Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  We in her, a title undoubted.

  A Portion of the Chorus.

  We, amid the wavy-trembling of these thousand rustling branches.

  Gently lure with dalliance charming from the root the vital currents,

  Up into the boughs; with foliage, soon with lavish wealth of blossoms,

  We adorn our tresses, floating in the breeze for airy growth.

  Falls the fruit, forthwith assemble life-enjoying folk and cattle,

  For the grasping, for the tasting, swiftly coming, onward pressing,

  And, as ‘fore the gods primeval, so all bend around us here.

  Another Portion.

  Where these rocky walls are imag’d in the smooth, far-gleaming mirror,

  Moving in the gentle wavelets, soothingly we onward glide,

  Listen, hearken, to all music: birdie’s singing, reedy-fluting,

  Is it Pan’s loud voice tremendous — voice responsive straight replies:

  Whisper is it? — we too whisper; thunders it? — we roll our thunder

  In o’erwhelming reprecussion, threefold, tenfold, echoing back.

  A Third Portion.

  Sisters, we, of spirit mobile, hasten with the brooklets onward;

  artist: franz simm.

  FAUST. SECOND PART.

  helen leaving faust.

  For yon hill-slopes, richly mantl’d, charm us rising far away.

  Ever downwards, ever deeper, in meandering course we water

  Now the meadows, then the pastures, then the garden round the house;

  There, across the landscape, slender cypress shafts our banks o’erpeering,

  Telling of our crystal mirror, upwards into ether soar.

  A Fourth Portion.

  Roam ye others, at your pleasure; we will circle, we will rustle

  Round the slopes so richly planted, on its prop where sprouts the vine.

  By the vintager’s emotion, we throughout the livelong day,

  See what doubtful issue waiteth on his busy loving care:

  Now with hoe, and now with mattock, earth upheaping, pruning, binding,

  Prayeth he to all Celestials, chiefly to the Sun-God prays.

  Bacchus frets himself, the weakling, little for his faithful vassal,

  Rests in arbors, leans in grottoes, toying with the youngest faun;

  For his visions what he lacketh, dreaming half inebriate,

  Stor’d in skins, in jars and vessels, ready for his use he finds,

  Right and left in cool recesses treasur’d for eternal time.

  But at length have the Celestials, hath now Helios ‘fore them all,

  Breathing, moistening, warming, glowing, fill’d the berries’ teeming horn:

  Where the vintager in silence labor’d, there is sudden life,

  Busy stir in every alley, rustles round from vine to vine;

  Baskets creak, and pitchers clatter, and the loaded vine-troughs groan,

  All towards the mighty wine-press, to the presser’s sturdy dance;

  And so is the sacred fullness of the purely-nurtur’d berries

  Rudely trodden; foaming, seething, now it mingles, foully squash’d;

  And now splits the ear the cymbal, with the beaker’s brazen tones,

  For himself hath Dionysos from his mysteries reveal’d;

  Comes he with goat-footed satyrs, reeling nymphs goat-footed too,

  And meanwhile unruly brayeth shrill, Silenus’ long-ear’d beast —

  Naught is spar’d; all law and order cloven hoofs are treading down —

  All the senses whirl distracted, hideously the ear is stunn’d;

  Drunkards for their cups are groping, over-full are head and paunch;

  Careful one is, there another, yet the tumult waxes loud:

  Since the newer must to garner, they the old skins quickly drain.

  [The curtain falls. Phorkyas,in the proscenium, rises to a gigantic height, descends from the cothurni, lays aside mask and veil, and reveals herself as Mephistopheles,in order, so far as it may be necessary, to comment upon the piece by way of epilogue.

  ACT IV.

  High Mountain.

  Strong jagged rocky summit. A cloud approaches, leans against the rock, and sinks down upon a projecting level. It divides.

  Faust.

  (Steps forth.) On deepest solitudes down-gazing, far below my feet,

  Full thoughtfully I tread this lofty mountain ridge,

  My cloudy car forsaking, me which softly bare,

  Through days of sunshine, hither over land and sea.

  Slowly it melts from me, not scatter’d suddenly;

  Towards the East the mass strives in its rolling march.

  In admiration lost, the eye strives after it;

  Moving it now divides, wavelike, and full of change;

  Yet will it shape itself — mine eye deceives me not,

  On sun-illumin’d pillows, gloriously reclines,

  Of giant size indeed, a godlike female form;

  I see it, like to Juno, Leda, Helena;

  In majesty and love before mine eye it floats!

  Ah, now it scatters; formless, broad, uptowering,

  Rests in the East, and there, like ice-hills far away,

  Mirrors of fleeting life the deep significance.

  Yet round me hovers still, a mist-wreath, tender, light,

  Surrounding breast and brow, cheering, caressing, cool.

  Lightly it rises now, still lingering, high and higher, —

  Together draws. Doth me a rapturing form delude,

  As youth’s first fondly priz’d, long-yearn’d for, highest good?

  Well up the earliest treasures of my deepest heart:

  To me Aurora’s love, so light of wing, it shows,

  The swift-experienc’d glance, the first, scarce understood,

  Which, long and firmly held, each treasure overshone!

