Note 116 — Chapter IV · THE SONG OF THE MOTH
Beatrice M. Hinkle translation
Faust (in suicide monologue):
“Out on the open ocean speeds my dreaming!
The glassy flood before my feet is gleaming!
A new day beckons to a newer shore!
A fiery chariot, borne on buoyant pinions,
Sweeps near me now; I soon shall ready be
To pierce the ether’s high, unknown dominions,
To reach new spheres of pure activity!
This godlike rapture, this supreme existence
Do I, but now a worm, deserve to track?
Yes, resolute to reach some brighter distance;
On Earth’s fair sun I turn my back!
· · · · ·
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil,
Upon its tract to follow, follow soaring!
Then would I see eternal Evening gild
The silent world beneath me glowing.
· · · · ·
And now before mine eyes expands the ocean,
With all its bays in shining sleep!
· · · · ·
The new-born impulse fires my mind,
I hasten on, his beams eternal drinking.”
We see it is the same longing and the same sun.