Now admit me to your crew!
Lamiæ.
One too many, she I ween
Spoiler of our sport hath been.
Empusa.
(To Mephistopheles.)
Thee doth thy cousin dear salute,
Empusa with the Ass’s foot!
Thine but a horse’s hoof, yet thee,
Cousin, I greet most courteously!
Mephis.
Myself unknown I fancied here —
And yet, alas, near kinsfolk meet;
From Hartz to Hellas, far and near,
So runs the rede, you’ll cousins greet!
Empusa.
I with resolve can act, can take
Full many a shape; but for thy sake,
That I to thee do honor pay,
The Ass’s head I don to-day.
Mephis.
I see, with people of this sort,
Relationship doth much import;
Yet come what may, ’tis all the same;
The Ass’s head I must disclaim.
Lamiæ.
This hag avoid! She comes to scare
Whatever lovely seems and fair;
What lovely was and fair before,
When she draws near, is so no more.
Mephis.
These smooth slim cousins, short or tall,
Make me suspicious, one and all;
I fear, those rosy cheeks behind,
Some metamorphoses to find.
Lamiæ.
Come, take thy choice; we many are.
Catch hold! If reigns thy lucky star,
Thou of the lot mayst draw the best.
What means this hankering delay?
The wooer wretchedly dost play,
With haughty mien and lofty crest!
Amid our troop now see him glide;
Throw by degrees your masks aside,
And be your proper selves confess’d!
Mephis.
I’ve made my choice, the fairest, she . . .
[Embracing her.
Dry as a besom! Woe is me!
[Seizing another.
And this? . . . a fright, oh, wretched lot!
Lamiæ.
Deserv’st thou better? Think it not!
Mephis.
The little one I fain would clasp. . . .
A lizard glides from out my grasp,
And serpent-like her polish’d hair.
Anon a taller one I catch. . . .
A thyrsus-staff alone I snatch,
That for a head doth pine-cone wear.
Where will this end? . . . One plump and round,
With whom some solace may be found —
I’ll try my fortune once again! —
Right flabby, squashy; such a prize,
Your Oriental dearly buys. . . .
But ah! The puff-ball bursts in twain!
Lamiæ.
Quick as lightning, disunite!
Hover ye, in dusky flight,
Round the intruding witch’s son,
In uncertain, ghastly rings,
Flitter mice, on noiseless wings!
Too cheaply he’ll escape anon.
Mephis.
(Shaking himself.) I have not grown much wiser, that is clear.
The North’s absurd, absurd ’tis also here;
Ghosts here as there, a devilish crew,
Folk are insipid, poets too!
’Tis here a masquerade as there,
A sensual dance, as everywhere;
At beauty’s mask I clutch’d amain —
And seiz’d, what made me stand aghast. . . .
Yet to deceive myself I’m fain,
If only longer it would last!
[Losing his way among the rocks.
Where am I? Whither tend my pains?
Where was a path, there chaos reigns;
I by smooth roads have hither sped,
Rude bowlders now impede my tread;
I clamber up and down in vain —
My sphinxes, where shall I regain?
Ne’er had I dream’d so mad a thing:
Such mountain in a single night!
A bold witch-journey is this flight,
Their Blockberg with them here they bring!
Oread.
(From the natural rock.)
Hither ascend! My mountain old
Its form primeval still doth hold —
My steep and rocky steps revere,
Extremest branch of Pindus — here,
Unshaken have I rear’d my head,
When over me Pompeius fled;
Yon phantom shape that cheats the eye
Away, when crows the cock, will fly:
Such fables oft arise, I see,
And disappear as suddenly.
Mephis.
Honor to thee, thou reverend head;
With lofty oak-strength garlanded,
Moonshine, however clear and bright,
Faileth to pierce thy rayless night! —
But, ‘mong the bushes, comes this way
A light, that gleams with modest ray.
How fitly all things happen thus;
In truth! it is Homunculus! —
Whither away, thou tiny friend?
Homunculus.
Flitting from place to place, I wend.
In the best sense full fain I am to be;
And long impatiently my glass to break;
Only, from what I’ve seen and see,
Courage I lack the step to take.
But now, in confidence to speak,
Of two philosophers the track I seek;
I hearken’d, their discourse I overheard;
And Nature — Nature — was their only word:
Apart from these I would not go,
Somewhat of earthly being they must know,
And doubtless I at last shall learn
Whither most wisely I myself may turn.
Mephis.
Thy course shape thou thyself. Be wise!
For where your ghosts find entrance, there
Welcome is your philosopher:
That you his art and favor may delight,
A dozen new ones he brings forth to light.
Unless thou errest, reason dormant lies;
Wilt thou exist, through thine own effort rise!
Homunculus.
Such good advice should not neglected be.
Mephis.
