We take a close look at the opening lines of Faust Part II by Goethe with a view to examining the identity and symbolic significance of 'the wanderer' within the context of this and other works by Goethe.

1. THE WANDERER’s RETURN
IN ACT V, SCENE 1, FAUST PART II
BY JOHANN WOLFGANG V. GOETHE
This discussion draws close attention to a passage in Goethe's in its original
German form and follows by citing an English translation of this passage, the work
of A. S. Kline, a prolific translator of many great literary achievements in world
literature. (A. S. Kline, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust Parts I & II ( Goethe,
Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832) - Faust: Parts I and II (poetryintranslation.com) )
FAUST TEIL II Fuenfter Akt, Erste Szene
.
Offene Gegend
Wandrer
Ja! sie sind's, die dunkeln Linden,
Dort, in ihres Alters Kraft.
Und ich soll sie wiederfinden,
Nach so langer Wanderschaft!
Ist es doch die alte Stelle,
Jene Hütte, die mich barg,
Als die sturmerregte Welle
Mich an jene Dünen warf!
Meine Wirte möcht' ich segnen,
Hilfsbereit, ein wackres Paar,
Das, um heut mir zu begegnen,
Alt schon jener Tage war.
Ach! das waren fromme Leute!
Poch' ich? ruf' ich? – Seid gegrüßt,
Wenn gastfreundlich auch noch heute
Ihr des Wohltuns Glück genießt!

2. FAUST Part II Act V Scene I: Open Country
THE WANDERER
Yes! Here are the dusky lindens,
Standing round, in mighty age.
And here am I, returning to them,
After so long a pilgrimage!
It still appears the same old place:
Here’s the hut that sheltered me,
When the storm-uplifted wave,
Hurled me shore-wards from the sea!
My hosts are those I would bless,
A brave, a hospitable pair,
Who if I meet them, I confess,
Must already be white haired.
Ah! They were pious people!
Shall I call, or knock? – Greetings,
If, as open-hearted, you still
Enjoy good luck, in meetings!
The passage in question is found at the beginning of the fifth act of Faust II in the
first scene “Offene Gegend.” The opening lines are attributed to Der Wanderer as
indicated by this appellation in the margin of the script. As a matter of interest to
translators, a question immediately springs to mind. Is 'the wanderer' a proper
rendering of 'der Wanderer,’ or is it another case of the so-called 'false friend' so
much dreaded by young students of foreign languages in view of the fact that in
dictionary terms 'Wanderer' is more likely to find its equivalent in 'wayfarer,’
'rambler' or 'journeyman' than it is in 'wanderer.' Even so, it is noteworthy that
leading translators of poetic works in which 'Wanderer' appears in titles and
significant positions have tended to retain the word that is identical in appearance.
Longfellow translated Goethe's ‘Wandrers Nachtlied' as 'Wanderer's Night-Songs' .
Much earlier still, in Goethe's day, William Taylor of Norwich translated the title
of Goethe's fragmentary poetic dialogue 'Der Wanderer' as 'The Wanderer.' The
figure of the Wanderer in in Wordsworth's 's The Excursion is directly attributable
to Goethe's influence as mediated by William Taylor of Norwich and Coleridge.
Unlike readers of the written text of the play, the members of audience are not
told explicitly that the figure in Act V Scene 1 is ‘the wanderer,’ but some of them

