Part 6
ANAXAGORAS: Swiftly the mountain teems with Myrmidons, To dwell within the rocky fissures; Pygmies, emmets, thumbkins, And other busy little things. You never strove for greatness, But lived a hermit's narrow life; If you can grow accustomed to command, Then I shall crown you as my king.
HOMUNCULUS: What says my Thales? +
THALES: I will not guess; With little folk one does but little deeds, With great ones grows the little to the great. Look there! the black cloud of the cranes! It threatens the excited folk, And would thus threaten e'en the king. With sharpened beaks and clawing legs They swoop upon the little ones; Portentous lightning flickers now. A crime slew the herons, Who watched the peaceful mere. Yet that rain of murder-darts Brings cruel, bloody blessing of revenge, Arouses kindred wrath For Pygmies' impious blood. What now avails shield, helm and spear? What helps the heron's bolt to dwarves? How emmets and thumbkins hide! Now wavers, flees, and falls the host.
ANAXAGORAS: If I could praise the subterranean folk till now, I turn me in this case to what is high... You! up above, eternally unaged, Three-named, three-shaped one, I call on you in my people's woe, Diana, Luna, Hecate! You who expand the breast, in deepest sense profound, You seeming calm, yet violently inward, Open your shadow's ghastly gulf, Let ancient power show, devoid of magic! Am I too swiftly heard? Has my entreaty To those high spheres Disturbed nature's order? And greater, ever greater now draws near The goddess's encircled throne, Terrible to the eye, monstrous! Into the gloom its fire glows red... Not nearer, threatening mighty round! You ruin us and land and sea outright! So were it true, that Thessalian women In impious, magic confidence Sang you down from your path, And wrung from you most baneful deeds?... The shining shield has darkened o'er, Suddenly rends, and flashes, sparkles! What crackling! What a hissing! A thundering, and wind-fiends midst!— Humble before the throne's steps!— Forgive! I called it hither.
THALES: What things this man heard and saw! I know not rightly what befell us, Nor felt it with him as he did. Confess we, these are frantic hours, And Luna sways her at her ease Upon her place, as heretofore.
HOMUNCULUS: Look to the Pygmies' seat! The mount was round, now is it peaked. I felt a monstrous shock, The rock had fallen from the moon; Straightway, without inquiry, It crushed and slew both friend and foe. Yet must I praise such arts That, creative in a single night, At once from below and from above, Brought forth this mountain pile.
THALES: Be calm! It was but thought. Away, that loathsome brood! That you were not made king is well. Now off to the bright sea-festival, Where wonder-guests are hoped and honored.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Here must I drag through steep cliff-stairs, Through gnarled roots of ancient oaks! On my resin the resinous mist Has something of pitch, and that has my favor, Next to the sulphur... Here, with these Greeks Is scarce a trace of such to smell; But curious would I be, to trace With what they stoke hell-torment and—flame.
DRYAS: In your own land be shrewd at home, In foreign parts you are not apt enough. You should not turn your mind to home, But here revere the sacred oak's dignity.
MEPHISTOPHELES: One thinks of what one left behind; What one was used to stays a paradise. Yet tell: what in the cave there, In faint light, thrice crouched down?
DRYAS: The Phorkyads! Venture to the place And speak to them, if you feel no dread.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Why not!—I see something, and marvel! Proud as I am, must I myself confess: The like of this I never saw, They are worse than mandrakes... Shall one find the primal-rejected sins In the least degree still ugly, When one beholds this triple-monster? We suffered them not on the thresholds Of our most ghastly hells. Here it takes root in beauty's land, Which is called glorious and antique... They stir, they seem to scent me, They twitter whistling, bat-vampires.
PHORKYAS: Give me the eye, sisters, that it may ask Who dares so near our temple press.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Most revered! Allow me to draw near And thrice receive your blessing. I step forth, though still unknown, Yet, if I err not, distant kinsman. Ancient-worthy gods have I beheld, Bowed deepest before Ops and Rhea; The Fates themselves, of Chaos, your sisters, I saw them yesterday—or ereyesterday; But your like have I never beheld. I now fall silent and feel enraptured.
PHORKYADS: He seems to have sense, this spirit.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Only wonders me that no poet praises you. And say: how came it, how could this befall? In image have I never seen you, worthiest; Let but the chisel strive to reach you, Not Juno, Pallas, Venus and the like.
