Versos English Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Mephistopheles

English poem

Mephistopheles

by (1749–1832)

Listen in the reader

Cling to these ancient ribs of granite rock, Else to yon depths profound it you will hurl. A murky vapour thickens night. Hark! Through the woods the tempests roar! The owlets flit in wild affright. Hark! Splinter'd are the columns that upbore The leafy palace, green for aye: The shivered branches whirr and sigh, Yawn the huge trunks with mighty groan. The roots upriven, creak and moan! In fearful and entangled fall, One crashing ruin whelms them all, While through the desolate abyss, Sweeping the, wreck-strewn precipice, The raging storm-blasts howl and hiss! Aloft strange voices dost thou hear? Distant now and now more near? Hark! the mountain ridge along, Streameth a raving magic-song!

WITCHES (in chorus)

Now to the Brocken the witches hie, The stubble is yellow, the corn is green; Thither the gathering legions fly, And sitting aloft is Sir Urial seen: O'er stick and o'er stone they go whirling along, Witches and he-goats, a motley throng.