Faust (8 page)

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Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

BOOK: Faust
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BURGHER’S DAUGHTER.

 
Look at the handsome boys!
 
What a shame, when they might move
 
in the very best society
 
and instead are chasing after servant girls!

SECOND STUDENT
(
to the first
).

 
Wait a moment! Two of them are coming over here;
 
they are done up so prettily,
 
and one of them’s my neighbor;
 
she always did appeal to me.
840
Both walk so primly and so unconcerned—
 
perhaps they’ll let us go along with them.

FIRST STUDENT.

 
Brother, no! It’s too much trouble.
 
Hurry! Don’t let our quarry get away.
 
The hand that wields the broom on Saturdays
 
is best for Sunday’s sweet caresses.

BURGHER.

 
The burgomaster goes against my grain!
 
Since he is in, his pride grows every day.
 
And what’s he done for our town?
 
Conditions go from bad to worse!
850
He wants obedience from us all,
 
while taxes climb to untold heights.

BEGGAR
(
sings
)
.

 
              Fine gentlemen and ladies,
 
              Decked out so well and rosy-cheeked,
 
              If it please you, look at me,
 
              Please look and ease my poverty.
 
              Don’t let me grind my tune in vain.
 
              Content is he who likes to give.
 
              This is a holiday for all the world.
 
              Let it be a harvest day for me.

OTHER BURGHER.

860
On Sunday or on holidays I know of nothing better
 
than to converse of war and battle clamor,
 
when far away, perhaps on Turkish fields,
 
the nations maul each other zealously.
 
We stand by the window and we sip a glass
 
and see the painted ships glide down the river.
 
Then in the evening we go home content
 
and bless both Peace and peaceful times.

THIRD BURGHER.

 
Neighbor, I agree with you, yes indeed I do.
 
Let them crack their skulls for all I care,
870
let everything go topsy-turvy
 
while nothing changes here at home.

OLD WOMAN
(
to the
burgher’s daughters)
.

 
Eh, how sweet they look! The gay young blood!
 
Who would not fall for you at a first glance?—
 
Don’t be stuck-up! There’s no harm in what I say!
 
You always end up with the thing you want.

BURGHER’S DAUGHTER.

 
Agatha, come along, I say we should avoid
 
the company of such a witch in public,
 
although it’s true that on St. Andrew’s Night
10
 
she let me see my future sweetheart in the flesh—

OTHER BURGHER’S DAUGHTER.

880
I saw my own within her crystal ball,
 
soldierlike and in the company of daring men.
 
I look about and seek him everywhere,
 
and yet he won’t turn up for me.

SOLDIERS.

 
              The sturdy castle,
 
              The moat, and the tower,
 
              The haughty girls
 
              Who sit and glower,
 
              I wish to conquer.
 
              Great is the strife
890
              And glorious the prize.
 
              And our bugle
 
              Sounds the call
 
              To joy and to pleasure
 
              And to a great fall.
 
              A charging and storming
 
              Is our life!
 
              Maidens and castles
 
              
They all must surrender.
 
              Great is the strife
900
              And glorious the prize!
 
              And the soldiers
 
              Go marching away.
 
 
 
        (
FAUST
and
WAGNER
.)

FAUST.

 
Streams and brooks are freed of ice
 
by the reviving gracious eye of Spring;
 
Hope’s greenery grows in the valley.
 
Ancient Winter’s feeble self
 
has fallen back into the rugged mountains.
 
From there he sends in fitful flight
 
impotent showers of ice
910
in streaks across the greening fields,
 
but the sun will suffer no white;
 
all stirs with shaping and striving,
 
he endows each thing with his hue.
 
But in this region flowers are scarce,
 
the land is speckled with gay-colored people instead.
 
Turn about and from these heights
 
cast your glance back to the town.
 
Out from the hollow, gloomy gate
 
a motley crowd is surging today,
920
eager for the rays of the sun. They celebrate
 
the resurrection of the Lord,
 
for they themselves have arisen
 
from their glum quarters and tight little houses,
 
from bondage to their trade and labor,
 
from their oppressive roofs and gables,
 
from the crush of narrow alleyways,
 
and from the solemn night of churches;
 
they have all been brought into the light.
 
Look! Look, how nimbly the crowd
930
sallies and scatters through gardens and fields,
 
how the river moves its many skiffs
 
happily down its winding way,
 
and how the last of all these drifting barges
 
is over-brimming with its merry load.
 
And even from the mountain’s far-off trails
 
comes the glitter of bright garments.
 
Now I hear the hum and bustle of the village.
 
This is the people’s proper paradise;
 
they shout and revel—great and small:
940
I’m human here, here I can be!

WAGNER.

 
To stroll about with you, O master,
 
brings me much honor and much gain;
 
yet I should never come up here alone,
 
because I hate all forms of vulgar entertainment.
 
The fiddling, the shrieking, the rolling bowling balls,
 
all this is hateful noise to me.
 
The people rage as if the fiend possessed them
 
and then they call it happiness and song.
 
        (
PEASANTS
under the Linden Tree
.)
 
                                   
A Song and a Dance
 
              In jacket, ribbon, fancy vest,
950
              The shepherd boy was at his best
 
              And joined the crowd to dance.
 
              Beneath the linden tree they whirled;
 
              Round and round they jumped and twirled;
 
              Hurray, hurrah,
 
              Tralala, hop-ho!
 
              So went the fiddle bow.
 
              He thrust himself into the crush
 
              And with his elbow he did touch
 
              The maiden with his knee.
960
              The jolly girl was not so coy
 
              And said to him, “You silly boy!”
 
              Hurray, hurrah,
 
              Tralala, hop-ho,
 
              “Don’t be so fresh with me.”
 
              And in a circle went the race,
 
              To right and left at quickened pace,
 
              The petticoats a-flying.
 
              Their faces flushed, their cheeks were warm,
 
              They rested panting, arm in arm.
970
              Hurray, hurrah,
 
              Tralala, hop-ho,
 
              Their bodies were aglow.
 
              “You’re much too intimate with me!
 
              In you and all the rest I see
 
              How men deceive their women.”
 
              But off he whirled her to the side
 
              Amidst the shouting far and wide.
 
              Hurray, hurrah,
 
              Tralala, hop-ho,
980
              So went the fiddle bow.

OLD PEASANT.

 
Doctor, it is good of you
 
not to disdain us on this day
 
and as a deeply learned man
 
walk with us in this jostling crowd.
 
Please accept this handsome pitcher
 
filled this day for you to quaff.
 
I say, for everyone to hear,
 
“May it more than quench your thirst.
 
May the sum of drops contained therein
990
be added to your days.”

FAUST.

 
I accept this wholesome drink
 
and thank you kindly for your wishes.
 
        (
The people form a circle around him
.)

OLD PEASANT.

 
We think it very fine of you
 
to be with us this festive day;
 
I remember how in times of trouble
 
you always proved a friend to us.
 
Many of us live today
 
because your father snatched us in the nick of time
 
from the fever’s burning rage
1000
when he stayed the plague at last.
 
And you, then still a youngish man,
 
entered every stricken home,
 
and though they buried many bodies,
 
you always came out whole and well.
 
You overcame the harshest trials;
 
our helper’s help came from the Lord in Heaven.

ALL THE PEASANTS.

 
Good health to our worthy friend;
 
long may he live and stand by us!

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