from Faust
Part I
Once more you hover near me, forms
and faces
Seen long ago with troubled youthful
gaze.
And shall I this time hold you, limn
the traces,
Fugitive still, of those enchanted
days?
You closer press: then take your
powers and places,
Command me, rising from the murk and
haze;
Deep stirs my heart, awakened,
touched to song,
As from a spell that flashes from
your throng.
You bear the glass of days that were
glad-hearted;
Dear memories, beloved shades arise;
Like an old legendary echo started,
Come friendship and first love
before my eyes.
Old sorrow stirs, the wounds again
have smarted,
Life's labyrinth before my vision
lies,
Disclosing dear ones who, by fortune
cheated,
Passed on their way, of love and
light defeated.
They cannot hear what now I bring,
belated,
Who
listened to the early tunes I made:
Gone is the throng by love so
animated,
Dead
the responsive tribute that they paid.
My tragic theme rings out, for
strangers fated,
For strange applause that makes me
half afraid.
The rest, who held my music sweet
and cherished,
Stray through the world dispersed,
or they have perished.
Now comes upon me long forgotten
yearning
For
the sweet solemn tryst those spirits keep.
I
feel the trembling words of song returning,
Like
airs that softly on the harp-strings creep.
The stem heart softens, all its
pride unlearning,
A
shudder passes through me, and I weep.
All
that I have stands off from me afar,
And
all I lost is real, my guiding-star.