Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Page 225
Imprison me!
The vaulted roof
Weighs down upon me! — air!
EVIL-SPIRIT
Wouldst hide thee? sin and shame
Remain not hidden!
Air! light!
Woe’s thee!
CHORUS
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus! Cum vix justus sit securus.
EVIL-SPIRIT
The glorified their faces turn
Away from thee!
Shudder the pure to reach
Their hands to thee!
Woe!
CHORUS
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus —
MARGARET
Neighbor! your smelling bottle!
[She swoons away.]
WALPURGIS-NIGHT
THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS. DISTRICT OF SCHIERKE AND ELEND
FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES
MEPHISTOPHELES
A broomstick dost thou not at least desire?
The roughest he-goat fain would I bestride,
By this road from our goal we’re still far wide.
FAUST
While fresh upon my legs, so long I naught require,
Except this knotty staff. Beside,
What boots it to abridge a pleasant way?
Along the labyrinth of these vales to creep,
Then scale these rocks, whence, in eternal spray,
Adown the cliffs the silvery fountains leap:
Such is the joy that seasons paths like these!
Spring weaves already in the birchen trees;
E’en the late pine-grove feels her quickening powers;
Should she not work within these limbs of ours?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Naught of this genial influence do I know!
Within me all is wintry. Frost and snow
I should prefer my dismal path to bound.
How sadly, yonder, with belated glow
Rises the ruddy moon’s imperfect round,
Shedding so faint a light, at every tread
One’s sure to stumble ‘gainst a rock or tree!
An Ignis Fatuus I must call instead.
Yonder one burning merrily, I see.
Holla! my friend! may I request your light?
Why should you flare away so uselessly?
Be kind enough to show us up the height!
IGNIS FATUUS
Through reverence, I hope I may subdue
The lightness of my nature; true,
Our course is but a zigzag one.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ho! ho!
So men, forsooth, he thinks to imitate!
Now, in the devil’s name, for once go straight!
Or out at once your flickering life I’ll blow.
IGNIS FATUUS
That you are master here is obvious quite;
To do your will, I’ll cordially essay;
Only reflect! The hill is magic-mad tonight;
And if to show the path you choose a meteor’s light,
You must not wonder should we go astray.
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, IGNIS FATUUS (in alternate song)
Through the dream and magic-sphere,
As it seems, we now are speeding;
Honor win, us rightly leading,
That betimes we may appear
In yon wide and desert region!
Trees on trees, a stalwart legion,
Swiftly past us are retreating,
And the cliffs with lowly greeting;
Rocks long-snouted, row on row,
How they snort, and how they blow!
Through the stones and heather springing,
Brook and brooklet haste below;
Hark the rustling! Hark the singing!
Hearken to love’s plaintive lays;
Voices of those heavenly days —
What we hope, and what we love!
Like a tale of olden time,
Echo’s voice prolongs the chime.
To-whit! To-who! It sounds more near;
Plover, owl, and jay appear,
All awake, around, above?
Paunchy salamanders too
Peer, long-limbed, the bushes through!
And, like snakes, the roots of trees
Coil themselves from rock and sand,
Stretching many a wondrous band,
Us to frighten, us to seize;
From rude knots with life embued,
Polyp-fangs abroad they spread,
To snare the wanderer! ‘Neath our tread,
Mice, in myriads, thousand-hued,
Through the heath and through the moss!
And the fire-flies’ glittering throng,
Wildering escort, whirls along,
Here and there, our path across.
Tell me, stand we motionless,
Or still forward do we press?
All things round us whirl and fly,
Rocks and trees make strange grimaces,
Dazzling meteors change their places —
How they puff and multiply!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now grasp my doublet — we at last
A central peak have reached, which shows,
If round a wondering glance we cast,
How in the mountain Mammon glows.
FAUST
How through the chasms strangely gleams,
A lurid light, like dawn’s red glow,
Pervading with its quivering beams,
The gorges of the gulf below!
Here vapors rise, there clouds float by,
Here through the mist the light doth shine;
Now, like a fount, it bursts on high,
Meanders now, a slender line;
Far reaching, with a hundred veins,
Here through the valley see it glide;
Here, where its force the gorge restrains,
At once it scatters, far and wide;
Anear, like showers of golden sand
Strewn broadcast, sputter sparks of light:
And mark yon rocky walls that stand
Ablaze, in all their towering height!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Doth not Sir Mammon for this fête
Grandly illume his palace! Thou
Art lucky to have seen it; now,
The boisterous guests, I feel, are coming straight.
FAUST
How through the air the storm doth whirl!
