Goethe's Faust (fifth section)

                        WOOD AND CAVE

FAUST (ALONE)

Exalted Spirit, You gave me, gave me all,
All that I asked. For it was not in vain
You turned your countenance towards me in fire.
You gave me nature’s splendour for my kingdom
And power to enjoy and feel her. Not
Just giving that cold wonder of one visit,
But vision down into her depths of heart,
Shown like the heart of some true friend. Before me
You lead the endless lines of living beings
And teach me to appreciate and know
My brothers in still bushes, air and water.
And when the storm roars, rattling through the forest,
And a giant fir, in crashing, strips and crushes
The trunks and branches of its neighbours, its fall
Resounding dull and hollow from the hill,
Then you lead me to some safe cave and draw
Me to myself and in my inner life
Reveal profound and hidden wonders. And when
Before my sight the pure moon arises,
Soft-soothing me, the silver shapes of past
Generations float up from rock walls, moist bushes,
And soften the stern joys of contemplation.

Oh, now I feel how nothing perfect’s given
To humankind. You gave me this delight,
That brings me near and nearer to the Gods,
And yet you gave me a companion whom
I can no longer do without, though his
Cold impudence shrinks me in my own eyes,
Untiringly he fans wild fire in
My heart for her fair image. So I stagger
From desire to enjoyment, and in the midst
Of that enjoyment, languish for desire.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Have you not led this life for long enough?
How can it please you still? Although
It may be good some time to taste life rough;
You must then reap where new things grow.

FAUST
I wish that you had more to do
Than plague me on this God-good day.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now! Now! I’d happily leave you;
That isn’t, in earnest- what you meant to say.
In truth, your friendship: graceless, gruff and crazied,
Would be but little loss to me.
All day my hands are full! What you will praise,
What you will not, can never quite be gauged
From changes in your Lordship's physiognomy.

FAUST
That’s just about his right, true tone.
He wants my deepest thanks for boring me.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Poor earth son, what was life alone
Without my useful company?
For whole long times I’ve cured you of that
Vague claptrap called Imagination;
Already you’d have strolled, if not
For me, right off this globe’s creation.
Why do you perch like some hoot owl in gloom
In rock ravine and cavern tomb?
What nourishment do you slurp up from dripping stone
And soggy moss, in this frog home?
A fair and pleasant pastime that!
The doctor’s in your system yet.

FAUST

Do you intuit what new life-giving power
I find from wandering in wilderness ?
Oh yes, could you but guess it now,
You’re fiend enough to envy me my bliss.

MEPHISTOPHELES

A super-earthly joy, that’s true!
To lie on mountains in the night and dew,
And earth and heaven joyously embrace
And swell yourself to seeming godlike grace,
And gropingly divine earth’s core, with zest
Feel all creation’s six days in your breast,
Soon into all, with love’s bliss overflowing now,
Quite gone’s the son of earth’s creation,
And then the lofty intuition-

         WITH A GESTURE

Concludes- I may not say just how.

FAUST

Shame on you!

MEPHISTOPHELES

                                  You won’t hear of that, it’s plain.
Of course, you have the right to cry- for shame.
One cannot name with pure ears about
What chaste and pure hearts can’t do without.
Just to the point- I’m granting you the pleasure
Of having self-delusions in some measure;
But you won’t work this longer here.
Indeed once  more you’re losing track,
If you wait on you’ll be ground back
By madness, horror or by fear.
Enough! Your sweet love  sits at home distraught,
To her all’s cramped and troubled too.
She can’t keep you out of her thought,
She’s filled with overpowering love for you.
Your wild love flooded through her at the start,
Like some small stream that’s swelled with melting snow.
You poured it out into her heart,
And now again your stream is low.
Instead of lording over the wood,
It seems to me it would be good
If our great sir were to reward
That puppy when he’s so adored.
For her, time’s pitifully long.
She stands by the window, sees the clouds on high,
Over the town wall, drift by.
If I were but a bird!- so goes her song
Day long and half the dark night long.
Sometimes cheerful, mostly sad is she,
Sometimes weeps most bitterly,
And then again seems calm enough,
And always in love.

