The scene is the stone-paved courtyard of a ruined temple. In the centre lies a square pool, with wide rows of steps leading down to the water, now overgrown with lotus plants. Around the court rise long colonnades of pillars with grotesquely carven bases and capitals of luxuriant design. Beyond these appear green masses of dense tropical foliage, in which an occasional brilliant flower shines.
Faust, Satan and Oldham, all wearing white tropical dress and sun-helmets, are seated on fragments of fallen columns in front of the pool. Luncheon is spread before them. Oldham is lighting a cigarette; Faust is just finishing his meal; Satan is leaning back, contemplating the surrounding jungle. Two dark-skinned servants, wearing white robes and turbans, are beginning to bear away the repast.
OLDHAM
One's blood beats fuller in these tropic lands.
Last night, as we were dining, where the beach
With its plumed palm-trees sloped to meet the sea,
And the white foam along the glassy waves
Played in the evening light—I half believe
I could have written love-songs. But to whom—
That were a problem!
FAUST
Yes, one's brain is lit
With fire beneath this sun. At night, the glow
Is magical; but at this height of day,
When all the branches and the flowers and rocks
And the far glimmering rivers shake and writhe
In the fierce blaze, I feel a hideous touch
Of madness in it.
SATAN
Keep you to the shade!
This is the pinnacle, the very noon
Of summer in these lands. One hour of sun
Unshaded—and poor Oldham and poor I
Might have a maniac or a corpse as guest.
OLDHAM
I am not sure that I would help you with him.
I might be elsewhere occupied. Last night
I entertained myself with imaging
A project which, if I adopted it,
Would preËngage me.
SATAN
With a single guess,
I'll tell you what it was.
OLDHAM
I give you twenty.
SATAN
You thought perhaps it would be nice to be
The white bull we saw yesterday, and eat
Without reproof from every vender's stall
Throughout the whole bazar; and you intend
Thus to disguise yourself, and try the sport.
OLDHAM
You hit it nearer than I thought you would!
'Twas something like that. I was wondering
If, in this marvellous and lazy clime,
It were not possible for one to take
Twenty young beauties and a hundred slaves—
Retire to some secluded isle of palms—
And live without a thought, a wish, a hope,
Drugged with the warmth, the languor and the light.
FAUST
Possible?—For a rabbit! Not for you.
SATAN
I am afraid you'd find it wearisome.
Some like it; but not your kind.
FAUST
In this heat
Even he grows crazy; and we, Satan, turn
Unsympathetic creatures. Whew, this blaze
Is getting worse! Can't we move on?
SATAN
We go
No farther.
FAUST
Lovely residence!
SATAN
It is here
That our long journey terminates, my friends.
Upon this spot I trust, if all goes well,
To give your long tried patience recompense.
FAUST
Recompense? I am sceptical of it!
But we deserve this. None but idiots
Would have come with you to this boiling land
On a wild-goose chase; on each step of which
One gets a fleeting panoramic view
Of kinds of misery one did not guess
Existed in the world. Those lepers, beggars,
Cripples, fanatics, reptiles—all the swarms
Of loathsome creatures we have passed—will haunt
My dreams forever with new vivid masks
Of nightmare. Recompense? There isn't any!
SATAN
Await the event. You shall have recompense.
OLDHAM
Satan, what is your meaning? What event
Do you await here? You have been to us,
Through our long journey, secretive and close
Of all your purposes—from day to day
Giving no hint of your to-morrow's plan
Nor of our destination. Now, I think,
Silence is not a virtue. Have we come
In fact to our last halt?
SATAN
This is the spot
Toward which our course unswervingly has aimed
Since the first day. This vast and ruined shrine,
Built in forgotten times to unknown gods,
And now in timeless solitude enfolded,
Has long been known to me. Here, in retreat
From the world's noises, dwells a holy man,
A wonder-worker of unfathomed power,
Now long forgotten by the troubled world
Except me only. 'Tis his aged hand
Shall open to you those celestial gates
We come to enter.
FAUST
Ah, a wonder-worker!
Perhaps he will perform the mango trick,
Or the rope-climbing, or the boy-in-the-basket?
The jugglers here have been below report
One hears of them.
SATAN
Put by your idle sneers.
He is a prophet and a saint whose like
The world can offer not. Upon his face
You shall behold such utter holiness,
Such sublimate devotion as shall shake
Your hearts' foundations.