Upon my neck it strikes with sudden shock.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Cling to these ancient ribs of granite rock,
Else to yon depths profound it you will hurl.
A murky vapor thickens night.
Hark! Through the woods the tempests roar!
The owlets flit in wild affright.
Hark! Splinter’d are the columns that upbore
The leafy palace, green for aye:
The shivered branches whirr and sigh,
Yawn the huge trunks with mighty groan,
The roots, upriven, creak and moan!
In fearful and entangled fall,
One crashing ruin whelms them all,
While through the desolate abyss,
Sweeping the wreck-strewn precipice,
The raging storm-blasts howl and hiss!
Aloft strange voices dost thou hear?
Distant now and now more near?
Hark! the mountain ridge along,
Streameth a raving magic-song!
WITCHES (in chorus)
Now to the Brocken the witches hie,
The stubble is yellow, the corn is green;
Thither the gathering legions fly,
And sitting aloft is Sir Urian seen:
O’er stick and o’er stone they go whirling along,
Witches and he-goats, a motley throng.
VOICES
Alone old Baubo’s coming now;
She rides upon a farrow sow.
CHORUS
Honor to her, to whom honor is due!
Forward, Dame Baubo! Honor to you!
A goodly sow and mother thereon,
The whole witch chorus follows anon.
VOICE
Which way didst come?
VOICE
O’er Ilsenstein!
There I peep’d in an owlet’s nest.
With her broad eye she gazed in mine!
VOICE
Drive to the devil, thou hellish pest!
Why ride so hard?
VOICE
She has graz’d my side,
Look at the wounds, how deep and how wide!
WITCHES (in chorus)
The way is broad, the way is long;
What mad pursuit! What tumult wild!
Scratches the besom and sticks the prong;
Crush’d is the mother, and stifled the child.
WIZARDS (half chorus)
Like house-encumber’d snail we creep;
While far ahead the women keep,
For when to the devil’s house we speed,
By a thousand steps they take the lead.
THE OTHER HALF
Not so, precisely do we view it;
They with a thousand steps may do it;
But let them hasten as they can,
With one long bound ’tis clear’d by man.
VOICES (above)
Come with us, come with us from Felsensee.
VOICES (from below)
Aloft to you we would mount with glee!
We wash, and free from all stain are we,
Yet barren evermore must be!
BOTH CHORUSES
The wind is hushed, the stars grow pale,
The pensive moon her light doth veil;
And whirling on, the magic choir
Sputters forth sparks of drizzling fire.
VOICE (from below)
Stay! stay!
VOICE (from above)
What voice of woe
Calls from the cavern’d depths below?
VOICE (from below)
Take me with you! Oh take me too!
Three centuries I climb in vain,
And yet can ne’er the summit gain!
To be with my kindred I am fain.
BOTH CHORUSES
Broom and pitch-fork, goat and prong,
Mounted on these we whirl along;
Who vainly strives to climb tonight,
Is evermore a luckless wight!
DEMI-WITCH (below)
I hobble after, many a day;
Already the others are far away!
No rest at home can I obtain —
Here too my efforts are in vain!
CHORUS OF WITCHES
Salve gives the witches strength to rise;
A rag for a sail does well enough;
A goodly ship is every trough;
Tonight who flies not, never flies.
BOTH CHORUSES
And when the topmost peak we round,
Then alight ye on the ground;
The heath’s wide regions cover ye
With your mad swarms of witchery!
[They let themselves down.]
MEPHISTOPHELES
They crowd and jostle, whirl and flutter!
They whisper, babble, twirl, and splutter!
They glimmer, sparkle, stink and flare —
A true witch-element! Beware!
Stick close! else we shall severed be.
Where art thou?
FAUST (in the distance)
Here!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Already, whirl’d so far away!
The master then indeed I needs must play.
Give ground! Squire Voland comes! Sweet folk, give ground!
Here, doctor, grasp me! With a single bound
Let us escape this ceaseless jar;
Even for me too mad these people are.
Hard by there shineth something with peculiar glare,
Yon brake allureth me; it is not far;
Come, come along with me! we’ll slip in there.
FAUST
Spirit of contradiction! Lead! I’ll follow straight!
’Twas wisely done, however, to repair
On May-night to the Brocken, and when there,
By our own choice ourselves to isolate!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Mark, of those flames the motley glare!
A merry club assembles there.
In a small circle one is not alone.
FAUST
I’d rather be above, though, I must own!
Already fire and eddying smoke I view;
The impetuous millions to the devil ride;
Full many a riddle will be there untied.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ay! and full many a riddle tied anew.
