**Faust:** How goes it? Will it be? Will...

Faust: How goes it? Will it be? Will it soon be done?

Mephistopheles: Ah, bravo! Do I find you all on fire?

In double-quick time you’ll have your desire.

You’ll meet tonight, at her neighbour Martha’s home:

There’s a woman, who’s the thing,

For procuring and for gipsying!

Faust: All right!

Mephistopheles: But, she needs something from us, too.

Faust: One good turn deserves another, true.

Mephistopheles: We only have to bear a valid witness,

That her husband’s outstretched members bless

A consecrated place in Padua.

Faust: Brilliant! We must first make the journey there!

Mephistopheles: Sacred Simplicity! There’s no need to do that.

Just testify, without saying too much to her.

Faust: If you can’t do better than that, your pact I’ll tear.

Mephistopheles: O holy man! Now I see you there!

Is it the first time in your life, come swear,

That you’ve ever born false witness?

Haven’t you shown skill in definition

Of God, the World, what’s in it, Men,

What moves them, in mind and breast?

With impudent brow, and swollen chest?

And if you look at it more deeply, oh yes,

Did you know as much now - confess,

As you do about Herr Schwerdtlein’s death?

Faust: You are, and you’ll remain, a Liar and a Sophist.

Mephistopheles: Yes when no one’s the wiser for it.

The coming morn, in all honour though,

Won’t you beguile poor Gretchen so:

And swear you love her with all your soul?

Faust: From my heart.

Mephistopheles: Well, and good!

And will your eternal Truth and Love,

Your one all-powerful Force, above –

Flow from your heart, too, as it should?

Faust: Stop! Stop! It will! If I but feel,

For that emotion, for that throng,

Seek the name, that none reveal,

Roam, with senses, through the world.

Seize on every highest word,

And call the fire, that I’m tasting,

Endless, eternal, everlasting –

Does that to some devil’s game of lies belong?

Mephistopheles: Yet, I’m still right!

Faust: Hear one thing more,

I beg you, and spare my breath – the one

Who wants to hold fast, and has a tongue,

He’ll hold for sure.

Come, chattering fills me with disgust,

And then you’re right, especially since I must.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part One. Trans. A. S. Kline. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/German/FaustIScenesVIItoXV.php#Scene_XI

A full-text translation of Faust, with notes: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/German/Fausthome.php