B00ARI2G5C EBOK (23 page)

Thessalian witches! If I’ve heard aright,

They’re persons well worth meeting, that is true;

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Not for concubinage night after night,

I hardly think that that would do.

But for a visit, for a try—

THE HOMUNCULUS
.       We need

Your cloak! And wrap it round our gentleman!

This cloth will bear you, as you know it can,

And carry both of you with speed;

I’ll light the way ahead.

WAGNER
[
anxiously]
.      And I?

THE HOMUNCULUS
.      Why, you

Must stay at home: you have great things to do.

Study old manuscripts, learn from their lore

How to collect life’s elements together

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And carefully compose them each to other;

Consider
what
, consider
how
still more.

I meanwhile, travelling the world about,

Shall light on some essential point, no doubt.

Then our great work will have achieved its end:

Such striving merits such reward, my friend!

Gold, honour, fame, health and longevity;

Service to science, virtue too—maybe!

Farewell!

WAGNER
[
sadly]
.

Farewell! This parting’s pain

And grief; I fear we’ll never meet again.

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MEPHISTOPHELES
. So, off to Greece then! Judging by your arts,

Cousin, you are a mannikin of parts.

[
Ad spectatores
.]

Just fancy that! One does depend

On one’s own creatures
*
in the end.

ERICHTHO
*
NOW
as the dreadful ceremony of this night begins

I, dark Erichtho, make attendance yet again;

Less loathsome than the poets tiresomely have claimed

In hyperbolic slander… For they never cease

Praising and carping… Now already right across

The plain I seem to see grey tents, a pallid flood:

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A second sight this night of grief and horror leaves.

How often its self-repetition I have seen,

Its never-to-end recurrence! Neither side accepts

The other’s rule; for none concedes a realm once seized

By force, and governed so. A man who cannot reign

Over his inner self, lusts fiercely to control

His neighbour’s will, imposing what his pride dictates…

But here a great example by this fight was made:

Of how a mighty power confronts one mightier still,

Rending the full flowered garland of sweet liberty

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And pleating iron laurels round the conqueror’s brow.

Here Pompey
*
dreamed of early greatness blossoming,

There Caesar
*
watched and heard the flickering scale of fate.

They will do battle now. The world knows who prevailed.

Watch-fires are glowing: as they scatter their red flames,

Out of the ground the long-spilt blood’s reflection breathes,

And as the night’s strange radiance works its spell on them,

They come, the assembling legion of Hellenic lore.

Round all the fires uncertainly they hover or

Commodiously they sit, those ancient fabled shapes…

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The moon, still not yet at its full, shines brilliantly,

And as it rises, sheds its gentle light afarg

The tent-mirage has disappeared, the fires burn blue.

But overhead, what unexpected meteor’s this?

The globe it shines from and upon is bodily.

I can smell life. It is not fitting that I should

Approach a living thing, to which I must bring harm;

An ill repute attends such inexpediency.

Now it is landing. Prudently I will withdraw!

[
She moves away. The aeronauts appear overhead
.]

THE HOMUNCULUS
. Take another flight around

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This great burning gruesome plain;

Such a ghostly killing-ground

You’ll not often see again.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. In my northern wastes I used to,

Watch the denizens of hell;

Ghastly ghosts are what I’m used to,

Here I’m quite at home as well.

THE HOMUNCULUS
. Some tall figure there is striding,

Hurrying from us through the night.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. Through the air she saw us riding;

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Doubdess she has taken fright.

THE HOMUNCULUS
. Let her go! Now put your seeming

Dead man down here: he’ll revive

Instandy, for he must thrive

In this myth-land of his dreaming.

FAUST
[
as he touches the ground]
.

Where is she?—

THE HOMUNCULUS
. There we’re in some doubt,

But here you’ll probably find out.

Explore these flames: you’ve time to go

On a quick tour, till dawn appears.

One who has ventured down below,

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To the Mothers, need have no more fears.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. I too have business here; but I suggest,

For all our sakes, it would be best

If each seeks out by his own whim,

From fire to fire, whatever pleases him.

And when we need to meet again,

My little friend, shine out and sing out then!

THE HOMUNCULUS
.

You’ll see a flash, you’ll hear a sound like this.
*

[
The glass hums and flashes powerfully
.]

Now off to our new mysteries! [
Exeunt
]

FAUST
[
alone]
.

Where is she!—But why ask! I should have known

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The soil her feet have trod, the sea

That lapped against them; even enough for me

This very air whose language was her own!

Here, by a miracle, here I am in Greece!

At once I sensed the ground; what could release

Me from my sleep but this fresh spirit’s glow!

And thus I stand: Antaeus was strengthened so.

What wonders here in one place concentrate!

This fiery labyrinth I will investigate.

[
He moves away
.]

MEPHISTOPHELES
[
sniffing around]
.

I must say that the creatures in this place

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Among these bonfires, make me feel quite lost:

Nearly all naked, some half-clad at most.

Unblushing sphinxes, griffins a disgrace,

And all the rest with their long hair and wings—

Whichever way I turn I see the things!…

Though we’re no strangers to indecency,

In the ancient world life runs too high for me;

We should control it with our new ideas

And various modern, fashionable veneers…

A beastly tribe! But I must do my best

To greet them decently, as a new guest.

