TWENTY GERMAN POETS

Books by Walter Kaufmann

NIETZSCHE

(1950)

CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

FROM SHAKESPEARE TO EXISTENTlALIS:M
THE FAITH OF A HERETIC

(195 8)
(1959)

(1961)

Verse
GOETHE'S FAUST: A NEW TRANSLATION

(1961 )

TWENTY GERMAN POETS (196~)

CAIN AND OTHER POEMS

(1962)

Prose. Translations
THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE

(1954)

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: ESSAYS BY LEO BAECK

(1958)

Editor
(1956)
(1961)
TO KANT (19 fh )
CAMUS (1961 )

EXISTENTIALISM FROM' DOSTOEVSKY TO SARTRE

PHILOSOPHIC CLASSICS: THALES TO ST. THOMAS

PHILOSOPIllC CLASSICS: BACON
RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO

 ....................................... .

TWENT~Y

GERMAN
POETS
A BILINGUAL COLLECTION
."'" -"",",

........ lP R ~t"GG,
V',--~.;;t.; .,,,~';'

Edited, Translated, a~d \ntroduced by

WALTER KAUFMANN

RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK

ANGRAU

831.08
N62
Acc No. 19438

The Editor wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the permission of the following publishers to reprint in this book
materials controlled by them:
Verlag Helmut Kiipper, Munich: for the poetry of
Stefan George.
S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: for the poetry of
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Franz Werlel.
R. Piper et Co. Verlag, Munich: for the epigrams of
Christian Morgenstern.
Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: for the poetry of
<;;hristian Morgenstern and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Otto Miiller Verlag, Salzburg: for the poetry of Georg Trakl.
Limes-Verlag, Wiesbaden: for the poetry of Gottfried Benn.
Phaidon Press, London: for the poetry of Klabund.
Atrium Verlag, London: for the poetry of Erich Kastner.
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: for the poetry of
Hermann Hesse.

FmST PRINTING

Copyright, 1962, by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and
Simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by Random House of
Canada, Limited.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-16288
Manufactured in the United States of America
by H. Wolff, New York

For
Dinah

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many of these poems I translated initially to be able

to share them with my wife, Hazel. This book 'developed
from our dialogue, and in the final stage our children,
Dinah and David-no longer children-participated. I am
also grateful to Alan Pearlman and Felix Kaufmann (or
helpful criticisms.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
GOETHE (1749-1832 )
Prometheus
Ganymede
Reviewer
Prom "Lila'
To Charlotte von Stein
On Lavater's Song of a
Christian to Christ
The Voice of Experien.ce
Thoughts by Night

9
13
15
17
17

~1

23
~3

Mignon
The Harp Player's Song
Prom "Tasso"
Seventeen "Venetian
Epigrams"
Nearness of Her Lover
Primeval Words:
Orphic
"Blessed Yearning

SCHILLER (1759-1805)
Archimedes and the
Student
Kant and His
Interpreters
Philosophical
Conversation
Deutsches Reich
German National
Character
The Highest
Immortality

45
45
45
47
47
47
47

59
59

~5
~7

Sl9
35
37
39
41

Class Distinction
The New Generation
Task
The Key
Political Doctrine
My Faith
The Difficult
Combination
The Master
Evening

49
49
49
49
51
51

Half of Life

61

HOLDERLIN (1770-1843)
Men's Applause
To the Parcae

~5

51
51
53
55

viii

[CONTENTS]

NOVALIS (1772-1801)
The Second of the
Hymns to the Night

67

The Rhymed Part of

the F ourth Hymn to
the Night

EICHENDORFF (178B-1857)
The Hermit

77

81

HEINE (1797-1856)

87

A Fir Tree
95
After Our Wedding Day 95
95
Songs of Creation

The Gods of Greece

Bertrand de Born
King David

MEYER (1825-1898)
Oars Pulled Up
In the Sistina

117
117

The Roman Fountain

The Feet in the Fire

109
III

119
121

127
133

NIETZSCHE (1844-190)
To the Unknown God
Undaunted
VademecumVadetecum
The Sage Speaks
Ecce Homo

103

113

DAHN (1834-1912)
Hagen's Dying Song

71

75

UHLAND (1787-1862)
Bertrand de Born

69

143
143
145
145
145

137
Star Morals
The Loneliest One
To .Goethe
To ihe Mistral
Venice
The Sun Sinks

145
147

147
149.
153

155

ix

[CONTENTS]

GEORGE

(1868-1933)

159
Who ever circled the
flame
One lore equal for all

Nietzsche
Another Poem on
Nietzsche

165

HOFMANNSTRAL

(1874- 1929)

The Two

175

MORGENSTERN

167

(1871- 1914)

To Nietzsche
The Scholar and
Goethe
L'art pour l'art

RILKE

183
183
183

The Economical Poet

Palmstrom
The Impossible Fact
The Glasses

199
20 3
205
205
207
209
211
211
2 13
215
221

Leda
Buddha in the Glory'
Song
Elegy IX
Sonnets to Orpheus
1.3: A god can do it
II.g: Jubilate not
II.I2: Choose to be
changed
Winged enchantment
As nature leaves
Dove that remained
outside

(1887-:-1914)

Untergang
Rest and Silence

175
179
183
183
18 5
187

223
223
225
227
233
233
235
235
237
239
241
243

249
249

WERFEL (1890--1945)
When You
, Enraptured Me

171

189

(1875-1926)

Rabbi Loew
To Stephan George
The Song of the Idiot
Love Song
Buddha
The Prisoner
The Panther
A Woman's Fate
Roman Fountain
Orpheus. Eurydice. '
Hermes
Archaic Torso of
Apollo

TRAKL

Ballad of Outer Life

169
169

257

Lament

25 1
253

[CONTENTS]

BENN (1886-1956)
Morgue
Beautiful Childhood
Cycle
Negro Bride

259
267
267
267
26 9

Man and Woman

Walk Through th~
Cancer Ward
Labor Room

KLABUND (1890-1928)
All That Comes To Be
After Tsui-Tao

279
279

275
Ride
Winter War

KASTNER (born 1899)

The Other Possibility
Ragout Fin De Siecle

HESSE
Alone

29 1
293

27 1
273

279
281
285

Legend, Not Quite

Housebroken

297

301

(born 1877)

30 5

INTRODUCTION
StriCtly speaking, this volume-is not an al!thology
-a collection of blossoms. There are places from 'which one
does not bring home Bowers to show what one has seen.
On the eve of the Second World War, many men of good
will said that they could not understand how the great
"people of poets and thinkers" could have produced the realities of the thirties. The legend gained popularity that there
were two kinds of Germans, two different traditions, one
good and one bad.
The excessive aestheticism of some anthologies abets such
notions. One picks pretty sentiments from Heine's early
poems, possibly also from Goethe's, emphasizes the romantics' lyric Bights, concentrates on nostalgia and unhappy
love, ignores everything in Goethe and Heine that bites,
leaves out Nietzsche and George's later verse, and stops with
Rilke. My point in including many previously untranslated
poems is not a mere desire for novelty and least of all the wish
to indict any poet: rather, this selection should facilitate a
better understanding of German poetry.
The English word "poetry" comes from the Greek word
for making. And much English poetry is indeed make-believe, contrivance, a world apart. The "metaphysicaY' poets
fashioned far-fetched images, so-called conceits. Milton,
Blake, and Yeats contrived mythological worlds of their own;
the romantics, poses. Gradually it came to be felt widely that
poetry is remote from life, and that whatever can be understood without much study can hardly be good poetry.
There are at least two types of esotericism. The first erects
barriers that study alone can surmount. The second requires
experience to be understood. Each is obviously compatible
with good verse as well as bad; and so are poems difficult in
both ways. But it is worth noting that opaqueness that demands glosses is no warrant of profundity, and that much of
the best German verse does not call for any commentary.

xii

[INTRODUCTION]

The German word for "poem," Gedicht, comes from dicht,

which means dense. The poet or Dichter is a condenser, and
many of the most renowned German poems are indeed pithy
and pregnant rather than make-believe. Three types of verse
have been cultivated far more by the best German poets
than by the most celebrated English poets since Shakespeare:
straightforward outbursts, poetic mainly in their concentrated
power; light verse offering serious thoughts and often acid
criticism; and Spruch-Dichtung, epigrammatic verse. By
omitting the last two genres and toning down the first, one
can assimilate German to English poetry and give a highly
misleading picture: that now current. The selections that follow do not go to the opposite extreme. The aim is rather to
create a characteristic image.
In the English-speaking world, the gap between the spoken
language and poetic convention had become so great by the
end of the Victorian era that some twentieth-century poets ~
have gone to extremes to overcome it. By contrast, most of
the best German poems had always stayed surprisingly close
to the spoken language. Not only Heine, Meyer, and Nietzsche are cases in point, but even much of Goethe's, Schiller's,
and Holderlin's verse. As a result, Rilke did not face the problems confronting Eliot, but could write in an idiom that is at
the same time strikingly poetic and extremely close to good
prose.
Translators who consider it part of their job to transpose
all they touch into whatever they consider either "poetic" or
the peculiar idiom of the twentieth century are bound to miss
points like this; and this is even more obviously true of those
who merely use foreign poems as a point of departure, feeling
free to "adapt." It is one of the most unusual features of the
translations that follow that they have all been made by a
single translator; and they might therefore be expected to
resemble each other rather closely in tone. My aim has been,
on the contrary, to make the translations extremely faithful,
not only in meaning but also in tone. .
Goethe should sound like Goethe, Heine like Heine, Rilke
like Rilke, and Kastner like Kastner. Even readers witli little
or no German should be able to feel what distinguishes

xiii

[INTRODUCTION]

Rilke's poetry, to what extent Kastner resembles Heine, where

Goethe was "romantic" and where he was "modem," or how
Klabund's re-creations of Chinese poems introduce a new
note. It is for this reason, not for the sake of any pedantry,
that I have generally followed the original meters and rhymes.
The reader should be in a position to note-in the translations,
too-the differences in tone even between the young Goethe
and the old Goethe, or the early and the late Rilke.
If some of my English versions are much more poetic than
others, and some not poetic at all, that in itself 'is not necessarily a measure of success and failure: the same differences
may exist between the originals, which are printed on facing
pages.
No poem has been included merely as a matter of obligation: all the German poems that follow strike me as very interesting. But that does not mean, of course, that I like all
of them equally well. My own favorites include Goethe's
"Prometheus" and "Blessed Yearning," Holderlin's "To the
Parcae;" Meyer's "Roman Fountain," Rilke's "Love Song,"
"Panther," "Archaic Torso," "Leda," and also his late poems.
But a collection like that, even if doubled or tripled in size,
would not give anything approximately a representative picture of German poetry; least of all could it tell the story that
the pages that follow are meant to tell.
The sequence of the poets, and of the poems by each poet,
is roughly chronological. Precision in this matter is impossible because Goethe, for example, outlived several younger
poets; many good poets have been contemporaries; and the
dates of the individual poems are not always known. Poems
by the same poet have always been kept together, arranged
as far as possible to reflect his development; and poets who
made their mark earlier have generally been placed before
those who published later.
Even so, there are gaps in our story. Some of these are filled
in the prefaces that precede the selections from every poet. Of
course, no history of German literature could be attempted in
this compass, nor even a discussion of all the poems included.
But some particularly relevant information is provided, and
a few allusions are explained.

xiv

[INTRODUCTION]

No suggestion whatsoever is intended that poems omitted

here are necessarily inferior to all those included, or even that.
all the poets represented here are superior to all the rest. To
give the most obvioUS example, many German poets have
written better verse than Dahn's; and yet the one poem by
Dahn that appears. in this volume strikes a note that is in
some ways more iInportant-and less dispensable-than the
addition of a few more poems that resemble Eichendorff's
<The Hermit," without quite equaling Eichendorff's superb
simplicity. And precisely in Dahn's case it seems essential to
stay close to the rhythm of the original, lest one falsify the
mood. Nietzsche's "To the Mistral" is another poem that depends utterly on its rhythm; and the same seems to me to be
true, if not quite so obviously, of Rilke's late poems. The
popular notion that one can keep the tone even if one changes
meaning and meter, substituting free verse for rhymed stanzas and introducing rhymes where there are none in the orig-'
inal, is surely false. What is perhaps true is that in translating
poetry from some other languages into English the tone of
the original cannot be preserved. In this respect, however,
translating German is happily easier than rendering some
other tongues into :E:nglish.
Strictly speaking-to repeat it once more-this volume is
not an anthology but aims to be a book of one piece. A few of
the translations were made as much as twenty years ago and
only slightly revised recently; many more were made this
past summer. But much that was done off and on over the
past 'twenty years was \eh out, and It gDDo. dea\ was dtme in
recent months because it seemed to me to belong in this vol-'
ume. The reader should not look upon this book as a meadow
in which he might pick a few flowers here and there, but
rather as a path thflt leads into the mountains and gradually
offers a view.
W.K.

Princeton,
, November 25, 1961

JOHANN

WOLFGANG
VON GOETHE

Goethe, who coined the word Weltliteratur

(world literature), was the first German po~t to find a
world-wide audience during his lifetime. His early novel,
Die Leiden des iungen Werthers (1774, The Sufferings of
Young Werther) was an international success. His later
novels and his plays also won wide respect from the
start; and his Faust (A Fragment, 1790; Part One, 1808)
was immediately regarded as the most ambitious and
significant German drama. Goethe was a scientist and a _
statesman too, and approximated the Renaissance ideal
of the universal man.
None of his achievements, however, rival the popularity of his poems. His rank as Germany's greatest poet is
as secure as Shakespeare's claim to being England's outstanding dramatist. Not only literary historians, teachers,
and the German people generally are agreed on this: almost all subsequent German poets have looked on
Goethe as a titan; even those, like Novalis, Heine, and
Nietzsche, who were occasionally sharply critical of him.
Of the poems that follow, a few may require some
comments. "Prometheus" was written as part of a play
by the same name; but the play remained a fragment..
The poem was first printed by F. H. Jacobi in his anony-

[GOETHE]

mously published book, Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza

(1785, On the Teaching of Spinoza). The crux of this
volume was that Lessing, the great German poet and
critic, was said to have avowed his Spinozism shortly before his death in 1781; and "Spinozism" was then considered a euphemism for atheism. On page ll, Jacobi reported a ~onversation in which he had said to Lessing:
"~ere is a poem: you have often given offense; now it is
your turn to take it for once." At this point a footnote
follows-or rather two footnotes, depending on the edition. (I have a copy in which there are two pages ll, one
with the .one footnote, the other with the alternative.)
One footnote reads: "See the poem at the end . . ." The
other footnote says: "This poem, which attacks all providence in very harsh terms, cannot be printed here, for
good reasons." A postscript at the end of the book informs the reader: "The poem 'Prometheus' is to be ins~rted between pages 48 and 49. It has been printed
separately [without page numbers], so anybody who
would rather not have it in his copy need not have it
there. And another consideration, too, has led me to
. adopt this procedure. It is not altogether impossible that
my volume might be confiscated here or there on account of 'Prometheus.' I am hoping that in such places
one will be satisfied to remove only the punishable separate pages. When the poem is left out, pages II and 12
are cut out and the alternative pages are substituted."
After he had read the poem, Lessing said, "as he gave
it back to me: I did not take offense; I have long had
this firsthand. I: You know the poem? Lessing: The poem
I had not read before, but I find it good. I: In its own
way I do, too; otherwise I should not have shown it to

[GOETHE]

you. Lessing: I do not mean that. The point of view

expressed in this poem is my own point of view. Orthodox conceptions of the deity are no longer for me; I
cannot endure them. Hen kai pan [One and All]! I know
nothing else. That is where this poem points, too. And
I must confess, I like it very much. I: Then you would
seem to agree pretty much with Spinoza. Lessing: If I
had to name my outlook after anyone, I could not think
of a better name."
The 'following year, Jacobi published, under his own
name, a reply to Moses Mendelssohn's attack on his volume, insisting that he was right about Lessing's agreement with Spinoza; the polemiC continued; and in 1789 "
a second revised edition of the original volume appeared. These polemics gradually led to the rehabilitation of Spinoza's name, chiefly at the hands of Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel. Ever since, Spinoza has been generally acclaimed as one of the greatest philosophers of
all time, and knowledge of his works has grown to the
point where Goethe's "Prometheus" no longer strikes u~
as particularly "Spinozistic." Its mood is quite different
from Spinoza's Ethics with its celebrated geometric
method. Brief and powerful, it may well be one of the
greatest poems of all time: a truly classical statement.
Even as this poem transcends Prometheus' defiance of
Zeus, "Ganymede" does not merely deal with the story
in which Zeus, in the form of an eagle, carried off a
youth to whom he had taken a fancy. It is a harbinger
of romanticism. To do justice to "Ganymede," one has to
keep in mind that, like "Prometheus" and "Reviewer,'"
it was written in the early seventeen-seventies, more
than twenty years before Keats was born. (Wordsworth

[GOETHE]

was born in 1170, Shelley in 179?-, Keats in 1795.)

Goethe was decidedly a revolutionary who spurned the
styles perfected by others. Before a group of poets in
Germany called itself "romantic," in part to distinguish
itself from Goethe's and Schiller's "classicism," Goethe
himself had long mocked the weaknesses of romanticism
through the mouth of Mephistopheles, in Faust.
"Scared Hesitation" and the poem addressed to Charlotte von Stein were written in the late seventies. Frau
von Stein (1742-1827), the wife of a functionary at the
Weimar court, was one of the most important women in
Goethe's life; and their correspondence has been published in two volumes. The heroine of Goethe's Iphigenie
(1787) is a highly idealized portrait of her in the role of
sister-a notion alluded to in the poem translated here.
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801), ridiculed in the
next poem, was a minister in Zurich and is remembered
chiefly for his studies of phYSiognomy. Mignon is a figure in Goethe's novel, Wilhelm Meister, which was originally published in installments (1795ff.); but her song,
like the three poems preceding it, was written during
the eighties. The song of the Harp Player is also from
Wilhelm Meister.
Tasso (1790)~ like Iphigenie, has only five dramatis
personae; and these two plays mark the culmination of
Goethe's so-called classicism. For all their "classical"
!estraint, however, many scholars, especially outside
Germany, consider some of the works of this period
"romantic." Indeed, Goethe himself is occasionally classified as a romantic, although he identified ~e classical
with the healthy and the romantic with the sick, and
juxtaposed Tasso with Antonio.

