA I let the water flow. There’s no other comfort left to me but to seek refuge in the church, but since I’m going blind I’ll have to stop going, so that the children won’t mock me. (A heavy blow is heard against the walls) What was that? BERNARDA The stallion. He’s locked in the stable and kicks the wall. (Calling out) Hobble him and let him out into the yard. (Quietly) He must be hot. PRUDENCIA Are you going to let him loose on the new mares? BERNARDA At dawn. PRUDENCIA You’ve managed to increase your stable. BERNARDA With plenty of money and grief to go with it. PONCIA (Cutting in) She’s got the best stable in the whole region! It’s a shame the prices are so low. BERNARDA Would you like some cheese and honey? PRUDENCIA I don’t feel like eating.

[The blow is heard again] PONCIA Dear God! PRUDENCIA It went straight to my heart! BERNARDA (Rising angrily) Must I say everything twice? Let him out to roll in the straw! (Pause. As though speaking to the farmhands.) Lock the mares in the stable, but let him loose, before he brings the whole house down. [She goes to the table and sits down again] What a life this is! PRUDENCIA Working like a man. BERNARDA Just so. [Adela gets up from the table] Where are you going? ADELA For a drink of water. BERNARDA (Calling out) Bring a jug of cool water. (To Adela) You may sit down. [Adela sits] PRUDENCIA And Angustias, when does she marry? BERNARDA They will be coming for her hand in three days. PRUDENCIA You must be happy. ANGUSTIAS Of course! AMELIA (To Magdalena) Now you’ve gone and spilled the salt! MAGDALENA Your luck can’t get much worse than it is already. AMELIA It always brings bad luck. BERNARDA Enough of that! PRUDENCIA (To Angustias) Has he given you the ring yet? ANGUSTIAS (Displays it) See for yourself. PRUDENCIA It’s beautiful. Three pearls. In my day pearls meant tears. ANGUSTIAS Things have changed. ADELA I don’t think so. Things always mean the same. An engagement ring should have diamonds. PRUDENCIA It’s more appropriate. BERNARDA With or without pearls, it’s all in what you make of things. MARTIRIO Or what God makes of them. PRUDENCIA They tell me your furniture is beautiful too. BERNARDA I’ve spent a fortune. PONCIA (Cutting in) The best piece is the wardrobe with the mirror. PRUDENCIA I’ve never seen one of those. BERNARDA All we had was a chest. PRUDENCIA What’s important is that everything works out for the best. ADELA One never knows. BERNARDA There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.

[Bells are heard in the distance]

PRUDENCIA The last call. (To Angustias) I’ll come again so you can show me your trousseau. ANGUSTIAS Whenever you wish. PRUDENCIA May God be with us all tonight. BERNARDA Goodbye, Prudencia. THE FIVE DAUGHTERS (In unison) God be with you.

[Pause. Prudencia exits.] BERNARDA We have eaten.

[They rise]

ADELA I’m going as far as the main door to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.

[Magdalena sits in a low chair against the wall] AMELIA I’ll go with you. MARTIRIO Me too. ADELA (With suppressed hatred) I’m not going to get lost. AMELIA The night desires company.

[They leave. Bernarda sits. Angustias clears the table.]

