Free Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Page B

food which does not satisfy,
 
red gold which moves unsteadily,
1680
quicksilver-like between one’s fingers.
 
You offer sports where no one gains the prize,
 
a girl perhaps who in my very arms
 
hangs on another with conspiring eyes.
 
Honors that the world bestows on man
 
which vanish like a shooting star.
 
Show me the fruit that rots before it’s plucked
 
and trees that grow their greenery anew each day!
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
 
A project of this nature does not trouble me.
 
I know I can produce such treasures.
1690
But there will come a time, my friend,
 
when we shall want to feast at our leisure.
    FAUST.
 
If you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,
 
let me be done for on the spot!
 
If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,
 
and I find satisfaction in myself,
 
if you bamboozle me with pleasure,
 
then let this be my final day!
 
This bet I offer you! 18
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
 
                                   Agreed!
    FAUST.
 
                                                  Let’s shake on it!
 
If ever I should tell the moment:
1700
Oh, stay! You are so beautiful!
 
Then you may cast me into chains,
 
then I shall smile upon perdition!
 
Then may the hour toll for me,
 
then you are free to leave my service.
 
The clock may halt, the clock hand fall,
 
and time come to an end for me!
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
 
Weigh it thoroughly; we shall not forget.
    FAUST.
 
You have a perfect right to this;
 
this is no rash or headlong action.
1710
Such as I am, I am a slave—
 
of yours or whosesoever is of no concern.
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
 
This evening, promptly, at the scholar’s table
 
I shall perform my duty as your servant.
 
But one thing more … for all contingencies
 
I must ask you for a line or two.
    FAUST.
 
The pedant wants a legal document!
 
Have you never known a man who keeps his word?
 
Is it not enough that what I speak
 
shall govern all my living days?
1720
Does not the world race by in tides and streams?
 
And why should I be shackled by a promise?
 
It’s a deep-ingrained delusion,
 
we do not easily part with it.
 
Blessed is he who keeps his own integrity;
 
he will not rue the greatest sacrifice!
 
A skin inscribed and stamped officially
 
is like a specter to be feared and best avoided.
 
The word is dead before it leaves the pen,
 
and wax and leather rule the day.
1730
What do you, evil spirit, want of me?
 
Metal, marble, parchment, paper?
 
Shall I write with stylus, chisel, pen?
 
Feel free to exercise your option.
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
 
Why is your talk so full of heat,
 
your eloquence so overwrought?
 
Any scrap will serve me well enough.
 
You simply sign it with a droplet of your blood.
    FAUST.
 
If you are fully satisfied with that,
 
by all means, let us play the farce.
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
1740
Blood is a very special juice.
    FAUST.
 
Be not afraid that I might break this pact!
 
The sum and essence of my striving
 
is the very thing I promise you.
 
I had become too overblown,
 
while actually I only rank with you.
 
Ever since the mighty spirit turned from me,
 
Nature kept her doorway closed.
 
The threads of thought are torn to pieces,
 
and learning has become repugnant.
1750
Let in the throes of raging senses
 
seething passions quench my thirst!
 
In never lifted magic veils
 
let every miracle take form!
 
Let me plunge into the rush of passing time,
 
into the rolling tide of circumstance!
 
Then let sorrow and delight,
 
frustration or success,
 
occur in turn as happenstance;
 
restless action is the state of man.
    MEPHISTOPHELES.
1760
For you there is no boundary nor measure.
 
As you are pleased to grasp at what you can
 
and, flitting by, to see what you can get,
 
I hope your pleasures may agree with you.
 
But start at once