[GOETHE]

To avoid misunderstanding him, one must remember

that Goethe was never quite like his Faust; that he always was Mephistopheles, too. In a selection from his
poems, this point is probably best made by offering
some of his Venetian Epigrams (~79()), including several
that are still omitted in almost all editions-as Jacobi
might have said, "for good reasons." The point is not to
give offense but to create a true image of Goethe. When
he has not been pictured as a romantic, he has often
been presented as an "Olympian" incarnation of propriety, if not downright stuffiness. In fact, he never
bowed to convention in what truly mattered to him.
Beethoven's celebrated refusal to take a bow when the
duke's party passed seemed silly to Goethe-as did
Beethoven's lecturing him on his behavior toward Bettina von Arnim who had publicly quarreled with
Goethe's wife at a time when Weimar society spurned
her. Goethe and Christiane Vulpius had married only
when their son, August, was seventeen.
Some of the Epigrams were first published in 1915;
but for any discussion of the history of style and of
Goethe's modernity they are all relevant. In the most
complete German edition, edited by Dr. Otto Deneke
(Berlin, Hyperionverlag, no date, limited edition of 1200
copies), the epigrams that follow bear the numbers: 13,
19, 20, 25, 26, 30, 69, 77, 81, 89, 96, 105, l11a, 115, 119,
120, and 136. In the last edition of Goethe's works that
was published under his supervision, the so-called Ausgabe letzter Hand, Vol. I (1827), the numbers are different, and several of those offered here are missing: 11, -,
-, -, 12, 15, -, 52, -, -, -, 66, -, 73, -, -, 88. In that
edition there were 103 epigrams in all, while the Deneke

[GOETHE]

volume contains 158. The reason fo!, including so many

that the poet himself did not, and could not, publish is,
to say it once more briefly, to document the Mephistophelian side of Goethe.
"Nearness of Her Lover" was written in the nineties;
so were many of Goethe's best ballads, which are not included in this volume. I particularly admire "The God
and the Bayadere" and "The Pariah"; but both of these
ballads are exceedingly long.
The old Goethe cultivated two new kinds of verse.
His attempts to present ultimate wisdom in rhymes are
here represented by the first and probably best of his
five "Orphic" stanzas, each of which bears a Creek name.
They were written in 1817. The other new path he
struck led to a whole volume of verse, published in 1819
when he was seventy: West-Ostlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan). Here he paid homage to Persian poetry,
especially to the fourteenth-century poet Hafiz. Later,
such poets as Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866) and August Graf Platen-Hallermunde (1796-1835) followed in
Goethe's wake and became virtuosos in Oriental forms.
"Blessed Yearning" is a wisdom poem from the Divan,
and generally acknowledged to be one of several gems
from that collection.
My translation of "Blessed Yearning" was first published in my Critique of Religion and Philosophy (Section 7), where the image of the butterfly, in a context in
which one wQuld expect a moth, is discussed. A similar
image is used in the first selection from Tasso. My From
Shakespeare to Existentialism contains four chapters on
Goethe, including one on "Goethe versus Romanticism."

[GO}l:THE]

PROMETHEUS
Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus,
Mit W olkendunst
Und ube, dem Knaben gleich,
Der Disteln kapft,
An Eichen dich und BergeshOhn;
Musst mir meine Erde
Doch lassen stehn
Und meine Hutte, die du nicht gebaut,
Und meinen Herd,
Um dessen Glut
Du mich beneidest.
Ich kenne nichts Armeres
Unter der Sonn als euch, Gatter!
Ihr nahret kiimmerlich
Von Opfersteuern
Und Gebetshauch
Eure Maiestat
Und darbtet, waren
Nicht Kinder und Bettler
HofJnungsvolle Toren.
Da ich ein Kind war,
wusste, wo aus noch ein,
Kehrt ich mein verirrtes Auge
Zur Sonne, als wenn driiber war
Ein Ohr, zu haren meine Klage,
Ein H erz wie meins,
Sich des Bedrangten zu erbarmen.

Nic~t

[GOETHE]

PROMETHEUS
Cover your heavens, Jove,
with misty clouds
and'practice, like a boy
beheading thistles,
on oaks and mountain peaks!
My earth you must leave me
still standing,
and my cottage, which you did. not build,
and my hearth
whose warmth
you envy me.
I know nothing poorer
under the sun than you gods!
Wretchedly you nourish
your majesty
on sacrificial tolls
and flimsy prayers,
and would starve if children
and beggars were not
hopeful fools.
When I was a child,
not knowing my way,
I turned my erring eyes
sunward, as if above there were
an ear to hear my lamentation,
a heart like mine
to care for the distressed.

[GOETHE]

10

Wer half mir

Wider der Titanen Obermut?
Wer rettete vom Tode mich,
Von Sklaverei?
Hast du nicht alles selbst vollendet,
Heilig gliihend H erz?
Und gliihtest jung und gut,
Betrogen, Rettungsdank
Dem Schlafenden da draben?
Ich dich ehren? Wafiir?
Hast du die Schmerzen gelindert
Ie des Beladenen?
Hast du die Triinen gestillet
I e des Geiingsteten?
Hat nicht mich zum Manne geschmiedet
Die allmiichtige Zeit
Und das ewige Schicksal,
Meine H errn und deine?
Wiihntest du etwa,
Ich saUte das Leben hassen,
In Wiisten fliehen,
Weil nicht alle
Bliitentriiume reiften?
H ier sitz ich, forme M enschen

Nach meinem Bilde,

Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei,
Zu lei den, zu weinen,
Zu geniessen und zu fi-euen sich,
Und dein nicht zu achten,
Wie ich!

[GOETHE]

11

Who helped me
against the Titans' wantin insolence?
Who rescued me from death,
from slavelo/?
Have you not done all this yourself,
my holy glowing heart?
.
And young and good, you glowed,
betrayed, with thanks for rescue
to him who slept above.
I honor you? For what?
Have you ever eased the suffering
of the oppressed?
Have 'fou ever stilled the tears
of the frightened?
Was I not welded to manhood
by almighty Time
and et~rnal Fate,
my masters and yours?
Did you fancy perchance
that I should hate life
and fly to the desert
because not all
by blossom dreams ripened?
Here I sit, forming men
in my own image,
a race to be like me,
to suffer, to weep,
to delight and to rejoice,
and to defy you,
as I do.

[GOETHE]

l2

GANYMED
Wie im Morgenglanze
Du rings mich angWhst,
Friihling, Geliebter!
Mit tausendfaoher Liebeswonne
Sich an mein H erz drangt
Deiner ewigen Warm~
Heilig Gefiihl,
Unendliche SchOne!
Dass ich dich fassen mocht'
In diesen Arm!
Ach, an deinem Busen
Lieg ich, schmachte,
Und deine Blumen, dein Gras
Drangen sich an mein H erz.
Du kiihlst den brennenden
Durst meines Busens,
Lieblicher Morgenwind!
Ruft drein die Nachtigall
Liebend nach mir aus dem Nebeltal.
Ich komm, ich komme!
W ohin? Ach, wohin?
Hinauf! Hinauf strebt's.
Es schweben die Wolken
Abwiirts, die Wolken
Neigen sich der sehnenden Liebe.

13

[GO:f;THE]

GANYMEDE
How in morning splendor
you glow at me,
Spring, my beloved!
With thousandfold loving caresses
your etern~l warmth's
holy feeling
surges toward my heart,
infinite beauty!
That I might welcome you
in this arm!
Ah, at your bosom
I lie and languish,
and yo~u flowers and grass
s~ge toward my heart.
You cool the burning
thirst of my bosom,
lovely wind of the morning!
Out of the misty vale
the lOving nightingale calls me.
I come, I am comingl
Whither? Ah, whither?
Up! Up it strives.
The clouds are floating
downwards, the clouds are
coming to meet my love's longing.

[GOETHE]
Mir! Mir!
In euerm Sclwsse

Aufwarts!
Umfangend umfangen!
Aufwarts an deinen Busen,
AllliebefJ,der Vaterl

REZENSENT

Va hatt ich einen Kerl zu Gast,

Er war mir eben nicht :wr Last;
Ich hatt just mein gewohnlich Essen,
Hat sich der Kerl pumpsatt gefressett,
Zum Nachtisch, was ich gespeichert hatt.
Und kaum ist mir der Kerl so satt,
Tut ihn der Teufel zum Nachbar fiihren,
aber mein Essen zu riisonnieren:
Vie Supp hatt konnen gewiirzter sein,
Ver Braten brauner, firner der Wein.
Ver Tausendsackerment!
Schlagt ihn tot, den Hund! Es ist ein Rezensent:

(GOETHEl

Minel Minel
In your lap
upwards!
Embracing, embraced!
Upwards towards your bosom,
All-loving Fatherl

REVIEWER
A fellow came to dine with me,
I did not mind his company;
I had my customary dinner,
he gorged himself, did not grow thinner,
and then he drank many a cup.
When he is thoroughly filled up,
the devil moves him to drop in next door,
where the rascal feels called upon to deplore
that the soup did not have quite enough spice,
and the roast was too rare, and the wine not nice.
Filth, fire, and manure!
Beat him to death! The dog is a reviewer.

[GOETHE]

[FElGER GEDANKEN]
Feiger Gedanken
Biingliches Schwanken,
Weibisches Zagen,
Angstliches Klagen
Wendet kein Elend,
Macht dich nicht frei.
Allen Gewalten
Zum Trutz sich erhalten;
Nimmer sich beugen,
Kriiftig sich zeigen,
Rufet die Arme
Ver Gotter herbei.

AN CHARLOTTE VON STEIN

Warum gabst du uns die tiefen Blicke,
Unsre Zukunft ahndungsvoll zu schaun,
Unsrer Liebe, unserm Erdengliicke
Wiihnend selig nimmer hinzutraun?
Warum gabst uns, Schicksal, die Gefiihle,
Uns einander in das Herz zu sehn,
Um durch all die seltenen Gewiihle
Unser wahr Verhiiltnis auszuspiihn?

[GOETHE]

FROM "LILA"
Scared hesitation,
procrastination,
womanish sighing,
cowardly crying
changes no odds
and makes you not free.
Sta:r;tding upright
all powers to spite,
never submit,
prove yourself fit:
that will invoke
the aid of the gods.

TO CHARLOTTE VON STEIN

Why did you grant us the searching glance
that forebodes the future and, 0 Fate,
forbids blissful blindness, trust in chance?
Why did you grant eyes that penetrate
love and happiness and all illusion,
make us see the other's heart, inspect
every urge till through the strange confusion
our true relation we detect?

18

[GOETHE)

Ach, SO viele tausend Menschen kennen,

Dumpf sich treibend, kaum ihr eigen Herz,
Schweben zwecklos hin und her und rennen
H offnungslos in unversehnen Schmerz;
lauchzen wieder, wenn der schnellen Freuden
Unerwart'te Morgenrote tagt.
Nur uns armen liebevollen beiden
1st das wechselseit'ge Gliick versagt,
Uns zu lieben, ohn uns zu verstehen,
In dem andern sehn, was er nie war,
Immer frisch auf Traumgliick auszugehen
Und zu schwanken auch in Traumgefah r .
Gtut:hdc, den ein leenrr Traum l.Je;s-dcif{tfgtf
Gliicklich, dem die Ahndung eitel war'!
] ede Gegenwart und jeder Blick bekraftigt
Traum und Ahndung leider uns noch mehr.
Sag, was will das Schicksa1 uns bereiten?
Sag, wie band es uns so rein genau?
Ach du warst in abgelebten Zeiten
Meine Schwester oder meine Frau.

Kanntest jeden Zug in meinem Wesen,

Spahtest, wie die reinste Nerve klingt,
Konntest mich mit einem Blicke 1esen,
Den so schwer ein sterblich Aug durchdringt.
Tropftest Massigung dem heissen B1ute"
Richtetest den wilden irren Lauf,
Und in deinen Engelsal'men ruhte
Die zerstorte Brust sich wieder aUf;
H ieltest zauberleicht ihn aJ1gebunden
Und vergaukeltest ihm manchen Tag.

[GOETH~]

Thousands, drifting dully, scarcely know

their own hearts, are heedless of the morrow,
run, while blindly drifting to and fro,
hopeless into unexpected sorrow;
jubilate again when quick joys' tide
breaks like unexpected dawn above.
But such mutual pleasure is denied
to our wretched loving hearts: to love
.each the other without understanding,
see the other as he never was,
.tirelessly dreamlike bliss demanding,
dreading only an imagined cause.

Happy whom an empty dream oppressed,

who his vain forebodings can ignore!
Every presence, every glance attest
our dreams and dread forebodings more.
What plans our fate yet to bestow?
How were we so closely matched in life?
Ah, you were in times lived long ago
my beloved sister or my wife.
Every feature of my soul you knew,
felt if but the slightest nerve was sounded;
with a single glance you read me through,
whom no other mortal has expounded;
soothed the raging blood with measured charms,
straightened out its course, wild and insane,
and through rest in your angelic arms
was the ravaged breast restored agai.n.
Lightly holding him with magic powers,
you would charm the pleasant days away.

20

[GOETHE]

Welche Seligkeit glich ;enen W onne~unden,

Da er dankbar dir zu Fiissen lag,
F iihlt sein H erz an deinem H erzen schwellen,
Fiihlte sich in deinem Auge gut,
Alle seine Sinnen sich erhellen
Und beruhigen sein brausend Blutl
Und von allem dem schwebt ein Erinnern
Nur noch um das ungewisse Herz,
Fiihlt die aite Wahrheit ewig gleich im Innern,
Und der neue Zustand wird ihm Schmerz.
Und wir scheinen uns nur halb beseelet,
Dammernd ist um uns der hellste Tag.
Gliicklich, dass das Schicksal, das Url8 quaIet,
Uns doch nicht verandern mag!

AUF LAVATERS
LIED EINES CHRISTEN AN CHRISTUS
Du bist! du bist! sagt Lavater, Du bistl!
Du bist/!! du bistl!!l du bist Herr Jesus Christ!!!ll
Er wiederholte nicht so heftig Wort und Lehre,
Wenn es ganz just mit dieser Sache ware.

[GOETHE]

21

And no bliss could equal those sweet hours

when at your feet gratefully he lay,
when he felt his heart at your heart swell, .
all his brightened senses would increase,
when you looked at him his soul grew well
and his roaring blood at last found peace.
And of all this, reminiscence hovers
over our hearts' uncertainty;
the forgotten truth felt by the lovers
fi~ their present state with agony.
And we seem to be but half alive,
dusk around us is the brightest day.
BlesseD that Fate, whatever jt conbive,
cannot alter our way.

ON LAVATER'S SONG OF
A CHRISTIAN TO CHRIST
"Thou art! Thou art!!" Lavater says. "Thou artll
Thou art!!! Thou art!l!l Thou art, Christ Our Lordlllll"
He would not be so violent in his repetition
if it were not a questionable proposition.

[GOETHE]

22

DER ERFAHRENE
ANTWORTEN BEl EINEM
GESELLSCHAFTLICHEN FRAGESPIEL

Geh den Weibern zart entgegen:

Du gewinnst sie, auf mein Wort!
U nd wer rasch ist und verwegen,
Kommt vielleicht noch besser fort.
Doch wem wenig dran gelegen
Scheinet, ob er reizt und riihrt,
Der beleidigt, der verfiihrt.

NACHTGEDANKEN
Euch bedaur ich, ungliicksefge Sterne,
Die ihr schon seid und so herrlich scheinet,
Dem bedriingten Schiffer gerne leuchtet,
Unbelohnt von Gottern und von Menschen:
Denn ihr Ziebt nicht, kanntet nie die Liebe!
Unaufhaltsam fiihren ew'ge Stunden
Eure Reihen durch den weiten Himmel.
Welche Reise habt ihr schon vollendet,
Seit ich, weilend in dem Arm der Liebsten,
Euer und deT Mitternacht vergessen!

[GOETHE]

23

THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

Meet women with tender bearing,
you will conquer them, I bet;
and the quick man who is daring
will perhaps do better yet;
but the man who seems uncaring
what response he may unloose
will offend and thus seduce.

THOUGHTS BY NIGHT
You I pity, miserable stars,
that are fair and shine so splendidly,
lend your light to distressed fishermen,
unrewarded both by men and gods;
for you love not, never knew what love is!
But relentlessly eternal hours
lead your legions through the far-flung heavens.
Ah, what journey have you just completed
since I, resting in my loved one's arms,
did not even think of you or midnight.
--~-.
~-l
\ ,~-"" ..,
,,',_c

/,

~C~,~
, - .......... - -.'''\'

" ....

...

r/,
t'

~\~.
. "
\

...

>

~
~

"~"'
..'\
: \'\
"...
'.

, ,..

[GOETHE1

24
MIGNON

Heiss mich nicht reden, heiss mich schweigen,

Denn mein Geheimnis ist mir Pflicht;
[ch mochte dir mein ganzes Innre zeigen,
Allein dfl8 Schieksal will es nicht.
Zur reehten Zeit vertreibt der Sonne Lauf
Die finstre Nacht, und sie muss sich erhellefl,;
Der harte Fels schliesst seinen Busen auf,
M issgonnt der Erde nicht die tiefverborgnen Quellen.
Ein ieder sucht im Arm des Freundes Ruh,
Dart kann die Brust in Klagen sich ergiessefJ.;
AUein ein Schwur driickt mir die Lippen zu,
U nd nur ein Gott vermag sie aufzuschliesse n .

HARFENSPIELER
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tranen ass,
Wer nie die kummervollen Nachte
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass,
Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte.
Ihr fiihrt ins Leben uns hinein,
Ihr lasst den Armen schuldig werden,
Dann iiberlasst ihr ihn der Pein;
Denn alle Schuld racht sich aUf Erden.

[GOETHE]

MIGNON
Bid me not speak, bid me be still
because my secret is my writ;
to show you all my heart would be my will,
but fate does not permit.
In time dispels the sun's eternal course
the gloomy night, and it submits to dawn;
the rigid rock itself must burst perforce
that hidden wells break out into the thirsty lawn
In friend's embrace all agony is healed.
and weary souls can be restored to hope;
alas, an oath keeps my lips ever sealed,
and but a god has power to break them open.

THE HARP

P~AYER'S

SONG

Who never ate with tears his bread,

who never through night's grievous hours
sat sleepless, weeping on his bed,
he does not know you, heaven's powers.
You lead us into life's domain,
you catch the poor in guilt and dearth,
and then you leave him to his pain:
avenged is every guilt on earth.

['GOETHE]

TORQUATO TASSO FVNFTER AUFZUG

AUS DEM ZWEITEN AUFfRlTT

Wenn ich nicht sinnen oder dichten soll,

So ist das Leben mir kein Leben mehr.
Verbiete du dem Seidenwurm, zu spinnen,
Wenn er sich schon dem Tode niiher spinnt:
Das kostliche Geweb entwickelt er
Aus seinem Innersten, und liisst nicht ab,
Bis er in seinen Sarg sich eingeschlossen.
o geb ein guter Gatt uns auch dereinst,
Das Schicksal des beneidenswerten Wurms.
1m neuen Sonnental die FlUgel rasch
U nd freudig zu entfalten!
AUS DEM FiiNFTEN AUFTRITT

Und bin ich denn so elend, wie ich scheine?