3. may infer that wandering was part of his character makeup from the word
‘Wanderschaft’ (highlighted above in yellow) which A. S. Kline translates as
‘pilgrimage.” This choice of word is fully in keeping with tradition. Wayside
crosses in Germany and Austria address anyone who passes by them as
“Wanderer,’ a pilgrim to Eternity on life’s journey. Indeed, an alert reader of
Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers might recall Werther’s outcry that he is
only a ‘wanderer,’ a pilgrim on the way to the Hereafter. The same reader might
also forge a mental link between the lindens the wanderer recalls from days of
youth and Werther’s grave between two linden trees. No member of a theatre
audience could be expected to make such a leap of intuition but the same is not
necessarily true of a reader of Goethe’s texts of the caliber of. Professor L. A.
Willoughby, in his time a leading Goethe scholar.
In his article ‘The Image of the “Wanderer” and the “Hut”’ in Goethe’s Poetry’
(Etudes Germaniques, 1951) Willoughby tackles the question as to why the word
‘Wanderer’ occurs with conspicuous and insistent frequency throughout Goethe’s
poetry, indeed throughout the entire corpus of all his works. In addition he notes
the words ‘wanderer’ and ‘Huette’ ( hut, cottage) crop up in close proximity to
each other within the confines of a sentence or passage. Indeed, the lines cited
about provide an example of such a case and, as it happens, the last case.
Willoughby points out that the Wanderer-Hut nexus takes on various guises that
mark significant turning points in Goethe’s life and literary progress from his early
Sturm und Drang years to the closing phase of his life when he composed Faust
Part II. According to the situation in life of the Wanderer, the hut took on various
forms, be this a shelter for those who roam in desolate forests, a rude dwelling
composed of ancient masonry in southern Italy, a sculptor’s studio in Rome, the
wandering stage of actors and performing artists, and so on. Willoughby
understands the phenomenon he investigates in psychologic terms with specific
reference to C. G. Jung’s theories rooted in the concept of the collective
unconscious, according to which the libido ever seeks union with its female
counterpart the anima. It was Goethe himself who anticipated Jung’s theories
concerning the unconscious and the libido’s quest to be at one with the anima, not
least by concluding Faust Part II with the words ‘Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns
hinan..’ ( sometimes rendered in English as ‘The Eternal-Feminine beckons us
on.’)
Let us continue this discussion by viewing the lines which follow those cited
above.

4. Baucis
Lieber Kömmling! Leise! Leise!
Ruhe! laß den Gatten ruhn!
Langer Schlaf verleiht dem Greise
Kurzen Wachens rasches Tun.
Wandrer
Sage, Mutter: bist du's eben,
Meinen Dank noch zu empfahn,
Was du für des Jünglings Leben
Mit dem Gatten einst getan?
Bist du Baucis, die geschäftig
Halberstorbnen Mund erquickt?
Du Philemon, der so kräftig
Meinen Schatz der Flut entrückt?
Eure Flammen raschen Feuers,
Eures Glöckchens Silberlaut,
Jenes grausen Abenteuers
Lösung war euch anvertraut.
Und nun laßt hervor mich treten,
Schaun das grenzenlose Meer;
Laßt mich knieen, laßt mich beten,
Mich bedrängt die Brust so sehr.
Philemon
Eile nur, den Tisch zu decken,
Wo's im Gärtchen munter blüht.
Laß ihn rennen, ihn erschrecken,
Denn er glaubt nicht, was er sieht.
Das Euch grimmig mißgehandelt,
Wog' auf Woge, schäumend wild,
Seht als Garten Ihr behandelt,
Seht ein paradiesisch Bild.
älter, war ich nicht zuhanden,
Hülfreich nicht wie sonst bereit;
Und wie meine Kräfte schwanden,
War auch schon die Woge weit.
Kluger Herren kühne Knechte

5. Gruben Gräben, dämmten ein,
nächtlich sichern Port.
Kennen doch ihr Nest die Vögel;
Denn jetzt ist der Hafen dort.
So erblickst du in der Weite
Erst des Meeres blauen Saum,
Rechts und links, in aller Breite,
Dichtgedrängt bewohnten Raum.
----------
BAUCIS (A little woman, very aged.)
Gentle stranger! Quietly, quietly!
Peace! Let my husband rest! 11060
Long sleep lends the elderly,
Little time to work, at best.
THE WANDERER
Tell me, Mother: are you that wife
To whom thanks should be given:
Who brought a young man back to life,
When wife and husband worked as one?
Are you that Baucis who tirelessly
Restored my almost-vanished breath?
Her husband appears.
Are you that Philemon, who bravely
Saved my wealth from watery death?
Your swiftly burning fire,
Your silvery sounding bell,
In chance, dread and dire,
Was the outcome that befell.
And now let me walk about,
And view the boundless ocean:
Let me kneel, and be devout:
Mind troubled with emotion.
(He walks on, over the downs.)

