Two will-o’-the-wisps
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Als er vor die Thür hinaus trat, sah er zwey große Irrlichter über dem angebundenen Kahne schweben, die ihm versicherten, daß sie große Eile hätten und schon an jenem Ufer zu seyn wünschten. Der Alte säumte nicht, stieß ab und fuhr, mit seiner gewöhnlichen Geschicklichkeit, quer über den Strom, indeß die Fremden in einer unbekannten sehr behenden Sprache gegen einander zischten und mitunter in ein lautes Gelächter ausbrachen, indem sie bald auf den Rändern und Bänken, bald auf dem Boden des Kahns hin und wieder hüpften.
As he stepped out of the door, he saw two great will-o’-the-wisps hovering over the moored boat; they assured him that they were in great haste and wished to be on the far shore already. The old man did not delay: he pushed off and steered, with his usual skill, straight across the stream, while the strangers hissed at one another in an unknown, very nimble language and now and then broke into loud laughter, hopping to and fro — now on the gunwales and benches, now on the bottom of the boat.
The ferryman steps out and finds his passengers: two will-o’-the-wisps — restless flame-beings who hiss in their own language and cannot sit still.
<p>The first travelers are Irrlichter, "errant lights," the marsh flames that lead night wanderers astray. Goethe gives them everything restless: they hover, they hiss in a language of their own, they laugh too loudly, they cannot keep to a seat. Set against them is the ferryman's single quiet clause, he "did not delay," and his usual skill. The tale's whole cast of characters will sort itself along this line: beings of flicker and beings of craft.</p><p>Notice that the wisps want to be "already" on the far shore: they wish the crossing over before it has begun. That impatience, desire skipping the labor between, is the first of the tale's many pictures of how not to reach the other side. The old man rows straight across anyway, at his own pace, and the reader learns the river's first rule: the crossing takes the time it takes.</p>
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