Bin ich so schwach, wie ich vor dir mich zei!
1st alles denn verloren? Hat der Schmerz,
Als schiitterte der Boden, das Gebiiude
In einen grausen Haufen Schutt verwandelt?
1st kein Talent mehr iibrig, tausendfiiltig
Mich zu zerstreun, zu unterstiitzen? ...
Nei11;, alles ist dahin!-Nur eines bleibt:
Die Triine hat uns die Natur verliehen,
Den Schrei des Schmerzens, wenn der Mann zuletzt
Es nicht mehr triigt-Und mir noch iiber al{esSie liess im Schmerz mir Melodie und Rede,
Die tiefste Fiille meiner Not zu klagen:
Und wenn der Mensch in seiner Qual verstummt,
Gab mir ein Gatt, zu sagen, wie ich leide.

27

[GOETHE]

TORQUATO TASSO ACT V

FROM SCENE 2

If I may not reflect and fashion poems,

then is my life no longer life to me.
As soon forbid the silkworm to spin on
when he is spinning himself close to death!
The precious substance he develops freely
out of his inmost parts and does not cease
till he has sealed himself into his coffin.
TI;at a good god might give us, too, in future
the sweet fate of the enviable worm,
that in a sun-drenched valley we might swiftly
unfold delighted wings.
FROM SCENE

Am I indeed as wretched as I seem?

Am I as weakas I have shown myself?
Has everything been lost? Has suffering,
as if the ground had quaked, changed the great castle
into a gruesome pile of burnt-out rubble?
Is there no talent left that thousandfold
could entertain me or support? ...
No, everything is gonel-One thing remains:
the tear that nature has bestowed on us,
the sc~eam of pain when man can in the end
no longer bear it-and to me yet morein pain she left me melody and speech
to mourn the deepest fullness of my grief:
And when man in his agony grows mute,
a god gave me to utter what I suffer.

28

[GOETH~]

AUS VENEZIANISCHE EPIGRAM ME"

1

Wie sie klingeln, die PfafJenl Wie angelegen sie's machen,

Dass man komme, nur fa plappre, wie gestern so heut!
Scheltet mir nicht die PfafJen; sie kennen des Menchen
Bedurfnis!
Denn wie ist er begliickt, plappert er morgen wie heut!
2

"Warum willst du den Christen des Glaubens selige

Wonne
Grausam rauben?" Nicht ich, niemand verma$ es ZU~
tun.
Steht doch deutlich geschrieben: die Heiden toben
vergeblich.
,
Seht, ich erfulle die Schrift, lest und erbaut euch an
mir.

3
luden und Heiden hinaus! so duldet der christliche
Schwiirmer.
Christ und Heide verfluchtl murmelt ein judischer Bart.
Mit den Christen an Spies und mit den Juden ins Feuer!
Singet ein tfirkisches Kind Christen und Juden zum
Spott.
Welcher ist der Kliigste? Entscheide! Aber sind diese
Narren in deinem Palast, Gottheit, so geh ichvorbei.
4

Was vom Christentum gilt, gilt von den Stoikern: freien,

Menschen geziemet es nicht, Christ oder Stoiker sein.

lGOETHE]

S:E:VENTEEN "VENETIAN EPIGR~MS"

1

HoW they ring their bells, these priests! How pressing

they make it
that one should come and prate as one did yesterday,
now!
Do not berate the priests; they fathom the needs of men!
For how happy are men, prating tomorrow as now.
2

'Why would you cruelly steal from the Christians the

blissful rapture
of their dear faith?" Not I, nobody could do that.
Is it not clearly written? The heathen are raging in vain.
See, I full the Word; read and be edified.

3
Jews and heathen away! is the tolerance of the Christian.
Christian and heathen be damnedl murmurs a Jewish
beard.
C}uistians ought to be stabbed, and Jews consigned to
the flames!
Thus sings a Turkish child, scorning both Christians
and Jews.
Which of these is the wisest? Decide it! But as long as
these
fools abound in your palace, Godhead, I pass it by.
4
What applies to the Christians, is also true of the Stoics:
Free human beings could not choose to be Christian
or Stoic.

30

[GOETHE]

5
Mache der Schwiirmer sich Schuler wie Sand am Meereder Sand ist
Sand; die Perle sei mein, du, 0 vernunftiger Freund!
6
SchUler macht sich der Schwiirmer genug und ruhret die
Menge,
Wenn der vernunftige Mann einzelne Liebende ziihlt.
Wundertiitige Bilder sind meist nur schlechte Gemiilde:
Werke des Geist's und der Kunst sind fur den Pabel
nicht da.
7

Zurnet nicht, ihr Frauen, dass wir das Miidchen

bewundern:
Ihr geniesset des Nachts, was sie am Abend erregt.
8
leglichen Schwarmer schlagt mir an Kreuz im dreissig.
stenlahre;
Kennt er nur einmal die Welt, wird der Betrogne der
Schelm.

Dich betriegt der Staatsmann, der PfafJe, der Lehrer dir

Sitten,
Und dies Kleeblatt, wie tief betest du Pabel.es an.
Leider liisst sich noch kaum was rechtes denken und
sagen,
Vas nicht grimmig den Staat, Gotter und Sitten
verletzt.

[GOETHE]

31

5
Though the enthusiast have pupils like sand at the seathe sand is
sand; let the pearl be mine, 0 my rational friend.
6

More than enough disciples gains the enthusiast and

moves
. crowds. But the rational man finds only few that love
him.
Miracle-working pictures are mostly wretched paintings:
works of the spirit and art do not exist for the mob.

7
Do not be angry, women, when we admire a girl:
what in the evening she stirs, you will enjoy at night.

8
Every enthusiast nail to the cross in his thirtieth yearl
Once they see through the world, those taken in become knaves.

9
You are deceived by statesmen, priests and the teachers
of morals;
and this cloverleaf, mob, how you like to adore itl
Even today there's, ala~, little worth thinking and saying
that does not grievously Hout mores, the state, and the
gods.

[GOETHE]

10

Alle Weiber sind Waare, mehr oder weniger kostet

Sie den begierigen Mann, der sich zum Handel
entschliesst.
GZUcklich ist die Bestiindige, die den Bestiindigen findet,
Einmal nur sich verkauft und auch nur einmal gekauft
wird.
11

Das Gemeine lockt ;eden; sie"Mt du in Kiirze von vie len

Etwas geschehen, sogleich denke nur: "Dies ist
gemein."
12

Vieles kann ich ertragen. Die meisten beschwerlichen

Dinge
Duld' ich mit ruhigem Mut, wie es ein Gatt mir gebeut.
Wenige sind mir jedoch wie Gift und Schlange zuwider,
Viere: Rauch des Tabaks, Wanzen und Knoblauch
undt

13
Wundern kann es mich nicht, dass unser Herr Christus
mit Dirnen
Gern und mit Siindern gelebt, geMs mir doch eben
at!ch so.

14
Wundern kann es mich nicht, dass Menschen die Hunde
so liehen:
Denn ein erbiirmlicher Schuft ist, wie der Mensch, so
der Hund.

[GOETHE]

33
10

Women are all of them chattels; more or less is the price

for the desirous man who is resolved to purchase.
Happy is she that is constant and finds one equally constant,
selling herself only once, purchased once only, too.

11

What is common lures all; if you should find soon that

many
take the same line, at once pause and reflect: "This
is common!"

12

Much there is I can stand, and most things not easy to

suffer
I bear with quiet resolve, just as a god commands it.
Only a few I find as repugnant as snakes and poisonthese four: tobacco smoke, bedbugs, garlic, and cross.

13
I cannot be surprised that Christ, our Lord, liked to be
with
harlots and people who sinned; that is the case with
me, too.

14
I cannot be surprised that men should dote so on dogs:
for a contemptible wretch man is as well as the dog.

1GOETHE]

34

15
"Wagst du deutsch zu schreiben unziemliche Sachen?"
Mein Guter,
Deutsch dem kleinen Bezirk leider is!; griechisch der
Welt.

16
Gib mir statt "Der Sch . ... ein ander Wort, 0 Priapus,
Denn ich Deutscher, ich bin iibel als Dichter geplagt.,..
Griechisch nenn ich dich cpaAAo>, das kliinge doch
\J
priichtig den Ohren,
.
Und lateinisch ist auch mentula leidlich ein Wort.
Mentula kiime von mens, der Sch . ... ist etwas von hinten,
Und nach hinten war mir niemals ein froher Genuss.

17
1st es dir Ernst, so zaudre nun langer nicht; mache mich
gliicklich!
W olltest du scherzen? es sei, Liebchen, des Scherze~
genug!

NAHE DES GELIEBTEN

Ich denke dein, wenn mir def Sonne Schimmer
Vom Meere strahlt;
Ich denke dein, wenn Sich des Mondes Flimmer
In Quellen malt.

[GOETHE]

35

15
"You dare to write indecent matters in German?" Dear
fellow,
what appears plain to the few, is, alas, Greek to the
world.

16
Give me in place of der Schwanz another word, 0
Priapus;
for as a German I have problems enough as a poet.
Greek I could call you phallos, which would sound noble
- and splendid;
and in Latin there is mentula, still a good word:
Mentula comes from mens, while der Schwanz is something behind,
and behind was for me never a real delight.

17
If you are serious, don't hesitate longer but make
me happy!
If you were joking, the time, love, for joking is passed.

NEARNESS OF HER LOVER

I think of you when the sun's glorious shimmer
shines from the sea;
I think of you when the moon's pallid glimmer
edges the tree.

[GOETHE]

Ich sehe dich wenn aut dem fernen Wege

Der Staub sich hebt;
In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege
Der Wandrer bebt.
lch hare dich, wenn dart mit dumpfem Rauschen
Die Welle steigt;
1m stillen Raine geh ich oft zu lauschen,
Wenn alles schweigt.
Ich bin bei dir, du seist auch noch so ferne,
Du bist mir nah!
Die Sonne sinkt, bald leuchten mir die Sterne.
o witrst du da!

URWORTE. ORPHISCH
t:.AlMnN

Wie an dem Tag, der dich der Welt verliehen,

Die Sonne stand zum Grusse der Planeten,
Bist also bald und fort und fort gediehen
Nach dem Gesetz, wonach du angetreten.
So musst du sein, dir kannst du nicht entfliehen,
So sagten schon Sibyllen, so Propheten;
Und keine Zeit und keine Macht zerstiickelt
Gepritgte Form, die Ie bend sich entwickelt.

.
I behold you when on the distant ridge

37

[GOETHE]

the dust throws veils,

in deepest night when on the narrow bridge
the wanderer quails.
I hear your voice when roaring billows glisten
in thunderous riot.
In the still grove I often walk to listen
when all is quiet.
I am with you, however far you are,
~ I feel you near.
The sun goes down, soon comes the evening star.
That you were here!

PRIMEVAL WORDS: ORPHIC

DAIMON
As on the day that gave you to the earth
the sun responded to the planets' spinning,
you have been growing ever since your birth
after the law that governed your beginning.
You cannot flee yourself or change your worth,
thus Sybils have and Prophets long been dinning;
no lapse of time nor any force dissolves
a form, once stamped, that through its life evolves.

[GOETHE]

SELIGE SEHNSUCHT
Sagt es niemand, nur den Weisen,
Weil die Menge gleich verhOhnet:
Das Lebenage will ich preisen
Das nach Flammentod sich sehnet.
In der Liebesniichte Kiihlung,
Die dich zeugte wo du zeugtest,
Vbet/allt dich fremde Fiihlung
Wenn die stille Kerze leuchtet.
Nicht mehr bleibest du umfangen
In der Finsternis Beschattung,
Und dicht reisset neu Verlangen
Auf zu hOherer Begattung.
Keine Ferne macht dich schwierig,
Kommst geflogen und gebannt,
Und zuletzt, des Lichts begierig,
Bist du Schmetterling verbrannt.
Und so lang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und werder
Bist du nur ein triiber cast
Auf der dunk len Erde.

[GOEl'HE]

39

BLESSED YEARNING
Tell it none except the wise,
for the common crowd defames:
of the living I shall praise
that which longs for death in Hames.
In the love night which created
you where you create, a yearning
wakes: you see, intoxicated,
_far away a candle burning.
Darkness now no lon_ger snares _you,
shadows lose their ancient force,
as a new desire tears you
up to higher intercourse.
Now no distance checks your flight,
charmed you come and you draw nigh
till, with longing for the light,
you are burnt, 0 butterfly.
And until you have possessed
dying and rebirth,
you are but a sullen guest
on the gloomy earth.

FRIEDRICH
VON SCHILLER

DUring the nineteenth century; and even

early in the twentieth century, Schiller was widely considered the greatest German poet next to Goethe, and
the two names were coupled constantly. This popular
estimate was abetted by Goethe's close friendship ~th
Schiller and by Goethe's high esteem of his friend's
work; less by the impassioned admiration of Holderlin
who had found inspiration in Schiller's verse. But few
German poets since Holderlin and Goethe have thought
so highly of Schiller, and many have disparaged him.
The young Nietzsche still accepted the high estimation
of Schiller on which he had been brought up; but in his
late works he articulated what other German poets have
felt, too. In a bitter passage in The Wagner Case (1888),
he contrasted the two giants of Weimar:
"One knows Goethe's fate in moraline-sour, old-maidish Germany. He always seemed offensive to Germans;
he had honest admirers only among Jewesses. Schiller,
the <noble' Schiller, who lambasted their .ears with big
words-he was after their hearts. What did 'they hold
against Goethe? The <mount of Venus'; and that he had
written Venetian Epigrams." Later the same yea~; in
Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche included Schiller in a

[s CHILLER]
43
list of "impossible" people, along with Rousseau, Kant,
Victor Hugo, Carlyle, and others: "Schiller: or the
Moral-Trumpeter of Sackingen."
Most of the poets included in the present volume
were also put off by Schiller's excessive moral preaching;
and probably all would have agreed that as a poet he is
not in the same class with Goethe.
Schiller's ballads, which are long and didactic, do not
stand up very well under the strain of being taught, and
sometimes learned by heart, in the secondary schools of
Germany; but his epigrammatic distichs are occasionaliy scarcely distinguishable from Goethe's. For some
time, the two poets published their so-called Xenien together, unSigned.
Schiller made his living as a professor of history and
wrote, for example, a study of the Thirty Years War. He
made his reputation not only by his poems but, at least
as much, as a dramatist; especially with Wallenstein
(1798-99) and Tell (1804). Since the Nazi era, his once
tedious "nobility" may strike some readers as refreshingly clean; his solid decency, as rare and exquisite.
Among Schiller's greatest admirers was Dostoevsky,
and George Steiner has shown in Tolstoy or Dostoevsky
(1959) how the latter's tale of "The Grand Inquisitor,"
in Th.e Brothers Karamazov, contains some echoes of
Schiller's play, Don Carlos (1787).
Schiller's long poem on "The Gods of Greece" (1788)
is discussed briefly in the preface to Heine, below.

44

[SCHILLER]

ARCHIMEDES UND DER SCHOLER

Zu Archimedes kam ein wissbegieriger lUngling.
" Weihe mich", sprach er zu ihm, "ein in die gottliche
Kunst,
Die so herrliche Frucht dem Vaterlande getragen
Und die Mauern der Stadt vor der Sambuca beschiitztl"
"Gottlich nennst du die Kunst? Sie ist's", versetzte der
Weise,
"Aber das war sie, mein Sohn, eh' sie dem Staat noch
gedient.
Willst du nur Friichte von ihr, die kann auch die
Sterbliche zeugen;
Wer urn die Gottin freit, suche in ihr nicht das Weib."

KANT UND SEINE AUSLEGER

Wie doch ein einziger Reicher so viele Bettler in
Nahrung
Setztl Wenn die Konige baun, haben die Kiirrner zu tun.

DAS PHILOSOPHISCHE GESPRACH

Einer, das haret man wohl, spricht nach dem andern,
doch keiner
Mit dem andern; wer nennt zwei Monologen Gespriich?

45

[SCHILLER]

ARCHIMEDES AND THE STUDENT

To Archimedes said a youth who desired knowledge:
"Could you initiate me into the art divine
that has engendered such glorious fruit for the fatherland
by protecting our walls from Marcellus' Sambuca?"
"Divine you consider this art? Indeed, it is," said the
sage;
"but so it w~s, my dear boy, when it had not served the
state.
If you want only the fruit, t:hat can be had, too, from
mortals;
but if the goddess you woo, don't seek the female in
her."

KANT AND HIS INTERPRETERS

One who is opulent offers legions of famishing beggars
food. When the kings construct, carters find plenty of
work.

PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATION
After each other they speak, but neither speaks with the
other.
Monologues we hear two, dialogue none at all.

46

[SCHI~LER.]

DAS DEUTSCHE REICH

Deutschland? aber wo liegt es? Ich weiss das Land nicht
zu finden.
W0 das gelehrte beginnt, hart das politische auf. '

DEUTSCHER NATIONALCHARAKTER
Zur Nation euch zu bilden, ihr hotfet es, Deutsche,
vergebens;
Bildet, ihr konnt es, dafur freier zu Menschen euch aus.

DAS HOCHSTE
Suchst du das H ochste, das Grosste? Die Pflanze kann
es dich Zehren.
Was sie wiZlenlos ist, sei du es wollend-das ist'sf

UNSTERBLICHKEIT
Vor dem Tod erschrickst du? Du wunschest, unsterbZicl,
zu Zeben?
Leb' im Ganzen! Wen,,!: du lange dahin bist, es bZeibt.

47

[SCHILLER]

DEUTSCHES REICH
Germany? But where is it? I cannot find such a country.
Where the culture begins, ends the political realm.

GERMAN NATIONAL CHARACTER

To make yourselves a nation, that you hope vainly, 0
Germans.
Rather remake yourselves doubly free and humane.

THE HIGHEST
That which is highest and greatest you seek? The plant
can instruct you:
What it is without aim, you should be with a will.

IMMORTALITY
You are frightened of death? You wish you could live
forever?
Make your life whole! When death takes you that will
remain.

48

[SCHILLE~.l]

UNTERSCHIED DER ST ANDE

Adel ist auch in der sittlichen Welt. Gemeine Naturen
Zahlen mit dem, was sie tun, edle mit dem, was sie sind.
I

JETZIGE GENERATION
War es immer wie ietzt? Ich kann das Geschlecht nicht
begreifen:
Nur das Alter is! fung, ach! und die Jugend is! alt. -

AUFGABE
Keiner sei gleich dem andern, doch gleich sei jeder dem
Hochsten!
Wie das zu machen? Es sei jeder vollendet in sich.

DER SCHLOSSEL
Willst du dich seIber erkennen, so sieh, wie die andern .
es treiben;
Willst du die andern verstehn, bUck in dein eigenesHerz.

49

[SCHILLER]

CLASS DISTINCTION
In the moral wprld, too, there's nObility. Common
natures
pay with that which they do, noble ones with what
they are.

THE NEW GENERATION

Was it always as now? I find this a strange generation:
Only the old appear young; those who are young appear old.

TASK
None should equal the other, but each should equal the
highestl
How is this to be done? Each should perfect himself.

THE KEY
If you would know yourself, regard what others are doing;
but if you would understand others consider yourself

50

[SCHILLE~ ]

POLITISCHE LEHRE
Alles sei recht, was du tust; doch dabei lass es bewenden,
Freund, und enthalte dich fa, alles, was recht ist, zu tun.
Wahrem Eifer geniigt, dass das Vorhandne vollkommen
Sei; der Falsche will stets, dass das Vollkommene sei.

