Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Page 252
Thus heaps of gold at length were mine,
And jewel-stones, with lustrous shine! —
The emerald’s resplendent green
Alone may grace thy breast, fair queen.
Let pearl-drops hang ‘twixt lip and ear,
The spoil of ocean! rubies, near
Thy dainty cheeks, their radiance lose,
Quench’d by their vermeil-tinctur’d hues.
The greatest treasures thus to-day,
Before thy presence here I lay;
And at thy feet, in homage yield
Harvest of many a bloody field.
Though I full many a chest have brought,
Yet more I have, with treasure fraught;
Let me attend thy path, and lo!
Thy treasure-vaults shall straight o’erflow.
For scarce dost thou the throne ascend,
Already bow, already bend,
Reason, and wealth, and sovereign power,
Before thy beauty’s peerless dower.
All this I firmly held, as mine —
Freely relinquish’d, now ’tis thine!
Its worth I deem’d both vast and high —
Its nothingness I now descry.
What once was mine, doth from me pass,
Scatter’d like mown and wither’d grass.
With one kind look, give back once more,
In full, the worth it own’d before!
Faust.
Hence quickly with the burden boldly earn’d,
Not blam’d in sooth, but yet without reward.
Already all is hers, which in its depths
The castle hides; to offer special gifts
Is bootless. Hence! Treasure on treasure heap,
In order due; of splendor yet unseen
Set forth the exalted pomp; and let the vaults
Glitter like heaven new-born; from lifeless life
A paradise prepare; before her steps,
With eager haste, let carpet, rich in flowers,
Unroll on flowery carpet! Let her tread
Meet dainty footing, and the brightest sheen,
Blinding to all but gods, her glance arrest!
Lynceus.
Slight is our lord’s behest; ’tis play,
A pleasant pastime, to obey:
Not wealth alone, the blood no less
O’ersways this beauty’s fond excess!
Tam’d is the host, and falchions keen,
Now blunt and lame, have lost their sheen;
The sun beside her form divine,
Weary and cold, forgets to shine;
While near the riches of her face,
Empty is all, devoid of grace.
[Exit.
Helena.
(To Faust.) With thee I fain would speak, therefore ascend,
And seat thee at my side! The vacant place
Invites its owner, and secures me mine.
Faust.
First, kneeling, let my true allegiance be
Accepted, noble lady; let me kiss
The hand that now uplifts me to thy side!
Me as co-regent strengthen of thy realm,
No bound that knows; and for thyself obtain
Adorer, liegeman, warder, all in one!
Helena.
Full many a wonder do I see and hear;
Amazement strikes me, much I have to ask.
Yet fain I am to know wherefore the speech
Of yonder man sounds strangely, strange and sweet:
Each tone appears accordant with the next,
And hath a word found welcome in the ear,
Another woos caressingly the first.
Faust.
If thee our people’s utterance thus delights,
then be sure, their song will ravish thee,
Appeasing to their depths both ear and mind.
Yet were it best this language to essay;
Alternate speech invites it, calls it forth.
Helena.
How thus to speak so sweetly I would know.
Faust.
’Tis easy, from the heart the words must flow;
And when with fond desire the bosom yearns,
We look around and ask —
Helena.
Who with us burns?
Faust.
The spirit looks nor forward nor behind,
The present only —
Helena.
There our bliss we find.
Faust.
Wealth is it, pledge and fortune; I demand,
Who granteth confirmation?
Helena.
This — my hand.
Chorus.
Who would now upbraid our princess
Grants she to this castle’s lord
Friendliest demeanor?
For confess, together are we
Captives now, as oft already,
Since the tragical overthrow
Ilios’, and our piteous voyage,
Labyrinthine, with sorrow fraught.
Women wont to men’s affection,
Choosers are they not in sooth,
Rather adepts are they;
And to gold-ringleted shepherds,
Maybe to Fauns darkly bearded,
As to them the occasion comes,
O’er thy delicate limbs must they
Yield completely an equal right.
Near and nearer sit they already,
Each on other reclining,
Shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee,
Hand in hand, rock they themselves
Over the throne’s
High and loftily-cushion’d state:
For no scruple hath majesty,
Secretest raptures,
‘Fore the eyes of the people,
All unblushingly thus to display.
Helena.
I feel myself so distant, yet so near,
And all too gladly say: Here am I! here!
Faust.
I tremble: scarcely breathe, words die away:
A dream it is, vanish’d have place and day!
Helena.
Outworn I feel, and yet as life were new,
With thee entwin’d, to thee the unknown one true.
Faust.
Forbear to ponder thy strange destiny!
Being is duty, were it momently.
Phorkyas.
(Entering impatiently.)
On love’s primer cast your eyes,
Its sweet lessons analyze,
Fondly sport in loverwise!
Yet thereto time fails, I ween.
