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And spoke with proud and wide satisfaction:
"You'll never attain it unless you know the feeling!"¹

But Don Juan yelled, scoffing, "Oh, come on!"
And tipsily emptied his tenth glass,
"The meaning of life? The wise say this:
'Go throw a party, lively and hearty, till all their heads are heated with wine!'²
Even small girls agree!
'And in Spain it was a thousand and three!'"

But the eternal Jew blanched and spoke:
"I don't ponder such things at all:
We live, we die, we're buried --
Everything has its place!"

With that, we saw flames in the eyes of the fiend,
And his mouth and nose twitched as he sneered:
"Phrases," he yelled, "nothing but phrases!
You'll never solve the riddle so.
But I too haven't figured it out,
Despite it plaguing me for ten thousand years --
But soon you'll all become experts!
Because I know now, where we'll find the answer.

Listen! In the middle of space
Hovers a box of pure crystal.
It's surrounded by the sun's rays,
Guarded by Hope and by Falsehood,
It sparkles like a star through the night.
There, locked away, lies the secret!

1: Faust (I, 1, 182)
2: "Finch'han del Vino" - Don Giovanni, Act I, Scene XV