MEIN GLAUBE
Welche Religion ich bekenne? Keine von allen,
Die du mir nennst!-Und warum keine?-Aus Religion.

DIE SCHWERE VERBINDUNG

Warum will sich Geschmack und Genie so selten
vereinen?
1ener fiirchtet die Kraft, dieses verachtet den Zaum.

DER MEISTER
leden anderen Meister erkennt man an dem, was er
ausspricht;
Was er weise verschweigt, zeigt mir den Meister des Stils.

51

[SCHILLER]

POLITICAL DOCTRINE
All that you do should be right, but that ought to be
sufficient,
friend, and you should not try doing all that is right.
True zeal is satisfied when the existing has been perfected; .
misguided zeal always wants that the pedect exist.

MY FAITH
Which religion do I profess? Not one of the many
that you enumerate. Why? Simply out of religion.

THE DIFFICULT COMBINATION

Why is good taste so rarely encountered together with
genius?
Taste is afraid of force; genius despises the bridle.

THE MASTER
Masters are known in all other fields by what they
express;
that which he wisely says not, shows me the master of
style.

[SCHILLER]

DER ABEND
Senke, strahlender Gott-die Fluren diirsten
Nach erquickendem Tau, der Mensch verschmachtet,
Matter ziehen die RosseSenke den Wagen hinab!
Siehe, wer aus des Meers kristallner Woge
Lieblich liichelnd dir winkt! Erkennt dein H erz sie?
Rascher fliegen die Rosse,
Tethys, die gottliche, winkt.
Schnell vom Wagen herab in ihre Arme
Springt der Fiihrer, den Zaum ergreift Cupido,
Stille halten die Rosse,
Trinken die kiihlende Flut.
An dem Himmel herauf mit leisen Schritten
Kommt die duftende Nacht; ihr folgt die siisse
Liebe. Ruhet und liebet!
Phobus, der liebende, ruht.

53

[S CHILLER]

EVENING
Lower, radiant g6'cl-the leas are thirsting
for the refreshi~g dew, and man is languishing,
wearier walk the horseslower the heavenly carriage.
See who is waving at you with a lovely smile
out of the ocean's crystal billowl You know her?
Faster the horses are Hying.
Tethys, the goddess; is waving.
Quickly out of the carriage into her arms
leaps the leader while Cupid takes hold of the reins. ,
Quietly stand the horses,
drinking the cooling water.
Slowly ascending the heavens with measured strides,
fragrant night is coming; the sweetness of love
follows. Rest now and love!
Phoebus, the lOVing one, rests.

FRIEDRICH
..

H'OLDERLIN

HOlderlin vastly admired Goethe and

Schiller. Goethe quite failed to recognize his genius;
Schiller was kind to him for a while. But as E. M. Butler
says in her fascinating book on The Tyranny of Gre(!ce
Over Germany (1935), he is "to all intents and purposes a
discovery of the twentieth century, with the notaple exception of Nietzsche who knew and revered him" (p.
238). Now he is widely considered Germany's greatest
poet after Goethe.
Martin Heidegger has written a whole volume pf interpretations of Holderlin's later, very long poems
(Erliiuterungen zu H6lderlins Dichtung, 1944; rev. ed.,
with additional chapter, 1951); but Holderlin scholars
deny the soundness of his exegeses.
As a student, Holderlin was a close friend of Hegel,
who was born the same year; but by the time Hegel
achieved fame, Holderlin had become hopelessly insane.
While making his living as a private tutor, he developed
schizophrenia, desperately fought his depressions, 'spent
a short while in an institution, continued 'to write some
of his best verse as late as 1802' and even 1803, but
rapidly became a complete imbecile. In 1807 he was
moved into a carpenter's house where he vegetated until
his death in 1843.

57

[HOLDERLIN1

The first collection of his verse appeared in 1826,

edited by Uhland,(represented in this volume) and
Schwab (remembered chiefly for his collection of the
lore of ancient Greece). No single poem can give any
adequate idea of the meaning of Greece for H6lderlin,
or of the meaning of Holderlin for growing numbers of
German readers. His sense of tragic alienation from the
modern world, his despair, too magnificent ever to melt
into mere self-pity, and his visions and powerful rhythms
have won hi~ 'not only admiration but love as well.
He wrote a novel in the form of letters, influenced by
Goethe's Werther: Hyperion or the Hermit in Greece
(1797-99). In 1794, Schiller published the first Fragment of this work in his periodical, Thalia. A drama,
Empedocles, remained unfinished. Two translations of
Sophocles (Oedipus Rex and .4ntigone) appeared in
1804-

58

[HOLDERLIN]

MENSCHENBEIF ALL
1st nicht heilig mein H erz, schOneren Lebens voll,
Seit ich liebe? warum achtetet ihr mich meht',
Da ich stolzer und wilder,
W ortereicher und leerer war?
Ach! der Menge gefallt, was auf den Markplatz taugt,
Und es ehret der Knecht nur den Gewaltsarnen;
An das Gattliche glauben
Die allein, die es selber sind.

AN DIE PARZEN
Nur einen Sommer gannt, ihr Gewaltigen!
Und einen Herbst, zu reifem Gesange mit',
Dass williger mein H erz, vom siissen
Spiele gesiittiget, dann mir sterbe.
Die Seele, der im Leben ihr gattlich Recht
Nicht ward, sie ruht auch drunten im Orkus nicht;
Doch ist mir einst das H eifge, das am
H erzen mir liegt: das Gedicht, gelungen:
Willkommen dann, 0 Stille der Schattenwelt! .
Zufrieden bin ich, wenn auch mein Saitenspiel
Mich nicht hinabgeleitet; einmal
Lebt' ich, wie Gatter, und mehr bedarf's nicht.

59

[HOLDERLIN]

MEN'S

APPLAU~

Is not holy my heart, full of fairer life

since I love? Why did you respect me more
when I was prouder and wilder,
richer in words and emptier?
Ah, the many admire what is fit for the market!
And the serva~f will honor only the violent;
in the divine believe
those alone who themselves are divine.

. TO THE PARCAE
A single summer grant me, great powers, and
a single autumn for fully ripened song
that, sated with the sweetness of my
playing, my heart may more willingly die.
The soul that, living, did not attain its divine
right cannot repose in the nether world.
But once what I am bent on, what is
holy, my poetry, is accomplished:
Be welcome then, stillness of the shadows' world!
I shall be satisfied though my lyre will not
accompany me down there. Once I
lived like the gods, and more is not needed.

60

[HOLDERLI N

HiiLFTE DES LEBENS

Mit gelben Birnen hiinget
Unde voll mit wilden Rosen
Vas Land in den See,
Ihr holden Schwane,
Und trunken von Kiissen
Tunkt ihr das Haupt
Ins heiligniichterne Wasser.
Weh mir, wo nehru ich, wenn
Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo
Den Sonnenschein
Und Schatten der Erde?
Die Mauem stehn
Sprachlos und kalt, im W inde
Klirren die Fahnen.

61

[HOLDERLIN]

HALF OF LIFE .
With yellow pears is banging
and full of wild-grown roses
the land in the lake:
You lovely swansand drunken with kisses
you plunge your head
into sacred sobering water.
Woe's me, where shall I find
when winter comes the flowers and where
the sunny light
and shade of the earth?
The walls will stand
speechless and cold, and pennons
rasp in the wind.

NOVAlIS

EedriCh von Hardenberg, probably the grea:test of the early romantic poets, called himself Novalis.
In 1794 he met Sophie von KUhn; they became engaged;
but in 1797 she died at the age of"fifteen. That he sang
himself to death with his "Hymns to the NighC--aided
by consumption-is better known than the fact that
within a year of his fiancee's death he became engaged.
to another girl whom he desired to keep him company
in this world until he succeeded in becoming reunited
with his true love, after death.
The text of the "Hymns" here used is that of the original printed version, which appeared in Atheniium, a
romantic periodical, in 1800. Except for the rhYmed
portions, the hymns were printed as prose. Later a manuscript version was discovered in which all of the text:is
written as free verse, and there are also some slight tex- .
tual differences. Many printed versions follow the manuscript, on the assumption that this must correspond with.
the poet's intentions, while the Atheniium version could
have been changed by the editor. But it is, of course,
entirely possible that the manuscript represents an.
earlier draft; and many scholars have argued-convinc- .
ingly, I think-that the text printed during the poet's

65

[NOVALIS]

lifetime is most likely to reflect his intentions. Moreover,

his letters contain no word of disappointment or protest
in connection with the printed version.
The "Hymns to the Night" represent the high point of
early German romanticism and cast an interesting light
on one of the last great achievements of this movement:
Richard Wagner's "Liebestod" in Tristan und Isolde.
The celebration of night and sleep, of the descent below
consciousness and the element of pain in ecstasy, had
never before found such intense and concentrated form.
Novalis also wrote a novel, Heinrich von Ofterdingen,
in a deliberate effort to vie with Goethe's Wilhelm
Meister; an essay, Die Christenheit oder Europa (Christendom or Europe); and a large number of philosophical
aphorisms. Theodor Haering has devoted a 648-page
study to Navalis als Philosoph (Novalis as a Philosopher).

66
HYMNEN AN DIE NACHT:

[NOVALIS]

Muss immer der Morgen wiederkommen? Endet nie

des Irdischen Gewalt? unselige Geschiiftigkeit verzehrt
den himmlischen Anflug der Nacht. Wird "nie der Liebe
geheimes Opfer ewig brennen? Zugemessen ward dem
Lichte seine Zeit; aber zeitlos und raumlos ist der Nacht
Herrschaft.-Ewig ist die Dauer des Schlafs. Heilige.r
Schlaf-begliicke zu selten nicht der Nacht Geweihte in
diesem irdischen Tagewerk. Nur die Toren verkennen
dich und wissen von keinem Schlafe, als dem Schatten,
den du in iener Diimmerung der wahrhaften Nacht mitleidig auf uns wirfst. Sie fiihlen dich nicht in der goldnen
Flut der Trauben-in des Mandelbaums Wunderol, und
dem braunen Safte des Mohns. Sie wissen nicht, dass du .
es bist, der des zarten Miidchens Busen umschwebt und
zum Himmel den Schoss macht-ahnden nicht, dass aus
alten Geschichten du himmelOtfnend entgegentrittst und
den Schliissel tragst zu den W ohnungen der Seligen,
unendlicher Geheimnisse schweigender Bote.

67

[NOVALIS]

THE SECOND OF THE

HYMNS TO THE NIGHT
Must morning always come again? Does the power of
earthly things never end? Unblessed busy-ness consumes
the heavenly advent of night. Will love's secret sacrifice
never burn eternally? To light its time has been measured; but timeless and spacdess is the dominion of night.
-Eternally endures sleep. Holy sleep! do not bring joy
too rarely to those who in earth's daily labor are dedicated to night. Only the fools mistake you and know of
no sleep but that shadow which in the twilight of genuine night you cast over us in compassion. They do not
feel you in the golden flood of the grapes, in the miraculous oil of the almond tree, and the brown juice of the
poppy. They do not know that it is you that hovers
around the tender girl's bosom and makes the womb
heaven; do not suspect that from ancient stories you confront us, opening heaven, carrying the key to the abodes
of the blessed, of infinite mysteries the silent messenger.

68

[NOVALlS]

AUS DER VIERTEN

HYMNE AN DIE NACHT
Hinuber wall ich,
Und jede Pein
Wird einst ein Stachel
Der W ollust sein.
N och wenig Zeiten,
So bin ich los,
Und liege trunken
Der Lieb im Schoss.
Unendliches Leben
W ogt miichtig in mir
tch schaue von oben
H erunter nach dir.
An jenem Hugel
Verlischt dein GlanzEin Schatten bringet
Den kuhlenden Kranz.
OJ sauge, Geliebter,
Gewaltig mich an,
Dass ich entschlummern .
Und lieben kann.
Ich fuhle des Todes
Verjungende Flut,
Zu Balsam und Ather
Verwandelt mein BlutIch lebe bei Tage
Voll Glaub"en und Mut
Und sterbe die Niichte
In heiliger Glut.

69

[NOVALIS]

THE RHYMED PART OF

THE FOURTH HYMN
TO THE "NIGHT
Beyond I wander,
all pain will be
ere long a spur
of ecstasy.
A short span of time,
I'm free and above,
and drunken I lie
in the lap of love.
Infinite life
surges in me with might;
and down toward you
I incline my sight.
Your splendor is dying
on yonder hill.
A shadow brings
the wreath of chill.
Suck me toward you, beloved,
with all your force
that I may slumber
and love at last. "
I am touched by death's
youth-giving Hood,
to balsam and ether
is turned my blood.
I live by day
full of courage and trust,
and die every night
in holy lust.

JOSEPH
VON
EICHENDORFF
(17 88 - 18 57)

\
........................................

su~h

friend of
romantics as Arnim and
Brentano, Eichendorff is probably the greatest of the
later romantic poets. He fought in the "Wars of Liberation" against Napoleon, then became a civil servant. His
pure and beautiful lyrical poems have won wide popularity, but his range was limited. One might almost say
that he wrote the same innocuous poem over and over
'again; and that other romantics, such as Annette von
Droste-Hiilshoff (1797-1848), Germany's most renowned
woman poet, jOined him in varying pretty much the
same poem-the one that follows. Incidentally, both of
them, and Novalis as well, were born into noble families,
and not knighted for their accomplishments like Goethe
and Schiller.'
Among his prose creations, the little novella, Aus dem
Leben eine~ Taugenichts (1826, From the Life of a
Good-for-Nothing) is outstanding. Of the later poets
represented in this volume, Herman Hesse shows the
greatest kinship with Eichendorff; especially the early
Hesse. But Hesse owes his rank to his later novels,
written after World War I; and these are much more
complex and richer than his pure and sensitive iuvenilia.

74

[EICHENDO-RFF]

DER EINSIEDLER
Komm, Trost der Welt, du stille Nachtl
Wie steigst du von den Bergen sacht,
Die Liifte aile schlafen,
Ein Schiffer nur noch, wandermiid,
Singt iibers Meer sein Abendlied
Zu Gottes Lob im Hafen.
Die Jahre wie die Wolken gehn
Und lassen mich hier einsam stehn,
Die Welt hat mich vergessen,
Da tratst du wunderbar zu mir,
Wenn ich beim Waldesrauschen hier
Gedankenvoll gesessen.

o Trost der Welt,

du stille Nacht!
Der Tag hat mich so miid gemacht,
Das weite Meer schon dunkelt,
Lass ausruhn mich von Lust und Not,
Bis dass das ew'ge Morgenrot
Den stillem Wald durchfunkelt.

[EICHENDORFF

75
THE HERMIT

Come, 0 world's comfort, silent night!

Rise from the hills, your step so light
air's sleep it does not raise!
Only a sailor who was long
at sea sings a sad evening song
in port to give God praise.
Like clouds, year blows by after year,
leaving me lonely, standing here,
forgotten by the world.
Then, wonderfully, you drew nigh
when near the forest's rustling I
would sit immersed in thought.

o the world's comfort, silent night!

The day has tired me, the wide
sea darkens, light is gone.
Let me have rest from joys and woes
until the silent forest glows
in the eternal dawn.

LUDWIG UHLAND

 ................................. .

Uhland studied law and became a lawyer, but

later, in 1829, he became a professor of German literature
at the University of Tiibingen. When the government refused him a leave of absence, which he required as a
member of the state parliament, he resigned his professorship in 1833. In 1848 he was elected to the National
Convention 'at Frankfurt, as a liberal.
He wrote several plays, but none of them ever approximated the popularity of his many short ballads. "Bertran
de Born" is one of his best. It was first printed in 1829.
Heine's poem on the same theme, also included in
this volume, appeared in 1839 and is plainly based on
Uhland's. Both poets idealized the Provenc;al bard
whom Dante had consigned to hell. While Dante had
him carry his head under his arm, as a fit punishment for
sowing sedition, Uhland and Heine saw in him an image
of nobility that prefigures Nietzsche's conception of the
Ubermensch (overman).

80
BERTRAN DE BORN
Droben aUf dem schroffen Steine
Raucht in Trummern Autafort,
Und der Burgherr steht gefesselt
Vor des Konigs Zelte dart:
"Kamst du, der mit Schwert und Liedern
Aufruhr trug von Ort zu Ort,
Der die Kinder aufgewiegelt
Gegen Ihres Vaters Wort?
"Steht vor mir, der sich geruhmet
In vermess'ner Prahlerei, .'
Dass ihm nie mehr als die Halfte
Seines Geistes notig sei?
Nun der halbe dich nicht rettet,
Rut den ganzen doch herbei,
Dass er neu dein Schloss dir baue,
Deine Ketten brecn entzweiJ"" Wie du sagst, mein Herr und Konig,
Steht vor dir Bertran de Born,
Der mit einem Lied entflammte
Perigord und Ventadorn,
Der dem miichtigen Gebieter
Stets im Auge war ein Darn,
Dem zu Liebe Konigskinder
Trugen ihres Vaters Zorn.

[UHLAND]

81

BERTRAN DE BORN
High up on the craggy mountain
smokes in ruins Autafort,
and in chains the castle's master
stands before his royal lord :
"Is it you who wrought sedition
everywhere with song and sword,
who incited loyal children
to defy their father's word?
Did the man that here confronts me
boast with infinite conceit
that he never needed more than
ha~f his spirit, half his wit?
Now that half cannot deliver
you, invoke the whole of it
that it may rebuild your castle,
break your chains, and make you quit!"
"As you say, my king and master,
you confront Bertran de Born,
who once with a song incited
Perigord and Ventadorn,
who was in the mighty ruler's
royal flesh a constant thorn,
for whose sake the king's own children
bore their father's wrath and scorn.

'.

[UHLAND]
"Deine Tochter sass im Saale
Festlich, eines Herzogs Braut,
Und da sang vor ihr mein Bote,
Dem ein Lied ich anvertraut,
Sang, was einst ihr Stolz gewesen,
Ihres Dichters Sehnsuchtlaut,
Bis ihr leuchtend Brautgeschmeide
Ganz von Triinen war betaut.
"Am des Olbaums Schlummerschatten
Fuhr dein bester Sohn empor,
Als mit zorn' gen Schlachtgesiingen
Ich bestiirmen liess sein Ohr;
Schnell war ihm das Ross gegiirtet,
Und ich trug das Banner vor,
/enem Todespteil entgegen,
Der ihn trat vor Montforts Tor.
"Blutend lag er mir im Arme;
Nicht der scharfe, kalte Stahl,
Dass er sterb' in deinem Fluche,
Das war seines Sterbens Qual.
Strecken woUt' er dir die Rechte
Uber Meer, Gebirg und Tal;
Als er deine nicht erreichet,
Driickt' er meine noch einmal.

