"
Then Parsifal took water from the spring,
And came to Kundry kneeling at his feet,
And sprinkled her with solemn mystic rite,
And said: "This be the first work of my trust.
Kundry, in Christ's dear name I sprinkle thee.
Be thou redeemed and holy evermore!"
And in a passion of rejoicing tears
She kneeled there and her voice gave praise to God.
And Parsifal looked on the fields and woods,
So fair and radiant in the morning light,
And uttered forth the rapture of his heart:
"How beautiful these morning meadows are!
So fresh, so sweet, so radiantly pure!
Full many a flower in other days I saw,
But full of subtle poison was their breath
And they were snares of baneful witchery.
But these are God's own blossoms full of grace.
These twining vines that burst with purple bloom,
These fragrant flowers, so innocent and fair,--
They speak to me of loving childhood's days,
And tell me of the boundless love of God."
Then Gurnemanz: "On fair Good-Friday morn,
All nature seems a-thrill with new delight."
And Parsifal: "Yet strange that it is so.
That darkest day of agony divine
Might well have cast a pall of gloom o'er all,
And plunged all Nature into deepest woe.
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