Has he all faithfulness, all love, so far forgotten,
The drudgery by day and night!
The drudgery by day and night!
Faust, a Tragedy by Goethe
the remembrance murders me!
Would she might still forgive me this side heaven! "
_Martha_ [_weeping_]. The dear good man! he has been long forgiven.
_Mephistopheles_. "But God knows, I was less to blame than she. "
_Martha_. A lie! And at death's door! abominable!
_Mephistopheles_. If I to judge of men half-way am able,
He surely fibbed while passing hence.
"Ways to kill time, (he said)--be sure, I did not need them;
First to get children--and then bread to feed them,
And bread, too, in the widest sense,
And even to eat my bit in peace could not be thought on. "
_Martha_.
Has he all faithfulness, all love, so far forgotten,
The drudgery by day and night!
_Mephistopheles_. Not so, he thought of you with all his might.
He said: "When I from Malta went away,
For wife and children my warm prayers ascended;
And Heaven so far our cause befriended,
Our ship a Turkish cruiser took one day,
Which for the mighty Sultan bore a treasure.
Then valor got its well-earned pay,
And I too, who received but my just measure,
A goodly portion bore away. "
_Martha_. How? Where? And he has left it somewhere buried?
_Mephistopheles_. Who knows which way by the four winds 'twas carried?
He chanced to take a pretty damsel's eye,
As, a strange sailor, he through Naples jaunted;
All that she did for him so tenderly,
E'en to his blessed end the poor man haunted.
_Martha_. The scamp! his children thus to plunder!
And could not all his troubles sore
Arrest his vile career, I wonder?
Would she might still forgive me this side heaven! "
_Martha_ [_weeping_]. The dear good man! he has been long forgiven.
_Mephistopheles_. "But God knows, I was less to blame than she. "
_Martha_. A lie! And at death's door! abominable!
_Mephistopheles_. If I to judge of men half-way am able,
He surely fibbed while passing hence.
"Ways to kill time, (he said)--be sure, I did not need them;
First to get children--and then bread to feed them,
And bread, too, in the widest sense,
And even to eat my bit in peace could not be thought on. "
_Martha_.
Has he all faithfulness, all love, so far forgotten,
The drudgery by day and night!
_Mephistopheles_. Not so, he thought of you with all his might.
He said: "When I from Malta went away,
For wife and children my warm prayers ascended;
And Heaven so far our cause befriended,
Our ship a Turkish cruiser took one day,
Which for the mighty Sultan bore a treasure.
Then valor got its well-earned pay,
And I too, who received but my just measure,
A goodly portion bore away. "
_Martha_. How? Where? And he has left it somewhere buried?
_Mephistopheles_. Who knows which way by the four winds 'twas carried?
He chanced to take a pretty damsel's eye,
As, a strange sailor, he through Naples jaunted;
All that she did for him so tenderly,
E'en to his blessed end the poor man haunted.
_Martha_. The scamp! his children thus to plunder!
And could not all his troubles sore
Arrest his vile career, I wonder?