[UHLAND]

In a festive hall your daughter

sat and dined, a ducal bride,
when she heard the song that I had
in a messenger confided,
and he sang the poet's longing,
all that once had been her pride,
till her glistening bridal jewels
shone with tears she could not hide.
In the olive's sleepy shadow
your best son could sleep no more
when he heard my messengers
singing angry songs of war.
Quickly his own steed was saddled,
and the banner that I bore
led him to the deadly arrow
at the portal of Montfort.
In my arms he rested bleeding;
not the icy, cutting steelthat he died cursed by his father
was the pain he had to feel.
How he wished to stretch his right hand
over ocean, hill, and dale;
finding that he could not reach yours,
he pressed mine with dying zeal.

[UHLAND]
"Da, wie Autafort dort oben,
Ward gebrochen meine Kraft;
Nicht die ganze, nicht die halbe
Blieb mir, Saite nicht, noch Schaft.
Leicht hast du den Arm gebunden,
Seit der Geist mir liegt in Haft;
Nur zu einem Trauerliede
Hat er sich rwch aufgerafJt."
Und der Konig senkt die Stime:
"Meinen Sohn hast du verfiihrt,
Hast der Tochter Herz verzaubert,
Hast auch meines nun geriihrt:
Nimm die Hand, du Freund des Toten,
Die, verzeihend, ihm gebiihrt!
Weg die Fesselnf Deines Geistes
Hab' ich einen Hauch verspiirt."

85

[UHLAND

Then, like Autafort, in ruins

on the rock, my strength did fail;
not the whole, nor even half that,
neither sword nor strings stayed hale.
Easily you chained the body
since my spirit dwells in jail;
wit is gone, the only poem
that remains now is to wail."
And the king inclined his forehead:
M y own son you led to death,
charmed the heart of my poor daughter,
now my own heart is unnerved.
Take my hand, friend of my dead son,
and the pardon he deserved!
Off then with the fettersl Of your
spirit I have felt a breath."

HEINRICH HEINE

In

the period from about 1830 until at least

1880, if not 1900, Germany had only one world-historical
poet, Heinrich Heine. In the English-speaking world he
is chiefly known for his early love songs; and it is oft~n
said that he approximated the simplicity of folk songs.
During the Nazi period he was proscribed in Germany, .
because he was a Jew, and his song, "rch weiss nicht was
soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin" (I do not know
what it should mean that I am so sad) was printed in
some anthologies with the notation "author unknown."
Much earlier, Stefan George had envisaged Heine as
an evil inBuence; and his most talented and inBuential
disCiple, Friedrich Cundolf, himself born a Jew with the
name of Cundelfinger, had articulated the master's ideas
in his book on Stefan George (1920), in the first chapter:
"Time and Task." Here Heine is pictured as "the founder
of journalism, of day labor. He is as an anticipating.
master what thousands ever since have been as wretched
slaves: a journalist right down into his lyric poetrywhile Goethe had been a poet even in his daily labors.
. . . For the German language ,he has become the cabstrophic figure who has made things easy and mixed and
shifted everything. It is only since Heine that everybody

89

[HEINE

can talk about things that lie beyond the sphere of his
soul. He has . . . replaced the sense of weight with the
sense for <nuances.' He has made it possible for sodajerks to resort to the priest's tone, for orators to turn to
lyric language, and for bankers to sound unctuous. He
enters many different levels at will, and thus destroys
every niveau. He has not created a new niveau of language, like Nietzsche who, in spite of his immeasurable
diversity of tone, yet has only one height and depth (as
it were, the figured bass) . . . Heine begins, and this is
no small achievement, the anarchy of the German language . . . But above all, he does not have any new
idea that belongs to this historic moment; he maintains
alongside of each other the neo-paganism of Goethe as
an outlook without body or poise, a Protestant Judaism
as a pathos without ethos, and the desires of the French
Revolution as an aim without faith. Holding these ideas
alongside of each other-the very possibility of doing
this without fusion-that is what is new about him, that
is his seductiveness."
This portrait at the beginning of a book on Stefan
George that does not stay this side of idolatry was part
of the mythology of the so-called George Circle: The
master was to play the Messiah to Nietzsche's John the
Baptist, while Heine was the Antichrist who had ushered
in that ultimate degradation from which Stefan George
would redeem, if not humanity, the German language.
Nietzsche himself, in 1888, had penned a very different view in Ecce Homo; but that book was withheld
from publication by his sister, and when it first appeared
in 1908 (in an expensive limited edition, because the
author had written on a manuscript page "For my

go

[HEINE]

Friends"), George had long formed his conception of

Nietzsche. Here is Nietzsche's portrait of Heine:
"The highest conception of the lyric poet Heinrich
Heine gave to me. I seek in vain in all the realms of
thousands of years for an equally sweet and passionate
music. He possessed that divine malice without which I
cannot conceive perfection. I estimate the value of
human beings, of races, according to the necessity with
which they cannot understand the god apart from the
satyr. And how he handles his German! It will be said
one day that Heine and I have been by far the first
artists of the German language-at an incalculable distance from everything that mere Germans have done .
with it." (For a discussion of this passage and of Heine's
influence on Nietzsche, see my Nietzsche, Meridian edition, 323ff.)
Nietzsche's prophecy was fulfilled when Thomas
Mann said in "Notiz iiber Heine" (19081 Note on Heine;
reprinted in Rede und Antwort, 1922): "Of his works I
have long loved the book on Borne most. . . . His psychology of the Nazarene type anticipates Nietzsche. . . .
And inCidentally this book contains the most magnificent
[genialste] German prose prior to Nietzsche."
In the singularly unsympathetic and undiscerning
Heine chapter of hi~ Reason and Energy: Studies in
German Literature (1957), Michael Hamburger characterizes the same book as a "vicious attack on Borne" and
"an attack on a dead writer that could serve no other
purpose than to ease his own emotional stress." Hamburger betters Gundolf's instruction by "attributing
genius to Biichner [which is safe enough], while denying
it to Heine." But he is quite unaware of Gundolfs and

[HEINE

George's Heine picture and claims specifically that "it

was not until 1926 that a highly fastidious and learned
man of letters, Rudolf Borchardt, sounded the alarm by
explaining why he found it necessary to reduce Heine's
poems to 'fragments' in order to include them in his
anthology of the best German poetry."
This approach is of a kind with Hamburger's odd
claim that by a :flippant last line a "whole poem is reduced to the level of a naughty joke." In The Baths of
Lucca, Chapter IV, Heine offers his own view of the
matter: When people reproach him, "You have no sense
for pure naturalness; you are a split human being, a
split mind," he replies: "Worthy reader, if you want to
lament this split, rather lament that the world itself has
split right down the center. . . . Whoever boasts of his
heart that it has remained whole, only owns that he has
a prosaic, re~ote nook heart. The great world split has
gone through mine, and just therefore I know that the
great gods have bestowed a great grace upon me above
many others and found me worthy of the poet's martyrdom:'
Stefan George's and Rudolf Borchardt's convulsive
anti-mode~ity really has something of the air of "remote nooks/' while Heine was the herald of Kierkegaard
and Dostoevs];<:y, Nietzsche and Gide, Joyce and Mann,
Morgensternj Benn, and Kastner. The poems that follow
give no adequate idea of his genius. And Borchardt was
quite right that Heine did not write many perfect poems.
But instead of celebrating daffodils and nightingales and
the nostalgia of evenings, Heine's verse and prose come
to grips with the feelings of a sensitive human being in the
modernl,world-more so than any other poet during the

[JIEINE]

preceding hundred years, with only two exceptions, of

both of which he himseH was aware. One waS Byron,
the other Goethe; not the Goethe whom the nineteenth
century admired, but the Goethe who created Mephistopheles alongside Faust to mock him.
Regarding Heine's prose, Nietzsche's and Thomas
Mann's estimates may safely stand. Indeed, no previous
German writer equals Heine's perceptiveness and wit
or provokes one so often to laugh out loud.
Of the poems that follow, only the first is of the type
that has won wide favor in the English-speaking world.
The "Songs of Creation" invite comparison with Jean
Effel's magnificent series of 84 humorous cartoons, La
creation du monde (1951); and in Section 7 a theme is
struck that was later developed by Nietzsche and
Thomas Mann. "The Gods of Greece" deliberately uses
the title Schiller had given to a long poem of sixteen
rhymed stanzas of eight lines each; indeed, Schiller had
later published a revised version "For the Friends of the
First Edition," and this ran on for twenty-five stanzas.
Here is a translation of Schiller's first stanza:
When you ruled over the beautepus world,
and on joy's light line, held in your hand,
blessed generations were still led,
beauteous beings from a legend landl
When your iapture service still had power,
all was different, all was different far,
when your temples were adorned with flowers,
V~nus Amathusial

93

[REINE]

Another translation of this stanza, and of two others, as

well as a sympathetic discussion of the whole poem and
its influence, will be found in E. M. Butler's book, The
Tyranny of Greece over Germany (Beacon paperback),
which contains interesting chapters on Goethe, Schiller,
H6lderlin, and Heine, as well as briefer sections on
Nietzsche and George.
Heine's "Bertrand de Born" should be compared with
Uhland's ballad, translated in full earlier in this volume.
"King David" is closer to I Kings 2 than those not familiar with the Bible would expect.

94

[HEINE]

EIN FICHTENBAUM
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam
1m Norden auf kahler Hoh'.

Ihn schliifert; mit weisser Decke

Umhiillen ihn Eis und Schnee.
Er triiumt von einer Palme,
Die fern im Morgenland
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender F elsenwand.

UND BIST DU
Und bist du erst mein ehlich Weib,
Dann bist du zu beneiden,
Dann lebst du in lauter Zeitvertreib,
In lauter Plaisir und Freuden ..
Und wenn du schiltst, und wenn du tobst,
Ich werd' es geduldig leiden;
Doch wenn du meine Verse nicht lobst,
Lass' ich mich von dir scheiden.

SCHOPFUNGSLIEDER
1,

1m Beginn schuf Gott die Sonne,

Dann die niichtlichen Gestirne;

Hierauf schuf er auch die Ochsen,
Aus dem Schweisse seiner Stirne.

95

[HEINE]

A.FIR TREE
A or tree stands forsaken
far north on a desolate height.
He drowses, with a blanket
the snow wraps him in white.
He dreams of a distant palm tree
that in a southern land
mourns in forsaken silence
over the burning sand.

AFTER OUR WEDDING DAY

After our wedding day
all will envy you,
for you can loaf and you can play,
with nothing else to do.
And when you scold and when you curse
I shall keep still, :>f course;
but if you do not praise my verse,
I shall get a divorce.

SONGS OF CREATION
1

At the start, god made the sun,

then the nightly constellations;
after this he made the oxen
from his face's perspiration.
,d

96

[HEINE]

Spater schuf er wilde Bestien,

Lowen mit den grimmen Tatzen;
Nach des Lowen Ebenbilde
Schuf er hiibsche kleine Katzen.
Zur Bevolkerung der Wildnis
Ward hernach der Mensch erschafJen,
Nach des Menschen holdem Bildnis
Schuf er intressante AfJen.
Satan sah dem zu 'Lind lachte:
Ei, der Herr kopiert sich selber!
Nach dem Bilde seiner Ochsen
Macht er noch am Ende Kalber!
2

Und der Gott sprach zu dem Teufel:

Ich, der Herr, kopier' mich selber,
Nach der Sonne mach' ich Sterne,
Nach den Ochsen mach' ich Kalber
Nach den Lowen mit den Tatzen
Mach: ich kleine Hebe Katzen,
Nach den Menschen mach' ich AfJen;
Aber du ka~nst gar nichts schaffen.

3
Ich hab' mir zu Ruhm und Preis erschafJen
Die Menschen, Lowen, Ochsen" Sonne;
Doch Sterne, Kalber, Katzen, Affen
Erschuf ich zu meiner eigenen W onne.

[HEINE)

97

Later he made savage beasts,

lions, frightening autocrats;
jn the lion's image then
he made pretty little cats.
Then, to make sure of a scrimmage,
he created human shapes;
and in man's attractive image
he made interesting apes.
Satan sneered: "The Good Lord copies
his own work! It makes me laugh!
In the image of his oxen
he will yet create a calf!"
2

And the god said to t.l,e Devil:

I, the Lord, ape myse~-laughl
First I make the sun, then stars,
first the oxen, then the calf,
first the lion autocrats,
then the little darling cats,
first man, then a monkey string;
but you cannot make a thing.

3
For my glory I have made the shapes
of hu~ans, lions, oxen, sun;
but stars and calves and cats and apes
I have created just for fun.

[HEINE]

4
Kaum hab' ich die Welt zu schaffen begonnen,
In einer Woche war's abgethan.
Doch hatt' ich vorher tief ausgesonnen
lahrtausendlang den Schopfungsplan.
Das Schaffen selbst ist eitel Bewegung,
Das stiimpert sich leicht in kurzer Frist;
Jedoch der Plan, die uberlegung,
Das zeigt erst, wer ein Kiinstler ist.
Ich hab' allein dreihundert Jahre
Tagtiiglich driiber nachgedacht,
Wie man am besten Doktores Juris
Und gar die kleinen Flohe macht.

5
Sprach der Herr am sechsten Tage:
Hab' am Ende nun vollgebracht
Diese grosse, schone, SchOpfung,
Und hab' Alles gut gemacht.
Wie die Sonne rosengoldig
In dem Meere wiederstrahlt!
Wie die Biiume griin und gliinzendf
1st nicht Alles wie gemalt?
Sind nicht weiss wie Alabaster
Dart die Liimmchen aUf der Flur?
1st sie nicht so schon vollendet
Und natiirlich, die Natur?

99

[a:EINE]
4

Once I commenced the work of creation,

it was done a week after I began.
Yet previous to that came excogitation,
for thousands of years, of the whole plan.
Creating itself is simple motion
and bungled together quickly at will;
the plan, however, the whole notion,
that is what shows the artist's skill.
I worried every single day
for easily three centuries
how to make men with law degrees,
and how to fashion little Heas.

5
Said the Lord on the sixth day:
I have had the hardihood
to complete this great creation;
everything I made is good.
How the sun shines on the sea,
and the sea seems crimson-tainted!
How the trees look green and splendid I
Does it not look as if painted?
Are not white as alabaster
the small lambs there on the pasture?
Is not beautiful and perfect
and quite natural, too, nature?

[HEINE]

100

Erd' und Himmel sind erfiillet

Ganz von meiner H errlichkeit,
Und der Mensch er wird mich lob en
Bis in alle Ewigkeit!
6
Der Stoff, das Material des Gedichts
Das saugt sich nicht aus dem Finger;
Kein Gott erschafft die Welt aus Nichts,
So wenig, wie irdische Singer.
Aus vorgefundenem Urweltsdreck
Erschuf ich die Miinnerleiber,
Und aus dem Miinnerrippenspeck
Erschuf ich die schonen Weiber.
Den Himmel erschuf ich aus der Era
Und Engel aus Weiberentfaltung;
Der Stoff gewinnt erst seinen Werth
Durch kiinstlerische Gestaltung.

7
Warum ich eigentlich erschuf
Die Welt, ich will es gern bekennen:
Ich fiihlte in der Seele brennen
Wie Flammenwahnsi~n den Beruf.
Krankheit ist wohl der letzte Grund
Des ganzen Schopferdrangs gewesen;
Erschaffend konnte ich genesen,
Erschaffend wurde ich gesund.

101

[HEINE]

Heaven now declares my glory,

earth declares my brilliancy,
and man certainly will praise me
into all eternityl
6
The stuff, the material of poems, you know,
one cannot suck from a finger;
no god makes worlds ex nihilo,
any more than an earthly singer.

I made men's bodies from forsake,l

primeval filth out of Hades,
and out of men's rib-region bacon
I made the beautUulladies.
The heaven I made out 6f the earth,
and angels from women's unfolding;
the matter only wins its worth
by way of artistic molding.

7
The reason for the whole creation
I am quite willing to impart:
I did feel burning in my heart
like flaming madness the vocation.
Disease was the most basic ground
of my creative urge and stress;
creating I could convalesce,
creating I again grew sound.

102

[HEINE]

DIE GOTTER GRIECHENLANDS

Vollbliihender Mondl In deinem Licht,
Wie fliessendes Gold, erglanzt das Meer;
Wie Tagesklarheit, doch diimmrig verzauoert,
Liegts iiber der weiten Strandesfliiche;
Und am hellblaun, sternlosen Himmel
Schweben die weissen Wolken,
Wie kolossale Gotterbilder
Von leuchtendem Marmor.
Nein, nimmermehr, das sind keine Wolketll
Das sind sie seIber, die Gotter von H ellas,
Die eiM so rreudig die Welt benerrscntefl,
Doch jetzt, verdrangt und verstorben,
Als ungeheure Gespenster dahinziehn
Am mitterniichtlichen Himmel.
Staunend und seltsam geblendet, betracht' ich
Das luftige Pantheon,
Die feierlich stummen, graunhaft bewegtGn
Riesengestalten.
Der dart ist Kronion, der Himmelskonig,
Schneeweiss sind die Locken des Haupts,
Die beriihmten, Olympos-erschiitternden Locken;
Er halt in der Hand den erloschenen Blitz,
In seinem Antlitz liegt Ungliick und GrarJl,
Und doch noch immer der alte Stolz.
Das waren bessere Zeiten, 0 Zeus;
Als du dich himmlisch ergotztest
An Knaben und Nymphen und Hekatombenl
Doch auch die Gotter regieren nicht ewig,

103

LHEINE J

THE GODS OF GREECE

Full flowering moon! In your light,
like flowing gold, the sea is resplendent; ,
and over the wide expanse of the beach,
daylike clarity touched by the magic of twilight;
and on the light blue, starless sky
white clouds are floating
like colossal statues of gods
made of shining marble.
No, nevermore! Those are no clouds!
These are the gods of Hellas themselves,
t.lmt ,o,.v,ce roJeil .w gauJT '[}F8r t.w
. nvrhl,
but now, pushed aside and deceased,
pass along as tremendous specters
on the midnight sky.
Marveling and strangely blinded, I cont(lmplate
the airy pantheon,
the solemnly silent, gruesomely moving
titanic shapes.
That one is Cronion, the king of the heavens;
snow white are the locks on his head,
the famous, Olympos-shattering locks.
In his hand he holds extinguished lightning,
in his countenance lie misfortune and grief,
and yet still the ancient pride.
Those used to be better times, 0 Zeus,
when you took heavenly pleasure
in boys and in nymphs and in hecatomb;1
Yet even the gods do not rule for ever:

