THE REST OF THE
NIGHT STUDY SCENE FROM FAUST
After the departure
of Wagner Faust, shocked by his sense of insignificance when facing
the Earth Spirit, sinks into despair. Goethe delineates the sort of
feeling and thinking that leads to depression poetically but with a
fair degree of physiological truth. Faust is finally rescued from
contemplating taking poison by the bells of Easter ringing out. It is
not their religious meaning for him but their association with
childhood memories that save him from his dire and delusional mood.
In addition some metaphysical and knowledge (epistemological) issues
are touched on.
FAUST
(ALONE)
How not to lose all hope he ever turns
Towards trash and triviality;
With greedy hands he grubs for gems, yet he
Is thrilled to find earth's wriggling worms.
Dare such a human voice resound here too,
Where fullness of the spirits was at play?
And yet this time I give my thanks to you,
You poorest of the sons of dust and clay.
You tore me back from my dark, desperate state,
That would have smashed my senses with its force.
Oh, that vision was all-vast, so great
It rightly made me see myself as dwarfed.
I, image of the Godhead, already I
Drew near the mirror of eternal truth,
And savoured heaven's light like clearest sky,
And shed my merely earth-born sheath.
I, more than Cherub, whose free force unfurled
To flow through veins of Nature's world,
Create and taste the life of gods, or so
With inklings I presumed to know...
How now indeed I have to pay!
One thunder word has swept me right away.
I cannot dare compare with you; and though
I did possess the power to draw you near.
I had no power to hold you with me here.
In that one moment's bliss-filled glow,
I felt myself so small, so great;
Then cruelly you thrust me down,
Back to the human's vague, uncertain fate.
Who'll teach me now? What shall I shun?
Alas, our deeds themselves, as much as sorrow's force,
May halt and hinder our life's course.
What's finest, what the spirit can conceive,
Draws strange and stranger stuff into its weave;
When we attain to this world's good, we deem
What's better fraud or mere delusion's dream.
And higher, glorious feelings, those that gave us life,
Grow torpid in the crush of earthly strife.
Though daydreams once with daring flight were free
To spread with hope towards some eternal realm,
A little space now seems enough for me,
When every fortune fails within the swirl of time.
Deep in the heart's a nest where Care has lain
And there can work with secret pain.
It stirs uneasily, disturbing joy and rest;
It ever dons new masks, confusing life,
It might appear as house and yard, as child and wife,
Flame, water, poison, dagger's steel.
You quake at blows you never feel,
And you must ever weep for what you've never lost.
I'm not godlike! So deep is the feeling that I must
Admit I'm like the worms that tunnel dust;
That while they live and feed in dusty joy,
The wanderer's footsteps bury and destroy.
Is it not dust that from this wall height here
With its hundred shelves now narrows in on me,
The junk, the thousand knick-knacks that I see,
That push on me in this moth sphere?
Shall I find here that which I lack?
Perhaps I'll read a thousand books to glean
That people everywhere are on the rack,
That here and there a happy one has been?
You hollow skull, why are you grinning so,
Except your brain, like mine, sought carefree day
But was confused in heavy dusk's last glow,
And wanting truth, most sadly lost the way?
These instruments, they're surely mocking me,
With wheel and cog and cylinder and catch.
I stood before the gate, you were my key,
But though your wards are complex, they can't lift the latch.
For in bright day still filled with mystery
Is Nature - and you cannot steal her veils.
What she won't show your spirit will not be
Rough-wrenched from her with levers or with nails.
These things I didn't need, old gear,
You're here because my father used this mess.
You ancient scroll, you've been smoke-browning here,
As long as this dim lamp has smouldered at this desk.
Far better I had wasted my small wares
Than sweat beneath the burden of this littleness!
What you inherit from forefather's care
You need to earn in order to possess.
What's not used is a heavy weight to bear.
Just what the moment makes, that's all that's any use.
Why does that spot fix fast my sight,
That flask, a magnet to my eyes' delight?
Why am I flooded with a lovely light,
Like glide of moon-glow in a forest's night?
I greet you now, unique and precious phial,
With reverence I fetch you down awhile.
In you I praise true human wit and art.
You essence of all fair, sleep-bringing juices,
You extract of all fine and deadly forces,
Extend your favour to your master's heart.
I see you and my pain is softened,
I grasp you and my striving's lessened,
The spirit's flood tide slowly ebbs away,
I'm led towards far, wide ocean deeps; I greet
The mirroring flood that shimmers at my feet,
Towards new-seen shores I'm lured by new day.
A fiery chariot sweeps down to me
Upon light wings! I feel I am prepared
To push on through the ether's pathways there
To refined, new spheres of high activity.
This higher life, delight of gods, such bliss,
First but a worm, are you deserving this?