But let the great world rave and riot!
Here will we house ourselves in quiet.
A custom ’tis of ancient date,
Our lesser worlds within the great world to create!
Young witches there I see, naked and bare,
And old ones, veil’d more prudently.
For my sake only courteous be!
The trouble small, the sport is rare.
Of instruments I hear the cursed din —
One must get used to it. Come in! come in!
There’s now no help for it. I’ll step before,
And introducing you as my good friend,
Confer on you one obligation more.
How say you now? ’Tis no such paltry room;
Why only look, you scarce can see the end.
A hundred fires in rows disperse the gloom;
They dance, they talk, they cook, make love, and drink:
Where could we find aught better, do you think?
FAUST
To introduce us, do you purpose here
As devil or as wizard to appear?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Though I am wont indeed to strict incognito,
Yet upon gala-days one must one’s orders show.
No garter have I to distinguish me,
Nathless the cloven foot doth here give dignity.
Seest thou yonder snail? Crawling this way she hies;
With searching feelers, she, no doubt,
Hath me already scented out;
Here, even if I would, for me there’s no disguise.
From fire to fire, we’ll saunter at our leisure,
The gallant you, I’ll cater for your pleasure.
(To a party seated round, some expiring embers)
Old gentleman, apart, why sit ye moping here?
Ye in the midst should be of all this jovial cheer,
Girt round with noise and youthful riot;
At home one surely has enough of quiet.
GENERAL
In nations put his trust, who may,
Whate’er for them one may have done;
For with the people, as with women, they
Honor your rising stars alone!
MINISTER
Now all too far they wander from the right;
I praise the good old ways, to them I hold,
Then was the genuine age of gold,
When we ourselves were foremost in men’s sight.
PARVENU
Ne’er were we ‘mong your dullards found,
And what we ought not, that to do were fair;
Yet now are all things turning round and round,
When on firm basis we would them maintain.
AUTHOR
Who, as a rule, a treatise now would care
To read, of even moderate sense?
As for the rising generation, ne’er
Has youth displayed such arrogant pretense.
MEPHISTOPHELES (suddenly appearing very old)
Since for the last time I the Brocken scale,
That folk are ripe for doomsday, now one sees;
And just because my cask begins to fail,
So the whole world is also on the lees.
> HUCKSTER-WITCH
Stop, gentlemen, nor pass me by,
Of wares I have a choice collection:
Pray honor them with your inspection.
Lose not this opportunity!
Yet nothing in my booth you’ll find
Without its counterpart on earth; there’s naught,
Which to the world, and to mankind,
Hath not some direful mischief wrought.
No dagger here, which hath not flow’d with blood,
No chalice, whence, into some healthy frame
Hath not been poured hot poison’s wasting flood.
No trinket, but hath wrought some woman’s shame,
No weapon but hath cut some sacred tie,
Or from behind hath stabb’d an enemy.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Gossip! For wares like these the time’s gone by,
What’s done is past! what’s past is done!
With novelties your booth supply;
Us novelties attract alone.
FAUST
May this wild scene my senses spare!
This, may in truth be called a fair!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Upward the eddying concourse throng;
Thinking to push, thyself art push’d along.
FAUST
Who’s that, pray?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Mark her well! That’s Lilith.
FAUST
Who?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Adam’s first wife. Of her rich locks beware!
That charm in which she’s parallel’d by few,
When in its toils a youth she doth ensnare
He will not soon escape, I promise you.
FAUST
There sit a pair, the old one with the young;
Already they have bravely danced and sprung!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Here there is no repose today.
Another dance begins; we’ll join it, come away!
FAUST (dancing with the young one)
Once a fair vision came to me;
Therein I saw an apple-tree,
Two beauteous apples charmed mine eyes;
I climb’d forthwith to reach the prize.
THE FAIR ONE
Apples still fondly ye desire,
From paradise it hath been so.
Feelings of joy my breast inspire
That such too in my garden grow.
MEPHISTOPHELES (with the old one)
Once a weird vision came to me;
Therein I saw a rifted tree.
It had a…..;
But as it was it pleased me too.
THE OLD ONE
I beg most humbly to salute
The gallant with the cloven foot!
Let him … have ready here,
If he a … does not fear.
PROCTOPHANTASMIST
Accursed mob! How dare ye thus to meet?
Have I not shown and demonstrated too,
That ghosts stand not on ordinary feet?
Yet here ye dance, as other mortals do!
THE FAIR ONE (dancing)
Then at our ball, what doth he here?
FAUST (dancing)