PHORKYADS: Sunken in solitude and stillest night, We three have never thought thereon!
MEPHISTOPHELES: How should you? since you, withdrawn from world, See no one here and no one sees you. You'd need to dwell in such a place Where splendor and art enthrone together, Where every day, with nimble double-step, A marble block steps forth to life as hero. Where— +
PHORKYADS: Be silent and give us no desire! What would it help, though better we knew? Born in night, to night akin, Almost to self unknown, to all unknown.
MEPHISTOPHELES: In such a case it matters not much to say, One can transfer oneself to others too. For you three one eye suffices, one tooth; Then it might go mythologically too, To grasp in two the being of the three, Leaving the third's likeness to me, For brief time. +
ONE: How seems it? would it do?
OTHERS: Let us try!—but without eye and tooth.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Now you have taken just the best away; How would the strictest image then be perfect!
ONE: Shut one eye, 'tis lightly done, Show at once the one snatching-tooth, And in profile you'll straight achieve To match us sisters perfectly.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Great honor! So be it! +
PHORKYADS: So be it! +
MEPHISTOPHELES: There stand I now, Chaos's much-beloved son!
PHORKYADS: Chaos's daughters are we undisputed.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Now am I called, O shame, hermaphrodite.
PHORKYADS: In the new three of sisters, what a beauty! We have two eyes, two teeth.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Before all eyes I must hide myself, To scare the devils in hell's pool.
Rock-coves of the Aegean Sea
SIRENS: If erst at night's dread hour Thessalian witch-women Had impiously drawn you down, Gaze calmly from the bow Of your night on trembling waves, Mildly-flash, bright throng, And illumine the tumult That rises from the waves! To every service offered you, Fair Luna, be gracious to us!
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: Sound aloud in sharper tones, That through the broad sea thunder, Call the folk of depth forth! From the storm's ghastly gulfs We fled to stillest grounds, Sweet song draws us near. See how in highest rapture We adorn with golden chains, And to crown and precious stones Clasp and girdle-deck unite! All that is your fruit. Treasures, here wrecked and caught, You sang to us, You demons of our bay.
SIRENS: Well we know, in sea-freshness Fish take smooth delight, Swaying life without sorrow; Yet, you festively stirring throngs, Today would we learn That you are more than fish.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: Ere we hither came, We took it to mind; Sisters, bro*thers, now swift! Today needs the smallest journey To the most valid proof That we are more than fish.
SIRENS: Gone in a trice! Straight to Samothrace, Vanished with favoring wind. What think they to perform In the realm of the high Cabiri? Are gods! Wondrously strange, Who forever generate themselves And never know what they are. Remain on your heights, Fair Luna, stand gracious, That it stay nightly, Day drive us not away!
THALES: I'd gladly lead you to old Nereus; Though from his cave we are not far, Yet has he a hard head, The surly sourpuss. The whole human race Never pleases the grouch. Yet is the future revealed to him, For which all have respect And honor him at his post; Also has he benefited many.
HOMUNCULUS: Let us try and knock! Not straightway will it cost glass and flame.
NEREUS: Are those human voices my ear perceives? How it grates at once in my inmost heart! Creatures, striving to reach the gods, Yet damned to ever match themselves. Since ancient years I rested godlike, Yet was impelled to benefit the best; And looked I then at last on deeds performed, 'Twas quite as if I had not counseled.
THALES: And yet, O elder of the sea, they trust you; You are the wise one, drive us not from here! See this flame, humanlike indeed, It yields itself wholly to your counsel.
NEREUS: What counsel! Did counsel e'er avail with men? A wise word freezes in the hard ear. However oft deed scolded itself grimly, The people stay self-willed as before. How oft I warned Paris fatherly, Ere his lust ensnared a foreign wife. On Grecian shore he boldly stood, I told him what I saw in spirit: The airs smoking, overflowing red, Beams glowing, below murder and death: Troy's judgment-day, rhythmically fixed, To millennia as terrible as known. The old man's word seemed but a game to the bold, He followed his desire, and Ilion fell— A giant corpse, stiff after long torment, To Pindus's eagles welcome meal. And Ulysses too! said I not to him beforehand Circe's wiles, the Cyclops's horror? His dallying, his comrades' light mind, And what not all! Brought that him gain? Till much-tossed him, yet late enough, The wave's favor bore to hospitable shore.
