SECOND ACT
Drums, trumpets and voices within
Some: To arms, to arms!
Others War, war!
Some Caciques, to the wall
Others To the wall, Spaniards!
Some: War, war!
Others To arms, to arms!
Tucapel enters, fleeing
Tucapel: If there weren’t a chronicler 1425
who flees battles
there’d be no way to know about them
nor be able to tell about them.
And, well, this is the role
that falls to me; while they go on 1430
over there as usual, I,
hidden among these branches,
as usual too, I have
to be here to see how today’s
affair comes out; for up to now 1435
they only shout loudly. . .
Some To arms, to arms!
Drums within
Others: War, war!
Some: Long live Peru!
Others: Long live Spain!
Tucapel: Oh, if only lord Sun would wish
that my contrymen could win 1440
victory, and I my wish
to be able to go home,
not so much because
any husband rests in his own,
as to give myself the pleasure 1445
of quarreling with Glauca!
Since the Spaniard,
capturing me in my homeland,
went with me—I don’t know how—
to some foreign lands 1450
where his language and mine
made such a mishmash
that now it’s neither mine nor his,
although it’s enough for us
to understand each other, and,
supplied with men, ships and arms, 1455
he and his people turned again
to sail to these beaches,
where, landing, they have
mowed through the battlefields 1460
that lie between Callao and Cuzco,
whose great court they assault today,
Drums within
they have never given me the chance
to escape, for two reasons:
one, to serve as their marching guide 1465
to get around swamps and lagoons
and the other, so I won’t go to tell
how short of munitions
and of food they are. 1470
So, for both reasons,
they guard me so carefully
that they order anyone who sees me
stray should kill me.
And so I have to wait for a day when 1475
they make them go running back
to the sea. But I don’t think
that today is the one I wait for,
since in this changeable mess,
they only repeat… 1480
All: To arms! To arms! War! War!
Tucapel: What can be seen from here
is that although the high points
of the city are covered with
Indians, the Spaniards are not 1485
disheartened by that,
however much they not only
shoot floods of arrows
from the parapets, but also
tear apart the mountainsides, 1490
rolling pieces down over them.
Let some man say it, since
he falls from the highest ladder
saying…
Uproar and drums within, and Pizarro enters, falling down, with a sword and buckler
Mother of God, 1495
may your mercy protect me!
Within
Almagro: Go help remove him;
Don’t let these barbarians
brag that their ferocity
could triumph over him 1500
even in death.
Enter Candía and Almagro and soldiers and Pizarro stands up by himself
Candía and Almagro: Pizarro!
Pizarro Friends!
C. and A. What is this misfortune?
Pizarro Nothing.
Tucapel: (As long as you don’t bury him Aside
together with Luis Quijada,
this is a trifle, Let’s get back
to important things.)
Candía How is it possible that the blow
of the boulder and the fall spared
your life?
Pizarro: What surprises you 1510
if he who calls on the Virgin Mary
is saved from even greater risks,
her mercy demonstrating--since
she protects us in Peru,
repeating the favors 1515
she did us in New Spain--
how much she considers
herself served by these conquests,
so that a greater sun may be adored
in the arms of a greater daybreak? 1520
And since she preserves my life
so that I will again devote it
to her service, come along, friends,
let’s go back to scaling the walls,
for we will enter the city of Cuzco 1525
today if we first break this fortress, before
Guáscar comes in person with enormous
forces to its assistance tomorrow. 1530
Almagro: Who
doubts it, if in expectation
of the propagation of the faith
and the glorification of the cross
and in María’s honor,
the invocation of her name 1535
by you and Pedro de Candía,
since we see that in the mountains
like a prodigious tree
that conquers wild animals, 1540
an infinite number of Indians already
worship it?
Pizarro Well
with those two faiths,
what is there to fear. Come along, Spaniards,
to arms again!
These three and the soldiers exit, and drums are beaten. Speaking within,
Indians: To arms!
again, strong caciques ! 1545
Some: Long live Peru!