6. PHILEMON (To Baucis.)
Hurry now, and lay the table,
Underneath the garden trees.
Let him go: as in the fable,
He’ll not credit what he sees.
(He follows, and stands beside the Wanderer.)
Where wave on wave, foaming wildly,
Savagely mistreated you,
See a garden planted, widely,
See the Paradisial view.
I was too old to seize the day,
Unfit to work as long ago:
And while my powers ebbed away,
The tide extended its wide flow.
Clever Lords set their bold servants
Digging ditches, building dikes,
To gain the mastery of ocean,
Diminishing its natural rights.
See green meadow bordering meadow,
Field and garden, wood and town. –
But it’s time to eat, so follow,
Sunset is approaching now.
See the sails, far away there,
Seeking port before the night.
The birds fly homeward through the air:
Their harbour too heaves in sight.
So gaze then, at the whole horizon,
Where the blue sea used to flow,
Right and left there, to your vision,
Densely peopled space below.
We now learn the reason behind the Wanderer’s quest. Once many years before he
suffered a shipwreck during a violent storm, perhaps a recall of Goethe’s Sturm
und Drang phase, that cast him ashore. His life was saved by a married couple
whose names, Baucis and Philemon, are derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
according to the narrative of which Jupiter allows them to survive the destruction
of humanity and provided them the means of recreating life on earth. We learn

7. about the present situation faced by the couple and the threatening advance made
by ‘clever lords’ as they seek to reshape the coastal region by digging ditches and
building dikes, their hubris even leading them to master the ocean. We
subsequently learn that Faust is the grand orchestrator of all this activity the scope
of which has prompted the question as to whether Goethe was the first to enter the
ongoing debate concerning the state of the global environment.
Later scenes reveal the tragic end of not only Baucis and Philemon but also that of
the Wanderer. Faust orders the demotion of the cottage of Philemon and Baucis as
it stands in the way of the total reconstruction of their region. Faust sees himself as
a benefactor of humanity and wishes the couple no ill as shown by his plan to
rehouse them in a superior dwelling elsewhere. Mephistopheles maliciously
bungles the operation to remove Baucis and Philemon and in the process their
cottage is burned to the ground and all its occupants perish. Faust is deeply
affected by this outcome and begins to understand the error of his ways that led
him to sacrifice innocent lives in pursuit of his lofty aim to recast nature. Even so,
Faust’s path to redemption has yet to through the traumata of blindness, mental
disorientation and humiliation before he receives mercy and a place in Heaven
thanks to the mediation of female influences brought to bear by a glorified
Gretchen, the Virgin Marry and female saints and penitents that have a place in the
New Testament and Christian hagiography.
Willoughby interprets the destruction o the cottage of Baucis and Philemon at a
high metaphorical level. He recalls a passage in Urfaust (the unpublished first draft
of scenes that would later be incorporated in the text of Faust Part I) where Faust
decries his brutal destruction of Gretchen’s idyllic cottage home, the symbol of her
innocence and perhaps her naivety rather than an actual building or location. In this
outburst of self-recrimination he likens himself to a mountain torrent or other
destructive natural force. This act of impetuous violence is matched by the
destruction of the cottage of Baucis and Philemon and poses a kind of inverted
response or antipode that brings the tension that inheres in all earth-bound
wandering to a conclusion and resolution that only physical death can complete,
for only in a realm beyond death can the conflicts and contentions of earthly
existence be abolished, a hope that Werther misconstrued at a very high cost, his
premature death by suicide.