  Like beauty of the soul rises the gracious form,

  Dissolveth not, but upward into ether floats,

  And with it, of my being draws the best away.

  [A seven-league boot tramps down, another immediately follows. Mephistophelesdescends. The boots stride onward in haste.

  Mephis.

  That’s forward striding, I must own!

  But tell me, what dost thou intend,

  That ‘mid such horrors dost descend,

  Such wilderness of yawning stone?

  Though not precisely here, I know it well;

  This was in sooth the very floor of Hell.

  Faust.

  Of foolish legends never fails thy store;

  Such to give forth dost thou begin once more?

  Mephis.

  (Seriously.) When God the Lord — the reason well I know, —

  Us from the air had bann’d to depths profound,

  There, where of fire eterne the central glow

  With lurid flames still circles round and round,

  By the too brilliant light, we found that we

  O’ercrowded were, and plac’d unpleasantly.

  Forthwith to cough the devils all were fain;

  From top to bottom straight they spat amain;

  With sulphur-stench and acids thus inflated,

  Hell, with foul gas, so hugely was dilated,

  That earth’s smooth surface, by the fiery blast,

  Thick as it was, cracking must burst at last.

  That all things are revers’d we now discern;

  What bottom was, is summit in its turn;

  Also in this the proper lore they base,

  To give the undermost the highest place;

  For from the hot and slavish cave we fare

  Into the lordship of the boundless air;

  An open secret, long time well conceal’d,

  And to the folk only of late reveal’d.

  Faust.

  To me are mountain-masses grandly dumb;

  I question neither whence nor why they come.

  Herself when Nature
in herself had founded,

  This globe of earth she then hath purely rounded,

  Took both in summit and in gorge delight,

  Pil’d rock on rock, and mountain-height on height;

  The hills she fashion’d next with gentle force,

  And to the valleys slop’d their downward course:

  Then growth and verdure came, and for her joy

  She needs no mad convulsive freak employ.

  Mephis.

  Ay! so you say, sun-clear to you it lies;

  But who was present there, knows otherwise.

  I was at hand when, seething still below,

  Swell’d the abyss, belching a fiery tide,

  When Moloch’s hammer rocks, with thunderous blow

  Welding, the fragments scatter’d far and wide.

  ‘Neath massive foreign blocks still groans the land —

  Such hurling-might say who can comprehend;

  This your philosopher can’t understand;

  There lies the rock, must lie, and there’s an end;

  But to our shame doth all our thinking tend.

  Your genuine common folk alone conceive,

  And naught disturbs them in their creed;

  Long since their wisdom ripen’d: they believe

  A marvel ’tis, Satan receives his meed;

  On crutch of faith my pilgrim hobbles on

  To Devil’s bridges, to the Devil’s stone.

  Faust.

  Noteworthy ’tis, Nature, as now I do,

  To study from the Devil’s point of view.

  Mephis.

  Be Nature what she may, what do I care!

  My honor’s touch’d: the Devil, sooth, was there!

  We are the folk, the mighty to attain:

  Convulsion, madness, force. ’Tis written plain! —

  But now, at last, to make my meaning clear,

  Did nothing please thee in our upper sphere?

  In boundless space the world thou hast survey’d,

  Its kingdoms and their glory, all display’d.

  And yet, insatiate as thou art,

  To thee did they no joy impart?

  Faust.

  A project vast allur’d me on;

  Divine it!

  Mephis.

  That I’ll do anon.

  Some capital I’d choose; therein a store

  Of burgher-feeding rubbish at its core;

  With crooked alleys, gabl’d peaks,

  Markets confin’d, kale, turnips, leeks,

  And shambles where blue flies repair,

  On well-fed joints to fatten — there,

  At any moment shalt thou find

  Stench and activity combin’d;

  Wide squares, with spacious streets between,

  Which arrogate a lordly mien;

  And lastly, boundless to the eye,

  Beyond the gate, the suburbs lie.

  Of coaches too, th’ eternal roar,

  Still rattling, behind, before,

  Would charm me and the ceaseless flow

  Of ant-swarms, running to and fro;

  And let me walk, or let me ride,

  Their central point I should abide,

  By thousands honor’d and admir’d.

  Faust.

  Such things I slightly estimate.

  That men, it is to be desir’d,

  Should multiply, should live at ease,

  Be taught, develop’d if you please; —

  More rebels thus you educate.

  Mephis.

  Then, in grand style, with conscious power, I’d rear

  A pleasure-castle, some fair pleasance near:

  Hill, valley, meadow, forest, glade,

  Into a splendid garden made,

  With velvet lawns and verdurous walls,

  Straight paths, art-guided shadows, waterfalls,

  From rock to rock constrain’d to wind,

  And water-jets of every kind;

  Majestic soaring there while at the sides,

  With whiz and gush, threadlike the stream divides.

  Then for the loveliest women I’d prepare

  A tiny lodge, cosy and quiet; there

  The countless hours, according to my mood

  I’d spend, in that sweet social solitude —

  Women, I say: since, once for all,

  I in the plural think upon the Fair.

