-

Mephistopheles : What croaks on pinions rushing by? So fast that they elude the eye?

-

Faust : Ye, of all life the spring, To whom both Earth and Heaven cling, Toward whom the withering breast doth strain -- Ye gush, ye suckle, and shall I pine thus in vain?

-

Mephistopheles : But who knows here, if, where he stand or go, The ground will not heave upward from below?

-

Faust : Dare such a human voice resound Where spirits near me throng around?

-

Mephistopheles : Older we grow but who grows wise and steady? Were you not fooled enough already?

-

Faust : Is it not dust that narrows in this lofty wall Made up of shelves a hundred, is it not all The lumber, thousandfold light frippery, That in this world of moths oppresses me?

-

Mephistopheles : So narrow-minded, scared by each new word? Will you but hear what you've already heard?

-

Faust : Why does my gaze grow fixed as if a spell had bound me? That phial there, is it a magnet to my eyes? Why does a lovely light so suddenly surround me As when in woods at night the moonbeam drifts and lies?

-

Mephistopheles : Where honest purpose holds command And wisdom guides the active hand? What can the powers of evil do, combining To make a darkness where such stars are shining?

-

Faust : Ye choirs, do ye the hymn of consolation sing, Which angels sang around the grave's dark night, to bring Assurance of new covenant and dower?

-

Mephistopheles : The gold lies there and yet to win it, That is the art -- who knows how to begin it?

-

Faust : Can that happen naturally? Is it phantom? Is it reality?

-

Mephistopheles : Voices over us! Do you hear? Now far off and now more near?

-

Faust : Art thou, fellow, one That out of Hell has run?

-

Mephistopheles : Without me how would you, Earth's wretched son, Have kept on living? What would you have done?

-

Faust : The pentagram? That's in your way? You son of Hell explain to me, If that stays you, how came you in today? And how was such a spirit so betrayed?

-

Mephistopheles : Of God, the world, and what therein is rife, Of man, what stirs within his heart and brain, Have you no definition given with might and main?

-

Faust : Am I again a victim of delusion? That streaming throng of spirits -- gone are they? Dreamt I the Devil through some mere illusion? Or did a poodle only leap away?

-

Mephistopheles : You are the Devil's bosom friend, And yet, afraid of fire, you shrink?

-

Faust : The fairest image of a woman! Can it be, Is it possible? Can woman be so fair? Must I in that recumbent body there Behold of all the heavens the epitome?

-

Mephistopheles : If I mistake not, didn't we Hear practised voices sing in chorus?

 
 
 
- GOETHE -