English translation of Nikolaus Lenau's "Der Tanz" from "Faust"

translated by Rolf-Peter Wille

(continued in The Forge by Lenau)

(go to:  Chinese translation by Lina Yeh)


(for Ellen Lee, my most Mephistophelean student)

Piano students learning Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz (No.1) are usually aware of its technical challenges though not always of its rather erotic connotations. Since, as a teacher, I am too old now to demonstrate this in the lesson, I always wished I could present an English translation of the "Tanz in der Dorfschenke" from Nikolaus Lenau’s Faust (1836) which inspired Liszt’s music. A literal translation by Timothy Motz can be found in the Henle edition now (which also has a literal translation in French). Lacking verse and rhyme though this does not really seduce and I have thus requested the help of Mephistopheles and produced my own translation. I hope I won’t burn too long in Hell for this:





The Dance

Village inn
wedding feast, music and dance



M e p h i s t o
as huntsman (peeking into the window)

In there is merry revelry;
Come on, we shall take part. Yippee!
(entering with Faust)
A harlot in desire burning
Tastes better than much bookish learning.



F a u s t

I feel so odd, I know not how,
Enflamed are all my senses now.
My blood did never boil like this,
I am in strange and wondrous bliss.

M e p h i s t o

Hot fire flashes from your eyes:
Those crazy passions now arise,
Imprisoned by your foolish pride,
They do break forth and cannot hide.
Come, snatch a maid to dance and swing,
Into the revel boldly spring.

F a u s t

She there whose eyes shine black and gay
Is tearing all my soul away.
Seductive eyes beam forcefully
Infinitudes of ecstasy.
Oh, how these cheeks in redness glow
With life and freshness overflow!
‘tis sweetest limitless desire
To kiss these lusting lips with passions,
These swelling ones, and to retire
On those two sensual tender cushions.
How anxiously the breasts are burning
In blissful torrents of their yearning!
Let me in ecstasy embrace
This body of voluptuous grace.
Ah! how impatiently they fight,
these curls of hair, so long, so black,
And fly in curves around the neck
As rapid storm-bells of delight!
I shall go mad, shall die of hunger
If I behold that wench much longer;
And yet—I seem to lack the nerve
To greet her and salute with verve.

M e p h i s t o

Some oddly wondrous race, indeed,
That brood born of a sinner’s seed!
For Hell this man has risked his fate
But is disheartened of a maid
Whose body’s charms do love ignite
Yet burn themselves in lust’s delight.
(To the minstrels)
My dearest folks, your lazy bow
Is drawn too sleepily and slow!
To this tame waltz may twist indeed
Lame lust herself on sluggish feet.
Ignite that youthful fire? How?
Come on, hand me a fiddle now,
Soon shall there be some diff’rent singing
And in this inn some diff’rent springing.

……………………………………..

[as the true “amoroso” waltz starts here, the meter suddenly changes to a triple—an amphibrach]

The minstrel presents to the hunter his fiddle,
The hunter tremendously strikes with a twiddle.



And jokingly harmonies surge and decay
Like rapturous sighs which are dying away.
Like sweetness and chatter, an intimate twitter
In sultry nights of amorous titter.
A rising and falling and swelling ensues;
Thus billows of lecherous waters amuse
Bare figures of succulent maidenly flesh.
Now listen how shrieks all the murmuring slash:
The terrified maiden is startled and pleads,
The lad, full of ardor, jumps out from the reeds.
Entangled and mangled the sounds and the songs
Are fighting themselves in disorderly throngs.
The virgin who tried to escape from the chase
Is finally forced by the man to embrace.
A lover is pleading, the woman relents,
Now listen how kissing increases suspense.
So merry are sounds which the triple strings juggle,
As if for one maiden two fellows now struggle;
And hear how, defeated, falls silent one boy,
Both lovers are hugging each other in joy,
Their voices entwined in impassioned duet
Are climbing the ladder of pleasures like mad.
And ever more ardent, more stormy, more gusty
As men when aroused, or as maidens when lusty,
The violin’s melodies temptingly sound,
Till all in the temple of Bacchus are drowned.
The village’s fiddlers so foolishly sway!
Now look, they are throwing their fiddles away.
Enchanted the frenzy is moving around
All life in the tavern, all things on the ground.
And rumbling with envy do even the walls
Lament that they cannot compete in the schmaltz.
Primarily Faust who is blissfully mad
He races along with his dancing brunette.
He presses her fingers, is stuttering vows
And dances her out through the door of the house.
They dance through the pastures, through garden and mead,
Pursuing them strains of the violin plead;
Out into the forest they drunkenly dance;
Yet softer the sounds of the fiddle entrance
And whisper of love as they glide through the trees
Like lecherous dreams which do flatter and tease.
As nightingale songs from the bushes arise,
The fragrance of flute sound delightfully flies
And deeply hot lust in the drunkards enrages;
It seems that the devil this singer engages.
Then rapture is heavily pulling them down,
And roaring in oceans of pleasure they drown.