  Faust.

  Modern and base! Sardanapal!

  Mephis.

  Might one but guess thy purpose? High,

  Doubtless, and grandly bold! Since thou

  By so much nearer to the moon didst fly,

  Aptly thy choice might thither tend, I trow!

  Faust.

  Not so. Upon this globe of ours

  For grand achievement still there’s space;

  Something astounding shall take place,

  For daring toil I feel new powers.

  Mephis.

  Fame also to achieve thou’rt fain?

  That thou hast been with heroines is plain.

  Faust.

  Dominion and estate by me are sought.

  The deed is everything, the fame is naught!

  Mephis.

  Yet poets shall arise, thy fame

  To after ages to proclaim,

  Through folly, folly to inflame.

  Faust.

  That is beyond thy scope, I ween;

  How knowest thou, what man desires?

  Adverse thy nature, bitter, keen,

  How knoweth it, what man requires?

  Mephis.

  Be thy will done, since yield I must.

  Me with the circuit of thy whims entrust.

  Faust.

  Mine eye was fix’d upon the open sea:

  Aloft it tower’d, upheaving; then once more

  Withdrew, and shook its waves exultingly,

  To storm the wide expanse of level shore —

  That anger’d me, since arrogance of mood,

  In the free soul, that values every right,

  Through the impetuous passion of the blood,

  Harsh feeling genders, in its own despite.

  I deem’d it chance; more keenly eyed the main:

  The billow paus’d, and then roll’d back again,

  And from its proudly conquer’d goal withdrew;

  The hour returns, the sport it doth renew —

  Mephis.

  (Ad spectatores.) For me there’s nothing novel here, I own;

  This for some hundred thousand years I’ve known.

  Faust.

  (Continues passionately.)

  On through a thousand channels it doth press,

  Barren itself, and causing barrenness;

  It waxes, swells, it rolls and spreads its reign

  Over the waste and desolate domain.

  There, power-inspir’d, wave upon wave sweeps on,

  Triumphs awhile, retreats — and naught is done:

  It to despair might drive me to survey

  Of lawless elements the aimless sway!

  To soar above itself then dar’d my soul;

  Here would I strive, this force would I control!

  And it is possible. Howe’er the tide

  May rise, it fawneth round each hillock’s side;

  However proudly it may domineer,

  Each puny height its crest doth ‘gainst it rear,

  Each puny deep it forcefully allures.

  So swiftly plan on plan my mind matures;

  This glorious pleasure for thyself attain;

  Back from the shore to bar the imperious main,

  Narrow the limits of the watery deep,

  Constrain it far into itself to sweep!

  My purpose step by step I might lay bare:

  That is my wish, to aid it boldly dare!

  [Drums and martial music behind the spectators, from the distance, on the right hand.

  Mephis.

  How easy ’tis! — Hear’st thou the drums afar?

 
; Faust.

  What, war again! — The prudent likes not war.

  Mephis.

  In peace or war the prudent doth obtain

  From every circumstance his proper gain.

  We watch, we mark each favoring moment; now,

  The occasion smileth — Faustus, seize it thou!

  Faust.

  Me, I entreat, this riddling nonsense spare.

  And short and good, speak out; — thyself declare.

  Mephis.

  On my way hither I became aware

  That the good emperor is vex’d with care;

  Thou knowest him. The while we him amus’d,

  And with the show of riches him abus’d,

  Then the whole world to him was cheap, since he

  While young attain’d to regal dignity;

  This false resolve did then beguile his leisure,

  That possible it is and right

  Together these two interests to unite,

  At once to govern, and to take one’s pleasure.

  Faust.

  A grievous error! He who would command,

  His highest bliss must in commanding find.

  With lofty will his bosom must expand,

  Yet what he willeth may not be divin’d;

  To trusty ear he whispers his intent,

  ’Tis realiz’d, — all feel astonishment;

  So holds he still the most exalted place,

  The worthiest. Enjoyment doth debase!

  Mephis.

  Such is he not; on pleasure he was bent!

  Meanwhile the realm by anarchy was rent,

  Where high and low were rang’d against each other,

  And brother still pursu’d and slaughter’d brother,

  Castle ‘gainst castle, town ‘gainst town had feud,

  Guild against noble too; in conflict rude,

  Chapter and flock against their bishop rose;

  Who on each other gaz’d, were foes;

  Within the churches death and murder reign,

  Merchant and traveller at the gates were slain;

  All wax’d in daring, nor to small extent;

  To live was self-defence. — So matters went.

  Faust.

  They went, they limp’d, they fell, again they rose,

  Were overturn’d, roll’d headlong — such the close.

  Mephis.

  And such condition no one dar’d to blame,

  Authority each could and each would claim;

  The smallest even proudly rear’d his crest.

  At length too mad it grew e’en for the best.

  The able, they forthwith arose with might,

  And said: Who gives us peace is lord, by right;

  The Emperor cannot, will not! — Let us choose

  Another, in the realm who shall infuse

  Fresh life, and safety unto each assign,

  Who in a world its vigor that renews,