FAUST

Serpent! Snake!

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO HIMSELF)

Good! You take my bait!

FAUST

Swine! Out of here with your pretences!
Don’t talk of that most lovely girl!
Don’t spark desire for her body’s pearl
Once more before my reeling, half-crazed senses!

MEPHISTOPHELES

What do you want? She thinks you have flown through,
And that’s already half what’s true.

FAUST

I’m near to her though I were far. I can
Forget her never or lose her now.
I envy even the holy body when
Her lips touch on the sacred wafer’s power.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well put, my friend. I’ve often envied you
The twins that browse beneath the roses’ dew.

FAUST

Be gone, you pimp!

MEPHISTOPHELES

That’s fine! You scold, I laugh. You see
The god that fashioned lads and maids
Could see at once the noblest of all trades:
Creating opportunity.
Away from here, this woeful gloom,
You’re going to your loved one’s room,
In no sense to your death.

FAUST

What’s that divine delight within her charms?
When I am warm within her arms
Shall I not sense her mute distress?
Am I not fugitive? The homeless one?
Inhuman- lacking purpose, aim and peace?
A roaring waterfall that rock to rock wild-lashing runs
Desire’s rage right down to the abyss?
And to one side is she, child-innocent,
In her small hut on little alpine field,
All homely deeds enfolding sense
Within her little world, peace-sealed.
And I, despised by gods,
Find it not enough
To seize upon the rocks
And pound them into dust!
I have to undermine her peace! Hell’s price
Is paid, so you can have your sacrifice!
Fiend, help me, shorten this fierce-fearing time!
What must come, let it come right now!
Let her fate fall together thus with mine,
And she with me plunge to the final hour!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And how you seethe again, you glow!
Be off and comfort her, you dunce!
For when a pinhead sees no way to go
He thinks the end has come at once.
Long life to all with bravery!
Indeed, you show some somewhat devilish airs.
The world’s own greatest absurdity
Must be a devil who despairs.


  GRETCHEN’S ROOM

GRETCHEN (AT THE SPINNING WHEEL ALONE)

Now my calm has gone,
My heart's so sore;
I’ll never find peace now,
No, nevermore.

Where you’re not in sight
Is grave-dark night,
The whole world now
Turns bitter-sour.

And my poor head
Is such a mess.
And my poor mind
Breaks with distress.

Now my calm has gone,
My heart's so sore;
I’ll never find peace now,
No, nevermore.

I watch by window
For him alone;
And but to meet him
Leave my home.

His noble figure,
His high-born stride,
And his smiling lips,
And the power of his eyes,

His voice’s magic
Flow, the bliss
Of his hand’s touch,
And oh! His kiss!

Now my calm has gone,
My heart's so sore;
I’ll never find peace now,
No, nevermore.

My yearning heart
Would flee from here,
Till I could catch him
And hold him near,

And kiss him as
I’d wish that day,
And on his kisses
I’d pass away!


       MARTHA’S GARDEN

MARGARET, FAUST

MARGARET

Now promise, Heinrich!

FAUST

                                       All I can!

MARGARET

 Tell me, how do you rate religion's role?
 Though truly you're a true, good man,
 I feel it's not held highly in your soul.

FAUST

             You feel I'm good to you.. Leave it, my dove.
I'd lay down flesh and blood for those I love.
Nor would I steal faith, church and feeling's weave.

MARGARET

That isn’t right. You must believe!

FAUST

Must you?

MARGARET
       
                          I wish my words could sway events.
You do not honour holy sacraments.

FAUST

I honour them.

MARGARET

                       Without the wish.
It’s long since you’ve attended confession or a mass.
Do you believe in God?

FAUST

                                     My dear one, who may say:
I believe in God?
The wise or those of priestly way
Reply but seem to wield scorn’s rod
On those who ask them.

MARGARET

                                       So you’re not believing?

