---
title: "Faust, Part Two · Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil"
author: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
translator: "Bayard Taylor"
title_de: "Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil"
author_de: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
languages: [de, en]
shelf: "Literature"
section: 10 of 29
url: https://scriptura.si/works/goethe-faust-2-taylor/10/
cite: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, tr. Bayard Taylor, Faust, Part Two · Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil, section 10. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/goethe-faust-2-taylor/10/"
---

# Faust, Part Two · Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil

*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, tr. Bayard Taylor*

German: Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe’s late, strange sequel, Faust at court, among the classical gods and at the last, in German beside Bayard Taylor’s English.

## 10. Act II · Classical Walpurgis-Night · I. The Pharsalian Fields · Pharsalische Felder

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/goethe-faust-2-taylor/10/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/goethe-faust-2-taylor/10/#p-N

[¶0] (Darkness.)

ERICHTHO
O this night’s awful festival, as oft before,
I enter here, Erichtho, I, the gloomy one:
Not so atrocious as the evil poets draw,
In most superfluous slander—for they never cease
Their blame or praises … Over-whitened I behold
The vale, with waves of tents that glimmer gray afar,
The after-vision of that fatal, fearful night.
How oft is it repeated!—will forever be
Forever re-enacted! No one grants the realm
Unto another: unto him whose might achieved
And rules it, none; for each, incompetent to rule
His own internal self, is all too fain to sway
His neighbor’s will, even as his haughty mind inclines.
But here a lesson grand was battled to the end,
How force resists and grapples with the greater force,
The lovely, thousand-blossomed wreath of Freedom rends,
And bends the stubborn laurel round the Ruler’s brow.
Here, of his days of early greatness Pompey dreamed:
Before the trembling balance Cæsar yonder watched!
It will be weighed: the world knows unto whom it turned.
The watch-fires flash and glow, spendthrift of ruddy flame;
Reflections of the squandered blood the earth exhales,
And, lured by rare and marvellous splendor of the night,
The legion of Hellenic legends gathers here.
Round all the fires uncertain hover, or at ease
Sit near them, fabulous forms of ancient days.…
The moon, imperfect, truly, but of clearest beam,
Arises, scattering mellow radiance everywhere:
Vanish the phantom tents, the fires are burning blue.
But o’er my head what unexpected meteor!
It shines, illuminates the sphere of earth below.
I scent the Living! therefore it becomes me not
Them to approach, I. being harmful unto them:
An evil name it brings me, and it profits naught.
Already now it sinks: discreatly I withdraw.

[Exit.]

(The Airy Travellers above.)

HOMUNCULUS
Once again the circle follow,
O’er the flames and horrors hover!
Ghostly ’t is in vale and hollow,
Spectral all that we discover

MEPHISTOPHELES
If, as through my window nigutly
In the grewsome North, I see
Spectres hideous and unsightly,
Here is home, as there, to me.

> German: ERICHTHO:
Zum Schauderfeste dieser Nacht, wie öfter schon,
Tret' ich einher, Erichtho, ich, die düstere;
Nicht so abscheulich, wie die leidigen Dichter mich
Im übermaß verlästern... Endigen sie doch nie
In Lob und Tadel... überbleicht erscheint mir schon
Von grauer Zelten Woge weit das Tal dahin,
Als Nachgesicht der sorg- und grauenvollsten Nacht.
Wie oft schon wiederholt' sich's! wird sich immerfort
Ins Ewige wiederholen... Keiner gönnt das Reich
Dem andern; dem gönnt's keiner, der's mit Kraft erwarb
Und kräftig herrscht. Denn jeder, der sein innres Selbst
Nicht zu regieren weiß, regierte gar zu gern
Des Nachbars Willen, eignem stolzem Sinn gemäß...
Hier aber ward ein großes Beispiel durchgekämpft:
Wie sich Gewalt Gewaltigerem entgegenstellt,
Der Freiheit holder, tausendblumiger Kranz zerreißt,
Der starre Lorbeer sich ums Haupt des Herrschers biegt.
Hier träumte Magnus früher Größe Blütentag,
Dem schwanken Zünglein lauschend wachte Cäsar dort!
Das wird sich messen. Weiß die Welt doch, wem's gelang.
Wachfeuer glühen, rote Flammen spendende,
Der Boden haucht vergoßnen Blutes Widerschein,
Und angelockt von seltnem Wunderglanz der Nacht,
Versammelt sich hellenischer Sage Legion.
Um alle Feuer schwankt unsicher oder sitzt
Behaglich alter Tage fabelhaft Gebild...
Der Mond, zwar unvollkommen, aber leuchtend hell,
Erhebt sich, milden Glanz verbreitend überall;
Der Zelten Trug verschwindet, Feuer brennen blau.
Doch über mir! welch unerwartet Meteor?
Es leuchtet und beleuchtet körperlichen Ball.
Ich wittre Leben. Da geziemen will mir's nicht,
Lebendigem zu nahen, dem ich schädlich bin;
Das bringt mir bösen Ruf und frommt mir nicht.
Schon sinkt es nieder. Weich' ich aus mit Wohlbedacht!