Yes, brave-resolving, turn your back upon
The living light of earth's all-gracious sun,
And fearless, force on through that portal's gate
That everyone would like to sneak on by.
This is the time through deeds to demonstrate
That human honour does not yield to gods on high,
And will not quake before that darkened cave,
Where fancy's damned within its own tormenting,
When striving towards that passage, not relenting,
Though round its narrow mouth all hell's ablaze;
And takes this step with good cheer, even if
It were to risk a flowing into nothingness.
Now come on down, you pure crystal bowl,
From your old, dusty case that's kept you whole.
For many years I have not thought of you.
You shone out at my father's joyous feasts,
And cheered the serious-minded guests
When you were passed around amongst that crew.
It was the drinker's task to clarify
Your many artful, splendid scenes in rhymes
And empty you in one good try;
It brings to mind so many nights of youthful times.
I shall not pass you to a neighbour now,
I won't display my wit upon your art's fine power.
Here is a drink most swift-intoxicating;
A brown juice fills it to the brim. I will,
With all my soul, now take my final fill,
As festive, lofty greeting to the morning's breaking.
HE SETS THE BOWL TO HIS MOUTH. BELLS CHIMING AND CHORAL SINGING.
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ has ascended!
Mortals all happiness
On whom invidious,
Passed-down, insidious,
Binding faults tended.
FAUST
What deep, deep hum, what bright tone, draws and claims
The glass here from my lips with such a power?
Already do these muted chimes proclaim
The Easter festival's first celebratory hour?
Do you now sing, you choirs, the song of comfort's might,
Once sung with angel's lips around the grave's cold night,
To pledge a covenant so newly now?
CHORUS OF WOMEN
With spices we brought
We tended Him so,
We faithful ones thought
How to lay Him below;
Linens to bind
Around Him with care;
Ah! and we find
Christ no more here.
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ has ascended!
Blessed the One loving us,
Who the most-troubling but
How not to lose all hope he ever turns
Towards trash and triviality;
With greedy hands he grubs for gems, yet he
Is thrilled to find earth's wriggling worms.
Dare such a human voice resound here too,
Where fullness of the spirits was at play?
And yet this time I give my thanks to you,
You poorest of the sons of dust and clay.
You tore me back from my dark, desperate state,
That would have smashed my senses with its force.
Oh, that vision was all-vast, so great
It rightly made me see myself as dwarfed.
I, image of the Godhead, already I
Drew near the mirror of eternal truth,
And savoured heaven's light like clearest sky,
And shed my merely earth-born sheath.
I, more than Cherub, whose free force unfurled
To flow through veins of Nature's world,
Create and taste the life of gods, or so
With inklings I presumed to know...
How now indeed I have to pay!
One thunder word has swept me right away.
I cannot dare compare with you; and though
I did possess the power to draw you near.
I had no power to hold you with me here.
In that one moment's bliss-filled glow,
I felt myself so small, so great;
Then cruelly you thrust me down,
Back to the human's vague, uncertain fate.
Who'll teach me now? What shall I shun?
Alas, our deeds themselves, as much as sorrow's force,
May halt and hinder our life's course.
What's finest, what the spirit can conceive,
Draws strange and stranger stuff into its weave;
When we attain to this world's good, we deem
What's better fraud or mere delusion's dream.
And higher, glorious feelings, those that gave us life,
Grow torpid in the crush of earthly strife.
Though daydreams once with daring flight were free
To spread with hope towards some eternal realm,
A little space now seems enough for me,
When every fortune fails within the swirl of time.
Deep in the heart's a nest where Care has lain
And there can work with secret pain.
It stirs uneasily, disturbing joy and rest;
It ever dons new masks, confusing life,
It might appear as house and yard, as child and wife,
Flame, water, poison, dagger's steel.
You quake at blows you never feel,
And you must ever weep for what you've never lost.
I'm not godlike! So deep is the feeling that I must
Admit I'm like the worms that tunnel dust;
That while they live and feed in dusty joy,
The wanderer's footsteps bury and destroy.
Is it not dust that from this wall height here
With its hundred shelves now narrows in on me,
The junk, the thousand knick-knacks that I see,
That push on me in this moth sphere?
Shall I find here that which I lack?
Perhaps I'll read a thousand books to glean
That people everywhere are on the rack,
That here and there a happy one has been?
You hollow skull, why are you grinning so,
Except your brain, like mine, sought carefree day
But was confused in heavy dusk's last glow,
And wanting truth, most sadly lost the way?
These instruments, they're surely mocking me,
With wheel and cog and cylinder and catch.
I stood before the gate, you were my key,
But though your wards are complex, they can't lift the latch.
For in bright day still filled with mystery
Is Nature - and you cannot steal her veils.
What she won't show your spirit will not be
Rough-wrenched from her with levers or with nails.