continued in The Forge ("Die Schmiede")

_____

(go to:  Chinese translation by Lina Yeh)
_____



Here is the original:


Der Tanz

Dorfschenke
Hochzeit. Musik und Tanz


MEPHISTOPHELES
als Jäger, zum Fenster herein.

Da drinnen geht es lustig zu;
Da sind wir auch dabei. Juchhu!

Mit Faust eintretend.

So eine Dirne lustentbrannt
Schmeckt besser als ein Foliant.

FAUST.

Ich weiß nicht, wie mir da geschieht,
Wie michs an allen Sinnen zieht.
So kochte niemals noch mein Blut,
Mir ist ganz wunderlich zu Mut.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Dein heißes Auge blitzt es klar:
Es ist der Lüste tolle Schar,
Die eingesperrt dein Narrendünkel,
Sie brechen los aus jedem Winkel.
Fang Eine dir zum Tanz heraus
Und stürze keck dich ins Gebraus!

FAUST.

Die mit den schwarzen Augen dort
Reißt mir die ganze Seele fort.
Ihr Aug mit lockender Gewalt
Ein Abgrund tiefer Wonne strahlt.
Wie diese roten Wangen glühn,
Ein volles, frisches Leben sprühn!
's muß unermeßlich süße Lust sein,
An diese Lippen sich zu schließen,
Die schmachtend schwellen, dem Bewußtsein
Zwei wollustweiche Sterbekissen.
Wie diese Brüste ringend bangen
In selig flutendem Verlangen!
Um diesen Leib, den üppig schlanken,
Möcht ich entzückt herum mich ranken.
Ha! wie die langen schwarzen Locken
Voll Ungeduld den Zwang besiegen
Und um den Hals geschwungen fliegen,
Der Wollust rasche Sturmesglocken!
Ich werde rasend, ich verschmachte,
Wenn länger ich das Weib betrachte;
Und doch versagt mir der Entschluß,
Sie anzugehn mit meinem Gruß.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Ein wunderlich Geschlecht fürwahr,
Die Brut vom ersten Sünderpaar!
Der mit der Höll es hat gewagt,
Vor einem Weiblein jetzt verzagt,
Das viel zwar hat an Leibeszierden,
Doch zehnmal mehr noch an Begierden.

Zu den Spielleuten.

Ihr lieben Leutchen, euer Bogen
Ist viel zu schläfrig noch gezogen!
Nach eurem Walzer mag sich drehen
Die sieche Lust auf lahmen Zehen,
Doch Jugend nicht voll Blut und Brand.
Reicht eine Geige mir zur Hand,
's wird geben gleich ein andres Klingen
Und in der Schenk ein andres Springen!

