The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 111

Here.

FAUST

As many as you may, Bring crowds on crowds to labor here; Them by reward and rigor cheer; Persuade, entice, give ample pay!

Each day be tidings brought me at what rate The moat extends which here we excavate.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_half aloud_)

They speak, as if to me they gave Report, not of a moat--but of a grave.[36]

FAUST

A marsh along the mountain chain Infecteth what's already won; Also the noisome pool to drain-- My last, best triumph then were won: To many millions s.p.a.ce I thus should give, Though not secure, yet free to toil and live; Green fields and fertile; men, with cattle blent, Upon the newest earth would dwell content, Settled forthwith upon the firm-based hill, Up-lifted by a valiant people's skill; Within, a land like Paradise; outside, E'en to the brink, roars the impetuous tide, And as it gnaws, striving to enter there, All haste, combined, the damage to repair.

Yea, to this thought I cling, with virtue rife, Wisdom's last fruit, profoundly true: Freedom alone he earns as well as life, Who day by day must conquer them anew.

So girt by danger, childhood bravely here, Youth, manhood, age, shall dwell from year to year; Such busy crowds I fain would see, Upon free soil stand with a people free; Then to the moment might I say; Linger awhile, so fair thou art!

Nor can the traces of my earthly day Through ages from the world depart!

In the presentiment of such high bliss, The highest moment I enjoy--'tis this.

(FAUST _sinks back, the_ LEMURES _lay hold of him and lay him upon the ground_.)

[Footnote 1: For lack of s.p.a.ce, scientists and historians have been excluded.]

[Footnote 2: The chief original sources for the life of Goethe are his own autobiographic writings, his letters, his diaries, and his conversations. Of the autobiographic writings the most important are (1) _Poetry and Truth from my Life_, which ends with the year 1775; (2) _Italian Journey_, covering the period from September, 1786, to June, 1788; (3) _Campaign in France_ and _Siege of Antwerp_, dealing with episodes of the years 1792 and 1793; (4) _Annals (Tag- und Jahreshefte)_, which are useful for his later years down to 1823. His letters, forty-nine volumes in all, and his diaries, thirteen volumes, are included in the great Weimar edition of Goethe's works. His conversations, so far as they were recorded, have been well edited by W. von Biedermann, ten volumes, Leipzig, 1889-1896.]

[Footnote 3: This earlier version was long supposed to be lost, but in 1910 a copy of the original ma.n.u.script was discovered at Zurich and published. Its six books correspond very nearly to the first four of the final version.]

[Footnote 4: Translator: Charles Wharton Stork.]

[Footnote 5: Adapted from E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 6: Translator: E.A. Bowring. (All poems in this section translated by E.A. Bowring, W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin appear by permission of Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.)]

[Footnote 7: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 8: Adapted from E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 9: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 10: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 11: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 12: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 13: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 14: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 15: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 16: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 17: W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 18: Translator: A.I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 19: Translators: W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 20: Translators: W. E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 21: The t.i.tle of a lyric piece composed by Schiller in honor of the marriage of the hereditary prince of Weimar to the Princess Maria of Russia, and performed in 1804.]

[Footnote 22: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 23: Translation: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 24: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 25: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 26: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 27: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 28: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 29: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 30: Translator: A. L. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 31: Harvard Cla.s.sics (Copyright P. F. Collier & Son).]

[Footnote 32: Harvard Cla.s.sics (Copyright P. F. Collier & Son).]

[Footnote 33: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London.]

[Footnote 34: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., London.]

[Footnote 35: Not and Tod, the German equivalents for Need and Death, form a rhyme. As this cannot be rendered in English, I have introduced a slight alteration into my translation.]

[Footnote 36: The play of words contained in the original cannot be reproduced in translation, the German for Moat being Graben, and for grave Grab.]