Faust (27 page)

Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

BOOK: Faust

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	How strangely does the dawnlike, murky light
	seep through the trees and bushes.
	How it pries and even penetrates
	into ravines and gaping chasms.
3920	Here fumes arise, here vapors hover,
	a fire glows from mists below;
	now it flickers like a tender thread,
	now it gushes in a bursting spring.
	Here it winds a crooked path
	through the valley in a hundred veins;
	there it crowds into a corner,
	only sparkling now and then.
	Suddenly there is a geyser
	of sparks like incandescent grains of sand.
3930	And look! The mountain wall from top to bottom
	ignites and seems on fire.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Has not Sir Mammon lighted splendidly
	the palace for this great occasion?
	You are lucky to have seen the spectacle;
	some boisterous guests are fast approaching.

FAUST.

	How the wind-hag races through the air!
	How she slaps my shoulders with her blast!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	You must grasp these ancient ribs of rock,
	or else she’ll hurl you down headlong.
3940	A mist is thickening the night.
	Hear how the timbers creak and moan;
	frightened owls are streaking through the trees.
	Hear through the palaces of evergreen
	the towering pillars crack and shatter,
	the squeal and crash of tumbling branches!
	The hollow thunder of the trunks!
	The groaning of the roots below!
	With a furious roar and rumble
	they fall into a tangled heap;
3950	the madly howling blasts careen
	through the wreckage-strewn ravine.
	Do you hear the voices high above?
	Far away and close at hand?
	The entire mountainside has come alive
	with frenzied chants of sorcery.

WITCHES
(
in chorus
)
.

	The witches ride to Blockberg’s ⁴⁵top.
	The stubble is yellow; green the crop.
	On top of the cackling horde
	Sits Urian ⁴⁶presiding as lord.
3960	Over rubble and stubble they stream in blustery weather,
	Witches and billy goats stinking and leaping together.

VOICE.
⁴⁷

	Our ancient Baubo ⁴⁸rides alone
	with a mother sow beneath her buttocks.

CHORUS.

	We like to cheer when cheers are due!
	Let Lady Baubo lead the crew.
	With mother on a strapping swine
	The other hags will stay in line.

VOICE.

How did you fly?

VOICE.

	By way of Ilsenstein. ⁴⁹
	I peeked at the owl in her nest.
	Oh, how she stared at me!

VOICE.

3970	Oh, go to hell!
	Why must you gallop at such a pace?

VOICE.

	The pig has flailed my buttocks;
	just look at all my grievous sores.

WITCHES
(
in chorus
)
.

	The way is broad, the way is long,
	Then why this wild and crazy throng?
	The broom has scratched, the fork has poked,
	Mother bursts, the child is choked.

WIZARDS
(
half-chorus
)
.

	Like snails in their house we glide and we slither;
	The women are all in a dither.
3980	They race to the house of the Evil One
	To enjoy their advantage before they are done.

OTHER HALF-CHORUS.

	We do not make astonished faces
	If the women lead by a thousand paces.
	Let them race and scramble without stop,
	We the men can make it in one hop.

VOICE
(
from above
)
.

Come here, come up, leave Rocky Lake behind!

VOICE
(
from below
)
.

	We’d like to be where you are now;
	we are scrubbed and polished to the bone
	but forever parched and sterile. ⁵⁰

BOTH CHORUSES.

3990	The wind is still, the stars go by,
	The murky moon hides in the sky.
	But a roaring, magic choir
	Spews a million sparks of fire.

VOICE
(
from below
)
.

Now wait! Please wait for me!

VOICE
(
from above
)
.

Who clamors from the gorge below?

VOICE
(
from below
)
.

	Take me along! Take me with you!
	I’ve been scaling for three centuries
	and could never reach the summit,
	yet I’d like to be among my peers.

BOTH CHORUSES.

4000	The broom can fly, the stick’s for you,
	A pitchfork and a goat will do;
	Who cannot raise himself today
	Is ever lost and doomed to stay.

HALF-WITCH
(
below
)
.

	I stumble and straggle and cannot see
	how the others got ahead of me.
	Back home the children kept me busy;
	now the mountain makes me dizzy.

CHORUS OF WITCHES.

	The salve puts courage in a hag;
	For a sail we use a rag;
4010	A trough will make a splendid scow;
	You’ll never fly if grounded now.

BOTH CHORUSES.

	Approach the peak and fly around,
	Sweeping close along the ground!
	Take to the heath and fill the ditches
	With your cackling swarm of witches!
	( They settle down .)

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	They crowd and crush, they squeal and they clatter!
	They hiss and whirl, they pull and they chatter!
	They spew and sparkle, burn and stink;
	this is the proper sphere of witches!
4020	Keep close to me, or we’ll be separated.
	Where are you?

FAUST
(
in the distance
)
.

Here!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	What! Carried out so far already?
	I must invoke my old prerogatives.
	Squire Voland ⁵¹has arrived! Sweet rabble, let him through.
	Now, Doctor, seize my coat! We will escape
	in one leap to safer ground;
	this is too crazy even for the likes of me.
	Over there I see a very special glimmer,
	something draws me to that clump of bushes.
	Come, come, let us crawl in for now.

FAUST.

4030	You spirit of contradiction! Move along and I will follow.
	It seems to me we managed very cleverly so far:
	We travel to the Brocken on Walpurgis Night,
	to observe at will the magical proceedings.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Just watch those varicolored flames below.
	A lively club appears to be in session;
	in smaller circles one is not alone.

FAUST.

	But I prefer that higher region
	where even now I see a smoky, churning glow,
	and crowds advancing to the Evil One;
4040	many riddles may be answered there.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	But other riddles will be knotted.
	Let the great world go to blazes
	while we breathe and eat in peace.
	It is an old transmitted custom
	that little worlds are spawned within the great.
	I see the younger witches go stark naked
	and older ones more shrewdly veiled.
	Be courteous now, if only for my sake;
	the cost is small, the fun is great.
4050	I hear the blaring of some instruments!
	Horrid twanging! I guess one finally gets used to it.
	Come along! We cannot change the matter.
	I will go and take you in with me
	and bind you to me once again.
	What say you, friend? The space is not so little.
	Just look! You scarcely see the end of it.
	One hundred fires burning in a row;
	they dance, they chat, they cook and drink and kiss.
	Can you tell me where one offers something better?

FAUST.

4060	Will you effect our introduction
	in a wizard’s or a devil’s role?

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Though as a rule I go incognito,
	one likes to show one’s medals on a gala day.
	A garter is too dull and undistinguished,
	but cloven hooves are greatly honored here.
	Watch the snail! It’s slowly crawling our way,
	and with its probing snout and feelers
	it has already sniffed me out.
	I could not hide here even if I tried my best.
4070	But come! We’ll move along the line of fires.
	I’ll do the wooing, and you can be the squire.
	( Addressing some who are sitting around the dying embers .)
	Good sirs, why dawdle on the outer fringes?
	You should be sitting snugly in the middle,
	engulfed by youthful zest and clamor;
	at home you each have solitude enough.

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