So now away! Of this we more shall see.
[They separate.
Anaxagoras.
(To Thales.) To yield is adverse to thy stubborn mind;
To bring conviction, needs there further proof?
Thales.
The wave yields willingly to every wind,
But from the beetling crag still keeps aloof.
Anaxagoras.
Through fiery vapor came this rock to birth.
Thales.
Moisture hath gender’d all that lives on earth.
Homunculus.
(Between them.) To walk beside you, suffer me!
I also greatly long to be.
Anaxagoras.
Hast thou, O Thales, ever in one night,
Such mountain out of slime brought forth to light?
Thales.
Never was Nature, with her living powers,
Measur’d by scale of days and nights and hours;
By law each shape she fashioneth, and hence,
E’en in the grand there is no violence.
Anaxagoras.
Yet such was here! Plutonic savage fire,
Æolian vaporous force, explosive, dire,
Burst through the ancient crusts of level earth,
And a new mountain came forthwith to birth.
Thales.
Why further press the case? at any rate,
’Tis there, and that is well. In such debate,
Leisure and precious time away one flings,
Your patient folk to keep in leading-strings.
>
Anaxagoras.
Quickly with myrmidons the mountain teems,
The clefts to people: forth there streams
Of pigmies, ants and gnomes, a living tide,
And other tiny bustling things beside.
(To Homunculus.)
After the Great hast ne’er aspir’d,
But hermit-like hast liv’d retir’d;
To lordship if thyself canst bring,
Forthwith I’ll have thee crown’d as king.
Homunculus.
What says my Thales?
Thales.
Not with my consent;
With dwarfs we are with dwarfish deeds content:
While with the great the dwarf doth greatness win.
See there: of cranes the swarthy cloud,
They threaten the excited crowd,
And so would threat the king; with beak
Sharp-pointed and with talons fierce,
Down-swooping, they the pigmies pierce;
Fateful, their stormful ire they wreak;
A crime the herons doom’d to slaughter,
Brooding around their tranquil water;
But that death-shower of arrowy rain,
For bloody vengeance cries amain,
And doth with rage their kindred fill,
The pigmies’ guilty blood to spill.
Of what avail helm, spear and shield?
What helps the dwarf the heron’s plume?
How ant and dactyl shun their doom!
Wavers the host, — they fly, they yield.
Anaxagoras.
(After a pause, solemnly.)
If I, till now, the powers subterrain praise,
I, in this hour, my prayers to heaven upraise. . . .
Thou thron’d aloft, eternal, aye the same,
Threefold in aspect, and threefold in name,
Amid my people’s woe I cry to thee,
Diana, Luna, Hecatè!
Deep pondering mind, expander of the breast,
Mighty within, though outwardly at rest,
Unclose the gulfs abyssmal of thy shade,
Be without spells thine ancient might display’d!
[Pause.
Am I too quickly heard?
And hath my prayer,
Ascending there,
Marred Nature’s order with a word?
And greater, ever greater draweth near
The goddess’ throne, her full-orbed sphere,
Enormous, fearful to the gaze!
Its fire grows redder through the haze. . . .
No nearer! Threatening orb, I pray; —
Ourselves and land and sea thou’lt sweep away!
Was it then true that dames of Thessaly
Through sinful trust in magic, thee
Have downward from thy pathway sung,
From thee have powers most baleful wrung? . . .
The glittering shield, behold, it darkles!
Sudden it splits, and flares and sparkles!
What a hissing! what a rattling!
Thunder and storm-blast fiercely battling! —
Humbled I fall before thy throne —
Pardon! myself invok’d it, I alone.
[Throws himself on his face.
Thales.
What hath this man not seen and heard!
I know not rightly how with us it far’d.
Like him I have not felt it. Ne’ertheless
The hours are out of tune, we must confess,
And Luna calmly as before,
In her own place aloft doth soar.
Homunculus.
Behold the pigmies’ seat! The mound
Is pointed now, before ’twas round.
Convulsion huge I felt; a rock
Down from the moon, with sudden shock,
Hath fallen; and both friend and foe
Were crush’d and slaughter’d at a blow!
Yet arts like these I needs must praise,
That, working with creative might,
Upwards and downwards, could upraise,
This mountain in a single night.
Thales.
Peace! ’Twas but fancy. That vile brood, —
To swift destruction let them fare!
That thou wert not their king, is good.
Now to the sea’s glad feast repair!
Strange guests are honor’d and expected there.
[They withdraw.
Mephis.
(Clambering up the opposite side.)
Up rocky stairs and steep must I to-day,
Through ancient oaks’ gnarl’d roots make toilsome way.
Upon my Hartz the piny atmosphere
Savors of pitch, and that to me is dear,
’Tis next to brimstone . . . Here, among the Greeks,
E’en for a trace of it one vainly seeks.
