Faust (30 page)
Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
| | Make room! And do as you are told! |
| | Watch us crush the tender green. |
| | We may be ghosts, and yet behold: |
| | We’re clumsy and we’re mean. |
| | You move like elephantine calves; |
| | such is your ponderous tramp. |
| | Let the clumsiest on this day |
| 4390 | be Puck, myself, the well-known scamp. |
| | If loving Nature or the Spirit |
| | gave you wings to lighten you, |
| | then follow out my airy trail, |
| | then join me on the Hill of Roses! |
ORCHESTRA
(
pianissimo
)
.
| | The drifting clouds and sifting fogs |
| | receive the sun’s awakening ray; |
| | breezes ruffle reeds in bogs, |
| | and all that was has gone away. |
Faust, Mephistopheles
.
In misery! Despairing! Pitiably stranded on the face of the earth, and now caught in the net. Thrown into prison
as a common criminal and suffering fearful torment, the unhappy creature, my beloved. It has come to this. To this! Treacherous, contemptible spirit, and that you concealed from me. Stand there! Your satanic, bitter eyes wrathfully rolling in your head. Stand there and mortify me by your unbearable presence! In prison! In irremediable misery! Given over to evil spirits and to the unfeeling who presume to dispense justice! And meanwhile you soothe me with stale, insipid diversions, hide her ever-growing anguish from me, and let her perish without help and without hope.
She is not the first.
Cur! Loathsome monster!—Transform him, Infinite Spirit! Transform the viper back into a dog, the shape in which he capered before me at night, entangling the feet of the unknowing wanderer and—when he stumbled and fell—hanging upon his shoulder. Change him back into his favorite shape; make him crawl on his belly before me; I want to kick his cursed belly!—Not the first!—Oh, the sorrow, the grief! A human soul cannot conceive that more than one creature should have sunk to such bottomless wretchedness, that the First in His writhing agony should not have been sufficient to expiate the guilt of all the others before the eyes of the Eternal Redeemer! I am pierced to the marrow of my being by the agony of one alone—while you grin complacently at the fate of thousands.
Now once again we’ve reached the threshold of our wit where the mind of mortals runs amok and snaps. Why do
you make common cause with us if you cannot see it through? You wish to fly and yet are prone to vertigo? Did we thrust ourself on you, or you on us?
Don’t bare your voracious teeth at me! You make me sick!—O great and glorious Spirit, you who deigned to appear to me, who know my heart and soul, why must you weld me to this odious creature that gloats on suffering and revels in destruction?
Have you finished?
Save her! Or else beware! The most dreadful curse on you for ages!
I cannot undo the bonds of the Avenger, nor draw back the bolts.—Save her!—Who was it that plunged her into ruin? I or you?
(
FAUST
gazes wildly about him
.)
Are you reaching for a thunderbolt? Luckily, it was not handed to you mortals. To smash the innocent who cross your path—that is the tyrant’s way to dispose of his embarrassments.
Take me to her! She shall be free!
And the risk that you would run? Let me tell you: The blood-guilt by your hand still lies upon the town. Avenging
spirits hover over the site of the murder, lying in wait for the returning killer.
That too from you? A world of murder and death upon your monstrous head! Take me to her, I tell you, and set her free!
I will take you there. And now listen. This is the limit of what I can do—after all, am I all-powerful on earth and in Heaven?—First I will befog the jailer’s senses, then you seize the keys and lead her out yourself. I will keep watch; the magic horses are at the ready. I will whisk you both away. That much I can do.
Let us move. Now!
Faust, Mephistopheles, racing by on black horses
.
| | What are they plotting ’round the Raven Stone? 72 |
| 4400 | Who knows what they’re brewing and hatching. |
| | Soaring, swooping, bowing, bending. |
| | A covey of witches. |
| | Sprinkling and murmuring spells. |
| | On! Move on! |
FAUST
(
a bunch of keys and a lantern in his hands, standing before a small iron door
)
.