THALES: Such conduct pains the wise man; Yet the good one tries once more. A grain of thanks, to please him high, Outweighs full centners of ingratitude. For naught of little have we to entreat: The boy there wishes wisely to arise.
NEREUS: Spoil not for me the rarest humor! Quite other stands before me yet: My daughters all I bade come hither, The Graces of the sea, the Dorids. Not Olympus, not your soil bears A fair form moving so gracefully. They throw themselves, of most graceful gesture, From water-dragon to Neptune's horse, To the element most tenderly united, That even the foam seems to lift them. In the color-play of Venus's shell-wain Comes Galatea, the fairest, now borne, Who, since Cypris turned from us, In Paphos is revered as goddess herself. And thus the sweet one long has owned, As heir, temple-city and wain-throne. Away! Befits in father-joy hour No hate the heart, no scold the mouth. Away to Proteus! Ask the wonder-man: How one may arise and transform.
THALES: We have won nothing by this step, Though meet we Proteus, straight he's melted; And stands he to you, then says he but at last What makes you stare and sets in confusion. You are once needful of such counsel, Let us try and change our path!
SIRENS: What see we from afar Gliding through the wave-realm? As if by wind's command White sails were drawing near, So bright are they to see, Transfigured sea-women. Let us climb down, You hear the voices too.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: What we bear upon our hands Shall please you all. From Cheloné's giant shield Shines forth a stern-formed image: Are gods that we bring; Must sing high songs.
SIRENS: Small of stature, Great of power, Saviors of the wrecked, From eld revered gods.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: We bring the Cabiri, A peaceful feast to lead; For where they holy rule, Neptune shall kindly reign.
SIRENS: We yield to you; When a ship broke, Irresistible in strength You shield the crew.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: Three have we taken along, The fourth would not come; He said he was the right one, Who thought for them all.
SIRENS: One god makes Another god Likely to mock. Honor all graces, Fear every harm.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: Are properly seven of them.
SIRENS: Where are the three remaining?
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: We could not tell, Are to ask on Olympus; There dwells too the eighth perhaps, Of whom none yet thought! In grace await us, Yet all not ready. These incomparable ones Will ever further, Longing hungry souls For the unreachable.
SIRENS: We are wont, Where it e'er enthrones, In sun and moon To worship; it rewards.
NEREIDS AND TRITONS: How our fame to highest shines, This feast to lead!
SIRENS: The heroes of antiquity Lack the fame, Where and how it e'er shines, When they the golden fleece attained, You the Cabiri. When they the golden fleece attained, We the Cabiri. + You
HOMUNCULUS: The misshapen ones I see As earthen-paltry pots, Now wise men knock against them And break hard heads.
THALES: That is just what one desires: The rust first makes the coin of worth.
PROTEUS: Such thing delights me old fabler! The stranger, the more respectable.
THALES: Where are you, Proteus? +
PROTEUS: Here! and here!
THALES: The old jest I forgive you; But to a friend not empty words! I know you speak from false place.
PROTEUS: Farewell! +
THALES: He is quite near. Now shine fresh! He is curious as a fish; And where he e'er sticks in shape, Through flames he's lured forth.
HOMUNCULUS: I'll pour at once the light's abundance, Yet modestly, lest I burst the glass.
PROTEUS: What shines so graciously fair?
THALES: Good! If you've a mind, you may look nearer. Let not the small trouble vex you And show yourself on human both feet. With our favors, with our will, Who wills to see what we conceal.
PROTEUS: World-wise tricks are still known to you.
THALES: To change shape remains still your delight.
PROTEUS: A shining dwarfling! Never yet seen!
THALES: He asks for counsel and would fain arise. He is, as I heard from him, Most wondrously but half come to world. He lacks not spiritual qualities, But all too much the tangible able-substance. Till now the glass alone gives him weight, Yet would he fain be next embodied.
PROTEUS: You are a true virgin-son, Ere you should be, you already are!
THALES: Also seems it to me critical from other side: He is, methinks, hermaphroditic.
PROTEUS: Then must it succeed the sooner; As he arrives, it will fit. Yet here counts not much reflection: In the wide sea must you begin! There one begins first in the small And joys to swallow the tiniest, Thus grows you by degrees And forms to higher achievement.