104

[HEINE

Die jungen verdriingen die alten,

Wie du einst seIber den greisen Vater
Und deine Titanen-Ohme verdriingt hast,
lupiter Parricidal
Auch dich erkenn' ich, stolze luna!
Trotz all deiner eifersuchtigen Angst,
Hat doch eine Andre das Scepter gewonnen,
Und du bist nicht mehr die H immelskon'gin,
Und dein grosses Aug' ist erstarrt,
Und deine Lilienarme sind kraftlos,
Und nimmermehr trifft deine Rache
Die gottbefruchtete lungfrau
Und den wundertiitigen Gottessohn.
Auch dich erkenn' ich, Pallas Athene!
Mit Schild und Weisheit konntest du nicht
Abwehren das GOtterverderben?
Auch dich erkenn ich, auch dich, Aphrodite,
Einst die goldenel jetzt die silbernel
Zwar schmuckt dich noch immer des Gurtels Liebrei;
Doch graut mir heimlich vor deiner Schonheit,
Und wollt' mich begliicken dein gutiger Leib,
Wie andre HeIden, ich sturbe vor AngstAis Leichengottin erscheinst du mir,
Venus Libitina!
Nicht mehr mit Liebe blickt nach dir,
Dart, der schreckliche Ares.
Es schaut so traurig Phobus Apollo,
Der liingling. Es schweigt seine Letr,
Die so freudig erklungen beim Gottermahl.
Noch trauriger schaut Hephaistos,
Und wahrlichl der Hinkende, nimmermehr
Fiillt er Heben ins Amt,

1 05

[HEINE]

the young push aside the old,

as you yourself once pushed aside
the ancient father as well as your titan uncleS,
Jupiter Parricidal
You, too, I recognize, proud Juno!
Despite all your jealous anxiety,
another woman yet'gained the scepter,
and you are no longer the queen of the heavens,
and your great eye has frozen,
and your lily aITQS are void of strength,
and your revenge will nevermore strike
the god-impregnated virgin
and the miracle-mongering son of the god.
You, too, I recognize, Pallas Athena!
With shield and wisdom you were unable to
fend off the catastrophe of the gods?
You, too, I recognize, you, too, Aphrodite,
golden once, and now silver!
Though the charm of the girdle still adorns you,
I secretly dread your beauty,
and if your gracious body should deign to delight me
like other heroes, I'd die of fright:
as a carcass goddess you appear to me,
Venus Libitinal
,It is no longer with love that
the terrible Ares over there looks at you.
So sad looks Phoebus Apollo,
the youth. Silent rests his lyre
that formerly sounded so gay at the feasts of the gods.
Still sadder looks Hephaistos,
and, verily, nevermore will the limper
interfere with the office of Hebe

106

[HEli-rE]

Und schenkt geschiiftig in der Versammlung

Den lieblichen Nektar.-Vnd langst ist erloschen
Das unausloschliche Gottergeliichter.
lch hab' euch niemals geliebt, ihr Giitter!
Denn widerwartig sind mir die Griechen,
Und gar die Romer sind mir verhasst.
Doch heifges Erbarmen und schauriges Mitleid
Durchstromt mein H erz,
Wenn ich euch jetzt da droben schaue,
Verlassene Gotter,
Todte, nachtwandelnde Schatten,
Nebelschwache, die der Wind verscheuchtU nd wenn ich bedenke, wie feig und windig
Die Gotter sind, die euch besiegten,
Die neuen, herrschenden, tristen Gotter,
Die Schadenfrohen im Schafspelz der Demut0, da fasst mich ein dusterer Groll,
Und brechen mocht' ich die neuen Tempel,
Und kampfen fur euch, ihr alten Gotter,
Fur euch und eu'r gutes ambrosisches Recht,
Und vor euren hohen Altaren,
Den wiedergebauten, den opferdampfenden,
Macht' ich seIber knieen und beten,
Und flehend die Arme erhebenDenn immerhin, ihr alten Gotter,
Habt ihr's auch ehmals in Kampfen der Menschen
Stets mit der Partei der Sieger gehalten,
So ist doch der Mensch grossmut'ger als ihr,
Und in Gotterkiimpfen halt' .ich es jetzt
Mit der Partei der besiegten Gotter.

107

[HEINE

and busily pour sweet nectar

at their assembly.-And long has been extinguished
the inextinguishable laughter of the gods ..
I have never loved Y0ll', 0 gods!
For an abomination to me_are the Greeks,
and the Romans are yet more hateful to me.
Yet holy mercy and dreadful pity
flow through my heart
when I now behold you up there,
abandoned gods,
dead, sleepwalking shadows,
weak as a mist that the wind puts to flightand when I consider how windy and cowardly
the gods are that vanquished you,
the n~w, now dominant, dismal gods,
who relish our pains, in meekness' sheep's clothing.
Oh, then a gloomy wrath comes over me,
and I would break the new temples
and fight for you, 0 you ancient gods,
for you and your good ambrosian right;
and before your lofty altars,
rebuilt and steaming again with sacrifices,
I myself should like to kneel and to pray,
raising up my arms to implore.
For after all, you ancient gods,
even though formerly in the fights between men
you have always been on the side of the winners,
man is certainly more magnanimous than YOll,
and in the fights between gods I now side
with the vanquished gods.

108

Also sprach ich, und sichtbar erriiteten

Droben die blassen Wolkengestalten,
Und schauten mich an wie Sterbende,
Schmerzenverkliirt, und schwanden plotzlich;
Der Mond verbarg sich eben
Hinter Gewolke, das dunkler heranzog;
Hoch aufrauschte das Meer,
Und siegreich traten hervor am Himmel
Die ewigen Sterne.

BERTRAND DE BORN
Ein edler Stolz in allen Ziigen,
Auf seiner Stirn Gedankenspur,
Er konnte jedes H erz besiegen,
Bertrand de Born, der Troubadour.
Es kirrten seine sUssen Tone
Die L6win des Plantagenefs;
Die Tochter auch, die beiden S6hne,
Er sang sie Alle in sein N etz.
Wie er den V qter selbst betOrte!
In Triinen schmolz des Konigs Zorn,
Als er ihn lieblich reden hOrte,
Den Troubadour, Bertrand de Born.

109

[HEINE]

Thus I spoke, and above me

the pale shapes of the clouds reddened visibly
and looked at me like those dying,
transfigured by suffering, and suddenly vanished;
the moon concealed herself
behind darker clouds that drew near;
the sea leapt up high,
and in the heavens emerged triumphant
eternal stars.

BERTRAND DE BORN
In every feature noble pride,
upon his brow the print of thought,
there was no heart he could not guide,
Bertrand de Born, the troubadour.
He lured with his enchanting tones
the lioness of Plantagenet,
the daughter also, both the sonshe sang them all into his net.
How he bewitched the father, tool
In tears melted the royal scorn,
dissolved by dulcet language through
the troubadour, Bertrand de Born.

110

(HEINE!

KONIG DAVID
Lachelnd scheidet der Despot,
Denn er weiss, nach seinem Tod
Wechselt Willkiir nur die Hande,
Und die Knechtschaft hat kein Ende.
Armes Volkl wie Pferd und F arrn
Bleibt es angeschirrt am Karrn,
Und der Nacken wird gebrochen,
Der sich nicht bequemt den ]ochen.
Sterbend spricht zu Saloma
Konig David: Apropos,
Dass ich ] Dab dir empfehle.
Einen meiner Generale.
Dieser tapfre General
1st seit ]ahren mir fatal,
Doch ich wagte den Verhassten
Niemals ernstlich anzutasten.
Du, mein Sohn, bist fromm und klug,
Gottesjiirchtig, stark genug,
Und es wird dir Leicht gelingen,
I enen loab um:wbringen.

HI

[HEINE]

KING DAVID
Smiling on his death bed lies
the old despot: when he dies,
tyranny will but change hands;
and oppression never ends.
Oxlike, the poor common folk
remain harnessed to the yoke,
and the neck is quickly snapped
that refuses to stay trapped.
David on his dying bed
spoke to Solomon and said,
knowing all this: "Apropos,
there is Joab, as you know.
This courageous general
I no longer like so well,
but for years I dared not touch
him I'd come to hate so much.
You are pious, have the stuff,
are God-fearing, strong enough
to find means without delay
to put him out of the way."

CONRAD
FERDINAND

MEYER

~nd ~ied

Meyer, a Swiss, was born in,

near, Zurich. As a young man, he became nlore and
more neurotic, developed delusions, finally sllffer~d a
breakdown, and in 1852 consented to being committe~
to an asylum near Neuchatel. After seven months' he was
released, and spent some time in Lausanne before returning home. In 1856 his mother developed an acute
melancholia, was taken to the same asylum near
Neuchatel, and soon after drowned herself. Her death
seems to have liberated her son. In 1857 he went to Paris
for three months, and in 1858 he visited Rome. In 1860
he sent some of his poems to a publisher: "Bilder und
Balladen von Ulrich Meister" (Images and B::ulads by
Ulrich Meister). They were not published. But he continued to work on his verse, and in 1864 his first volume
appeared: Zwanzig Balladen von einem Schweizer
(Twenty Ballads by a Swiss). He was now almost forty.
In 1870 he published a second volume of verse, and in
1871 his great cycle of poems, Huttens letzte Tage (The
Last Days of Hutten).
In 1876 he published his novel, Jiirg Jenatsch, on
which he had been working for ten years. By 1894 it was
in its twentieth printing. Of his other, shorter, novels.

115

[MEYER]

English-speaking readers may find De';' Heilige (1880,

12th ed. 1894; The Saint) of special intere~t because it
deals with Thomas a Becket. He completed his last
story, Angela Borgia, in 1891, and published the final revision of his collected poems in 1892. The same year he
suHered a breakdown and, profoundly depressed, returned to the asylum which he had left forty years
earlier. After a year he was released and spent the last
five years of his life at home.
No German poet of his generation seems to me to
approximate Meyer's stature. Among those born during
the first half of the nineteenth century, only Nietzsche
(born nineteen years later) is of comparable originality
and, on account of his prose works, of immensely greater
significance. Even if we include the third quarter of the
century, only Stefan George is in the same class with
Meyer; and it may well be that Meyer was greater. Indeed, it is arguable that the only poet since Meyer's time
who has enriched German literature with more great
poems, and greater poems, than he did was Rilke.
The second poem offered here, "In the Sistina," reflects Meyer's persistent preoccupation with the Renaissance and with great men; also his recurring attempt to
deal with works of art. "The Roman Fountain" (another
poem on the same theme by Rilke will be found later in
this volume) is a poem Meyer rewrote more than once.
An early version of 1866 is still extant, and another one,
much closer to the final text, appeared in his collection
of 1870. One of Meyer's many ballads rounds out the
selection. Perhaps one has to read a lot more of his verse
to realize in how many ways Nietzsche, George, and
Rilke are close to Meyer.

116

EINGELEGTE RUDER
Meine eingelegten Ruder triefen.
Tropfen fallen langsam in die Tiefen.
Nichts, das mich verdross! Nichts, das mich freute!
Niederrinnt ein schmerzenloses Reute!
Unter mir-ach, aus dem Licht verschwundenTraumen schon die schonern meiner Stunden.
Aus der blauen Tiefe ruft das Gestern:
Sind im Licht noch manche meiner Schwestern?

IN DER SISTINA
In der Sistine diimmerhohem Raum,
Vas Bibelbuch in seiner nerv'gen Rand,
Sitzt Michelangelo in wachem Traum,
Umhellt von einer klein en Ampel Brand.
Laut spricht hinein er in die M itternacht,
Als lauscht' ein Gast ihm gegeniiber hier,
Bald wie mit einer allgewalt'gen Macht,
Bald wieder wie mit seinesgleichen schier:
"Umfasst, umgrenzt hab ich dich, ewig Sein,
Mit meinen grossen Linien fiinfmal dortl
Ich hiillte dich in lichte Mantel ein
Und gab dir Leib, wie dieses Bibelwort.

[MEYER]

OARS PULLED UP
,

Pulled up, resting gently, my oars drip;

slowly drops descend into the deep.
Nothing troubled me, nothing gave joyl
Downward glides a sorrowless today.
Under me, where drops no longer gleam,
fairer hours that have vanished drea:rn.
Yesterday calls from the azure deep:
are yet many sisters not asleep?

IN THE SISTINA
In the Sis tina's twilit vaulted land
sits Michelangelo in waking dreams,
a Bible volume in his mighty hand,
and over him a tiny lantern gleams.
He speaks into the middle of the night
as if some guest were listening to his word,
now as if to some superhuman might,
now as if one like him were there and heard.
"Eternal Being, with my sweeping strokes
I bounded and embraced you five times, hid
your glory in five Howing, radiant cloaks,
and gave you body as the Bible did.

[MEYER]

118

Mit wehnden Haaren stUrmst du feurigwild

Von Sonnen immer neuen Sonnen zu,
Fur deinen Menschen bist in meinem Bild
Entgegenschwebend und barmherzig du!
So schuf ich dich mit meiner nicht'gen Kraft:
Damit ich nicht der grossre Kunstler sei,
Schaff mich-ich bin ein Knecht der LeidenschaftN ach deinem Bilde schaff mich rein und frei!

Den ersten Menschen formtest du aus Ton,

Ich werde schon von hiirterm StotJe sein,
Da, Meister, brauchst du deinen Hammer schon.
Bildhauer Gott, schlag zu! Ich bin der Stein."

DER ROMISCHE BRUNNEN

Aufsteigt der Strahl und fallend giesst
Er voll der Marmorschale Rund,
Die, sich verschleiernd, uberfliesst
In einer zweiten Schale Grund;
Die zweite gibt, sie wird zu reich,
Der dritten wallend ihre Flut,
Und jede nimmt und gibt zugleich
Und stromt und ruht.

119

[MEYER

With flying hair you storm withoiit re~traint

from suns to novel suns with fiery face,
but to the man you fashioned, whom I 'paInt,
you are inclined in flight and show him grace.
Thus I made you although my strength is coarse:
lest I the greater artist be,
make me-I am a slave to passion's forcein your own image make me, pure and free.
The first man you have shaped from tender clay;
I should be struck out of a harder block:
Your hammer, Master, you will need today.
o sculptor God, strike me: I am the rock."

THE ROMAN FOUNTAIN

Up spurts the beam, falls, and bestows
itself upon the marble round,
which veils itself and overflows
into a second basin's ground;
the second gives, it grows too rich,
the third in waves its falling crest,
and each receives and gives at once,
and streams and rests.

120

[MEYER]

DIE FOSSE 1M FEUER

Wild zuckt deT Blitz. In fahlem Lichte steht ein Turm.
Der Donner rollt. Ein Reiter kiimpft mit seinem Ross,
Springt ab und pocht ans Tor und liirmt. Sein Mantel
saust
1m Wind. Er hiilt den scheuen Fuchs am Zugel fest.
Ein schmales Gitterfenster schimmert goldenhell
Und knarrend ofJnet ietzt das Tor ein Edelmann . .
-"Ich bin ein Knecht des Konigs, als Kurier geschickt
N ach Ntmes. H erbergt mich! Ihr kennt des Konigs Rock!"
-"Es sturmt. Mein Gast bist du. Dein Kleid, was
kummert's mich?
Tritt ein und wiirme dich! Ich sorge fur dein Tier!"
Der Reiter tritt in einen dunkeln Ahnensaal,
Von eines weiten H erdes Feuer schwach erhellt,
Und ie nach seines Flackerns launenhaftem Licht
Droht hier ein Hugenott im Harnisch, dort ein Weib,
Ein stolzes Edelweib aus braunem Ahnenbild ...
Der Reiter wirft sich in den Sessel vor dem Herd
Und starrt in den lebend'gen Brand. Er brutet, gafjt . ..
Leis straubt sich ihm das Haar. Er kennt den Herd, den
Saal ...
Die Flamme zischt. Zwei Fiisse zucken in der Glut.
Den Abendtisch bestellt die greise SchafJnerin
Mit Linnen blendend weiss. Das Edelmiigdlein hilft.
Ein Knabe trug den Krug mit Wein. Der Kinder Blick
Hangt schreckensstarr am Gast und hangt am Herd
entsetzt . ..
Die Flamme zischt. Zwei Fiisse wcken in der Glut.

121

[MEYER]

THE FEET IN THE FIRE

Lightning writhes wildly. In the gaunt light a tower.
And thunder rolls. A rider struggles with his horse,
jumps down, knocks at the door, and roars. His cloak
blows
in the wind. He holds the shy horse firmly by the reins.
A narrow grated window glistens golden,
and now a no~leman unlocks the creaking gate ...
"I am a royal knight, sent as a messenger
to Nimes. Lodge mel You know the royal coatI"
"It storms. You are my guest. Your coat-what's that to
me?
'
Come in and warm yourself! I shall see to your horse!"
The rider steps into a dark ancestral hall,
but weakly lighted by the fire in the hearth,
and, shifting with its moody light,
a well-armed Huguenot threatens here, and there a
woman,
proud noblewoman, from a dark brown picture ...
The rider sinks into an armchair near the hearth
and stares into the living fire. He broods and gapes . .
His hair is bristling. For he knows the hearth, the
hall. "
The :flame is Sizzling. Two feet are writhing in the fire.
The aged maid prepares the dinner table
with'linen, splendid white. The noble's daughter helps.
A boy carried the pitcher with the wine. The children's
glances
are fixed in horror on the guest, and frightened on
the hearth ...
The :flame is Sizzling. Two feet are writhing in the fire.

.122

[MEYER]

-"V erdammt! Dasselbe Wappen! Dieser selbe Saal!

Drei Jahre sinds . .. Auf einer Hugenottenjagd . ..
Ein fein, halsstarrig Weib ... , Wa steckt der Junker?
Spricht
Sie schweigt. ,Bekenn!' Sie schweigt. ,Gib ihn heraus!'
Sie schweigt.
Ich werde wild. Der Stolz! Ich zerre das Ceschopf ...
Die nackten Fiisse pack ich ihr und strecke sie
Tief mitten in die Glut . .. ,Gib ihn hera us!' ... Sie
schweigt . . .
Sie windet sich ... Sahst du das Wappen nicht am Tor?
Wer hiess dich hier zu Gaste gehen, dumrner Narr?
Hat er nur einen Tropfen Bluts, erwiirgt er dich."Eintritt der Edelmann. "lJu triiumst! Zu Ti&che, Gast ...<!.
Da sitzen sie. Die drei in ihrer schwarzen Tracht
Und er. Doch keins der Kinder spricht das Tischgebet.
Ihn starren sie mit aufgerissnen Augen an~
Den Becher fiillt und iibergiesst er, stiirzt den Trunk,
Springt auf: "H err, gebet jetzt mir meine Lagerstatt!
Miid bin ich wie ein Hundl" Ein Diener leuchtet ihm,
Doch auf der Schwelle wirft er einen Blick zuriick
Und sieht den Knaben fliistern in des Vaters Ohr ...
Dem Diener falgt er taumelnd in das Turmgemach.
Fest riegelt er die Tiir. Er priift Pistol und Schwert.
Gell pfeift der Sturm. Die Diele bebt. Die Decke stohnt.
Die Treppe kracht ... Drohnt hier ein Tritt? Schleicht
dort ein Schritt? .. .

123

[MEYER)

"Confounded! The same coat of arms! The same hall!

