Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1232

O'erjoyed I am my progeny to know!

We're sure to reap in time, if we but sow.

I shake the old fur-mantle as before,

And here and there out flutters one or more.—

Above, around, hasten, belovèd elves,

In hundred thousand nooks to hide yourselves!

'Mid boxes there of by-gone time,

Here in these age-embrownèd scrolls,

In broken potsherds, foul with grime,

In yonder skulls' now eyeless holes!

Amid such rotten, mouldering life,

Must foolish whims for aye be rife.

[Slips into the fur mantle.]

Come shroud my shoulders as of yore!

Today I'm principal once more;

But useless 'tis, to bear the name:

Where are the folk to recognize my claim?

[He pulls the bell, which emits a shrill penetrating sound, at which the halls shake and the doors spring open.]

FAMULUS (tottering up the long dark passage)

What a clamor! What a quaking!

Stairs are rocking, walls are shaking:

Through the windows' quivering sheen,

Are the stormful lightnings seen;

Springs the ceiling—thence, below,

Lime and mortar rattling flow:

And, though bolted fast, the door

Is undone by magic power!

There, in Faust's old fleece bedight,

Stands a giant—dreadful sight!

At his glance, his beck, at me!

I could sink upon my knee.

Shall I fly, or shall I stay?

What will be my fate today?