FAUST
Well, I can endure
The meeting if he can.
OLDHAM
Satan, you choose
Sometimes strange company. You often speak
Of friendship with such men of holiness
As much surprises me.
SATAN
If you were but
A little wiser, you would understand
That I have taught them much, at various times,
That is of profit to them.
FAUST
Pray teach me
A little something also.
SATAN
No, you think
You know too much already.... Furthermore,
You do not trust me; and I will not teach
One who keeps restlessly, the whole day long,
His eyes upon me, as though fearful I
Were waiting to spring on him unawares!
FAUST
Oh, you exaggerate.
OLDHAM
Look through yonder palms!
Someone is coming.
SATAN
He sees us! It is he!
[Through the colonnade along the far side of the
courtyard, there enters the Holy One, an aged man
of venerable and sublime appearance, clad in a simple
white robe. In his hand is a large copper bowl, which
he carries with some care.
SATAN
He brings a bowl of water from the spring—
The very bowl I gave him!
OLDHAM
What a face!
What light, what soundless calm!
FAUST
He is, indeed,
One of the ancient prophets....
SATAN
Holy One!
Satan salutes you!
THE HOLY ONE
Satan—come again
After so long? A little longer—then
No carcass of illusion here shall wait
To greet you.
SATAN
In the greatness of the sea
All waves find home....
THE HOLY ONE
Yea, verily; and the deep
Lies not far off. I am drawn nearer it
Since last you came: I see its floods more clear,
It laves me daily.... But what brings you back
To my deserted dwelling from the press
Where you are ever going to and fro
Upon the earth?
SATAN
I came to seek for you,
Whose feet are on the path of blessedness.
THE HOLY ONE
Ah, has illusion rent itself in twain
For your sight also?
SATAN
Ask me not. I come
Not on my mission, but on theirs....
THE HOLY ONE
On theirs!
And who are your companions?
SATAN
Friends, who seek
What you have found.
THE HOLY ONE
They have not in their eyes
Wholly the look of Seekers. Passion lurks
Along their ruddy lips.... And yet, who knows?
FAUST
I offer you our greetings, reverend sir.
A long way have we come to meet with you,
By Satan led.
THE HOLY ONE
And what would you with me?
FAUST
Paradise! Paradise!
THE HOLY ONE
Too hotly spoken!
Go, get you to the dancers of Tanjore....
Paradise!
OLDHAM
You belie us, Faust. Let me
Have speech with him.
Most Holy One, we come,
From lands far off, beyond remotest seas
Of sunset. There, in midst of toil and stress
And clamor, have we dwelt, till weariness
Of all life's gifts impelled us to go forth
To seek if anywhere a region lay
Where happiness still dwelt. To you we turn
As unto one upon whose face is set
The seal of peace such as we dreamed not of.
SATAN
They seek the Way, the Way, most Holy One.
THE HOLY ONE
The Blessed Eightfold Way lies free to all.
I cannot ope it to them. Peace, joy, bliss,
Supernal glory is it to those souls
Who have put by the follies of their birth
And sought its refuge. But though now I stand
With lighted heart upon its blissful path,
I can stretch out no hand to grasp their hands
And draw them toward it.
SATAN
Yet the Blessed One,
In Gaya first enlightened, far and wide
Taught men the Way....
THE HOLY ONE
Aye, verily.... Some mood
Of evil in my heart has closed my mouth
And darkened thus my eyesight. But 'tis gone....
Brethren, have comfort on my frugal stones.
Ask me all ye desire.
SATAN
Most Holy One,
These are my friends; I bring them in sore need
Unto your wisdom. For methinks they stand
Now at the cross-roads where the choice is made
Of truth or vanity. I beg you, tell
Unto their ears how, in your day, you came
To that dark crossing.
THE HOLY ONE
I would do your will
In this, and in all other services,
My brethren.
You must know that in my youth
I was a lusty noble of the realm
Of Jeypore; and the falcon and the sword
And the nautch-dancers and the palace-girls
Were mine to love and master like a lord.
Lordlike I lived; the caskets of the day
And of the night I crowded with bright jewels
Of love and joy and laughter. No desire
Panted unslaked an instant at my doors—
Nay, feasts were spread for it. And poor men gazed
On me with envy, muttering from their dust:
"Behold, the Heavens' darling."...
OLDHAM
Other lands
Know the same tale.