Feel ye not the storm o’erhanging?
Hear ye not the trumpet clanging!
Ruin nears, with threatening mien.
Menelaus comes, and gleaming
With him waves of people streaming;
Arm ye for the conflict keen!
Girt by victors, conquest-heated,
Like Deiphobus, maltreated,
Forfeit thou must pay, O queen;
These light ware, shall from the halter
Dangle; ready on the altar
Sharpen’d axe for thee is seen!
Faust.
Bold interruption, she annoyingly intrudes!
Not e’en in peril brook I senseless violence.
Ill message hideous make the fairest messenger;
Most hideous thou who dost ill tidings gladly bring.
They shall not profit thee; ay, shatter thou the air
With empty breath. In sooth, no danger lurketh here,
And danger’s self would seem but idle threatening.
[Signals. Explosions from the towers, trumpets and cornets, martial music, a powerful army marches across the stage.
Faust.
No, straight assembl’d thou shalt see
Our heroes’ close united band!
For woman’s grace none wins but he
Who knows to shield with forceful hand.
[To the leaders, who separate themselves from their
columns and step forward.
With bridl’d rage and silent power,
Which victory must crown at length,
Ye of the north, the youthful flower,
Ye of the east, the blooming strength!
Steel-clad, with sunbeams round them breaking,
Empires they shatter with their spear;
They march — beneath them earth is shaking; —
They pass — it thunders in their rear.
At Pylos from our barques we landed —
The ancient Nestor was no more;
In vain their troops the kinglings banded,
‘Gainst our free host, on Hellas’ shore.
Drive from these walls, my voice obeying,
King Menelaus back to sea;
There let him, sacking and waylaying,
Fulfil his will and destiny.
I hail you dukes, for so ordaineth
Sparta’s fair queen: before her lay
Mountain and valley; while she reigneth,
Ye too shall profit by her sway.
Guard, German, wall and fence extending,
Corinthus’ bay, whate’er assails;
Goths, I confide to your defending,
Achaia, with its hundred vales;
March, Franks, your course to Elis steering,
Messene be the Saxon’s share;
Normans, the sea from pirates clearing,
Of Argolis the strength repair.
Then shall each one, at home abiding,
Prowess and strength abroad make known;
Yet Sparta shall, o’er all presiding,
Be still our queen’s ancestral throne.
Rejoicing in their lands, each nation
She sees, with every blessing crown’d;
Justice and light and confirmation,
Seek at her feet, with trust profound.
[Faustdescends, the princes close a circle round him, in order better to hear his instructions and commands.
Chorus.
Who the fairest fain would possess,
Foremost, let him for weapons
Stoutly and wisely look all around!
Fond words for him may have won
What on earth is the highest:
Yet in peace possesseth he not:
Fawners slyly entice her from him,
Spoilers daringly snatch her from him;
This to guard against be he prepar’d!
I for this commend our prince,
Prize him higher than others,
Who, brave and prudent, himself hath leagu’d,
So that the stalwart obedient stand,
To his beck still attentive;
Loyally they his hests fulfil,
To his own profit, one and all,
Having his guerdon in his lord’s thanks,
And for the loftiest glory of both.
For who shall snatch her away
From her potent possessor?
She is his, to him be she granted,
Doubly granted by us, whom he
Within, e’en like her, with impregnable ramparts,
Without, by mightiest host, surrounds.
Faust.
Our gifts to these are great and glorious:
To every one a goodly land,
Fertile and broad. March on victorious!
Here in the midst take we our stand.
Girt round by waves in sunlight dancing,
Half island, thee — whose hill-chains blend
With Europe’s mountains, widely branching —
Will they in rivalry defend.
Bless’d be this land, all lands transcending,
To every race, for evermore,
Which sees my queen the throne ascending,
As erst her birth it hail’d of yore.
When, ‘mid Eurotas’ reedy whisper,
Forth from the shell she burst to light,
Her mighty mother, brothers, sister,
Were blinded by the dazzling sight.
This land, her choicest bloom that layeth
Before thee, waiting thy behest —
Though the wide earth thy sceptre swayeth,
Oh love thy fatherland the best!
What though the sun’s keen arrow coldly playeth,
Upon the mountain summits, jagg’d and bare,
Yet where the rock the verdure overlayeth,
The wild goat nibbling, crops its scanty fare;
The spring leaps forth, united plunge the fountains,
And meadow, gorge, and valley, all are green;
On broken pastures of a hundred mountains,
Spread far and wide, the woolly herds are seen;
With measur’d tread, cautious, in line divided,
By the steep edge, the horned cattle wend;
Yet for them all a shelter is provided,
O’er many a cave the vaulted rock doth bend!
