The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 108

From here too--

FAUST

That accursed here!

It weighs upon me! Lend thine ear;-- To thine experience I must tell, With thrust on thrust, what wounds my heart; To bear it is impossible-- Nor can I, without shame, impart: The old folk there above must yield; Would that my seat those lindens were; Those few trees not mine own, that field, Possession of the world impair.

There I, wide view o'er all to take, From bough to bough would scaffolds raise; Would, for the prospect, vistas make On all that I have done to gaze; To see at once before me brought The master-work of human thought, Where wisdom hath achieved the plan, And won broad dwelling-place for man.-- Thus are we tortured;--in our weal, That which we lack, we sorely feel!

The chime, the scent of linden-bloom, Surround me like a vaulted tomb.

The will that nothing could withstand, Is broken here upon the sand: How from the vexing thought be safe?

The bell is pealing, and I chafe!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Such spiteful chance, 'tis natural, Must thy existence fill with gall.

Who doubts it! To each n.o.ble ear, This clanging odious must appear; This cursed ding-dong, booming loud, The cheerful evening-sky doth shroud, With each event of life it blends, From birth to burial it attends, Until this mortal life doth seem, Twixt ding and dong, a vanished dream!

FAUST

Resistance, stubborn selfishness, Can trouble lordliest success, Till, in deep angry pain one must Grow tired at last of being first!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Why let thyself be troubled here?

Is colonizing not thy sphere?

FAUST

Then go, to move them be thy care!

Thou knowest well the homestead fair, I've chosen for the aged pair--

MEPHISTOPHELES

We'll bear them off, and on new ground Set them, ere one can look around.

The violence outlived and past, Shall a fair home atone at last.

[_He whistles shrilly._]

THE THREE _enter_

MEPHISTOPHELES

Come! straight fulfil the lord's behest; The fleet tomorrow he will feast.

THE THREE

The old lord us did ill requite; A sumptuous feast is ours by right.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_to the spectators_)

What happ'd of old, here happens too: Still Naboth's vineyard meets the view.

(I _Kings_, xvi.)

DEEP NIGHT

LYNCEUS THE WARDER (_on the watch-tower singing_)

Keen vision my birth-dower, I'm placed on this height, Still sworn to the watch-tower, The world's my delight.

I gaze on the distant, I look on the near, On moon and on planet, On wood and the deer: The beauty eternal In all things I see; And pleased with myself All bring pleasure to me.

Glad eyes, look around ye And gaze, for whate'er The sight they encounter, It still hath been fair!

(_Pause_)

Not alone for pleasure-taking Am I planted thus on high; What dire vision, horror-waking, From yon dark world scares mine eye!

Fiery sparkles see I gleaming Through the lindens' two-fold night; By the breezes fanned, their beaming Gloweth now with fiercer light!

Ah! the peaceful hut is burning; Stood its moss-grown walls for years; They for speedy help are yearning-- And no rescue, none appears!

Ah the aged folk, so kindly, Once so careful of the fire, Now, to smoke a prey, they blindly Perish, oh misfortune dire!

'Mid red flames, the vision dazing, Stands the moss-hut, black and bare; From the h.e.l.l, so fiercely blazing, Could we save the honest pair!

Lightning-like the fire advances, 'Mid the foliage, 'mid the branches; Withered boughs,--they flicker, burning, Swiftly glow, then fall;--ah me!

Must mine eyes, this woe discerning, Must they so far-sighted be!

Down the lowly chapel crashes 'Neath the branches' fall and weight; Winding now, the pointed flashes To the summit climb elate.

Roots and trunks the flames have blighted, Hollow, purple-red, they glow!

(_Long pause. Song_)

Gone, what once the eye delighted, With the ages long ago!

FAUST (_on the balcony, toward the downs_)

From above what plaintive whimper?

Word and tone are here too late!

Wails my warder; me, in spirit Grieves this deed precipitate!

Though in ruin unexpected Charred now lie the lindens old, Soon a height will be erected, Whence the boundless to behold.

I the home shall see, enfolding In its walls, that ancient pair, Who, my gracious care beholding, Shall their lives end joyful there.

MEPHISTOPHELES _and_ THE THREE (_below_)

Hither we come full speed. We crave Your pardon! Things have not gone right!

Full many a knock and kick we gave, They opened not, in our despite; Then rattled we and kick'd the more, And prostrate lay the rotten door; We called aloud with threat severe, Yet sooth we found no listening ear.

And as in such case still befalls, They heard not, would not hear our calls; Forthwith thy mandate we obeyed, And straight for thee a clearance made.

The pair--their sufferings were light, Fainting they sank, and died of fright.

A stranger, harbor'd there, made show Of force, full soon was he laid low; In the brief s.p.a.ce of this wild fray, From coals, that strewn around us lay, The straw caught fire; 'tis blazing free, As funeral death-pyre for the three.

FAUST

To my commandments deaf were ye!

Exchange I wished, not robbery.

For this your wild and ruthless part;-- I curse it! Share it and depart!

CHORUS