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Eyes - 23

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Eyes litter the text of Wilde's Salomé, gazing at the princess, just as they fixate on the viewer in Beardsley's illustrations.  They recur not only in the drawing "Herod's Eyes," which explicitly focuses on the theme of vision, but also in various nipple eyes, peacock-feather eyes, bellybutton eyes, moon eyes.

THE VOICE OF JOKANAAN

After me shall come another mightier than I. I am not worthy so
much as to unloose the latchet of his shoes. When he cometh, the
solitary places shall be glad. They shall blossom like the lily.
The eyes of the blind shall see the day, and the ears of the deaf
shall be opened. The new-born child shall put his hand upon the
dragon's lair, he shall lead the lions by their manes.
---
SALOMÉ

I will not stay. I cannot stay. Why does the Tetrarch look at me
all the while with his mole's eyes under his shaking eyelids? It
is strange that the husband of my mother looks at me like that.
I know not what it means. In truth, yes, I know it.
---
SALOMÉ

How sweet the air is here! I can breathe here! Within there are
Jews from Jerusalem who are tearing each other in pieces over
their foolish ceremonies, and barbarians who drink and drink, and
spill their wine on the pavement, and Greeks from Smyrna with
painted eyes and painted cheeks, and frizzed hair curled in
twisted coils, and silent, subtle Egyptians, with long nails of
jade and russett cloaks, and Romans brutal and coarse, with their
uncouth jargon.
---
THE YOUNG SYRIAN

She has a strange look! She is like a little princess, whose eyes
are eyes of amber. Through the clouds of muslin she is smiling
like a little princess.
---
JOKANAAN

Where is she who having seen the images of men painted on the
walls, the images of the Chaldeans limned in colours, gave
herself up unto the lust of her eyes, and sent ambassadors into
Chaldea?
---
SALOMÉ

It is his eyes above all that are terrible. They are like black
holes burned by torches in a Tyrian tapestry. They are like black
caverns where dragons dwell. They are like the black caverns of
Egypt in which the dragons make their lairs. They are like black
lakes troubled by fantastic moons.... Do you think he will speak
again?
---
JOKANAAN

Who is this woman who is looking at me? I will not have her look
at me. Wherefore doth she look at me with her golden eyes, under
her gilded eyelids? I know not who she is. I do not wish to know
who she is. Bid her begone. It is not to her that I would speak.
---
HEROD

Be silent, speak not to me!... Come, Salomé, be reasonable. I
have never been hard to you. I have ever loved you.... It may be
that I have loved you too much. Therefore ask not this thing of
me. This is a terrible thing, an awful thing to ask of me.
Surely, I think thou art jesting. The head of a man that is cut
from his body is ill to look upon, is it not? It is not meet
that the eyes of a virgin should look upon such a thing.
---
HEROD
[...]
I have amethysts of two kinds, one that is black like wine, and one
that is red like wine which has been coloured with water. I have
topazes, yellow as are the eyes of tigers, and topazes that are
pink as the eyes of a wood-pigeon, and green topazes that are as
the eyes of cats. I have opals that burn always, with an icelike
flame, opals that make sad men's minds, and are fearful of the
shadows. I have onyxes like the eyeballs of a dead woman.
---
SALOME

Ah! I will kiss it now.... But,wherefore dost thou not look at me,
Jokanaan? Thine eyes that were so terrible, so full of rage and scorn,
are shut now. Wherefore are they shut? Open thine eyes! Lift up thine
eyelids, Jokanaan! Wherefore dost thou not look at me? Art thou afraid
of me, Jokanaan, that thou wilt not look at me?...
[...] Ah! wherefore didst thou not look at me,
Jokanaan? Behind thine hands and thy curses thou didst hide thy
face. Thou didst put upon thine eyes the covering of him who
would see his God. Well, thou hast seen thy God, Jokanaan, but
me, me, thou didst never see. If thou hadst seen me thou wouldst
have loved me.

This page has tags:

  1. Sight in "Salomé" Polina Dimova
  2. Painted - 4 Polina Dimova

Contents of this tag:

  1. Sight in "Salomé"