Pan shields them there, and many a nymph appeareth,
In moist and bushy caverns dwelling free;
And yearning after higher spheres, upreareth
Its leafy branches tree close-press’d to tree —
Primeval woods! The giant oak there standing,
Links bough to bough, a stubborn, tortuous, maze;
The gentle maple, with sweet juice expanding,
Shoots clear aloft and with its burden plays —
And motherly for child and lambkin streameth,
‘Mid silent shades, warm milk prepar’d for them;
Fruit close at hand, the plain’s ripe nurture, gleameth,
And honey droppeth from the hollow stem.
Pleasure is here a birthright; vying
In gladness cheek and lip are found,
Each in his station is undying,
Content and blooming health abound.
And thus to all his father’s strength unfoldeth
The gentle child, environ’d by sweet day.
Amaz’d we stand; each asks, as he beholdeth:
If gods they be, or men? so fair are they.
So when the part of hind Apollo playeth,
Like him the fairest shepherd-youth appears;
For there where Nature in clear circle swayeth,
Harmoniously are link’d her several spheres.
[Taking his seat beside Helena.
Thus happy Fate hath me, hath thee attended!
Behind us henceforth let the past be thrown!
From God supreme, oh feel thyself descended:
Thou to the primal world belong’st alone.
Thee shall no firm-built fortress capture;
Strong in eternal youth, expands
For us a sojourn, fraught with rapture,
Arcadia, near to Sparta’s lands.
Allur’d to this bless’d region, hither
Hast fled to brightest destiny:
Thrones change to bowers that never wither;
Arcadian be our bliss and free!
[The scene is entirely changed. Close arbors recline against a series of rocky caverns. A shady grove extends to the base of the encircling rocks. Faustand Helenaare not seen. The Choruslies sleeping, scattered here and there.
Phorkyas.
How long these maids have slept, in sooth I cannot tell;
Or whether they have dream’d what I before mine eyes
Saw bright and clear, to me is equally unknown.
So wake I them. Amaz’d the younger folk shall be,
Ye too, ye bearded ones, who sit below and wait,
Hoping to see at length these miracles resolv’d.
Arise! Arise! And shake quickly your crisped locks!
Shake slumber from your eyes! Blink not, and list to me!
Chorus.
Only speak, relate, and tell us, what of wonderful hath chanc’d!
We more willingly shall hearken that which we cannot believe;
For we are aweary, weary, gazing on these rocks around.
Phorkyas.
Children, how, alread
y weary, though you scarce have rubb’d your eyes?
Hearken then! Within these caverns, in these grottoes, in these bowers,
Shield and shelter have been given, as to lovertwain idyllic.
To our lord and to our lady —
Chorus.
How, within there?
Phorkyas.
Yea, secluded
From the world; and me, me only, they to secret service call’d.
Highly honor’d stood I near them, yet, as one in trust beseemeth,
Round I gaz’d on other objects, turning hither, turning thither,
Sought for roots, for barks and mosses, with their properties acquainted;
And they thus remain’d alone.
Chorus.
Thou would’st make believe that yonder, world-wide spaces lie within,
Wood and meadow, lake and brooklet; what strange fable spinnest thou!
Phorkyas.
Yea, in sooth, ye inexperienc’d, there lie regions undiscover’d:
Hall on hall, and court on court; in my musings these I track.
Suddenly a peal of laughter echoes through the cavern’d spaces;
In I gaze, a boy is springing from the bosom of the woman
To the man, from sire to mother: the caressing and the fonding,
All love’s foolish playfulnesses, mirthful cry and shout of rapture,
Alternating, deafen me.
Naked, without wings, a genius, like a faun, with nothing bestial,
On the solid ground he springeth; but the ground, with counteraction,
Up to ether sends him flying; with the second, third rebounding
Touches he the vaulted roof.
Anxiously the mother calleth: Spring amain, and at thy pleasure:
But beware, think not of flying, unto thee is flight denied.
And so warns the faithful father: In the earth the force elastic
Lies, aloft that sends thee bounding; let thy toe but touch the surface,
Like the son of earth, Antæus, straightway is thy strength renew’d.
And so o’er these rocky masses, on from dizzy ledge to ledge,
Leaps he ever, hither, thither, springing like a stricken ball.
But in cleft of rugged cavern suddenly from sight he vanish’d;
And now lost to us he seemeth, mother waileth, sire consoleth,
Anxiously I shrug my shoulders. But again, behold, what vision!
Lie there treasures hidden yonder? Raiment broider’d o’er with flowers
He becomingly hath donn’d;
Tassels from his arms are waving, ribbons flutter on his bosom,
In his hand the lyre all-golden, wholly like a tiny Phœbus,
Boldly to the edge he steppeth, to the precipice; we wonder,
And the parents, full of rapture, cast them on each other’s heart;
For around his brow what splendor! Who can tell what there is shining?
Gold-work is it, or the flaming of surpassing spirit-power?
Thus he moveth, with such gesture, e’en as boy himself announcing