B00ARI2G5C EBOK (34 page)

Only the heart’s depth enables

Any word to move the heart.

[
She withdraws towards the cliff
.]

CHORUS
. If these melodies are pleasing,

Ancient monster, to your ears,

How much more must their sweet teasing

Melt our new-born youth to tears!

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Though the sun grow dark, we find it

In our souls as bright as day:

In our hearts we have enshrined it,

What the world would take away.

[
HELEN, FAUST,
and
EUPHORION
in
the costume described above
.]

EUPHORION
. These are songs of children: hear them

With parental joy! And see,

To their rhythm I dance near them:

Do your hearts not leap with me?

HELEN
. Love uniting man and woman

Shapes a joy of two made one;

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Two, with rapture more than human,

Are made three; this love has done.

FAUST
. All is found, and it has found us:

I am yours and you are mine.

Sacred union now has bound us;

Is this not our fate’s design?

CHORUS
. By this boy and by his splendour

Many years of blessing shine

On this pair; with bonds how tender,

Touchingly they intertwine!

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EUPHORION
. Now I am freer!

Let me be leaping

Into the ether,

Skipping, escaping;

This is my craving,

This is my joy!

FAUST
. But not so hastily,

So overboldly!

They fall to ruin

Who leap so wildly:

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We dread to lose him,

Our dearest boy!

EUPHORION
. Ill be no groundling!

Your hands detain me

With anxious fondling;

Let go my hair, let

Go of my clothing!

What’s mine is mine!

HELEN
. Alas, remember,

You are our son: oh,

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Think of our sorrow, Our bond so tender,

Our threefold union’s

Delicate twine!

CHORUS
. Soon it will sunder,

To grief and pine.

HELEN
and
FAUST
. For our sake, our sake,

Dear son, try harder

To curb this energy,

To check this ardour!

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Let rural beauty

Content your heart.

EUPHORION
. My filial duty

Must take your part.

[
He weaves in and out of the
CHORUS,
drawing the maidens into a dance with him
.]

These girls I hover round

Here are entrancing.

How does this music sound?

How is this dancing?

HELEN
. You have done well, indeed,

An artful dance you lead

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Them all, my son!

FAUST
. This fluttering trickery,

It has no charms for me;

Would it were done!

[
EUPHORION
and the
CHORUS,
singing, move in a complicated round dance
.]

CHORUS
. You move your arms, how rare

And fine their motion!

You shake your curly hair

To bright commotion!

How light your foot can slide

Over the earth, how glide

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These limbs that to and fro

Around each other go!

Sweet boy, all this ensures

Your purposes, if they

Are to steal hearts away:

Ours all are yours!

[
A pause
.]

EUPHORION
. Is this too tame for you,

Lightfooted deer?

Here’s a new game for you:

Run, run from here!

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Ill be your hunter,

You’ll be my kill!

CHORUS
. You need not hurry,

Well not outrace you;

We should be sorry

Not to embrace you;

Beautiful boy, your

Love is our will.

EUPHORION
. Come, to the woodlands,

Mountain and flood lands!

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I take no pleasure in

An easy capture;

Only what’s hard to win

Fills me with rapture.

HELEN
and
FAUST
. What a wanton mad performance!

Can they learn no moderation?

Now like horns in ululation

Through the woods and glens they call.

What a romp and caterwaul!

CHORUS
[
entering quickly one by one]
.

He ran past! Does he ignore us,

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Mock us, scorn us? He has chosen

One, and drags her here before us!

She’s the wildest of us all!

EUPHORION
[
carrying in a young girl]
.

I have brought this little filly,

And I’ll have her willy-nilly;

What a pleasure, what delight

To subdue and hug her tight,

And if she resists a kiss,

Show my strength and will like this!

THE GIRL
. Let me go! In my disguise

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There is strength and spirit too;

We have wills like yours, a prize

No less hard to snatch than you.

Do you think me helpless? How you

Trust your manly strength! Come, cling

Close to me, I’ll singe you now, you

Fool! Such fiery sport you bring!

[
She bursts into flames and blazes up into the sky
.]

Follow me into the air,

To the abysses, follow there!

See, your goal is vanishing!
*

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EUPHORION
[
shaking off the last of the flames]
.

Forest ravines, how steep

They loom around me!

Shall not my youth outleap

These cliffs that bound me?

Are these not winds that roar,

Waves from a distant shore?

They are too far from here;

I must be near!

[
He bounds higher and higher among the rocks
.]

HELEN, FAUST
, and the
CHORUS
.

Chamois-like you leap, while we

Dread the inevitable fall.

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EUPHORION
. Ever higher I must be,

Seeing further, seeing all!

Where am I? Now I know:

Pelops’ land here below,

The island of my birth,

Wedded to sea and earth!

CHORUS
. Cannot these mountains, these

Forests suffice you,

Gathering the grapes not please,

Hillsides entice you,

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Where vines stand row on row,

Figs, golden apples grow?

Stay in this lovely place,

Live by its grace!