Three years have passed ... We hunted Huguenots ...
A fhie, stiff-necked woman ... 'Where is the knight?
Speak up!'
She's silent. 'Confess!' She's silent. 'Give him up!' She's
silent ...
I become wild. Such pride! I drag the creature ...
I seize her naked feet and stretch them out
deep, deep into the Hames ... 'Give him up!' She's
silent ...
She is convulsed . . . Did you not see the coat of arms
above the gate?
Who told you to seek refuge here, you stupid fool?
If he has but a drop of blood, he strangles you."
The nobleman comes in. "You dream! To dinner~
guest ..."
And there they sit. The three in their black garments,
and he. None of the children say the dinner blessing.
They stare at him with anxious open eyeshe fills the cup and spills it, gulps his drink,
jumps up: "Sir, show me to my bedroom!
I am tired as a dog!" A servant holds the lantern,
but from the threshold he casts back a glance
and sees the young boy whispering in his father's ear
He reels into the attic room behind the servant.
Firmly he locks the door. He tests pistol and sword.
The storm is howling. The Hoar trembles. The ceiling
moans.
The stairs are creaking ... Is that a step? . . . Is.
someone creeping?

124

[MEYER]

Ihn tiiuscht das Ohr. Voriiberwandelt Mitternacht.

AUf seinen Lidern lastet Blei, und schlummernd sinkt
Er aUf das Lager. Draussen pliitschert Regenflut.
Er triiumt. "Gesteh!" Sie schweigt. "Gib ihn her_aus!" Sie .
schweigt.
Er zerrt das Weib. Zwei Fiisse zucken in der Glut.
AUfspriiht und zischt ein Feuermeer, das ihn
verschlingt ...
-"Erwach! Du solltest liingst von hinnen sein! Es tagtf"
Durch die Tapetentiir in das Gemach gelangt,
Vor seinem Lager steht des Schlosses H err-ergraut,
Dem gestern dunkelbraun sich noch gekraust das Ha~r."
Sie reiten durch den Wald. Kein Liiftchen regt sich heut.
Zersplittert liegen Astetriimmer quer im Pfad.
Die friihsten V oglein zwitschern, halb im Traume noch.
Friedsel'ge Wolken schwimmen durch die klare Luft,
Als kehrten Engel heim von einer niicht'gen Wacht.
Die dunkeln Schollen atmen kriift'gen Erdgeruch.
Die Ebne ofJnet sich. 1m Felde geht ein Pflug.
Der Reiter lauert aus den Augenwinkeln: "Herr,
1hr seid ein kluger Mann und voll Besonnenheit
Und wisst, dass ich dem grossten Konig eigen bin.
Lebt wohl! Auf Nimmerwiedersehn!" Der andre spricht:
"Du sagst's! Dem grossten Konig eigen! Heute ward
Sein Dienst mir schwer . .. Gemordet hast du teuflisch mir
Mein WeibI Und lebst ... Mein ist die Rache, redet Gott:~

[MEYER]

His ear deceives him. Midnight passes by.

The weight of heavy lead upon his lids, he yields to
slumber
on his bed. Outside the rain is splattering.
He dreams. "Confess!" She's silent. "Give him up!" She's
silent.
He drags the woman. Two feet are writhing in the fire.
An ocean of flames licks up, sizzles, and swallows him . . .
"Wake up! You should have left here long ago! The
dawn is past!"
Entering the room through a wallpapered door,
the castle's lord stands at his bed-turned gray
the hair that was dark brown but yesterday.
They ride through woodland. Not a breeze today.
The broken branches lie in splinters on the path.
The first birds twitter, half imme,rsed in dreams.
Peaceful clouds are swimming through the brilliant air,
as if the angels were returning from their nightly watch.
The dark earth breathes with a healthy smell of soil.
The plain is opening. A plow is moving in the field.
The rider's eyes are sneering: "Sir,
you are a prudent man and circumspect,
and know that I belong to the almighty king.
Farewell. And may I see you nevermore!" The other
says:
"You say it! Belong to the Almighty King! Today I found
His service hard . . . You murdered devilishly
my wife and live! . . . Revenge is mine, says God."

FELIX DAHN

....................................... .

ahn, who held professorships at Wfuzburg, Konigsberg, and Breslau, is best known for his
immensely popular historical novel, Ein Kampf um
Rom (4 vols. l876, A Fight for Rome). It deals with the
Ostrogoths and their ultimate destruction, and was published during the same year that saw the first performance of Wagner's Ring in Bayreuth. Eagerly devoured
by generations of schoolboys-on their own, too, not
only in class-it did its share to influence conceptions of
loyalty and honor. Dahn's plays, including one on
Kriemhild's revenge and the destruction of the Burgundians under their king, Gunter, have been generally
forgotten; nor was Dahn an important poet. But at least
one of his poems, which is well known in Germany from
anthologies, is of unusual interest: "Hagen's Dying
Song."
Since its significance is hardly due to its poetry, I
have given up any attempt to reproduce the rhymes in
the middle of the lines. But the translation retains the
rhythm and the end rhymes. What is notable is chiefly
the glorification of Hagen and the poet's conception of
his hero. According to the Nibelungenlied, the medieval
epic, King Gunter was unable to master his bride, Brun-

[DAHN]

hild, and had to invoke the help of his sister's husband,

Siegfried, to subdtle the redoubtable Brunhild during his
wedding night, sO he could consummate his marriage.
Later, Brunhild and Kriemhild (Siegfried's wife) meet
~l\ the ~h.-\:m~h ste?'" and q_\1..anel. BJ.:\1..nh1..ld tau.nt'" Knemhild by insisting that she is her inferior because Siegfried is Gunter's vassal. Kriemhild, hurt in her pride,
tells Brunhild about her wedding night. Brunhild, humiliated beyond endurance, tells Gunter, who summons
Siegfried, and both men deny everything. But she also
tells Hagen who immediately vows to her that he will
save the honor of his king and queen by killing Siegfried. This cannot be done in open combat, as Siegfried
is vulnerable only in one small place, between his shoulder blades, where a fallen leaf kept oH the dragon's
blood in which he bathed his skin to make it forever invulnerable. Therefore, Hagen approaches the hero as he
bends down to drink and stabs him in the back.
Kriemhild, resolved to revenge herself, marries Etzel
(Attila), the king Df the Huns, has him invite her tribe,
the Burgundians, and then organizes a slaughter which
turns into a terrible battle. In the end, only Gunter and
Hagen survive. No Hun can subdue them, but Dietrich
von Bern (Theodoric of Verona, the great Gothic king)
subdues the two worn-out heroes and delivers them to
Kriemhild, bound: Hagen first (the old epic says that
<'he gave into her hand the boldest hero that ever car-.
ried a sword"), then Gunter. Dietrich pleads with her
to spare them. Kriemhild taunts them, has them moved
to separate dungeons, then confronts Hagen and asks
him to return to her the gold of the Nibelungen. Hagen
says that he has sworn an oath not to reveal where it

13 1

[DARN]

is hidden "as long as even one of my lords is alive."

Then Kriemhild has her brother's head cut off and carries it by the hair to Hagen, who retorts: "Now it has
happened as I had expected. Now the noble king of
Burgundy is dead," and so are all the princes; "now
nobody knows of the treasure but God and I alone;
so it will remain hidden from you for ever." Kriemhild
then strikes off Hagen's head; and old Hildebrand, seeing this, kills her in his wrath; and that is the end of
the Burgundians.
Hagen's song, as conceived by Dahn, will strike some
readers as Nietzschean. In the chapter "On The Thousand and One Goals" in the First Part of Zarathustra
(1883), Nietzsche contrasts the ethics of four peoples,
the Greeks, the Persians, the Jews, and the Germans. I
shall quote what he says about the last two:
" 'To honor father and mother and to follow their will
to the root of one's sour-this was the tablet of overcoming that another people hung up over themselves and
became powerful and eternal thereby. 'To practice loyalty and, for the sake of loyalty, to risk honor and blood
even for evil and dangerous things'-with this teaching
another people conquered themselves; and through this
self-conquest they became pregnant and heavy with
great hopes."

132

[DAHN]

HAGENS STERBELIED
Nun werit ich sehr alleine!-Die Fiirsten liegen tot:Wie gliinzt im Mondenscheine der Estrich blutig rot!
Die frohlichen Burgunden, wie sie nun stille sind!
Ich hare, wie aus Wunden das Blut in Tropfen rinnt.
Es steiget aus dem Hause ein Dunst von Blute schwer,
Schon kreischen nach dem Schmause die Geier
ringsumher.
Es schliift der Konig Gunter in fieberwirrem Schlaf,
Seit ihn vom Turm herunter ein spitzer Bolzen traf.
Und Volker liegt erschlagen; der lachte, wie er fiel:
"Nimm all mein Erbe, Hagen, nimm du mein
Saitenspiel."
Er trug, vor Heunentiicken geschirmt, die Fiedel traut
Auf seinem sichern Riicken, den nie ein F eind geschaut.
Sie scholl wie N achtigallen, wenn Volker sie gespannt;
W ohl anders wird sie schallen in meiner harten Hand.
Vier Saiten sind zersprungen,-drei haften noch daran!
Ich habe nie gesungen, ich bin kein Fiedelmann.Doch treibt mich's, zu versuchen, wie Hagens Weise
geht:
Ich denk', ein gutes Fluchen ist auch kein schlecht
Gebet!
So sei'n verflucht die Weiber, Weib ist, was falsch und
schlecht:
'
Hier um zwei weisse Leiber verdirbt Burgunds
Geschlecht!
Und Fluch dem Wahngetriebe von Sitte, Liebe, Recht:
Erlogen ist die Liebe, und nur der Hass ist echt.
Die Reue ist der Narren! Nur das ist Atmens wert,
1m Tod noch auszuharren beim Groll, beim Stolz, beim
Schwert.

133

[DARN]

HAGEN'S DYING SONG

Now I am growing lonely. The princes are all dead,
and in the moonshine glimmers the hearth in bloody
red.
The once so gay Burgundians are still, their revels stop.
I hear how from their bodies the blood runs drop on
drop.
Out of the house arises a heavy smell of blood,
and screeching vultures circle impatient for their food.
King Gunter is still sleeping his fever-maddened sleep,
since a well sharpened arrow struck from the tower
steep.
And Volker fell with laughter, and thus bade me adieu:
"Take all I leave, dear Hagen, my strings I leave
to you."
Secure from Hunnish cunning, he carried without awe
the fiddle on his safe back that no foe ever saw.
Like nightingales it sounded, strummed by the fearless
bard;
no doubt, it will sound different in my hand, which
is hard.
Three strings remain to play on, the other four are gone;
I am not used to singing, I am no fiddle man.
And yet I feel like trying how Hagen's tune might go:
I think some good sound cllrsing is a good prayer, too.
Above all, cursed be women; woman is falsity:
here, for two soft white bodies, perishes Burgundy!
And cursed be the illusion of morals, love, and law:
love is a lying fiction, and only hate is true.
Repentance is for idiots. Nothing has worth beside
enduring still when dying with wrath and sword and
pride.

134

[DAHN]

Und hatt' ich zu beraten neu meine ganze Bahn,Ich liesse meiner Taten nicht eine ungetan.
Und kam', der Welt Entziicken, ein zweiter Siegfried

her.Ich stiess' ihm in den Riicken zum zweitenmal den

Speer!
Was reisst ihr, feige Saiten? Versagt ihr solchem SangBHa, wer mit macht'gem Schreiten kommt dort den HOj
entlang?
Das ist kein H eunenspaher, das drohnt wie
Schicksalsgang,
Und niiher, immer niiher:-ein Schatte riesenlang.Auf, Gunter, jetzt erwache, den Schritt kenn' ich von
fern:
Auf, auf/-Der Tod, die Rache und Dietrich komm
von BernI

135

[DAHN]

If I must reconsider my deeds now, one by one,

I should not leave a single act that I did undone.
And if, the world's enchantment, another Siegfried
came,
r d stab him in the back, too, with the same deadly
aim.
You tear, strings? Are you cowards, afraid of such a
song?
Hah, who comes down the courtyard, with strides
that are so long?
.
That is no :nunnish lookout, those are the steps of fateand nearer, ever nearer-I recognize his gait.
Up, Gunter, now awaken, this is the final turn:
Up, upl Death, the avenger, and Dietrich comes from

BernI

FRIEDRICH
NIETZSCHE

N o other philosopher in any land since

Kant and Hegel has equaled their many-sided international influence as Nietzsche did. Unlike Kant and Hegel, Nietzsche was also a writer of brilliant prose, and
it is doubtful whether he has any equal among Germans
in this respect. As he himself noted in Ecce Homo, with
a characteristic lack of modesty, only Heine is in the
same class with him. (The passage is quoted in the
preface to Heine, above.)
In the English-speaking world, it has taken a long
time for Nietzsche to be taken seriously as a philosopher, and his impact still does not compare with his
pervasive influence on German and French letters. His
reputation as a poet is all but non-existent in England
and in the United States. In Germany, on the other
hand, it is a commonplace that he is one of the most
important and influential poets since Hi:ilderlin. Poems
on him by George and Morgenstern will be fouI).d later
in this volume; Benn wrote a poem on him, too, as well
as a notable essay quoted below in the preface to Benn;
and Rilke's relationship to him is analyzed in detilil in
two chapters (12 and 13) of my From Shakespeare to
Existentialism.

139

[NIETZSCHE]

The first of the poems that follow was written in 1864.

The title is taken from The Acts of the Apostles, in the
New Testament. Paul says (17.23): "I found an altar
with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." In
his later works, Nietzsche gave a name to "the unknown
God" he served: "Dionysus."
In 1882 Nietzsche published Die Frohliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science, mistranslated as The Joyful
Wisdom) with a "Prelude in German Rhymes" that bore
a title takeJ.? from Goethe: "Scherz, List und Rache"
(Fun, Cunning, and Revenge). Five of the poems from
this prelude are offered next. Of these, the one called
"Ecce Homo" is probably much the best known. The
second edition of the same book (1887) featured a
whole new chapter of long aphorisms as well as an
Appendix: "Lieder des Prinz en Vogelfrei" (Songs of
Prince Free-as-a-Bird; the last phrase generally refers
to an outlaw whom anyone may shoot at sight). Two
poems from this appendix are offered: "To Goethe" and
"To the Mistral." The former is a parody on the final
chorus of Goethe's Faust, which begins, "What is destructible / is but a parable" and ends "The EternalFeminine / lures to perfection." Of the mistral dictionaries say that it is "a violent, cold, and dry northerly
wind of the Mediterranean provinces of France"; the
poem was written November 22, 1884.
Early in January 1889 Nietzsche suffered a complete
mental collapse, and, his friend Overbeck came from
Basel, where Nietzsche had been a professor of classical
philology from 1869 until his resignation ten years later,
to take Nietzsche back home, to an asylum if necessary.
On the train Nietzsche, no longer able to sustain any

[NIETZSCHE]

sensible conversation, stunned Overbeck by reciting a .

very striking poem. (Andre Malraux has incorporO:ed
this episode in La lutte avec l'ange.) Later it turned out
to be part of Ecce Homo, a book Nietzsche had completed a few months earlier. In the book the poem has
no title, but in posthumous editions of Nietzsche's poetry it is generally called "Venice." It is offered. .here.
"The Sun Sinks" was first published in a collection
called Dionysus-Dithyramben. In 18g1, when the first
public edition of the Fourth Part of Zarathustra was
prepared by Peter Cast, six "Dithyrambs" were appended to it, with a separate half-title and table of contents (23 pages in all), and the following note on the
inside front cover: "... The Dithyrambs (writte~ in
the fall of 1888) that are printed at the end of the book
are to be considered as a separate publication, and not
as an appendix to this Fourth Part. . . ." In later editions three more poems were added to this collection,
all three of them from the Fourth Part of Zarathustra,
but in some editions with some variants. These are due
to the fact that Part Four was completed in 1885, and
some of the other "Dithyrambs" belong to that period,
too; but the poet later made some changes. "The Sun
Sinks," probably written in 1888, is not affected by these
changes.
.
The "Dithyrambs" are very uneven. They were clearly
influenced by Holderlin's late verse, and they in turn
influenced Rilke's Duino Elegies. But. Karl Schlechta
seems to be wrong when he claims in the philological
postscript of his edition of Nietzsche's Werke in. drei
Biinden that Nietzsche late in 1888 completed a "Druckmanuskript," i.e., a manuscript ready to go to the printer

[NIETZSCHE]

(Vol. III, Ig56, p. 1389). In Friedrich Nietzsches Werke

des Zusammenbruchs (lg61), Erich F. Podach, whose
four earlier books made notable contributions to our
knowledge of Nietzsche's life, discusses the manuscripts
and previous editions of the "Dithyrambs" for over
twenty pages-and finds fault with all editions, including Schlechta's. It appears that Nietzsche wrote these
poems over a period of four years during which he completed over half a dozen books; but he never got these
poems into any final form that fully satisfied him. One
version of tl?ree of these poems may be found in The
Portable Nietzsche, pp. 364f., 409ff., and 416ff., in my
translation of Zarathustra. Of the others, the one that
strikes me as far and away the best is included in the
following selections.
Several, but not all, of my translations of Nietzsche's
poems appeared originally in my Nietzsche (Princeton
University Press 1950), in an Appendix, but wer~ omitted in the revised edition, published in paperback by
Meridian Books in Ig56.

[NIETZSCHE]

DEM UNBEKANNTENGOTT
Noch einmal, eh ich weiterziehe
und meine Blicke vorwarts sen de,
heb ich vereinsamt meine Hande
zu dir empor, zu dem ich fliehe,
dem ich in tiefster H erzenstiefe
Altiire feierlich geweiht,
dass allezeit
mich deine Stimme wieder riefe.
Darauf ergliiht tiefeingeschrieben
das Wort: Vem unbekannten Gotte.
Seen bin (en, ob ien in der Freder Rotte
auch bis zur Stunde bin geblieben:
sein bin ich-und ich fiihl die Schlingen,
die mich im Kampf darniederziehn
und, mag ich fliehn,
mich doch zu seinem Dienste zwingen.
Ich will dich kennen, Unbekannter,
du tief in meine Seele Greifender,
mein Leben wie ein Sturm Vurchschweifender,
du Unfassbarer, mir Verwandterf
Ich will dich kennen, selbst dir dienen.

UNVERZAGT
W 0 du stehst, grab' tief hineinf
Drunten ist die Quelle!
Lass die dunklen Manner schrein:
"Stets ist drunten-Holle!"

143

[NIETZSCHE]

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

Once more before I wander on
and tum my eyes to distant lands,
in solitude I raise my hands
to you on.high to whom I Hy,
whom in my heart's profundity
I hallowed altars to implore
that evermore
your voice might call again to me.
On them is glowing, inscribed deep,
the word: Unto the Unknown God.
His am I, although in the sinners' squad
until this hour I did keep:
his am I, and I feel the chains
that in my fight I can't untie
and, though I Hy,
force me to serve the god again.
I want to know you, Unknown One,
you that are reaching deep into my soul
and ravaging my life, a savage gale,
you Inconceivable and yet Related One!
I want to know you-even serve.