[¶1] HOMUNCULUS
See! a tall one there is striding
On before us, in the shade.

MEPHISTOPHELES
Through the air she saw us gliding,
And it seems she is afraid.

HOMUNCULUS
Let her stride! The knight be taken
Now, and set upon the strand:
Here to life again he’ll waken,
Seeking it in fable-land.

Faust (as he touches the earth):
Where is she?—

HOMUNCULUS
It’s more than we can tell,
But to inquire would here be well.
Thou’rt free to hasten, ere the day,
From flame to flame, and seek her so:
Who to the Mothers found his way,
Has nothing more to undergo.

MEPHISTOPHELES
I also claim my share in the excursion;
Yet know no better plan for our diversion,
Than that each one, amid these fires,
Should seek such fortunes as he most desires.
Then, as a sign to reunite us,
Let, little one, thy lantern sound and light us!

> German: HOMUNCULUS:
Schwebe noch einmal die Runde über Flamm- und Schaudergrauen;
Ist es doch in Tal und Grunde
Gar gespenstisch anzuschauen.

[¶2] HOMUNCULUS
Thus shall it shine, and thus shall ring!

(The glass shines and rings powerfully.)

HOMUNCULUS
And now, away to many a marvellous thing!

Faust (solus):
Where is she?—But no further question make!
If this were not the soil that bore her feet,
If not the wave that to her coming beat,
Yet ’t is the air that knows the tongue she spake.
Here, by a marvel! Here, on Grecian land!
I felt at once the earth whereon I stand.
Through me, the sleeper, fresher spirit stealing,
I rise refreshed, Antzus in my feeling.
Together here I find the strangest store;
Let me this labyrinth of flames explore.

[Goes away.]

Mephistopheles (prying around):
And as among these fires I wander, aimless,
I find myself so strange, so disconcerted:
Quite naked most, a few are only shirted;
The Griffins insolent, the Sphinxes shameless,
And what not all, with pinions and with tresses,
Before, behind, upon one’s eyesight presses!—
Indecency, ’t is true, is our ideal,
But the Antique is too alive and real;
One must with modern thought the thing bemaster,
And in the fashion variously o’erplaster:—
Disgusting race! Yet I, perforce, must meet them,
And as new guest with due decorum greet them.—
Hail, then, Fair Ladies! Graybeards wise, good cheer.

> German: MEPHISTOPHELES:
Seh' ich, wie durchs alte Fenster
In des Nordens Wust und Graus,
Ganz abscheuliche Gespenster,
Bin ich hier wie dort zu Haus.

[¶3] Griffin (snarling):
Not graybeards! Graybeards? No one likes to hear
One call him gray. For in each word there rings
The source, wherefrom its derivation springs.
Gray, growling, grewsome, grinning, graves, and grimly
Etymologically accord, nor dimly,
And make us grim.

[¶4] MEPHISTOPHELES
And yet, why need you stiffen?
You like the grif in your proud title, “Griffin.”

Griffin (as above, and continuously so):
Of course! for this relation is found fit;
Though often censured, oftener praised was it.
Let one but grip at maidens, crowns, and gold:
Fortune is gracious to the Griper bold.

Ants (of the colossal kind):
You speak of gold, much had ourselves collected;
In rocks and caverns secretly we trapped it:
The Arimaspean race our store detected,—
They’re laughing now, so far away they’ve snapped it.

THE GRIFFINS
We soon shall force them to confess.