EUPHORION
. Dream, if you like, of dull

Peace, dream of what you will:

War is the word for me,

The next is victory.

CHORUS
. Our wars are over:

Can you want war again?

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What hope shall ever

Gladden you then?

EUPHORION
. Oh land that gave them life,

Bore them to perilous strife,

For you they shed their blood,

Valiant and free they stood;

Bless now these warriors

Who in your name

All are the carriers

Of quenchless flame!

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CHORUS
. Look, how high he has ascended,

Yet majestic still he seems,

Like a conqueror: see, with splendid

Bronze and steel his armour gleams!

EUPHORION
. By no walls, no ramparts shielded

Each man stands and holds his own:

Like a fortress never yielded

Is his iron heart alone.

Come for peace, for your delivery,

Arm yourselves, your freedom take!

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Women shall be fighters, every

Child a hero for its sake.

CHORUS
. Poetry, art god-given,

Let it leap up to heaven,

Shine as the loveliest star

Remote from where we are;

Yet still its sacred word

Finds us, its song is heard

Still from afar!

EUPHORION
. I was not born here as a child:

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A young man armed I come to you.

The strong, the free, the bold and wild

Taught me the deeds I still must do.

Farewell!

They spell

My path to fame and glory too.

HELEN
and
FAUST
. Scarcely are you born, ah scarcely

Given to the shining day,

And from those mad heights you fiercely

Long to find that dolorous way!

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Can our bond

Once so fond

Like a dream thus fade away?

EUPHORION
. Hear, from the sea that thunderous call!

The thundering valleys make reply;

Through dust, through waves, those warriors all,

In mortal throng they strive and cry!

Fate has here

Spoken clear:

What other law but so to die?

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HELEN, FAUST
, and the
CHORUS
.

Words of horror and despair!

Is your death then fate’s decree?

EUPHORION
. Mine their anguish, mine to share:

No mere spectator I will be!

HELEN, FAUST
, and the
CHORUS
. Oh heart too overbold,

Oh perilous pride!

EUPHORION
. Yes!—And now wings unfold

Here at my side!

There! There! Now let me fly:

I must! I shall!

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[
He hurls himself into the air, his garments bear him up for a moment, his head shines, a trail of light follows him
.]

CHORUS
. Icarus! From the sky

Oh grievous fall!

[
A beautiful youth falls and lies dead at his parents’feet, we seem to recognize his face as that of a well-known figure;
*
but his body vanishes at once, the halo rises skywards like a comet, his costume, mantle, and lyre remain on the ground.
)

HELEN
and
FAUST
. Now into grief apace

Our joy has grown.

EUPHORION’S
voice [
from the depth]
.

Mother, in this dark place

Must I be left alone?

[
A pause. The
CHORUS
sings a lament.
*
]

CHORUS
. Left alone!—We seem to know you,

And wherever death may take you

When you haste to shades below you,

Still our hearts will not forsake you.

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And we scarcely can lament you,

For we envy you your fate:

Dark and bright the days it sent you,

Songs and spirit, all were great.

Born to high ancestral calling,

Blessed with gifts, with noble name,

Soon, alas, self-lost, and falling

In the bloom of youth and fame!

Wide the world to your discerning,

To your heart the heart’s depths known,

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Women’s love your love returning,

And a music all your own.

But in your impetuous coursing

Free into strict snares you ran,

Spurning all convention, forcing

Wide the narrow laws of man.

Yet a last high purpose forming

To pure courage lent its weight

To a noble task conforming;

But fulfilment comes too late.

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Who fulfils it?—There’s no reading

This dark riddle fate must show

To a people dumbly bleeding

On this day of greatest woe.

Yet their spirit shall recover:

Sing new songs, forget your pain!

For this soil has bred for ever

Greatness it will breed again.

[
A complete pause. The music stops
.]

HELEN
[
to
FAUST]
.

An ancient proverb proves itself in my case too,

Alas: that beauty weds not long with happiness.

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The bond of love is severed now, and so of life;

Bewailing both, I bid a sorrowful farewell

To you, and cast myself once more into your arms.

Persephone, receive us both, the boy and me!

[
She embraces
FAUST,
her body vanishes, her dress and veil remain in his arms
.]

PHORCYAS
[
to
FAUST]
.

Hold fast to what remains to you of it all.
*

Her garment, do not let it go. Already

Demons pluck at the corners, for they long

To snatch it to the underworld. Hold fast!

The goddess you have lost it is no longer,

And yet it is divine. Use now this high

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Favour beyond all price, and rise aloft:

For through the ether swiftly it will bear you

Beyond all base things, while you yet have life.

I shall see you again, far, far from here.

[
HELEN
’s garments dissolve into clouds which envelop
FAUST,
carry him upwards, and drift away with him
.
PHORCYAS
picks up
EUPHORION
’
s costume, mantle, and lyre, and advances into the proscenium, holding up these relics as she speaks
.]

PHORCYAS
. Well, here’s another lucky find!

No sacred flame’s been left behind,

Of course, but I’ve enough to keep things going.

With these, poets can still be consecrated,