New Scene from Faust- By the City Wall

Gretchen laments by a picture of Mary in Sorrow.

BY THE CITY WALL

IN A RECESS IN A WALL IS A DEVOTIONAL PICTURE OF THE MATER DOLOROSA, WITH A JUG OF FLOWERS BEFORE IT.

GRETCHEN (PLACING FRESH FLOWERS IN THE JUG)

Incline,

O grief-rich one,

Your gracious gaze towards my distress!

With heart sword-pierced

By thousand-fold grief,

You look up to your own Son’s death.

To the Father on high

You gaze and each sigh

Ascends for his and your distress.

Who senses

The wrenches

Of pain deep in my bones?

With fear my poor heart’s turning;

Its trembling and its yearning,

You know, just you alone!

Wherever I am going,

Through all my breast is flowing

What woe, what woe, what woe!

At once in my own keeping,

I weep, I weep, I’m weeping;

My heart is broken so.

The pot plants at my window,

I wet with tears like dew,

When early in the morning,

I picked these flowers for you.

When early sun was slipping

Into my little room,

Already I was sitting

Upon my bed in gloom.

Help! save me from this shame and death!

Incline,

O grief-rich one,

Your gracious gaze towards my distress!