BERNARDA I have already told you I want you to speak to your sister Martirio. What happened with the picture was a joke and should be forgotten. ANGUSTIAS You know she doesn’t love me. BERNARDA Everyone knows their own heart. I never pry into anyone else’s, but I want appearances kept up, and harmony inside the family. Do you understand? ANGUSTIAS Yes. BERNARDA That’s settled, then. MAGDALENA (Half asleep) Anyway, you’ll be leaving before you know it! (She sleeps) ANGUSTIAS Not soon enough. BERNARDA What time did you stop talking last night? ANGUSTIAS Twelve-thirty. BERNARDA What does Pepe have to say? ANGUSTIAS He seems very distracted. He talks to me as if he’s thinking about something else. When I ask him what’s on his mind, he just says, “Men have their own worries.” BERNARDA You shouldn’t ask him. And when you get married, even less so. Speak if he speaks and look at him when he looks at you. You’ll be better off that way. ANGUSTIAS Mother, I think he hides things from me. BERNARDA Don’t try to find out what they are, don’t ask him anything, and by all means, don’t let him ever see you cry. ANGUSTIAS I should be happy and I’m not. BERNARDA It’s all the same. ANGUSTIAS Sometimes I look at Pepe through the bars of the window and he becomes blurred, as if he were obscured by a cloud of dust stirred up by the flocks of sheep. BERNARDA You’re not well, that’s all. ANGUSTIAS I hope that’s all it is. BERNARDA Is he stopping by tonight? ANGUSTIAS No. He went to the capital with his mother. BERNARDA Then we’ll go to bed early. Magdalena ! ANGUSTIAS She’s fallen asleep. [Adela, Martirio, Amelia enter] AMELIA What a dark night! ADELA You can’t see two feet in front of you. MARTIRIO A good night for thieves, or for someone who needs to hide. ADELA The stallion was in the middle of the yard. So white! And twice its size. He filled the darkness. AMELIA She’s right. It was frightening. He looked like a ghost! ADELA The sky has stars like fists. MARTIRIO She was staring at them so much she almost strained her neck. ADELA Don’t you like the stars? MARTIRIO I couldn’t care less what happens above the rooftops. I have enough with what goes on inside these rooms. ADELA That’s why you’re the way you are. BERNARDA She has her ways, and you have yours. ANGUSTIAS Good night. ADELA You’re going to bed already? ANGUSTIAS Yes, Pepe’s not coming tonight. (Exits) ADELA Mother, why is when there’s a shooting star of a flash of lightning in the sky people say: Blessed Santa Barbara You story is writ in the sky With paper and holy water? BERNARDA Our ancestors knew many things that we have now forgotten. AMELIA I close my eyes so as not to see them. ADELA I don’t. I like to see tings that have been dormant for years on end suddenly flash with fire. MARTIRIO These things have nothing to do with us. BERNARDA Best not to think about them. ADELA What a beautiful night! I would like to stay up late to enjoy the breeze from the fields. BERNARDA But it’s time for bed. Magdalena ! AMELIA She’s sleeping so well. BERNARDA Magdalena ! MAGDALENA (Annoyed) Leave me in peace! BERNARDA Time for bed! MAGDALENA (Getting up in a bad mood) You can’t let a person just be! (She goes out grumbling) AMELIA Good night. (She exits) BERNARDA You two, go on now. MARTIRIO Why isn’t Angustias’ fiancé coming by tonight? BERNARDA He’s away on a trip. MARTIRIO (Looking at Adela) Ah! ADELA See you in the morning. (Exits)

[Martirio takes a drink of water and goes out slowly looking towards the door of the stable-yard. Poncia enters]