THE HOLY ONE
Aye, aye, all lands. And then
One night, alone in mine own garden walls,
Beneath the piercing stars, I gathered my life
Into my hands, and looked at it, and far
Beyond it at all other mortal lives;
And dust fell from mine eyelids....
For I saw
Birth and desire, satiety and pain,
Recurrent yearning that is never stilled,
Agony, death, rebirth in other forms,
And agony, and desire, and agony.
But nowhere saw I happiness or peace
Or rest from cravings that like vultures tear
The fibres of the heart.
Then wandered I
Forth from my palaces in utter pain,
Seeing the world as dust and vanity,
A desert of despair, a raging sea
Of torment....
SATAN
Now why stops the Holy One?
THE HOLY ONE
It wearies me to speak, and to recall
Those perished years.... Give me to drink.
OLDHAM
He speaks
Out of familiar deeps. Seas sunder us,
But the same stars have cast their ghostly rays
Into our bosoms.
FAUST
And those cloudless eyes
Have seen what we have seen!
THE HOLY ONE
I am refreshed....
Thus long ago, in my most desolate hour,
I was refreshed by draughts from the deep springs
Of light. Beneath a pipal tree I sat
In lost despair; and thither to me came
A pilgrim; and he glanced into mine eyes
With sight that read the sickness of my soul,
And sat beside me, and in measured words
Like far-off song told me this parable:
The Buddha came to where the sea
Curled silver-white upon the land,
And murmurs of infinity
Breathed on the sand.
And there lay shells like rosy foam
Borne from the caverns of the deep,
Frail playthings drifted from the home
Of timeless, tideless sleep.
And on the sand a Fisher stood,
Drying his nets that late had seen
The silent caverns of the flood
And all the wastes between.
The Fisher lingered in his place
With countenance of mild surprise,
And looked upon the Buddha's face
With dumb, uncomprehending eyes.
And Buddha spake: "Thy nets are drawn,
Thy boat rocks idle on the sea,
Thy day turns westward, and is gone....
Come thou with me."
The Fisher marvelled: "I must toil
With nets and shells among the caves,
To win the sea's unwilling spoil
From the harsh waves."
And Buddha answered: "Cast no more
Thy nets upon the troubled sea,
Nor gather shells along the shore.
Come thou with me.
"Thou drawest shells and curious flowers
From out the blue untrodden caves.
Thou seest the passing of the hours.
Thou hearest the clamor of the waves.
"Thou openest the shell where lies
The pearl more white than driven spray—
And trackless past thy vision flies
Each passing day.
"But I will teach thee not to stir
The shell nor flower in its sleep.
For thou shalt roam the sepulchre
That chasms all their native deep.
"And vain desire, like terror grown
Deep in the chambers of thy breast,
Shall be from thee forever flown,
And thou shalt rest.
"No search for pearls shall blind thy thought,
Nor waves, with clamorous harmonies.
But in the silence where is naught
Thou shalt behold the One that is.
"And where the days now speed like foam
Across thy vision, there shall be
For thee a vast eternal home—
An Infinite Sea."
The Fisher looked on Buddha dumb—
Looked deep into that tender gaze—
Those eyes within whose depths had come
And gone the sorrows of all days.
He looked uncomprehendingly,
And wearily he shook his head;
And turned once more to drag the sea,
Knowing not what the Buddha said.
FAUST
The cup again! The Holy One is faint.
OLDHAM
He speaks a miracle!...
THE HOLY ONE
And then I knew
That pilgrim as a saint, whose lips revealed
The glory of the Buddha. I beheld
My life one poisoned network of desire
And fleshly longing and pain-sowing hope—
The evil self seeking its happiness
And shaping horror. And I cast away
Myself, and cried: What am I but a dream,
A wave within the sea, a passing cloud
Upon the radiance of eternity?
All yearning will I slay, and slay therewith
The sorrow that succeeds it!...
So the lust
Of life passed from me; so the narrow I
Merged in the infinite, from hope set free—
Heritor of Nirvana's holy calm,
Wherein the voices of the heart's unrest
Are stifled, and the soul expands to clasp
Joy, nothingness, eternity and peace.
FAUST
Peace.... Peace.... Like bells from upland monasteries
You speak the word that summons us. But where
In peace is room for all once-towering hopes—
Nay, even for the wrecked and prostrate monoliths
That mark those fallen pylons?