These things I didn't need, old gear,
You're here because my father used this mess.
You ancient scroll, you've been smoke-browning here,
As long as this dim lamp has smouldered at this desk.
Far better I had wasted my small wares
Than sweat beneath the burden of this littleness!
What you inherit from forefather's care
You need to earn in order to possess.
What's not used is a heavy weight to bear.
Just what the moment makes, that's all that's any use.
Why does that spot fix fast my sight,
That flask, a magnet to my eyes' delight?
Why am I flooded with a lovely light,
Like glide of moon-glow in a forest's night?
I greet you now, unique and precious phial,
With reverence I fetch you down awhile.
In you I praise true human wit and art.
You essence of all fair, sleep-bringing juices,
You extract of all fine and deadly forces,
Extend your favour to your master's heart.
I see you and my pain is softened,
I grasp you and my striving's lessened,
The spirit's flood tide slowly ebbs away,
I'm led towards far, wide ocean deeps; I greet
The mirroring flood that shimmers at my feet,
Towards new-seen shores I'm lured by new day.
A fiery chariot sweeps down to me
Upon light wings! I feel I am prepared
To push on through the ether's pathways there
To refined, new spheres of high activity.
This higher life, delight of gods, such bliss,
First but a worm, are you deserving this?
Yes, brave-resolving, turn your back upon
The living light of earth's all-gracious sun,
And fearless, force on through that portal's gate
That everyone would like to sneak on by.
This is the time through deeds to demonstrate
That human honour does not yield to gods on high,
And will not quake before that darkened cave,
Where fancy's damned within its own tormenting,
When striving towards that passage, not relenting,
Though round its narrow mouth all hell's ablaze;
And takes this step with good cheer, even if
It were to risk a flowing into nothingness.
Now come on down, you pure crystal bowl,
From your old, dusty case that's kept you whole.
For many years I have not thought of you.
You shone out at my father's joyous feasts,
And cheered the serious-minded guests
When you were passed around amongst that crew.
It was the drinker's task to clarify
Your many artful, splendid scenes in rhymes
And empty you in one good try;
It brings to mind so many nights of youthful times.
I shall not pass you to a neighbour now,
I won't display my wit upon your art's fine power.
Here is a drink most swift-intoxicating;
A brown juice fills it to the brim. I will,
With all my soul, now take my final fill,
As festive, lofty greeting to the morning's breaking.
HE SETS THE BOWL TO HIS MOUTH. BELLS CHIMING AND CHORAL SINGING.
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ has ascended!
Mortals all happiness
On whom invidious,
Passed-down, insidious,
Binding faults tended.
FAUST
What deep, deep hum, what bright tone, draws and claims
The glass here from my lips with such a power?
Already do these muted chimes proclaim
The Easter festival's first celebratory hour?
Do you now sing, you choirs, the song of comfort's might,
Once sung with angel's lips around the grave's cold night,
To pledge a covenant so newly now?
CHORUS OF WOMEN
With spices we brought
We tended Him so,
We faithful ones thought
How to lay Him below;
Linens to bind
Around Him with care;
Ah! and we find
Christ no more here.
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ has ascended!
Blessed the One loving us,
Who the most-troubling but
Healing
and strenuous
Test took unbended.
FAUST
Test took unbended.
FAUST
Why do you seek, you mighty and mild,
Celestial tones, seek me in dust?
Ring out where softer men might be beguiled.
I hear your message: all I lack is faith and trust.
And miracle is faith's own dearest child.
I dare not strive up towards those spheres,
That ring out with such gracious tidings here,
And yet accustomed to this sound from my youth on,
Even now it calls me back into life's realm.
In early life the loving kiss of heaven
Would touch me in the holy Sabbath stillness;
So full of promise were the bell tones in their fullness,
And with a fervent joy my prayer was given.
Then inconceivably sweet yearning
Drove me through forest and through field;
Amid my tears, by thousands burning,
I felt a world in me unfurled.
This song proclaimed, announced youth's lively games,
Spring festival's free joy. I'm kept,
Remembering that childlike feeling here again,
From taking that last earnest step.
Ring on, sweet heaven's song, now as before,
My tears rise up, the earth holds me once more!
CHORUS OF DISCIPLES
If the grave-given One's
Raised up already,
If the high, living One's
Risen in glory,
If, in becoming's gladness,
He's near creating's bliss;
Ah! on the earth's dark breast ,
We are still bound to sadness.
Leaving His own
Languishing for Him;
Ah! we bemoan,
Master, Your fortune!
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ has ascended
From the lap of corruption;
Cast off your bands and
Joy in your freedom!
Praise Him with deeds most fair,
Showing your love and care,
Feeding all others there,
Teaching out everywhere,
Promising bliss to share,
Your own true Master's near,
For you He's here!
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