(cello og guitar skaber et vedvarende – nynnende? – lydbillede af “et lille rindende vand” (eller en flod måske snarer) af mangfoldighed og rigdom – og ensformighed (se note*)) 

1. Once upon a time there was a lily, it stood in a secluded place beside / next to /  by a little cascading stream, and was well acquainted by some nettles and a few other little / small flowers standing nearby. The lily was […] more delightfully dressed than Solomon in all his glory, as well as free of worries and happy as the day is long. Inconspicuously and exuberantly time passed by, like the little stream, which is humming and vanishing. But then one day,

(tuba gør højlydt entré (som en helt utrolig tung, utrolig stor, hurtig og måske klodset men glad lille fugl – eller “sammenligningens urolige tanke”): “Her kommer jeg. Nu skal i se løjer. Nu kommer der andre boller på suppen. Nu skal der festes”)

a little bird came by to visit the lily. 

(tuba gør ny entré: “Her har i mig tilbage” )

It came back the following day. 

(pause før tuba igen gør entré: “Ah. Der snød jeg jer nok. Bare rolig. Her har i mig igen”)

Then it stayed away for several days before again coming back, this to the lily seemed remarkable and inexplicable,  inexplicable that the bird did not remain in the same place, like the little flowers, remarkable that the bird could be so capricious / whimsical. But as it often happens, so it also happened for the lily, that it precisely for this reason fell more and more in love with the bird, because it was whimsical.

(mellemspil: cello + guitar kommer med glad, diskret – næsten umærkelig – invitation til liljen: “Er det ikke længe siden vi har bare hængt ud og lavet ingenting sammen en hel dag?)

(tuba gør ny højlydt entré: “Hvorfor står du bare der? Kan du ikke andet end bare stå der på et og samme sted? Prøv og se hvordan jeg kan flyve rundt fra sted til sted. Jeg er fri som, ja, en fugl!” (Samtidig med teksten nedenfor)) 

2. This little bird was a bad bird; Instead of putting itself in the lilies place, in stead of being delighted by its beauty and being delighted together with it in its innocent exuberance, it wanted to make itself important, by sensing its freedom, and by making the lily sense how tied down / restrained it was / its bondage.

(tuba fortsætter: “Andre steder, som du jo nok ikke kender til, er der helt anderledes smukt og farverigt og spændende og liljer der er ti eller hundrede gange smukkere – og mere åndfulde! – end dig.

(Samtidig med teksten nedenfor))

And not only that, the little bird liked to talk and now told the lily fast and loose, true and untrue stories about, how in other places, in great numbers, there were lilies far more beautiful, in those places there was an exhilaration and cheerfulness, a fragrance, a colorfulness, a chorus of singingbirds that was beyond all description. This is how the bird spoke, and each story would often end with the for the lily humiliating remark,

(tuba kommer med afsluttende bemærkning: “I sammenligning med dem er du ingenting! Jeg ved slet ikke om du retmæssigt kan kaldes en lilje” (Samtidig med teksten nedenfor)) 

that it in comparison with such glory, looked like nothing, yes indeed that it was so insignificant, it was questionable, what right it actually had to be called a lily.

(Mellemspil: guitar og cello gør det med næsten umærkelige virkemidler klart for os at de (det rindende vand) har stor medfølelse med liljen og er inderligt berørte af at se hvordan liljen begynder at miste farve og hænge mere og mere med hovedet)

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi: “Står du der endnu!?)

3. The lily then started to worry, the more it listened to the bird, the more worried it became; 

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi med en frisk bemærkning: “hvad så din hængeplante, skal du duskes?, nej jeg har ikke tid, jeg må videre.)

It no longer slept well at night and no longer woke up happy in the morning; it felt imprisoned and restrained /tied down.  It found the murmuring / humming of the stream to be boring and the day to be long. It started to become occupied with itself and with its living conditions in self-worry – as the day is long. 

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi: “ Hej. Jeg har ikke tid lige nu jeg skal hen og besøge nogle rigtige, helt formidable liljer – “konge-kroner”!)

“It might be all right”, it said to itself, “once in a while, for the sake of variation / diversion, to listen to the humming / murmuring of the stream, but day in and day out always to listen to the same: that really is far too boring”. “It might be quite pleasant / nice” it said to itself, “once in a while to be in a secluded place all by one self, but like this, though out ones entire lifetime, to be forgotten, to be without company or in company with stinging nettles, which really is not company for a lily: that is unbearable”. 

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi: “Åh. Kongekronen er den mest bedårende, den skønneste af af alle liljer i hele verden”) 

“And then to look so inferior, as I do,” the lily said to itself, “to be so insignificant, as the little bird says I am – oh, why was I not brought into being somewhere else, under different conditions, oh, why did I not become a Crown Imperial?”  For this the little bird had told it, that the Crown Imperial of all the lilies where considered to be the most beautiful, and the target of envy from all other lilies.

(mellemspil: guitar + cello er dybt ulykkelige men nynner og prøver ikke at lade sig mærke med det)

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi: “Åh. Jeg tror aldrig jeg har været mere lykkelig end jeg er i dag”)

4. The lily did notice which only made things / it worse, that the worrying was draining it; but then it talked / started talking seriously to itself; yet not seriously in a way, so that it got the worry out of its mind / it relieved its mind from the worry, but in a way so that, it convinced itself, that its worry was justified / legitimate / correct;  “for”, it said, “my wish is not an unreasonable one. I am not asking the impossible, to become what I am not – a bird, for example, my wish is only / merely to become a beautiful lily, or well indeed the most beautiful.”

(tuba kommer flyvende forbi: “Nej, nu! Jeg tror aldrig jeg har været mere lykkelig end jeg er i dag” (Samtidig med teksten nedenfor) “Men jeg kan måske godt hænge ud med dig for en enkelt gangs skyld og måske hjælpe dig i din ynkværdige situation”)

During all this, the little bird flew back and forth, and with every visit and every departure the lily became more and more agitated / uneasy / restless. 

(tuba flyver sin vej (samtidig med teksten nedenfor) og råber på vejen: “jeg kommer forbi i morgen og henter dig”)

Finally it confided everything to the bird, and that evening they decided, that the next morning they would make a change, and put an end to the worry.

(mellemspil: guitar + cello er nu endnu mere ulykkelige og nynner lidt mere skingert / forceret)

(tuba kommer energisk og handlekraftigt flyvende: “jeg har lige fået to kopper machiato double shots så nu skal der ske ting og sager”)

5. Early the next morning the little bird arrived. With his beak he took away the soil from around the lily’s root, so that it could become free. When this had been accomplished, the bird took the lily under his wing and flew away. 

(det rindende vand høres gradvist svagere og svagere i det følgende)

For the decision was, that the bird should fly with the lily to the place where the most beautiful lilies blossomed. Then the bird was to help the lily get planted there in the hope that with the change of place and the new surroundings it might then succeed in becoming a magnificent lily in the company of the many, or maybe even a Crown Imperial envied by all the others. 

(det rindende vand kan ikke længere høres)

Oh, on the way there the lily wizened / withered / dried up.

(tuba kommer måske slutteligt med en sidste kommentar: “Hov!?”)