| | An unfamiliar shudder seizes me; |
| | all the misery of Man is mine. |
| | Here she lives, behind these humid walls; |
| | her crime was but a fond delusion! |
| | I hesitate to go to her. |
| 4410 | Am I afraid to see my love again? |
| | Quickly! Death creeps closer as I waver. |
| | ( He grasps the lock. Sound of singing within .) |
| | My mother, the whore, |
| | Who put me to death! |
| | My father, the rogue, |
| | Who fed on my flesh! |
| | My sweet little sister, |
| | She buried my bones |
| | Beneath cool stones. |
| | Then I was a wood-bird gay; |
| 4420 | Fly away! Fly away! 73 |
FAUST
(
unbolting the door
)
.
| | She cannot know her lover listens |
| | and hears the clanking chains, the rustling in the straw. |
| | ( He enters .) |
MARGARET
(
cowering on the pallet
)
.
| | Oh! Oh! They’ve come! Oh, bitter death! |
FAUST
(
softly
)
.
| | Be still! Hush! I’ve come to set you free! |
MARGARET
(
throwing herself at his feet, thrashing the ground
)
.
| | If you are human, feel my misery. |
| | You will rouse the night guards from their sleep! |
| | ( He takes hold of her chains in order to unlock them .) |
MARGARET
(
on her knees
)
.
| | Who has given you this power, |
| | hangman, over me! |
| | It’s only midnight, yet you’ve come for me. |
| 4430 | Show mercy, man, and let me live! |
| | Is the morning not soon enough? |
| | ( She stands up .) |
| | Look, how young I am, how young! |
| | And I must die today! |
| | I was pretty once, and that was my undoing. |
| | The friend was close, but now he’s far away; |
| | the wreath lies torn, the flowers scattered. |
| | Don’t seize me so harshly! |
| | Spare me! What have I ever done to you? |
| | Don’t let me plead in vain! |
| 4440 | I never saw you in my life! |
| | Will I survive such misery? |
| | I am now completely in your power, |
| | but let me nurse my baby just once more; |
| | I held it close to me all night; |
| | they meant to hurt me, so they took it, |
| | and now they say I killed it. |
| | And I shall not recover, ever. |
| | They taunt me with their songs. Cruel people! |
| | I know an ancient tale with such an ending. 74 |
| 4450 | Who bade them to construe it so? |
FAUST
(
falling on his knees
)
.
| | Your lover, kneeling at your feet, |
| | has come to free you from your chains. |
MARGARET
(
impulsively kneeling with him
)
.
| | Oh, let us kneel and call upon the saints! |
| | See! Beneath the stair, |
| | beneath the sill |
| | Hell is seething! |
| | The Evil One |
| | in horrible wrath |
| | rants and rages! |
FAUST
(
exclaiming loudly
)
.
| 4460 | Gretchen! Gretchen! |
MARGARET
(
listening attentively
)
.
| | That was the voice of my beloved! |
| | ( She springs to her feet. Her chains fall off .) |
| | Where is he? I heard him calling me. |
| | I am free! No one shall bar me! |
| | I want to fly into his arms, |
| | hang on his breast! |
| | He called “Gretchen!” He stood in the door. |
| | Amidst the shrieks and clatter of Hell, |
| | through Satan’s ice-cold scorn |
| | I recognized, I knew the sweet, the loving sound. |
| | I am here! |
| 4470 | It’s you! Oh, say it once again! |
| | ( She clasps him .) |
| | It’s he! It’s he! Now where is my anguish, |
| | where the terror of the dungeon, of my chains? |
| | You are here! You’ve come to save me! |
| | I am saved!— |
| | I’m transported to the street again |
| | where first I saw you passing by, |
| | and to the cheerful garden |
| | where I awaited you with Martha. |
FAUST
(
impatiently
)
.
| | Come with me! Come! |
| | Oh, stay! |
| 4480 | Where you are, there I always want to be. |
| | ( Caressing him .) |
| | Make haste! |
| | Unless you hurry now, |
| | we’ll have to pay a heavy penalty. |
| | What? Have you forgotten how to kiss? |
| | My friend, you went away but recently, |
| | and you’ve unlearned so quickly how to kiss? |
| | Why am I so fearful in your arms? |
| | Once at a word or glance from you |
| | an entire heaven would descend; |
| 4490 | your kisses almost smothered me. |
| | Kiss me! |
| | Or I’ll kiss you! |
| | ( Clutching him .) |
| | Oh no! Your lips are cold, |
| | your mouth is clenched. |
| | Where is your love, |
| | my love! |
| | Who wrenched you from me? |
| | ( She turns away from him .) |