THE HOLY ONE
Let the earth,
Ravenous of her young, these too devour,
And dust and nothingness engulf their shapes—
Vain burdens, bitter monuments.
FAUST
And where
Shall I find deeps wherein without a sound
I can extinguish my wild will that leaps
Flamelike to meet the stars?
THE HOLY ONE
In that deep sea
Hid in thy breast. Seek thou that tide of calm,
For it lies there awaiting.
FAUST
Can it be
That life's whole burden may be cast aside
And named as nothing, and its memory
Perish forever? In the summer nights,
Comes there no stealing ecstasy to stir
The old forgotten longings?
THE HOLY ONE
In the night
And in the day, one ecstasy abides
Ceaselessly with the heart that has put off
Desire—one ecstasy of final calm.
All other voices seem harsh clamorings.
OLDHAM
Ah, Holy One, lead me thy way of peace!
For I am weary of my heart's vain wars.
My life is as a desert, where desire
Corrodes me ceaselessly. Instruct my soul
To follow thee home to the gulfs of rest!
That, in renouncement of this bitter will,
It find at last deliverance it has sought.
THE HOLY ONE
My son, thou hast spoken; thou shalt come in time
To that abode. The Buddha's light shall guide
Both thee and me, poor seekers. Bide with me;
And what I know, that shalt thou freely know,
And my peace shall be thy peace....
SATAN
Faust, the gates
Admit one form already.
FAUST
Ah, the gates
Are pearl and silver.... Would that there were space
Within them for such fevered heart as mine—
That with the restlessness of stormy winds
Beats on its barriers!
THE HOLY ONE
There is room for all
Whose souls renounce the world and life and hope
To gain that soundless silence.
OLDHAM
Faust, I feel,
Transfused with light and glory, that deep peace
Awaiting. There shall perish like a flame
The passions which have seared my tortured soul
All my life long. They die; and nothingness
Like a cool flood sweeps over me. Ah, come
Where never storm shall smite!
FAUST
I see the gates;
I see the cool breast of the silvery flood
Of refuge and oblivion.... Fare you well,
Oldham, and light go with you! For I go,
Alas, not with you....
OLDHAM
Faust, Faust, turn not back!
I, who am casting all desires in dust,
To one desire still cling: I long that joy
Of such deliverance fill you as fills me
On this first step of the sublime ascent.
FAUST
I see the light that waits you on the peak;
And my heart follows you. But my stern soul
Plucks me yet back with cold insistency
I cannot master.... Go! If I could pray,
My prayers should follow you. My visions shall;
My love shall fold you. But I cannot come
Where you shall go; I cannot cast aside
All that I surely know—this pitiful
And shattered mortal life, with its strange gleams
And shadows—and embrace the icy void
Where Being trembles on the final verge.
To bid life cease—but linger as the moon
Lingers in heaven—ah, that is horrible
Beyond life's proper horrors!... Were my pain
A single atom greater—were my soul
A single breath more weary—I would come.
But now I must confront the winds of heaven
Still master of my destinies.... To the last,
Not in such tomb-world can my spirit rest.
No golden clouds that throng Nirvana's gates
Shall tempt me there to enter and resign
My right to strain beyond all gates that be....
But you I cannot counsel....
OLDHAM
Me the peace
Already laps with wavelets of the flood.
FAUST
The flood is sundering us.
OLDHAM
Farewell, farewell,
BelovÈd friend. I with the Holy One
Henceforth am linked; and grief shall follow me
In what should be your footsteps.
FAUST
Have no grief.
In the vast deeps of life's salt bitter sea
Perhaps awaits my anodyne, to heal
Life's wounds....
OLDHAM
Farewell! I go to paradise.
[Oldham and the Holy One move slowly away together,
pass through the colonnades, and disappear into the
forest. Faust follows with his eyes their retreating figures.
SATAN
You do not know a paradise when you see it!
Some day, when I have time, I'll start a school
To give instruction to great minds like you—
DÉbutant!
FAUST
Ah, I had forgotten you....
Two men are worth a thousand devils still.
SATAN
I overrated you. Now get you gone
Before I call the savagery that sleeps
Here in the jungle to annihilate you
For your unparalleled stupidity.
FAUST
Stupidity or no, I have one word
Still to say to you, my malicious friend:
To heel!
SATAN
What!
