Here I Am Human

In the scene Vor dem Tor (Outside the Town Gate) in Goethe’s Faust, the people of the town walk out into the countryside on Easter Sunday. Faust watches them come aus Handwerks- und Gewerbesbanden, out of the bonds of craft and trade, and aus dem Druck von Giebeln und Dächern, out of the pressure of gables and roofs. Faust, the learned doctor, says: Hier ist des Volkes wahrer Himmel, / Zufrieden jauchzet groß und klein: / Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich’s sein! Here is the people’s true heaven. High and low cheer, content. Here I am human, here I may be.

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