HOMUNCULUS: Here breathes a soft air indeed, It tickles so, and the scent pleases me!
PROTEUS: I believe it, dearest boy! And further on 'twill be much cozier, On this narrow tongue of shore The vapor-circle yet unspeakable; There before we see the train That just now floats near enough. Come along hither! +
THALES: I go with.
HOMUNCULUS: Thrice remarkable spirit-step!
CHORUS: We have forged Neptune's trident, Wherewith he soothes the liveliest waves. Unfolds the thunderer the clouds, the full, Neptune answers the ghastly rolling; And howso from above it zigzags flashes, Wave after wave is sprayed from below; And whatso between in anguish struggled, Is, long hurled, by the deepest swallowed; Wherefore he gave us the scepter today— Now float we festive, calmed and light.
SIRENS: To you, to Helios consecrated, Of cheerful day blessed, Greeting to the hour that moves Luna's high reverence stirs!
TELCHINES: Most lovely goddess on the bow above! You hear with rapture the brother praised. To blessed Rhodes you lend an ear, There rises to him an eternal paean. Begins he the day-course and 'tis done, He looks on us with fiery beaming glance. The mountains, the cities, the shores, the wave Please the god, are lovely and bright. No mist encircles us, and steals it in, A ray and a breeze, the isle is pure! There beholds himself the High One in hundred forms, As youth, as giant, the great, the mild. We first, we were they who godly power Set up in worthy human shape.
PROTEUS: Let them sing, let them boast! To the sun's holy life-rays Dead works are but a jest. That forms, melting, unwearied; And have they cast it in bronze, Then think they 'twere something. What at last with these proud ones? The god-images stood great— An earthquake destroyed them; Long since melted again. The earthly bustle, howe'er it be, Is after all but drudgery; The wave betters life; It bears you to eternal waters
PROTEUS-DOLPHIN: Already 'tis done! There shall it turn to fairest luck for you: I take you on my back, Wed you to the ocean.
THALES: Yield to the laudable desire, To begin creation anew! Be ready for swift working! There stir you by eternal norms, Through thousand, ah thousand forms, And till the human you have time.
PROTEUS: Come spiritually with into moist breadth, There live you straight in length and width, As you please stir you here; Only strive not for higher orders: For once you are become a man, Then 'tis wholly done with you.
THALES: As it comes; 'tis also fine enough, To be a sturdy man in his time.
PROTEUS: Such one perhaps of your stamp! That holds yet a while after; For among pale spirit-throngs I see you already since many hundred years.
SIRENS: What a ring of little clouds rounds Round the moon so rich a circle? Doves are they, love-ignited, Pinions, white as light. Paphos sent them hither, Its fervent bird-throng; Our feast, it is completed, Cheerful bliss full and clear!
NEREUS: A night-wanderer would perhaps name This moon-halo air-appearance; But we spirits are of quite other And the solely right opinion: Doves are they that accompany My daughter's shell-voyage, Of wondrous flight peculiar kind, Learned of olden times.
THALES: Also I hold for best What pleases the sturdy man, When in still, warm nest A holy thing lives preserved.
PSYLLI AND MARSI: In Cyprus's rough cave-grottos, Not buried by the sea-god, Not shattered by Seismos, Caressed by eternal breezes, And, as in the eldest days, In still-self-conscious delight We preserve Cyprus's wain And lead, at the whisper of nights, Through lovely wave-entwinement, Unseen by the new race, The loveliest daughter forth. We slight busy ones fear Neither eagle nor winged lions, Neither cross nor moon, As above it dwells and thrones, Shifting goes and stirs, Drives off and slays, Lays down crops and cities. We, thus henceforth, Lead the loveliest mistress forth.
SIRENS: Lightly moved, in moderate haste, Round the wain, circle on circle, Soon entwined line on line, Serpent-like in rows, Draw near, sturdy Nereids, Robust women, pleasantly wild, Bring, tender Dorids, Galateas, the mother's image: Earnest, to gaze like the gods, Worthy immortality, Yet as lovely human women Of enticing grace.
DORIDS: Lend us, Luna, light and shade, Clarity to this youthful bloom! For we show dear husbands To our father begging before. 'Tis boys that we saved From the surf's grim tooth, They, on reed and moss bedded, Warmed to light forth, Who now with hot kisses Faithfully must thank us; Look on the sweet ones favorably!
