Since thou, O Lord, approachest us once more,
And how it fares with us, to ask art fain,
Since thou hast kindly welcom’d me of yore,
Thou see’st me also now among thy train. 
Excuse me, fine harangues I cannot make,
Though all the circle look on me with scorn;
My pathos soon thy laughter would awake,
Hadst thou the laughing mood not long forsworn. 
Of suns and worlds I nothing have to say,
I see alone mankind’s self-torturing pains. 
The little world-god still the self-same stamp retains,
And is as wondrous now as on the primal day. 
Better he might have fared, poor wight,
Hadst thou not given him a gleam of heavenly light;
Reason he names it, and doth so
Use it, than brutes more brutish still to grow. 
With deference to your grace, he seems to me
Like any long-legged grasshopper to be,
Which ever flies, and flying springs,
And in the grass its ancient ditty sings. 
Would he but always in the grass repose! 
In every heap of dung he thrusts his nose.

THE LORD

Hast thou naught else to say?  Is blame
In coming here, as ever, thy sole aim? 
Does nothing on the earth to thee seem right?

MEPHISTOPHELES

No, Lord!  I find things there, as ever, in sad plight. 
Men, in their evil days, move my compassion;
Such sorry things to plague is nothing worth.

THE LORD

Know’st thou my servant, Faust?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The doctor?

THE LORD

Right.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He serves thee truly in a wondrous fashion. 
Poor fool!  His food and drink are not of earth. 
An inward impulse hurries him afar,
Himself half conscious of his frenzied mood;
From heaven claimeth he the fairest star,
And from the earth craves every highest good,
And all that’s near, and all that’s far,
Fails to allay the tumult in his blood.

THE LORD

Though in perplexity he serves me now,
I soon will lead him where more light appears;
When buds the sapling, doth the gardener know
That flowers and fruit will deck the coming years!

MEPHISTOPHELES

What wilt thou wager?  Him thou yet shall lose,
If leave to me thou wilt but give,
Gently to lead him as I choose!

THE LORD

So long as he on earth doth live,
So long ’tis not forbidden thee. 
Man still must err, while he doth strive.

MEPHISTOPHELES