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Greetings, my gracious ladies, wise old greyfins!
*

A GRIFFIN
[
snarling gutterally]
.

Griffins, not greyfins! No one likes to hear

His grey hairs mentioned. Words connote

Their origins, these words stick in one’s throat:

Grey, grievous, grumpy, gruesome, graveyard, grim—

Etymologically they agree,

And disagree with us.

MEPHISTOPHELES
.      Yet, all the same,
Griffin’s
akin to
gripping
, a fine name!

THE GRIFFIN
[
snarling simüarly, and so throughout
]. Of course! It’s a well-tried affinity;

We are much blamed, praised more than equally.

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A griffin
grips
or grabs; girls, crowns, or gold—

Good fortune favours those who take good hold.

ANTS
[the colossal
species]
.

You mentioned gold: we’d gathered a whole hoard,

In rocky caves we had it stuffed and stored:

The Arimaspians, that sly thieving race,

Boast now how they sniffed out its hiding-place.

THE GRIFFINS
. Well soon make them confess.

THE ARIMASPIANS
.      But not tonight!

Tonight we’re free, it’s carnival!

(By morning we’ll have spent it all;

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This time we’ve done the job all right).

MEPHISTOPHELES
[
who has sat down between
THESPHINXES]
.

How easy it is to acclimatize

Oneself here! All your speech makes sense.

THE SPHINXES
.
*
We breathe our spirit-utterance,

Which your ears then corporealize.

We’d like to know your name now, if we may.

MEPHISTOPHELES
.

I am called many names; legion, they say.

The British, now—they’re a much-travelled nation,

They seek out battlefields and waterfalls,

Musty old classic sites and ruined walls;

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Have some come here? A worthy destination!—

They’d recognize me from their mystery plays:

My name was Old Iniquity’ in those days.

THE SPHINX
. Why should they call you that?

MEPHISTOPHELES
.     I can’t think why.

THE SPHINX
. Well… Do you know about the starry sky?

How do you think the planets stand tonight?

MEPHISTOPHELES
[
looking
up].

Star shoots to star, the quartered moon shines bright.

This is a pleasant place; I’ve seldom felt

So snug as here against your lion pelt.

Why wander up to heaven? It’s absurd.

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Let’s play at riddles; come, think of a word.
*

THE SPHINX
. Think of yourself, if you want mystery.

Resolve your own parts by deep cogitation:

“Virtue and vice both need him: he must be

A fencer’s dummy for the ascetic’s lunge,

A boon companion to the wastrel’s plunge,

And both merely for Zeus’s delectation.’

FIRST GRIFFIN
[
snarling]
.

No, I don’t like him.

SECOND GRIFFIN
[
snarling still louder]
.

      No, he’s odious.

BOTH
. Doesn’t belong. What does he want with us?

MEPHISTOPHELES
[
fiercely]
.

Perhaps you think this stranger’s nails can tear

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Less well than your sharp claws? Try, if you dare!

A SPHINX
[
amiably]
.

If you feel so inclined, by all means stay;

You’ll soon leave by your own choice anyway.

At home, no doubt, you flourish; but in these

Surroundings, I would guess, you’re ill at ease.

MEPHISTOPHELES
.

From the waist up you’re an attractive sight;

The bestial bottom half, that’s the real fright.

THE SPHINX
. Deceiver, we shall punish that impiety;

Our paws are healthy. As for your

Deformed and shrivelled hoof, no wonder you’re

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Uncomfortable in our society.

[
SIRENS
*
perched on trees, strike up a prelude
.]

MEPHISTOPHELES
. Who are those birds cradled among

The branches by this poplared stream?

A SPHINX
. Beware! Great heroes that sing-song

Has lulled into a fatal dream.

THE SIRENS
. How perversely you are clinging,

To these dark grotesqueries!

See us gathering in the trees,

Hear how sweet our harmonies,

As befits the Sirens’ singing!

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THE SPHINXES
[mockingly
imitating
their
melody]
. First compel them to the ground!

Though they hide them in the branches,

They have claws like birds of prey

That will tear your heart away

If you listen to that sound.

THE SIRENS
. Let all envious strife be banned!

Joys are scattered bright and clear

On the earth: unite them here!

Now on water and on land

Let us with our happiest

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Gesture greet this welcome guest.

MEPHISTOPHELES. SO
that is music nowadays!

A scrape of strings, a well-tuned throat,

All intertwining note with note;

A pointless tra-la-la! It plays

A tickle-tinkle on my ear,

But leaves my heart untouched, I fear.

THE SPHINXES
. Your heart, forsooth! What empty brag

Is this? A dried-up leather bag

Would be the appropriate organ here.

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FAUST
[entering].

How wonderful! I relish this great sight;

Repellent, yet imposing. Am I right,

And does this solemn scene portend for me

Some unknown favourable destiny?

[
Referring to
THE SPHINXES.]

Before such beings did not Oedipus once stand?

[
Referring to
THE SIRENS.]

Ulysses before these writhed in his hempen band.

[
Referring to
THE ANTS.]

By these much golden treasure was collected,

[
Referring to
THE GRIFFINS.]

And by these guardians faithfully protected.

Now a refreshing spirit moves me: how

Great are these forms, how great these memories now!