Inquisitive I am, and must inquire
Wherewith they feed hell-torment and hell-fire.
Dryad.
In thine own land be prudently at home;
Thou hast not wit enough abroad to roam.
Towards home thou should’st not turn thy thought; while here
The honor of the sacred oaks revere.
Mephis.
The lost will aye in thought arise;
What we are used to, is our Paradise.
But say, what triple object do I trace,
By the dim light, in yonder cavern’s shade?
Dryad.
The Phorkyads! Go, venture to the place,
And speak to them, if thou art undismay’d!
Mephis.
And wherefore not? . . . I see it with amaze.
Proud as I am, e’en I must needs confess,
Their like I ne’er have seen; their ugliness
That of our hellish hags o’ersways!
Sins reprobated long, — will they
Waken henceforth the least dismay,
If men this threefold dread survey?
We would not suffer them to dwell
On threshold of our dreariest Hell;
Rooted in Beauty’s land of fame,
Here to be styl’d antique they claim. . . .
They stir themselves, to scent me they appear,
Like vampire-bats, their twitter meets mine ear.
Phorkyad.
Give me the eye, my sisters, forth to gaze,
So near our fane who boldly thus delays!
Mephis.
Most honor’d! To approach you give me leave,
That I your threefold blessing may receive.
As still unknown indeed I come to you,
Yet am, methinks, a distant cousin too.
Gods ancient and rever’d I’ve seen of yore,
Deeply have Ops and Rhea bow’d before;
Your own and Chaos’ sisters, yesternight,
Or night before, the Parcæ, met my sight;
Yet on your like I ne’er before have gaz’d.
Silent I am, delighted and amaz’d.
Phorkyad.
Intelligent this spirit seems to be.
Mephis.
That you no bard hath sung, surprises me.
And say, most worthy ones, how hath it been
That of your charms no pictur’d forms are seen?
Your shapes should sculpture labor to retain,
Not Juno, Pallas, Venus, and their train!
Phorkyads.
Immers’d in solitude and night profound,
Such thought no entrance to our mind hath found!
Mephis.
How should it, from the world retir’d, when ye,
Yourselves by none beheld, can no one see!
You in such regions rather should reside
Where art and splendor reign in equal pride,
Where from a marble block, with genius rife,
Steps forth each day a hero into life,
Where —
Phorkyads.
Silence! in us wake no longings new:
What wo
uld it profit us, if more we knew?
In night begot, to things of night allied,
Unto ourselves scarce known, unknown to all beside.
Mephis.
Not much, indeed, in such case can one say.
But each himself to others can convey:
One eye, one tooth suffices for you three;
So would it tally with mythology,
In two the being of the three to blend,
And your third semblance unto me to lend,
But for brief space.
One of the Phorkyads.
What think you, may we try?
The Other.
We’ll venture — but without or tooth or eye.
Mephis.
With these the very best away you’ve ta’en;
Imperfect the stern image would remain!
One of the Phorkyads.
Press one eye close — full easily ’tis done;
Now of your canine teeth display but one —
Forthwith, in profile, perfect and complete,
Our sisterly resemblance we shall greet.
Mephis.
Much honor! Be it so!
Phorkyads.
So be it!
Mephis.
(As a Phorkyadin profile.)
Done!
Here stand I Chaos’ well-beloved son!
Phorkyads.
Daughters of Chaos we, by ancient right.
Mephis.
Me now they call, oh shame, hermaphrodite!
Phorkyads.
What beauty our new triad gives to view!
Of eyes, and eke of teeth, we now have two.
Mephis.
Now must I shroud myself from mortal sight,
In pool of hell the devils to affright.
[Exit.
Rocky bays of the Ægean Sea.
The moon pausing in the zenith.
Sirens.
(Reclined upon the cliffs around, fluting and singing.) Thou whom from thy realm supernal,
Downward drew, with rites nocturnal,
Weird Thessalian sorceresses,
With thy glance, all things that blesses,
Now illume the throng that presses
Through the waves with billowy motion,
Flooding all the rippling ocean
With the splendor of thy light!
artist: franz simm
FAUST. SECOND PART.
the sirens of the ægean sea
Luna fair, thy vassals greet thee;
Be propitious, we entreat thee!
NereidsandTritons.
(As wonders of the sea.) Sing aloud, with shriller singing,
Let it, through broad ocean ringing,
Call its people, far and near! —
From the storm’s dread whirlpools hiding,
We in stillest depths were biding;
Gracious song allures us here.
See, we deck ourselves enraptur’d,
With the treasures we have captur’d,
Golden chain and clasp and gem,
Spangled zone and diadem;
All this fruitage is your prey;
Down to us these shipwreck’d treasures,
Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Page 247