PONCIA You’re still here? BERNARDA Delighting in the silence. I still have not been able to discern what is the “serious” thing that is going on here. PONCIA Bernarda, let’s leave that now. BERNARDA In this house everything is as it should be. My vigilance can cope with everything. PONCIA Nothing going on that you could see, that’s true. Your daughters live as if they were kept in a cupboard. But neither you nor anybody can see what is inside someone’s heart. BERNARDA My daughters breathe easily. PONCIA That’s important to you because you’re their mother. I have enough to do looking after this house. BERNARDA Now you’re silent. PONCIA I am in my place, and in peace. BERNARDA It’s that you have nothing to say, that’s what. If in this house there were weeds, you’d be the first one to bring the neighborhood’s sheep in here to graze. PONCIA I cover up more than you think. BERNARDA Does your son still see Pepe at four in the morning? Are people still reciting a litany of lies about this house? PONCIA Nobody says anything. BERNARDA Because they can’t. Because there isn’t anything they can sink their teeth into. My vigilance has paid off. PONCIA Bernarda, I don’t want to say anything because I’m afraid of what you are up to. All I can say is: don’t be so sure of things. BERNARDA I am very sure! PONCIA Maybe a bolt of lightning will strike! Maybe, all of a sudden, a blood clot will stop your heart. BERNARDA Nothing will happen here. I am quite aware of what you’re getting at. PONCIA Better for you, then. BERNARDA Absolutely! SERVANT (Entering) I finished washing the dishes. Do you need anything else, Bernarda? BERNARDA (Rising) No. I’m going to bed. PONCIA What time do you want me to call you? BERNARDA Don’t bother. I’m going to sleep well tonight. (Exits) PONCIA When you can’t fight the sea, the easiest thing to do is to turn your back against it. SERVANT She is so full of pride that she blinds herself to things. PONCIA I can’t do anything. I tried to stop things before they went any further, but they frighten me too much. You hear this silence? Well, there’s a storm in each one of these rooms. The day they break, they’ll sweep us all away. I have said what I’ve had to say. SERVANT Bernarda thinks no one can be a match for her, but she doesn’t know the power a man can have in a house full of single women. PONCIA It’s not all Pepe el Romano’s fault. It’s true that last year he was after Adela, and she was crazy about him, but she should have stayed in her place. She shouldn’t have provoked him. A man is a man. SERVANT Some people think he talked too many nights with Adela. PONCIA They’re right. (Whispering) And other things, too. SERVANT I don’t know what’s going to happen here. PONCIA I would like to cross the ocean and leave this house of war behind me. SERVANT Bernarda is rushing the wedding. It’s possible nothing will happen. PONCIA Things have gone too far. Adela’s mind is made up. She’s willing to do anything. And the others keep ceaseless watch all the time. SERVANT Martirio too? PONCIA She’s the worst. She’s a well of poison. She knows that Pepe is not for her and she’d sink the world if she could so that nobody else can have him either. SERVANT They are wicked girls! PONCIA They are men without women, that’s all. When it comes to these things, even blood ties are forgotten. Shh! (Listens) SERVANT What is it? PONCIA (rises) The dogs are barking. SERVANT Someone must have passed across the front door.

[Adela enters in white petticoat and bodice]

PONCIA Weren’t you in bed? ADELA I’m going to take a drink of water. (She drinks a glass from the table) PONCIA I thought you were sleeping. ADELA Thirst woke me. Aren’t you two going to bed? SERVANT In a bit. [Adela goes out] PONCIA Let’s go. SERVANT We’ve earned our rest. Bernarda has me working all day. PONCIA Take the lamp. SERVANT The dogs are barking like mad. PONCIA They won’t let us sleep.