FAUST

Fairest one, do not mistake my meaning!
For who may name
Him? Who proclaim-
I believe in Him?
Who feels they’d dare,
Without a care,
Say- I do not believe?
The All-Encompasser,
The All-Sustainer,
Does he not sustain, encompass,
You, me. Himself?
Does not the sky arch overhead?
Is not the earth so firm beneath?
Do not the friendly-gazing,
Eternal stars still glide above us?
Do I not gaze into your eyes?
And does not all arise
Towards head and heart and weave
In everlasting mysteries,
Invisible visible, by your side?
Then fill your heart till it is full of this,
And when the feeling fills you fully with its bliss,
Then call it what you wish-
Heart’s happiness, or love, or God!
I haven’t any names
For it! The feeling is all;
Names are sound and smoke,
A mist on heaven’s glow.

MARGARET

That’s well and good; the preacher spoke
In somewhat likewise ways, although
His words just had a slightly different air.

FAUST

It’s spoken everywhere-
By all the hearts beneath fair heaven’s day,
Each in its own good way;
So why not I in mine?

MARGARET

When I hear you say it, all seems fine,
And yet it will not stand up for I see
That you’ve no Christianity.

FAUST

Dear one!

MARGARET

                        It’s long made my heart ache
To see the sort of friends you make.

FAUST

How’s that?

MARGARET

                         The man you always have with you.
I hate within my inmost soul. It’s true
That nothing, not in all my days,
Has stabbed my heart so as the gaze
As the most unpleasant features of that man.

FAUST

Oh do not fear him, dearest one.

MARGARET

His presence stirs my heart’s distaste.
Towards others I have all good will;
However much I long to see you, still
I sense a secret horror when I’m faced
With him; I see him as a villain too!
God pardon me, if it’s untrue!

FAUST

The world must have its odd ones too.

MARGARET

I cannot live with those like him.
You know, whenever he comes in,
He looks round with a mocking grin,
Half-threatening.
He shows no sympathy towards anything;
It’s written on his brow- in whole
That he can’t love another soul.
Within your arms all’s well with me,
So very, very warm, so free,
But he just makes me freeze inside right through.

FAUST

You dear, foreboding angel, you!

MARGARET

It overwhelms me so
That if he merely comes our way
I even think I don't love you. I know
That when he’s near I can no longer pray-
That eats into my heart. But you.
You, Heinrich, you must feel it too.

FAUST

You just feel some antipathy!

MARGARET

I must go now.

FAUST

                         Oh, can I never be
For one short hour at peace upon your breast,
With heart to heart and soul to soul close-pressed?

MARGARET

Oh! if I only slept alone!
I’d gladly leave the bolt unlocked tonight;
My mother stirs at any tone,
If she surprised our soul’s delight,
I’d probably die on the spot!

FAUST

You angel, you; no need- fear not.
Here is a little flask! Just drip
Three droplets in her drink to make
A deep and nature-pleasing sleep.

MARGARET

What would I not do for your sake?
She won’t be harmed in any sense?

FAUST

Would I advise, dear, were it thus?

MARGARET

I don't know why...if I just look on you,
My best of men, I'm drawn to want your will.
I've done so much already that I feel
There's little that remains for me to do.

(SHE EXITS)

(MEPHISTOPHELES ENTERS)

MEPHISTOPHELES

The little monkey! Has she gone?

FAUST

                                            So then, again, you spied?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I overheard it all, right through.
Just then,  my Doctor, you were catechized.
I hope it will do good to you.
It interests the women to surmise
If one is pious, plain in faith’s old way.
They think, “He bows down there, so he’ll do what we say.”

FAUST

You do not see, you monstrous cur,
How this most true and loving soul,
Filled with her faith that’s just
Alone for her
The true salvation, trembles so to hold
The man that she most loves to be completely lost.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You supersensual sensual suitor,
A young girl leads you by the nose.

FAUST

You filth- and flame-born freak of nature!