Others: Long life Spain!
All: To arms, to arms! War, war!
Tucapel: Since chroniclers are never good
where arrows reach 1550
in these events,
what will I do with myself, and more so, seeing
that they attack with so much fury
that I will have to cry over my ruination
if they sing victory
for in winning I am left 1555
in my country without my country
and if I want to leave, it endangers
my life? Oh, curses on
that priestess,
since going back to look for her 1560
with Yupanqui, I was the one
hurt, and since she doesn’t regret / repent?
anything! Oh, that there isn’t one,
among all the devils the Spaniards
say speak through our idols, 1565
who at the cost of my life and soul
would tell me what I have to do!
Idolatry enters, invisible to Tucapel
Idolatry: Yes there is; since you call her,
as that is the reason that
God lengthens your chain.
Come with me, Tucapel,
and I will put in your house;
(because what matters to me
if that the stolen victim
is returned to the altar of the sun.) 1575
Tucapel: What are you, who grabs me
without my seeing you?
Idolatry: She who,
shortening the distance between Cuzco
and the valley of Copacabana, 1580
your homeland, can take you
without the most vigilant
guards seeing you,
just for the price of your
doing for me first, on the way
the errand my anxieties 1585
command you to do.
Tucapel If you have so much power,
why don’t you do it yourself, why
do you try to have a man do it?
Idolatry Because
I cannot oppose, face to face 1590
my opponent. And thus, I
have to avail myself
of a man, for he, possessed
by me and giving me entry,
suffices to commit crimes 1595
that the devil cannot do (alone).
Tucapel: And how will I go?
Idolatry By my lending you my wings.
Tucapel: How?
Idolatry Like this.
Ministers with whom
Idolatry prepares her empire
carry my hope on the wind!
Tucapel Then I’m your hope?
Idoltary You are the one who is to accomplish it.
Tucapel disappears on a hoist
for imbuing in you the fierce 1610
spirit of my rage,
the voice will be yours
but the words mine, when
the passions of this battle 1615
dictate my wrath. And
until then, let the echo
resound in two separate parts, some
saying here…
Within drum call to arms and voices
Some To arms! To arms!
Idolatry And other repeating over there . . .
Another drum in the distance, on the march
Others: Halt! and pass the word!
Idolatry: With which, amidst horrors and
vengeance, commotion and
uproar, I will say, influencing
both at the same time,
Some: To arms, to arms! War, war! 1620
Others: Halt! and pass the word!
With this repetition, a drum call to arms sounding on one side and
the marching drum call on the other, Idolatry disappears and the Inka enters with as many Indians as possible, armed in their style, and the Priest
Inka: Since night, covered with
dark shadows, is taking away
the day, at the food of this
mountain our people can recover
from the fatigue of marching
so that new spirit
tomorrow at dawn,
we may give sight to 1630
the city, calling the
besiegers to pitched battle,
now that aiding and freeing it
obliges me to come
in person
Enter Yupanqui
Yupanqui I am at your feet.
Inka Oh Yupanqui, how welcome
you are!
Yupanqui He who comes to kiss
your fleet is blessed.
Inka: What is Atabaliba’s
response?
Yupanqui Reports had 1640
already informed him
of the incredible invasion
that the Spaniards have made
and before hearing your message,
he said that he himself would come
to give you reinforcements.
Inka: How ashamed I am to hear that,
offended that four naked,
barefoot and hungry men have’ 1650
put my people in such confusion
that I have to make use of my
brother and my enemy, only on
account of the advantage that
his artificial lightning has over our
quivers! Just considering that
counting the forces in both companies,
there are a thousand natives for 1660
every Spaniard, I lose my mind, my life,
my soul and I don’t know. . . Leave me alone,
go away, all of you; my heart is
torn out, and I don’t want anyone 1665
to see in my face the expression
of wrath without seeing that of vengeance.
Yupanqui: What strange furor seizes his senses? 1670
Sacerdote: I only know that these days
he is distressed.. .