[They leave. The stage is almost in darkness. Maria Josefa appears with a lamb in her arms.] MARIA JOSEFA Little lamb, my little baby Let us go down to the seashore. The little ant will be at his door. I will give you my milk, and bit of bread. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. Little lamb. Baa, baa. We’ll go see the flowers that rest at Bethlehem ’s gates. (Laughs) Neither you nor I desire sleep The door will open all by itself And we will go down to the beach And hide inside a coral reef. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. Little lamb. Baa, baa. Let us go see the flowers that rest at Bethlehem ’s gates! [She goes out, singing. Adela enters. She looks around warily and disappears through the door to the stable-yard. Martirio comes in through another door and stands at center in a state of anguished watchfulness. She is also in her petticoat. She has covered herself with a waist-length black shawl. Maria Josefa enters.] MARTIRIO Where do you think you’re going? MARIA JOSEFA Are you going to open the door for me? Who are you? MARTIRIO What are you doing here? MARIA JOSEFA I escaped. And who are you? MARTIRIO Go to bed. MARIA JOSEFA You are Martirio. I see that now. Martirio: face of a martyr. And when are you going to have a baby? I’ve had this one. MARTIRIO Where did you get that lamb? MARIA JOSEFA I know it’s a lamb. But why can’t a lamb be a little baby? It’s better to have a lamb than nothing. Bernarda, face of a leopard. Magdalena, face of a hyena. MARTIRIO Don’t shout. MARIA JOSEFA It’s true. Everything is too dark. You think I can’t have children because my hair is white, but I can. I can have children, children and more children. This child will have white hair, and there will be another child and another and they will all have snow-white hair, and we will be like the waves of the sea, and we will all have white hair and we will be foam. Why isn’t there foam here? There’s nothing here but mourning shawls. MARTIRIO Be quiet now, quiet. MARIA JOSEFA When my neighbor had a child I would bring him chocolate and afterwards she would always bring me some, and that’s how it was forever and ever and ever. You will have white hair, but the neighbors won’t visit you. I must go, but I am afraid the dogs will bite me. Will you accompany me until we are past the fields? I don’t want fields. I want houses, open houses, and neighbors sleeping in their beds with their little children, and the men outside sitting in their chairs. Pepe el Romano is a giant. All of you want him. But he will devour you, because you are grains of wheat. No, not grains of wheat, but frogs without tongues! MARTIRIO (Vigorously) Let’s go. To bed! (She pushes her) MARIA JOSEFA Yes, but later you will let me out, won’t you? MARTIRIO Of course. MARIA JOSEFA (Weeping) Little lamb, my little baby Let’s go down to the seashore. The ant will be at his door. I will give you my milk, and bit of bread.

[She leaves. Martirio closes the door through which Maria Josefa has just gone out, and moves toward the door to the stable-yard. She hesitates, then advances a few more steps forward.] MARTIRIO (Whispering) Adela. (Pause. Advances to the door. Loudly) Adela!

[Adela appears. Her hair is tousled]

ADELA What do you need me for? MARTIRIO Leave that man! ADELA And who are you to tell me anything? MARTIRIO That’s not the place for a decent woman. ADELA Wouldn’t you like to be there yourself! MARTIRIO (Loudly) The time has come for me to speak. This cannot go on. ADELA This is just the beginning. I’ve had the strength to take what I want. The spirit and valor you don’t have. I have seen death under this roof and I have gone out to take hold of what is mine, what belongs to me. MARTIRIO That soul-less man came for another woman. You got in his way. ADELA He came for the money, but he always kept his eyes on me. MARTIRIO I won’t let you take him. He must marry Angustias. ADELA You know better than I that he doesn’t love her. MARTIRIO I know. ADELA You know, because you’ve seen it. He loves me. MARTIRIO (Desperately) Yes. ADELA (Coming closer) He loves me, he loves me. MARTIRIO Stick the knife in if that’s what you want, but don’t say those words again. ADELA That’s why you don’t want me to see him. You don’t care if he embraces someone he doesn’t love. Neither do I. He could live with Angustias for a hundred years. But the fact that he embraces me makes you crazy, because you love him too. You love him! MARTIRIO (Powerfully) Yes! I say it without shame. Yes! Let my heart burst open like a bitter pomegranate. I love him! ADELA (Impulsively, goes to embrace her) Martirio, Martirio, it’s not my fault. MARTIRIO Don’t embrace me! Don’t try to soften the hatred in my eyes. We are no longer bound by blood. Even though I want to see you as my sister, I can only see you now as just another woman. (She pushes her away) ADELA There’s no solution here. Whoever must drown, must drown. Pepe el Romano is mine. He will take me to the river’s edge. MARTIRIO I won’t let him! ADELA I cannot stand the horror of living in this house anymore, not after having tasted his sweet lips. I will be whatever he wants me to be. The whole village can turn against me; they can burn me with their fingers of fire. Those that call themselves honorable citizens can hound me. I will stand in front of them all with a crown of thorns on my head, the crown that women who are loved by a married man wear. MARTIRIO Be quiet! ADELA Yes, yes. (Quietly) Let’s go to sleep, let him marry Angustias. I don’t care anymore. But I will go live in a little house all by myself, where he can see me whenever he wants, when the need arises. MARTIRIO That will not happen, not as long as I’ve got a drop of blood left in my veins. ADELA You’re weak. I can bring a wild stallion to its knees with the strength of my little finger. MARTIRIO Don’t raise your voice like that. It upsets me. My heart is full of such an evil force that without my trying is drowning me. ADELA They teach us to love our sisters. God must have left me alone in the heart of darkness, because I see you, as I never have before. [A whistle is heard. Adela runs to the door, but Martirio gets in her way] MARTIRIO Where are you going? ADELA Get away from the door! MARTIRIO Get past me if you can! ADELA Get away! (She struggles) MARTIRIO (Loudly) Mother, mother! ADELA Let me pass!

