Wagner: Let’s go on! The world has darkened,

The air is cool: the mists descend!

Man values his own house at night.

What is it occupies your sight?

What troubles you so, in the evening?

Faust: Through corn and stubble, see that black dog running?

Wagner: I saw him long ago: he seems a wretched thing.

Faust: Look at him closely! What do you make of him?

Wagner: A dog that, in the way they do,

Sniffs around to find his master.

Faust: See how he winds in wide spirals too,

Round us here, yet always coming nearer?

And if I’m right, I see a swirl of fire

Twisting about, behind his track.

Wagner: Perhaps your eyesight proves a liar,

I only see a dog, that’s black.

Faust: It seems to me that with a subtle magic,

He winds a fatal knot around our feet.

Wagner: I see his timid and uncertain antics,