Der Spielmann dem Jäger die Fiedel reicht,
Der Jäger die Fiedel gewaltig streicht.
Bald wogen und schwinden die scherzenden Töne
Wie selig hinsterbendes Lustgestöhne,
Wie süßes Geplauder, so heimlich und sicher,
In schwülen Nächten verliebtes Gekicher.
Bald wieder ein Steigen und Fallen und Schwellen;
So schmiegen sich lüsterne Badeswellen
Um blühende nackte Mädchengestalt.
Jetzt gellend ein Schrei ins Gemurmel schallt:
Das Mädchen erschrickt, sie ruft nach Hilfe,
Der Bursche, der feurige, springt aus dem Schilfe.
Da hassen sich, fassen sich mächtig die Klänge
Und kämpfen verschlungen im wirren Gedränge.
Die badende Jungfrau, die lange gerungen,
Wird endlich vom Mann zur Umarmung gezwungen.
Dort fleht ein Buhle, das Weib hat Erbarmen,
Man hört sie von seinen Küssen erwarmen.
Jetzt klingen im Dreigriff die lustigen Saiten,
Wie wenn um ein Mädel zwei Buben sich streiten;
Der eine, besiegte, verstummt allmählig,
Die liebenden Beiden umklammern sich selig,
Im Doppelgetön die verschmolzenen Stimmen
Aufrasend die Leiter der Lust erklimmen.
Und feuriger, brausender, stürmischer immer,
Wie Männergejauchze, Jungferngewimmer,
Erschallen der Geige verführende Weisen,
Und alle verschlingt ein bacchantisches Kreisen.
Wie närrisch die Geiger des Dorfs sich gebärden!
Sie werfen ja sämtlich die Fiedel zur Erden.
Der zauberergriffene Wirbel bewegt,
Was irgend die Schenke Lebendiges hegt.
Mit bleichem Neide die dröhnenden Mauern,
Daß sie nicht mittanzen können, bedauern.
Vor allen aber der selige Faust
Mit seiner Brünette den Tanz hinbraust;
Er drückt ihr die Händchen, er stammelt Schwüre
Und tanzt sie hinaus durch die offene Türe.
Sie tanzen durch Flur und Gartengänge,
Und hinterher jagen die Geigenklänge;
Sie tanzen taumelnd hinaus zum Wald,
Und leiser und leiser die Geige verhallt.
Die schwingenden Töne durchsäuseln die Bäume,
Wie lüsterne, schmeichelnde Liebesträume.
Da hebt den flötenden Wonneschall
Aus duftigen Büschen die Nachtigall,
Die heißer die Lust der Trunkenen schwellt,
Als wäre der Sänger vom Teufel bestellt.
Da zieht sie nieder die Sehnsucht schwer,
Und brausend verschlingt sie das Wonnemeer.
_____

(go to:  Chinese translation by Lina Yeh)



back home

Transformation by Mockery: Lenau's "The Forge" (Die Schmiede) from "Faust"

continued from Nikolaus Lenau "The Dance"


from The Forge (Die Schmiede)

M e p h i s t o 

Do you recall your Hannchen from that inn?
Oh, let's repeat your loving spin:

(mockingly aping Faust)

"She there whose eyes shine black and gay
Is tearing all my soul away.
Seductive eye beams forcefully Infinitudes of ecstasy."

Now it is hollow, vain decoy,
A well of tears pumped dry of joy.

"‘tis sweetest limitless desire
To kiss these lusting lips with passions,
These swelling ones, and to retire
On those two sensual tender cushions."

Those wilting lips for bread just languish,
For lodgings do they beg in anguish.

You saw "the breasts anxiously burning
In blissful torrents of their yearning!"

And now you see them downwards turning;
The wretched one raised with this bust
Your child, conceived in crazy lust,
Together with her misery,
Now is she bowed by drudgery.

Do you "in ecstasy embrace
This body now of hungry grace?"

(more and more mockingly)

"Ah! how impatiently they fight,
these curls of hair, so long, so black,
And fly in curves around the neck
As rapid storm-bells of delight!"

Now hangs it sluggishly that unkempt hair,
As if it rather did prefer the bier.
 Just grab it! grab it! always full of vigor!