NEREUS: High is the double gain to prize: To be merciful, and please oneself alike.
DORIDS: Praise you, father, our rule, Grant us well-earned delight, Let us hold fast, immortal, Them on eternal youth-breast.
NEREUS: May you joy in the fair catch, Form the youths to you as men; But I could not bestow What Zeus alone can grant. The wave that rocks and tosses you Allows not love's permanence, And has the inclination gulled, It sets them gently on the land.
DORIDS: You, sweet boys, are dear to us, Yet must we part in sorrow; We sought eternal fidelity, The gods will not permit it.
THE YOUTHS: If you but henceforth refresh us so, Us sturdy sailor-boys; We never had it so good And would not have it better.
NEREUS: 'Tis you, my darling! +
GALATEA: O father! the bliss! Dolphins, tarry! the gaze enchains me.
NEREUS: Already past, they draw past In circling swing's motion; What cares them for inner heartfelt stir! Ah, took they me along over! Yet a single glance delights, That it replaces the whole year,
THALES: Hail! Hail! anew! How I rejoice in bloom, Through beautiful, true things pierced... All from water has arisen!! All through water is sustained! Ocean, grant us your eternal rule. If you sent not clouds, Poured not rich brooks, Turned not rivers to and fro, Completed not the streams, What were mountains, what plains and world? You are he who holds freshest life.
ECHO: You are he from whom freshest life wells.
NEREUS: They return wavering far back, Bring no more glance to glance; In extended chain-circles, To prove themselves firm-accordant, Winds the countless throng. But Galatea's shell-throne I see now and yet again. It gleams like a star Through the crowd. Beloved shines through the press! Though e'en so far It shimmers bright and clear, Ever near and true.
HOMUNCULUS: In this lovely moisture Whatever I light here Is all enchanting fair.
PROTEUS: In this life-moisture Your light first glows With glorious sound.
NEREUS: What new mystery 'midst the throngs Would open to our eyes? What flames round the shell, round Galatea's feet? Now flares it mighty, now lovely, now sweet, As were it stirred by love's pulses.
THALES: 'Tis Homunculus, by Proteus seduced... These are the symptoms of imperious longing, I scent the groan of anxious thundering; He'll shatter on the gleaming throne; Now flames it, now flashes, already pours.
SIRENS: What fiery wonder transfigures the waves, That shatter sparkling against each other? So it lights and wavers and brightens up: The bodies, they glow on nightly path, And all around is by fire encircled; So reign then Eros, who began all! Hail the sea! Hail the waves, By the holy fire surrounded! Hail the water! Hail the fire! Hail the rare adventure!
ALL-ALL: Hail the mildly-waving airs! Hail the mysterious grottos! Highly celebrated be here, Elements, you all four!
3. Act—Before the palace of Menelas at Sparta
HELENA: Much admired and much reviled, Helena, From the shore I come, where we but now landed, Still drunk with the restless rocking of the waves, That from Phrygian plain bore us On bristling-high back, through Poseidon's grace And Euros's force, into native bays. There below now Menelas the king Rejoices in return with his bravest warriors. But you, high house, bid me welcome, Which Tyndareos, my father, near the slope Of Pallas's hill returning built up, And, as I here with Clytemnestra sisterly, With Castor also and Pollux grew in joy, Adorned beyond all houses of Sparta. Greeted be you, ye wings of the brazen gate! Through your hospitably inviting wide-opening once It came to pass, that I, chosen from many, Menelas In bridegroom's shape toward me gleamed. Open them to me again, that I fulfill a hasty bid Of the king, as beseems the wife. Let me in! and let all stay behind me, What stormed me hither, fateful. For since I left this threshold care-free, Visiting Cytherea's temple, as holy duty bade, But there a ravisher seized me, the Phrygian, Much has befallen, which men far and wide So gladly tell, but he not gladly hears, Of whom the saga growing spun itself to fairy-tale.
CHORUS: Despise not, O magnificent lady, The honorable possession of highest good! For the greatest happiness is granted you alone, The fame of beauty, that rises above all. To the hero sounds his name before, Thus strides he proud; Yet bows at once most stubborn man Before all-subduing beauty the mind.
“Stories of the world, in your language.”