MEPHISTOPHELES

A masterly grasp of physiognomy she shows.
My presence worries her, she knows not why it’s thus,
This mask of mine hints at a hidden evil;
She feels that I’m some wicked genius,
Perhaps, indeed, the very devil.
Well, now- tonight-?

FAUST

                                      What’s it to you?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I get my pleasure from it too.

    AT THE WELL

GRETCHEN AND LIESCHEN WITH JUGS

LIESCHEN

You’ve heard about what Barb has done?

GRETCHEN

No, not a word. I’m not much out of late.

LIESCHEN

Today that Sybil told me straight
She’s finally been taken in.
That comes from having airs!

GRETCHEN

                                            How’s that?

LIESCHEN

                                                             It stinks!
She’s feeding two now when she eats and drinks.

GRETCHEN

Oh!

LIESCHEN

She had it coming all along.
She hung upon that fellow for so long!
Yes, she was ever parading,
Off to the village and to dancing,
She must be first all of the time,
Forever treated so to pastries and to wine;
So stuck up over looking fine,
She was so brazen, had no shame at all,
Accepting gifts to let him call.
So they caressed and carried on-
And now the little flower has gone.

GRETCHEN

The poor, poor thing!

LIESCHEN

                                What! What pity can you feel?
When we were at the spinning wheel,
Or when our mothers kept us in at night,
She held he sweet, sweet lover tight,
On door bench or in darkened alleyway,
No hour seemed too long that way.
So let her cringe in sinner’s shirt,
And do her penance in the church!

GRETCHEN

He will surely take her for his wife!

LIESCHEN

He’d be a fool! Quick lads have air
Enough for breathing other where.
He’s gone already.

GRETCHEN

                       That is not fair!

LIESCHEN

If she gets him, let her beware.
The boys will rip her wreath from her,
And we’ll strew chaff before her door!

SHE EXITS

GRETCHEN (GOING HOME)

How I could boldly scorn and rail
When some unlucky girl would fail!
On others’ sins my tongue would play;
I could not find enough to say.
However black, I’d paint it with a blacker brush,
Yet it was never black enough.
I’d bless myself and swell with pride,
Now I have naked sin inside!
Yet- all that brought me down to this,
 God! was so good! Oh, was just bliss!

BY THE CITY WALL

IN A RECESS IN A WALL IS A DEVOTIONAL PICTURE OF THE MATER DOLOROSA, WITH A JUG OF FLOWERS BEFORE IT.

GRETCHEN (PLACING FRESH FLOWERS IN THE JUG)

Incline,
O grief-rich one,
Your gracious gaze towards my distress!

With heart sword-pierced
By thousand-fold grief,
You look up to your own Son’s death.

To the Father on high
You gaze and each sigh
Ascends for his and your distress.

Who senses
The wrenches
Of pain deep in my bones?
With fear my poor heart’s turning;
Its trembling and its yearning,
You know, just you alone!

Wherever I am going,
Through all my breast is flowing
What woe, what woe, what woe!
At once in my own keeping,
I weep, I weep, I’m weeping;
My heart is broken so.

The pot plants at my window,
I wet with tears like dew,
When early in the morning,
I picked these flowers for you.

When early sun was slipping
Into my little room,
Already I was sitting
Upon my bed in gloom.

Help! save me from this shame and death!
Incline,
O grief-rich one,
Your gracious gaze towards my distress!


                    NIGHT

STREET BEFORE GRETCHEN’S DOOR

VALENTINE (A SOLDIER, GRETCHEN’S BROTHER)

When I’d sit at a drinking bout,
Where many like to boast and shout,
And my companions burst forth loudly
About a woman’s beauty; proudly
Washed down their praises with strong toasts-
I’d calmly sit and hear their boasts,
My arm propped on a bench, I knew
I’d wait till swaggering was through.
I’d smile and stroke my beard and then,
A brimming glass held in my hand,
I’d say- Yes, each to his own, my friend;
But is there one in this whole land
Who’s like my Gretel? It's quite plain
None hold a candle to her flame.
Hear! Hear! Clink! Clink! It went around;
Then one would cry- He’s right, she’s best,
She’s like a pearl above the rest.
Then boasters sat without a sound.
And now- I could tear out my hair!
Run up the wall in my despair!
With stabbing jeers, nose in the air,
All rats may taunt without a care!
And like a debtor I shall sit,
And each chance word shall make me sweat!
And though my fists could send them flying,
I still could not claim they were lying.