FAUST
Aye, to heel, I say! Crouch down
And follow me, my hound and servitor
From this hour forth!
SATAN
You have grown very witty.
Your wit, however, does not please me.
FAUST
Please you!
There are few things that I desire less.
To heel!
SATAN
What fiends possess you? Ah, I see!
You are still thinking of that wager made,
That jest of ours.
FAUST
I am still thinking of it.
SATAN
You do not mean that now you wish to claim
That forfeit seriously?
FAUST
I mean quite that.
SATAN
What an amazing man you really are!
For your own sake, I tried to offer you
A splendid paradise; I brought you here
At infinite cost and trouble; you have had
An hour of insight and experience
New and instructive to you; your best friend
Has found eternal bliss: and now you turn,
And just because your uttermost crazy whim
Is not quite satisfied with what he grasped
Thankfully, you revert, with sorry taste,
To my old careless generous remarks.
I do not think your friends at home would call it
A sporting attitude.
FAUST
The jungle shakes—
Do you not hear it?—with the stifled, choked
Laughter of leopards, elephants, hyenas,
Rhinoceroses, apes, pythons, and tigers,
Who hear you and are overcome with mirth....
I also laugh with them.
SATAN
Magnanimous
Your laughter sounds! True, you have beaten me,
And I am at your mercy. By some whim,
Trick, technicality, your mind rejects
A noble paradise; and to my pledge
You therefore are entitled. And I stand
Ready to pay it.
FAUST
Ah, at last we have
Acknowledgment of it! Frankness is good
Even for the Devil, Satan.
SATAN
I have been
Frank with you always. And, if to your taste,
I will be franker still. Your stake is won;
You have your triumph: but does it quite fill
The chambers of your heart? Will it suffice
In place of that bright paradise you dreamed
Might be your gain as loser? Ah, my friend,
In copper you have won, but lost in gold!
And victory will not requite for that
Your empty treasury.
FAUST
Not empty quite;
You are too modest.
SATAN
Oh, if you choose, my pledge
Shall be fulfilled, and I will be your dog—
Snarling a little, sometimes—snapping at
Your friends and furniture and lady-loves—
But yet your dog. However, I can do
Better for you than that....
FAUST
Enough! Enough!
SATAN
But hear me! You'll admit, a feather's weight,
A hair's breadth only held you from the gates
That Oldham entered. Almost they sufficed
Your spirit; yes, a moth's wing could have blown
You toward them! 'Twas so nearly I fulfilled
All that I promised. Therefore when I speak,
You will, for justice's sake, concede I am
No absolute bungler, no coarse-palated
Plebeian, as to paradises.
FAUST
No.
I will admit that.
SATAN
Good! Now, I would make
One final offer to you.
Faust, I know
In other regions, beneath other skies,
One haven more, the only one of earth
That can be judged in glory to surpass
This paradise you entered not. My faith
Is absolute that it is to your need
Utterly moulded. Like your heart itself,
Its halls are structured, destinate for you
As perfect refuge. And I say to you:
Give me the leave, and I will lead you there
For one supreme and ultimate trial of choice
That has no doubtful outcome. And my pledge
Shall still be valid! If this refuge gives
Not all that you desire, you still may claim
My service as your slave. Thus do you risk
No atom, but have gain of one last chance
To win the paradise you hunger for!
FAUST
A pleasing logic; but I do not trust
The mind behind it.
SATAN
Trust it, or distrust—
What matter?—when the issue is so plain!
FAUST
Away! Away!
SATAN
Well, if this hope is vain
To urge you, let despair serve in its stead
As roweled spur. For see where now you stand:
The mock of destiny—the man who lost
All joys of the bright many that the world
Cherishes! Aye, and even lost his friend,
His one deep lasting friend—and stood thereafter
Fixed like a donkey.... Though I led you on
From paradise to paradise, and none
Sufficed you—that were surely better sport—
Testing and trying with sublime contempt—
Than finger-twirling! But not thus I lead.
For now you shall, you shall have paradise!
FAUST
Deep in my soul, there is a sense that loathes
Pacts with the Devil. Yet the sanctioned powers
Established in the world have proved them void
And ignorant of paradise.... Where lies it?
SATAN
Follow, and I will lead.
FAUST
A long path?
SATAN
Yes.
FAUST
On! But your bondage waits you at the end.
SATAN
Ah, jester, jester!... Come—give me your hand!
CURTAIN