The Indian soldiers and the priest leave
Inka: Don’t you leave,
Yupanqui.
Yupanqui I am always heedful
of what you command me to do.
Inka: Listen, since only with you
can my anguish rest.
Since the day—woe is me!—
that I sent you to free
that priestess, it has been
nothing but misfortune for me/ 1680
Despite ordering you
afterward to leave her to her fate,
it was enough for the sun
to place the blame for the
first request on me, for
in punishment, he brings so many 1685
strange people against me
as if failing afterwards were
on my account.
Yupanqui Since wanting to block
one sacrifice offends him, 1690
why not order that another one
the same as that to gratify
his feelings?
Inka: Because
when I try that, the priests
of the sun declare 1695
that his sacred rites order
that once the lot has been cast,
so that no favoritism or passion
might excuse the woman
on whom it falls, no other lot 1700
can be cast until she herself
is the one sacrificed. And, ‘
apart from their observances,
how could a women 1705
attempt such a difficult flight?
Yupanqui If it is easy, your majesty, for
two men to love such a rare beauty,
and easy for two who love
to have the same thought, 1710
why does it amaze you that another
should try to same, and that…?
Inka: Be quiet.
Jealousy is a great suffering
for disdain to make it
join with other jealousy
when it alone is enough to kill;
but not me, since I am not jealous.
Yupanqui: Why not?
Inka: In confidence that
there was no second lover
here.
Yupanqui: How do you know that? 1720
Inka: If a sovereign deity who
for centuries nourished my
transformation so threatens
my life, how could he,
being a sovereign deity,
leave without fear of another?
Yupanqui: Well said,
(Let him remain in ignorance, Aside
as it’s good for me that he never
understands that there was another lover. 1730
Doubtless she, either disagreeing
or desperate, fled the temple.)
Inka That is
not the wonder, but rather than she
could hide herself so well that 1735
such varied efforts have not found her.
What center could be protecting her?
Yupanqui: (That is what I cannot say. Oh,
beloved Guacolda, how true it is, 1740
since he who loves you cannot say
either the hamlet that hides you
nor the clothing that disguises you.
Inka: Since hope that the Sun will be
soothed rest on her appearing,
so that my forces triumph,
now that everyone has given up 1750
finding her, do me the courtesy
of being he who, starting today,
finds new methods of searching for her.
Yupanqui I
give you my word, your majesty,--
having helped you in the battle
this morning, that it isn’t right
for me to disappear on the
evening of a battle,--
to go to look for her with such
desire, care and yearning that 1760
I will not rest nor sleep nor
relax until I find her.
And thus, if you find me
missing, do not ask about me
whereabouts, because I am in
search for Guacolda 1765
Inka: Embrace me
again; I entrust this courtesy to
you in good faith.
Yupanqui He thinks that I will
find her, although her precautions say…
within
Voices: Let the depths of the woodlands 1770
hide us, since our homeland
expels us from its heart!
Inka: What confused voices are
those that seem to speak in
her name, since they say…. 1775
Voices: May the mountains serve as tombs,
may they bury us alive rather
than as slaves!
Inka: Ah, guards!
What are those voices?
The priest enters
Priest Those of troops who desert, 1780
with their wives and children and
elders, who come fleeing from the mountains
in a thousand squadrons seeking shelter for
themselves/
Inka: But what could
cause them to fall into such 1785
chaos?
Tucapel: Listen, and you’ll know.
Inka: You must bear bad news
since you get ahead of everyone.
Who are you?
Tucapel: I’m that same native
that the first Spaniard 1790
to set foot on this beach
captured. I went with him
and returned with him
without being able to free myself, until
today’s confusion gave me an open door.
While the Spaniards, having entered the
city by force, placate their insatiable 1800
double hunger for wealth and food,
meantime, to save their lives, the
natives abandon the city, leaving
their possessions, families, and homes
powerless to look at it longer
than in the zeal they dedicate to take
the idols out of the temples
so that their statues may be withdrawn 1810