Who’s coming now? Who’s sneaking through?
If I’m not wrong, now there are two.
If it is he, I’ll have his hide.
He shall not leave this place alive.

FAUST  MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

How from the window the eternal flame
Of Sacristy’s small lamp is flickering;
It glimmers outwards, ever-weakening,
While all around a pressing darkness reigns!
My night-caught heart is just like that.

MEPHISTOPHELES

And I feel like a slender cat
That up a fire ladder crawls
 And strokes himself against the walls.
Yes, here I feel quite virtuous -
A bit of thief’s delight, a bit of randiness.
Walpurgis night’s magnificence
Already spooks through limb and sense.
Two nights away its dark will break;
Yes, then you know why you’re awake.

FAUST

But is the treasure to rise in the air
Which I see glimmering back there?

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’ll soon experience the pleasure
Of lifting up that pot of treasure.
I took a peep not long ago-
Fine silver lion-coins all aglow.

FAUST

But are no jewels there, no ring,
To decorate my darling girl?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh no, I noticed such a thing,
It seemed some sort of string of pearls.

FAUST

That’s good. It pains me if  I go
To her without gifts, as you know.

MEPHISTOPHELES

It should not bother you to be
Enjoying something now for free.
Now that the sky glows full of stars, I’ll bring
A true art work before her hearing;
I’ll sing for her a moral thing,
More surely to entice her feeling.

SINGS TO THE ZITHER

               Why stand before
               Your loved one’s door,
                Oh, Kathy, for
                The early dawn is burning?
                Let be, be done,
                He’ll let you in,
                A pure one,
                But pure not returning.
       
                Beware, dears- do!
                When it is through,
                Good night to you,
                Good night, you poor, poor things!
                Don’t come to grief,
                Avoid belief
                In any thief,
                Until you wear his ring!

VALENTINE (STEPPING FORWARD)

Whom do you lure? God’s element!
You damnable ratcatcher, you!
To hell first with the instrument,
To hell then with the singer too!

MEPHISTOPHELES

The zither is in two! There’s nothing left at all.

VALENTINE

And now for splitting skulls as well.

MEPHISTOPHELES  (TO FAUST)

Good doctor, don’t give way! Be quick!
Stay close, and follow on my lead!
So out now with your mopping stick!
I’ll parry, you thrust out with speed.

VALENTINE

So parry then!

MEPHISTOPHELES

                           Why not? Most civil!

VALENTINE

 And that!

MEPHISTOPHELES

                                Delighted!

VALENTINE
               
                                             Seems I fight the devil!
What’s this? My hand’s already lame.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

Thrust home!

VALENTINE (FALLING)

                      O no!

MEPHISTOPHELES

                                    So now the rascal’s tamed!
But now let’s vanish! Away at once! Let’s go!
There rise the murderous cries already. Though
With mere police I get on famously,
Blood-vengeance calls don't work for me.

MARTHA (FROM THE WINDOW)

Come out! Come out!

GRETCHEN (FROM THE WINDOW)

                                   Quick, bring a light!

MARTHA (AS ABOVE)

They quarrel, brawl- they shout and fight.

PEOPLE

One’s dead already- see!

MARTHA (COMING OUT)

But which way did the killers run?

GRETCHEN (COMING OUT)

Who lies here?

PEOPLE

                       Your mother’s son.

GRETCHEN

All-mighty God! What misery!

VALENTINE

I’m dying. That’s soon said, you know;
And sooner still it’s done.
Why are those women weeping so?
Come, listen, little one!

(ALL GATHER AROUND HIM)

Dear Gretchen, look! you are still young,
Not bright enough, all said and done,
And now you’ve gone astray.
I’ll tell you this in confidence:
You’re now a whore, so there’s no sense
In hiding it away.