THE ARIMASPEANS
But not in this free night of jubilee.
Before the morrow, all will squandered be;
This time our efforts will obtain success.

Mephistopheles (who has seated himself between the Sphinxes):
How soon I feel familiar here, among you!
I understand you, one and all.

> German: HOMUNCULUS:
Sieh! da schreitet eine Lange
Weiten Schrittes vor uns hin.

[¶5] SPHINX
Our spirit-tones, when we have sung you,
Become, for you, material.
Now name thyself, till we shall know thee better.

MEPHISTOPHELES
With many names would men my nature fetter.
Are Britons here? So round the world they wheel,
To stare at battle-fields, historic traces,
Cascades, old walls, and classic dreary places;
And here were something worthy of their zeal.
Their Old Plays also testify of me;
Men saw me there as “Old Iniquity.”

SPHINX
How did they hit on that?

MEPHISTOPHELES
I know not, verily.

SPHINX
Perhaps! Hast thou in star-lore any power?
What say’st thou of the aspects of the hour?

Mephistopheles (looking up):
Star shoots on star, the cloven moon doth ride
In brilliance; in this place I’m satisfied:
I warm myself against thy lion’s hide.
It were a loss to rise from out these shades:—
Propose enigmas, or at least charades!

> German: MEPHISTOPHELES:
Ist es doch, als wär' ihr bange;
Sah uns durch die Lüfte ziehn.

[¶6] SPHINX
Express thyself, and ’t will a riddle be.
Try once thine own analysis: ’t were merry.
“To both Devout and Wicked necessary:
To those, a breast-plate for ascetic fighting;
To these, boon-comrade, in their pranks uniting;
And both amusing Zeus, the fun-delighting.”

First Griffin (snarling):
I like not him!

Second Griffin (snarling more gruffly):
What will the fellow here?

BOTH
The Nasty One is not of us, ’t is clear!

Mephistopheles (brutally):
Think’st thou, perhaps, thy guest has nails to scratch,
That with thy sharper talons cannot match?
Just try it once!

Sphinx (gently):
Stay, shouldst thou find it well;
But from our ranks thou wilt thyself expel.
In thine own land thou’rt wont thyself to pamper,
Yet here, I think, thy spirits feel a damper.

> German: HOMUNCULUS:
Laß sie schreiten! setz ihn nieder,
Deinen Ritter, und sogleich
Kehret ihm das Leben wieder,
Denn er sucht's im Fabelreich.

[¶7] MEPHISTOPHELES
Thine upper part entices; naught is fairer;
But, further down, the beast excites my terror,

SPHINX
Bitter, False one, will be thy expiation;
Our claws are sound and worthy proof,
But thou, with withered horse’s-hoof,
Art ill at ease in our association.

(The Sirens prelude above.)

MEPHISTOPHELES
On yonder poplars by the river,
What are the birds that swing above?

SPHINX
Beware! The very best that ever
Existed, they have lured to love.

SIRENS
Ah, why vitiate your senses,
Where those Uglinesses darken?
We, in crowds, come hither: hearken
How the accordant strain commences,
Meet for Sirens’ soft pretences!

> German: FAUST:
Wo ist sie?--+

[¶8] Sphinxes (mocking them, in the same melody):
Let them to descend be bidden!
In the branches they have hidden
Hideous falcon-claws they ’re wearing,
And you’ll feel their cruel tearing,
Once you lend them willing ear.

[¶9] SIRENS
Banish hate and envy, rather!
We the purest pleasures gather,
Under Heaven’s auspicious sphere!
On the earth and on the ocean,
We, with cheerful beckoning motion,
Bid the wanderer welcome here.

MEPHISTOPHELES
These are of novelties the neatest,
Where from the throat and harp-string sweetest
The tones around each other twine.
They’re lost on me, these tinkling trickles;
The sound my ear-drum pats and tickles,
But cannot reach this heart of mine.

SPHINXES
Speak not of heart! Fool, so to call it!
An old and wrinkled leathern wallet
Would better suit that face of thine.

Faust (approaching):
How strange! I, satisfied, behold these creatures,
In the Repulsive, grand and solid features:
A fate propitious I behold advance.
Whither transports me now this solemn glance?

(Pointing to the Sphinxes.)