[Bernarda enters. She wears petticoats and a black shawl.]

BERNARDA Calm down. Calm down. How unfortunate am I not to have a thunderbolt between my fingers. MARTIRIO (Pointing at Adela) She was with him! Look at her petticoat full of straw! BERNARDA A straw bed is a whore’s bed. (She approaches Adela with rage) ADELA (Confronting her) There will be an end to the warden’s voice here! (Adela seizes her mother’s walking stick and breaks it in half) This is what I do with the tyrant’s rod. Do not take another step. No one but Pepe governs me! [Magdalena appears] MAGDALENA Adela!

[Poncia and Angustias appear]

ADELA I am his woman. (To Angustias) You know this now. Go out there and tell him. He will govern this whole house. He’s out there, panting like a lion. ANGUSTIAS Dear God! BERNARDA The gun! Where is the gun? (She runs out)

[Amelia enters upstage, looking on in terror, her head against the wall. Martirio goes out] ADELA No one will stop me! (She starts to go out) ANGUSTIAS (Restraining her) You will not leave here with your body triumphant. You thief! You shame our house! MAGDALENA Let her go where we will not ever see her again!

[A gunshot is heard] BERNARDA (Entering) Dare to look for him now. MARTIRIO (Entering) Pepe el Romano has seen his end. ADELA Pepe! Dear God! Pepe! (She rushes out) PONCIA Did you kill him? MARTIRIO No. He rode off on his horse. BERNARDA It was my fault. Women don’t have good aim. MAGDALENA Why did you say that then? MARTIRIO For her sake! I’d have poured a river of blood on her head. PONCIA Cursed woman. MAGDALENA She-devil. BERNARDA It’s better this way. (A thud is heard) Adela! Adela! PONCIA (at the door) Open the door! BERNARDA Open it. Don’t think the walls can protect you from shame. SERVANT (Entering) The neighbors are getting up. BERNARDA (In a low, coarse voice) Open the door, or I will break it down! [Pause. Complete silence.] Adela! (She moves away from the door) Bring a hammer! [Poncia pushes the door and enters. As she does so, she screams and reappears] BERNARDA What is it? PONCIA (putting her hands to her throat) May we never see such an end!

[The sisters draw back. The Servant crosses herself. Bernarda screams and steps forward.] PONCIA Don’t go in! BERNARDA No. I will not! Pepe: you may run free through the dark tress, but on another day you will fall. Cut her down! My daughter has died a virgin! Take her to her room and dress her like a pure maiden. No one will say anything! She has died a virgin! Tell them the bells should ring twice at dawn. MARTIRIO She was a thousand times lucky to have had him. BERNARDA And I don’t want any tears. You have to look death in the face. Silence! (To another daughter) Be quiet, I said! (To another daughter) You can shed tears when you’re alone. We will drown in a sea of mourning! She, the youngest daughter of Bernarda Alba, has died a virgin. Do you hear me? Silence. Silence, I said. Silence!

[Curtain]
 * END OF PLAY **