GRETCHEN

My brother! God! What do you mean?

VALENTINE

Leave our Lord God out of this scene!
What’s done, I'm sad to say is done,
As things will work out, so they come.
You start with one, in secrecy,
Then more will come to join the spree,
And when a dozen have been down,
You may as well have all the town.

When first one’s shame appears,
There born in secret, far from sight,
One draws the dark, dark cloak of night
Down over its rough head and ears;
You’d like to slay it instantly.
And yet it grows and it gets bigger,
In daylight shows its naked figure,
But grows no prettier to see.
The uglier its face and way
The more it seeks the light of day.

And I can see a time, I think,
When honest citizens will shrink
From you, you harlot, as from the touch
Of an infected corpse’s clutch.
And when your eyes meet theirs, the pain
Will cause your heart to faint and falter!
No more you’ll wear a golden chain!
No more stand near the holy altar!
Nor with lace collar, fine and bright,
Take pleasure at a dance at night!
In some dark corner’s grief you’ll be
With beggars and cripples for company;
And even if God pardons you,
On earth you’re damned your whole life through!

MARTHA

Command your soul to God’s good grace!
Why load such slander on your case?

 VALENTINE

Could I but get you, you withered bag,
You pimping, pandering, shameless hag!
I’d hope to find forgiveness then,
In some good measure for my sins!

GRETCHEN

My brother! O hell’s agony!

VALENTINE

I say just this- let crying be!
For when you let your honour go,
You gave my heart its hardest blow.
So through death’s sleep I pass on to
My God, as soldier, brave and true.

HE DIES

  CATHEDRAL

SERVICE, ORGAN AND SINGING. GRETCHEN AMONG MANY PEOPLE. EVIL SPIRIT BEHIND HER

EVIL SPIRIT

How otherwise, oh Gretchen,
It was with you when you,
Still full of innocence,
Came to the altar here,
And from the well-worn little book
You babbled prayers,
Half child-at-play
Half God within your heart!
Gretchen!
Where dwell your thoughts?
Within your heart
What misdeed’s harboured?
Are you now praying for your mother’s soul
That overslept to lasting, lasting pain?
And whose blood stains your threshold stones?
Already now beneath your heart
Does it not stir and swell
To frighten you and it
With its foreboding presence?

GRETCHEN

Oh, grief!
Were I but free of all the thoughts
Which sweep on back and forth in me,
Fighting me.

ORGAN TONE.
CHOIR                                    


Dies irae, dies illa                  
Solvet saeclum in favilla.    
     
 (Day of Wrath, millennial day,
Earth to ash will pass away.
   - 13th century hymn of Thomas of Celo)

EVIL SPIRIT

Wrath takes you!
The trumpet peals!
The graves are quaking!
And your heart
From ashen rest
To flame-fed torture
Rises up again
So quivering!

GRETCHEN

I wish I were
Far away from here! I feel as if
The organ’s robbing me
Of breath- song dissolves
My heart down to its deeps.

CHOIR
Judex ergo cum sedebit,            
Quidquid latet adparebit,              
Nil inultum remanebit.    
             
   (Before the judge all hidden-away
Things come into light of day-
Nothing unavenged will stay.)

GRETCHEN

I feel hemmed in!
The wall’s high pillars
Imprison me!
How the vault
Crushes me!- air!

EVIL SPIRIT

Conceal yourself! Sin, shame
Won’t stay concealed.
Air? Light?
Woe to you!

CHOIR

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?        
Quem patronum rogaturus?              
Cum vix justus sit securus.
                 
   ( I, the wretched, what shall I say,
    Who implore upon that day,
 When the just can hardly stay?)

EVIL SPIRIT

Transfigured ones
Avert their faces from you.
To stretch their hands towards you
Makes the pure shudder.
Woe!

CHOIR

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?    

( I, the wretched, what shall I say?)

GRETCHEN

Neighbour! Smelling salts!

SHE PASSES OUT.