 (Again reverberates his scornful snigger.)



translated by Rolf-Peter Wille
_____


Transformation by Mockery


Franz Liszt intended a performance of his “Dance” (“Mephisto Waltz”) to be preceded by another episode from “Faust”: “Der nächtliche Zug” (“The Night Procession”). This is a rather odd decision because in Lenau this episode appears quite a bit later: Having danced with his Hannchen at the village inn and—as we learned—not just danced, Faust continues his adventurous journey and forgets all about the girl. In a later episode, “The Forge” (“Die Schmiede”), Faust reaches a village in the evening. There he leads his horse into a forge and asks the blacksmith to re-shoe it. The good-natured blacksmith invites him for dinner and Dr. Faust, showing off his magic and his eloquence, is planning to seduce the blacksmith's wife. He is encouraged by Mephistopheles who, pretending to be his servant, waits outside. Suddenly a pale beggar woman enters with an emaciated child asking for a little bread. She happens to be Hannchen [and the educated reader might guess who the father of her child is]. Faust would not have recognized her at all, had his loyal “servant” not alerted him. Mephisto laughs so noisily that the house is moving.

Now follow my translated verses above: Mephisto mocks Faust by reciting Faust's amorous verses from the earlier “Dance” episode (at the village inn) and compares Hannchen's seductive appearance then to her present state. Faust, predictably, looses his wits. His soul trembles. He flees, rides away—not without Hannchen making a nasty scene and scream after him: "You must marry me today!". (Would Faust marry her, Hannchen's “honor” could be restored. Society and Church could accept her and her child. We must not forget that we are in the Middle Ages.)

“Night Procession” is the next episode. Faust rides into a black forest. He sees a procession of devout pilgrims, listens to their heavenly singing, and he hides. He becomes aware of his loss of grace, his eternal separation from God. He presses his face into the mane of his horse and he sheds the most bitter tears.

Back to Liszt's odd reverse-chronology. Should one not sin before feeling remorse? But Liszt apparently told his publisher: "A Mephisto of this kind [the Dance] may only arise from such a poodle [the Procession]!" In concert performance that makes sense, of course. The Mephisto Waltz is brilliant and the Night Procession rather slow and meditative. The Procession was published together with Lenau's verses inserted at the relevant spots. It could thus be performed as a melodrama with narrator. In the Waltz, on the other hand, Liszt only gave the last verse line “Und brausend verschlingt sie das Wonnemeer” (“And roaring in oceans of pleasure they drown”) after the final coda at the end of the piece. An insertion of all the verse lines from the “Dance” into Liszt's Mephisto Waltz could not make sense. Though the programmatic intention of the themes is quite obvious, the musical narrative does not correspond with the poem's on such a literal level. Naturally one can point out the beginning of the "amoroso" waltz, or hear the "nightingale" in the recitative towards the end. And, yes, Mephisto "tunes his fiddle" at the opening. One may recite the poem and insert Liszt's themes here and there, and this will be a nice introduction to the performance of the piece. Otherwise I believe that the music follows its own structural demands. In other words, the musical narrative is greatly determined by the possibilities inherent in the themes (there are two here) and manifests as form convincingly because the composer is an expert in transforming and combining them convincingly. 

Liszt, we have to admit, is more than an expert. His parodistic genius does resembles Mephisto's. I do not remember if my “soul trembled” or just grew pale, when I first realized the famous octave jumps to be a parody of the "amoroso" waltz. Liszt's sarcastic effect rivals Berlioz's in his transformation of the “beloved melody” into a vulgar dance tune in the witches' sabbath of his Symphonie fantastique.

Devilish mockery can not be found in Lenau's Dance episode. Mephisto uses mild irony to encourage Faust. Otherwise the episode describes the effect of Mephisto's violin playing. The mocking does appear in the later Forge episode. And the horror it evokes here is quite comparable to Liszt's mocking octave jumps. Both, Lenau and Liszt, use parody to achieve this effect. Satan as the negating principle cannot create. He can only destruct. Wisdom eventually realizes the life-giving power of this destruction. “Ich bin ein Teil von jener Kraft, / Die stets das Böse will und stets das Gute schafft.” (“Part am I of that Powerhood / which always wills the Evil, always works the Good.”), says Mephistopheles in Faust.

But wait! That one is Goethe's Faust! Not Lenau's!