Faust (approaching):
Once before these took Œdipus his stand:

> German: HOMUNCULUS:
Wüßten's nicht zu sagen,
Doch hier wahrscheinlich zu erfragen.
In Eile magst du, eh' es tagt,
Von Flamm' zu Flamme spürend gehen:
Wer zu den Müttern sich gewagt,
Hat weiter nichts zu überstehen.

[¶10] (Pointing to the Sirens.)

Faust (approaching):
These made Ulysses writhe in hempen band:

(Pointing to the Ants.)

Faust (approaching):
By these the highest treasure was amassed:

(Pointing to the Griffins.)

Faust (approaching):
By these ’t was held inviolate and fast:
Fresh spirit fills me, face to face with these—
Grand are the Forms, and grand the Memories!

> German: MEPHISTOPHELES:
Auch ich bin hier an meinem Teil;
Doch wüßt' ich Besseres nicht zu unserm Heil,
Als: jeder möge durch die Feuer
Versuchen sich sein eigen Abenteuer.
Dann, um uns wieder zu vereinen,
Laß deine Leuchte, Kleiner, tönend scheinen.

[¶11] MEPHISTOPHELES
Once thou hadst cursed such crude antiques,
But now, it seems, they’ve comfort given;
For when a man his sweetheart seeks,
Welcome to him are monsters, even.

Faust (to the Sphinxes):
Ye woman-forms, give ear, and say
Hath one of you seen Helena?

SPHINXES
Before her day our line expired in Greece;
Our very last was slain by Hercules:
Yet ask of Chiron, if thou please.
He gallops round throughout this ghostly night,
And if he halt for thee, thy chance is bright.

SIRENS
Thou art not to failure fated!
How Ulysses, lingering, learned us,
Nor, regardless passing, spurned us,
Manifold hath he narrated:
All to thee shall be confided,
Seekest thou our meads, divided
By the dark-green arms of Ocean.

SPHINX
Let not thyself thus cheated be!
Not like Ulysses bound,—but we
Will with good counsel thee environ:
If thou canst find the noble Chiron,
Thou’lt learn what I have promised thee.

[Faust goes away.]

> German: HOMUNCULUS:
So soll es blitzen, soll es klingen.
Nun frisch zu neuen Wunderdingen!

[¶12] Mephistopheles (ill-temperedly):
What croaks and flaps of wings go past!
One cannot see, they fly so fast,
In single file, from first to last:
A hunter would grow tired of these.

SPHINX
The storm-wind like, that winter harrows,
Reached hardly by Alcides’ arrows,
They are the swift Stymphalides;
And not ill-meant their greetings creak,
With goose’s foot and vulture’s beak.
They fain would join us in our places,
And show themselves as kindred races.

Mephistopheles (as if intimidated):
Some other brute is hissing shrill.

SPHINX
Be not afraid, though harsh the pæan!
They are the hydra-heads, the old Lernæan,
Cut from the trunk, yet think they’re something still.
But say, what means your air distressed?
Why show your gestures such unrest?
Where will you go? Then take your leave!
That chorus, there, I now perceive,
Turns like a weathercock your neck. Advance!—
Greet as you will each lovely countenance!
They are the Lamiæ, wenches vile,
With brazen brows and lips that smile,
Such as the satyr-folk have found so fair:
A cloven foot may venture all things there.

MEPHISTOPHELES
But stay you here, that I again may find you?

SPHINX
Yes! Join the airy rabble, there behind you!
From Egypt we, long since, with all our peers,
Accustomed were to reign a thousand years.
If for our place your reverence be won,
We rule for you the days of Moon and Sun.
We sit before the Pyramids
For the judgment of the Races,
Inundation, War, and Peace,—
With eternal changeless faces.

> German: FAUST:
Wo ist sie?--Frage jetzt nicht weiter nach...
Wär's nicht die Scholle, die sie trug,
Die Welle nicht, die ihr entgegenschlug,
So ist's die Luft, die ihre Sprache sprach.
Hier! durch ein Wunder, hier in Griechenland!
Ich fühlte gleich den Boden, wo ich stand;
Wie mich, den Schläfer, frisch ein Geist durchglühte,
So steh' ich, ein Antäus an Gemüte.
Und find' ich hier das Seltsamste beisammen,
Durchforsch' ich ernst dies Labyrinth der Flammen.