UNDAUNTED
Where you stand, dig deep and pry!
Down there is the well.
Let the obscurantists cry:
"Down there's only-hellI"

[ N1E'l:ZSCIIE]

Der fernsten Welt gehort dein Schein;

Mitleid soU Sunde fur dich sein!
NUT

Ein Gebot gilt dir: sei rein!

DER EINSAMSTE
Nun, da der Tag
des Tags mude ward, und aZZer Sehnsucht 13iiche
von neuem Trost pliitschern,
auch aIle Himmel, aufgehiingt in Gald-Spinnetzen,
zu jedem Muden sprechen: "Ruhe nun!"
was ruh.n ilu _nicht" au dJmk1e.~ HBr_~
was stachelt dich zu fusswunder Flucht ...
wes harrest du?

AN GOETHE
Das Unvergiingliche
ist nur dein Gleichnisf

Gatt der Verfiingliche

ist Dichter-Erschleichnis ..
Welt-Rad, das rallende,
streift Ziel auf Ziel:
N ot-nennts der Grallende,
der Narr nennts-Spiel . ..
Welt-Spiel, das herrische,
mischt Sein und Schein:das Ewig-Niirrische
mischt uns hinein! ...

[NIETZSCHE]

147

Let farthest world your light secure.

Pity is sin you must abjure.
But one command is yours: be pure!

THE LONELIEST ONE

Now that the day
grew weary of the day, and all the streams of longing
are splashing of new comfort,
and all the heavens, wrought in golden spiderwebs,
speak to the weary: Rest now!
why don't you rest, dark heart,
what spurs you on to footsore flightwhy do you wait?

TO GOETHE
The indestructible
is but your invention.
God, the ineluctable,
poetic pretension.
World wheel, while rolling on,
skims aim on aim:
Fate, says the sullen one,
fools call it a game.
World ga~e, the ruling force,
blends false and true:
the eternally fooling force
blends u.s in too.

[NIETZSCIlE]

AN DEN MISTRAL
EIN TANZLIED

Mistral-Wind, du Wolken-Jager,
Trubsal-Marder, Himmels-Feger,
brausender, wie lieb ich dich!
Sind wir zwei nicht Eines Schosses
Erstlingsgabe, Eines Loses
Vorbestimmte ewiglich?
Hier auf glatt en Felsenwegen
lauf ich tanzend dir entgegen,
tanzend, wie du pfeifst und singst:
der du ohne Schiff und Ruder
als der Freiheit freister Bruder
fiber wilde Meere springst.
Kaum erwacht, hart ich dein Rufen, '.
stiirmte zu den Felsenstufen,
hin zur gelben Wand am Meer.
H eil! da kamst du schon gleich hellen
diamantnen Stromesschnellen
sieghaft von den Bergen her.
Auf den ebnen Himmels-Tennen
sah ich deine Rosse rennen,
sah den Wagen, der dich tragt,
sah die Hand dir seIber zucken,
wenn sie aUf der Rosse Rucken
blitzesgleich die Geissel schlagt.-

149

[NIETZSCHE]

TO THE MISTRAL
A DANCING SONG

Mistral wind, you rain cloud leaper,

sadness killer, heaven sweeper,
how I love you when you roarl
Were we two not generated
in one womb, predestinated
for one lot for evermore?
Here on slippery rocky traces
I dance into your embraces,
dancing as you sing and whistle:
you that, shipless, do not halt,
freedom's freest brother, vault
over raging seas, a missile.
Barely waked, I heard your calling,
stormed to where the rocks are sprawling,
to the gold wall by the seawhen you came like swiftly dashing
river rapids, diamond-splashing,
from the peaks triumphantly.
Through the heavens' threshing basin
I could see your horses hasten,
saw the carriage you commanded,
saw your hand yourself attack
when upon the horses' back
lightning-like your scourge descended .

[NIETZSCHE]

Sah dich aus dem Wagen springen,

schneller dich hinabzuschwingen,
sah dich wie zum Pfeil verkurzt
senkrecht in die Tiefe stossen,wie ein GoLdstrahl durch die Rosen
erster MorgenrOten stUrzt.
Tanze nun auf tausend Rucken,
Wellen-Rucken, Wellen-TuckenReil, wer neue Tanze schafft!
Tanzen wir in tausend "YVeisen,
frei-sei unsre Kunst geheissen,
frohlich-unsre Wissenschaftl
Raffen wir von ieder Blume
eine Bliite uns zum Ruhme
und zwei Blatter noch zum Kranz!
Tanzen wir gleich Troubadouren
zwischen Heiligen und Ruren,
zwischen Gatt und Welt den Tanz!
Wer nicht tanzen kann mit W inden,
wer sich wickeln muss mit Binden,
angebunden, KriippeL-Greis,
wer da gleicht den Reuchel-Hansen,
Ehren-Tolpeln, Tugend-Gansen,
fort aus unsrem Paradeis!
Wirbeln wir den Staub der Strassen
allen Kranken in die N_asen,
scheuchen wir die Kranken-Brut!
Losen wir die ganze Kuste
von dem fJdem durrer Bruste,
von den Augen ohne Mut!

[NIETZSCHE]

From your carriage of disaster

leaping to bear down yet faster,
I saw you in arrow form
vertically downward plunging,
like a golden sunbeam lunging
through the roses of the dawn.
Dance on myriad backs a season,
billows' backs and billows' treasonwe need dances that are new!
Let us dance in myriad manners,
freedom write on our art's banners,
make our science gay and true.
Let us break fro.'ll ffl'&')' flower
one fine blossom for our power
and two leaves to wind a wreath!
Let us dance like troubadours
between holy men and whores,
between god and world beneath!

Who thinks tempests dance too quickly,

all the bandaged and the sickly,
crippled, old, and overnice,
if you fear the wind might hurt you,
honor fools and geese of virtueout of our paradise!
Let us whirl the dusty hazes
right into the sick men's noses,
flush the sick brood everywhere!
Let us free the coast together
from the wilted bosoms' blether,
from the eyes that never dare!

[NIETZSCHE

lagen wir die Himmels-Truber,

Welten-Schwarzer, Wolken-Schieber,
hellen wir das H immelreich!
Brausen wir ... 0 aller freien
Geister Geist, mit dir zu zweien
braust mein GlUck dem Sturme gleich.-Und dass ewig das Gediichtnis
solchen Glucks, nimm sein Vermachtnis,
nimm den Kranz hier mit hinauf!
Wirf ihn hoher, ferner, weiter,
sturm empor die Himmelsleiter,
hang ihn-an den Sternen auf! .

VENEDIG
An der Briicke stand'
iiingst ich in brauner Nacht.
Fernher kam Gesang:
goldener Tropfen quaIls
uber die zitternde Flache weg.
Gondeln, Lichter, Musiktrunken schwamms in die Dammrung hinaus ..
Meine Seele, ein Saitenspiel,
sang sich, unsichtbar beriihrt,
heimlich ein Gondellied daztl,
, .zitternd vaT bunter Seligk~t.
-Horte jemand ihr zu? ..

[NIETZSCHE]

153

Let us chase the shadow lovers,

world defamers, rain-cloud shoverslet us brighten up the skyl
All free spirits' spirit, let you
and me thunder; since I met you,
like a tempest roars my joy.

And forever to attest

such great joy, take its bequest,
take this wreath with you up therel
Toss it higher, further, gladder,
storm up on the heavens' ladder,
hang it up-upon a star.

VENICE
At the bridge of late
I stood in the brown night.
From afar came a song:
as a golden drop it welled
over the quivering surface.
Gondolas, lights, and musicdrunken it swam out into the twilight.
My soul, a stringed instrument,
sang "to itself, invisibly touched,
a secret gondola song,
quivering with iridescent happiness.
-Did anyone listen to it?

154

[NIETZSCHE]

DIE SONNE SINKT

I

Nicht lange durstest du noch,

verbranntes H erz!
Verheissung ist in der Luft,
aus unbekannten M iindern blast michs an,
-die grosse Kiihle kommt ...
Meine Sonne stand heiss iiber mir im Mittage:
seid mir gegriisst, dass ihr kommt, .
ihr plotzlichen Winde,
ihr kiihlen Geister des N achmittagsl
Die Luft geht fremd und rein.
Schielt nicht mit schiefem
Verfiihrerblick
die Nacht mich an? ...
Bleib stark, mein tapfres Herz!
Frag nicht: warum?II

Tag meines Lebens!

die Sonne sinkt.
Schon steht die glatte
Flut vergiiza"et.
Warm atmet der Fels:
schlief wohl zu Mittag
das Gliick aUf ihm seinen Mittagsschlaf?
In griinen Lichtern
spielt Gliick' noch der braune Abgrund herauf.

[NIETZSCHE]

155
THE SUN SINKS
I

Not long will you ,thirst,

burnt out heart!
A promise is in the air,
from unknown lips it blows at me
-the great chill comes.
My sun stood hot over me at noonbe welcome that you come,
you sudden winds,
you chilly spirits of afternoon!
The air moves strange and pure.
Does not with warped
seductive eyes
night leer at me?
Stay strong, courageous heart!
Do not ask: why?
IT

Day of my life!
The sun sinks.
Already the smooth
flood stands golden.
Warm breathes the rock:
whether at noon
joy slept its noonday sleep upon it?
In greenish lights
Joy is still playing over the brown abyss.

[NIETZSCHE]

Tag meines Lebens!

gen Abend gehts!
Schon gliiht dein Auge
halbgebrochen,
schon quillt deines Taus
Tranengetraufel,
schon liiuft still iiber weisse M eere
deiner Liebe Purpur,
deine letzte zogernde Seligkeit ..
ill

H eiterkeit, giildene, komm!

du des Todes
heimlichster, siissester Vorgenuss!
-Lief ich zu rasch meines Wegs?
Jetzt erst, wo der Fuss miide ward,
holt dein Blick mich noch ein,
holt dein Gluck mich noch ein.
Rings nur Welle und Spiel.
Was ie schwer war,
sank in blaue Vergessenheit,miissig steht nun mein Kahn.
Sturm und Fahrt-wie verlernt' er das!
Wunsch und H offen ertrank,
g~att liegt Seele und Meer.
Siebente Einsamkeit!
Nie empfand ich
naher mir siisse Siche!heit,
warmer der Sonne Blick.
-Gliiht nicht das Eis meiner Gipfel noch?
Silbern, leicht, ein Fisch,
schwimmt nun mein N achen hinaus ...

157

(NIETZSCHE]

Day of my life!
Toward evening it goes.
Already your eye
glows half-broken,
already your dew's
tear drops are welling,
already runs still over white seas
your love's purple,
your last hesitant blessedness.
ill

Cheerfulness, golden one, come!

you of death
the most secret and sweetest foretaste!
Did I run too rash on my way?
Only now that my foot has grown weary,
your eye catches up with me,
your joy catches up with me.
Round me but wave and play.
Whatever was hard
sank into blue oblivionidle stands now my boat.
Storm and drive-how it forgot thatl
Wish and hope have drowned,
smooth lie soul and sea.

Seventh loneliness!
Never felt I
nearer me sweet security,
warmer the sun's eye.
Does not the ice of my peaks still glow?
Silver, light, a fish,
my bark now swims out.

STEFAN GEORGE
(1868- 1933)

A s was mentioned In the preface to Heine,

Stefan George had a most exalted conception of his
mission. In the distant past he venerated Dante; more
recently, he thought that he had received his prophet's
mantle from Nietzsche, to whom he devoted two poems.
The first was' written in 1900, on the occasion of the
philosopher's death, and included in Der Siebente Ring
(1907, The Seventh Ring). George's conception of Nietzsche-especially the lines beginning "Didst thou create gods but to overthrow them ..."-influenced not
only such George disciples as the brothers Gundolf
(Friedrich and Ernst) and Ernst Bertram (whose Nietzsche: Versuch einer M ythologie, i.e., "Attempt at a
Mythology," 1918, was for at least fifteen years by far
the most infl.uential interpretation) but also, albeit indirectly, Karl Jaspers' Nietzsche. Jaspers finds Nietzsche's
alleged destruction of all positions an ideal introduction
to his own Existenzphilosophie. George found in it a
limitation of the philosopher that marked him as a mere
herald of one greater than himself, one who was not a
mere philosopher, one who understood what was needed
as Nietzsche, alas, did not. As Kurt Hildebrandt put it
in Nietzsche als Richter unserer Zeit (1923, Nietzsche as

[GEORGE]

Judge of our Time): "Only George is what Nietzsche

convulsively coveted to be." Or as George himself put
it in his poem in 1900: "Now this is needed: constraint
within a circle." Instead of going it alone "over icy
cliffs," one must found a circle, the so-called George
Kreis, in which the poet sought to bring together the
most promising young men of the next generation in
order that he might regenerate Germany and the world
through their work and his. As he said in one of his
poems: "In jeder ewe / 1st nur ein gott und einer nur
sein kiinder" (In every epoch is but one god, and only
one his prophet). The prophet must not speak but sing;
but to enhance his effect on the deaf mass, his minions
might translate his inspired music into prose. The conclusion of the poem on "Nietzsche" was almost a straight
quote from Nietzsche's own preface (1886) to the second edition of The Birth of Tragedy, originally published in 1872: "It should have sung, this 'new soul'and not spoken!"
The other three George poems come from Ver Stern
des Bundes (1914, The Star of the Covenant). In the
original, none bears a title; but it was known from the
start, and there is general agreement, that the first of
these again refers to Nietzsche. All four of the poems
offered here give some idea of George's world view.
Not only his outlook was aristocratic, but the fo~
of his vers~e, too, was deliberately opposed to everything lax, popular, unrefined. To set it off from the
verse of others, even in appearance, George cap'italized
only the first word in each 'line or sentence and, of
course, proper names, but not, as is general practice in
modem German, every noun. Much more important:

[GEORGE]

a great deal of his verse is distinguished by a rare

nobility.
After Hitler came to power, in 1933, Stefan George
was offered the presidency of the Deutsche Dichterakademie, but sent one of the Jewish members of the
Circle to inform Goebbels of his refusal, and left for
Switzerland. Bertram, Hildebrandt, and others who had
been more or less close to the Circle became Nazis.
Friedrich Gundolf was dead. Karl W olfskehl, who had
been espeCially close to George, emigrated, being a Jew.
George made no statements. In December he died in
Locarno and, in accordance with his wishes, was buried
there, in Switzerland. Two brothers, Counts Stauffenberg, kept a death watch before the interment. Ten years
later, one of them commemorated the anniversary of
George's death with a cycle of poems. Seven months
later, on July 20, 1944, the other brother planted the
bomb that was meant to kill Hitler.
All of George's poems are most conveniently consulted in Stefan George: Werke in zwei Banden, Verlag
Helmut Kupper vormals Georg Bondi, Dusseldorf
Munchen. The four poems that follow are reproduced
with the publisher's kind permission.

~64

NIETZSCHE
Schwergelbe wolken ziehen uberm hugel
Und kuhle sturme-halb des herbstes boten
Halb fruhen fruhlings ... Also diese mauer
Umschloss den Donnerer-ihn der einzig war
Von tausenden aus rauch und staub um ihn?
H ier sandte er aUf flaches mittelland
Und tote stadt die lezten stumpfen blitze
Und ging aus langer nacht zur liingsten nacht.
Blod trabt die menge drunten scheucht sie nicht!
Was ware stich der qualle schnitt dem kraut
N och eine weile waIte fromme stille
Und das getier das ihn mit lob befleckt
Und sich im moderdunste weiter miistet
Der ihn erwiirgen half sei erst verendet!
Dann aber stehst du strahlend vor den zeiten
Wie andre fuhrer mit der blutigen krone.
Erloser {lu! selbst der unseligsteBeladen mit der wucht von welchen losen
Hast du der sehnsucht land nie lacheln sehn?
Erschufst du gotter nur um sie zu sturzen
Nie einer rast und eines baues froh?
Du hast das nachste in dir selbst getotet
Um neu begehrend dann ihm nachzuzittern.
Und aufzuschrein im schmerz der einsamkeit.

165

[GEORGE]

NIETZSCHE
Over the hill drift heavy yellow clouds
and chilling gales-half messengers of autumn
and half of early spring. So this wall here
enclosed the thunderer-him that had no peer
among the thousands, smoke and dust about him?
Here he dispatched on the flat middle land
and the dead town the final blunted lightnings
and went from his long night to longest night.
Dull trots the crowd below, do not disturb it!
Why stab the jelly-fish or cut the weed?
For a while yet let pious silence reign,
and let the vermin that stain him with praise
and are still fattening on the musty fumes
that helped to stifle him, first waste awayl
But then, resplendent, thou wilt face the ages
like other leaders with the bloody crown.
Redeemer thou! thyself the most unblessed'bearing the burden of what destinies
were you denied the smile of longing's land?
Didst thou create gods but to overthrow them,
never enjoying rest or what thou built?
Thou hast destroyed what in thyself was closest
to. tremble after it with new desire
and to cry out in pain of solitude.

166

[GEORGE]

Der kam zu spat der fiehend zu dir sagte:

Dart ist kein weg mehr tiber eisige feisen
Und horste grauser vogel-nun ist not:
Sich bannen in den kreis den fiebe schliesst ..
Und wenn die strenge und gequalte stimme
Dann wie ein loblied tOnt in blaue nacht
Und helle flut-so klagt: sie Mtte singen
Nicht reden sollen diese neue seele!

AUS "DER STERN DES BUNDES"

Einer stand auf der scharf wie blitz und stahl
kliifte aufriss und die lager schied
Ein Driiben schuf durch umkehr eures Hier ..
Der euren wahnsinn so lang in euch schrie
Mit solcher wucht dass ihm die kehle barst.
Und ihr? ob dumpf ob klug ob falsch ob echt
Vernahmt und saht ais ware nichts geschehn ..
Ihr handelt weiter sprecht und lacht und heckt.
Der warner ging .. dem rad das niederrollt
Zur leere greift kein arm mehr in die speiche.

Die

[GEORGE]

He came too late that said to thee imploring:

there is no way left over icy cliffs
and eyries of dread birds-now this is needed:
constraint within a circle closed by love.
And when the harsh tormented voice resounds,
a song of praise, into the azure night
and brilliant flood-lament: it should have sung,
not spoken, this new soul.

ANOTHER POEM ON NIETZSCHE

One man arose who, sharp as lightning, cracked
open the clefts and, steel-like, severed camps,
creating a Beyond, inverting your old Herewho roared your madness into you so long
with so much force that his throat burst. And you?
Some dumb, some clever, false or genuine,
perceived and looked as if nothing had happened.You go on speaking, laughing, and conspiring.
The warner went-the wheel that hurtles down
toward emptiness no arm attempts to tackle.

[GEORGE]

AUS "DER STERN DES BUNDES"

W er ie die flamme umschritt
Bleibe der flamme trabant!
Wie er auch wandert und kreist:
W 0 noch ihr schein ihn erreicht
Irrt er zu weit nie vom ziel.
Nur wenn sein blick sie verlor
Eigener schimmer ihn trugt:
Fehlt ihm der mitte gesetz
Treibt er zerstiebend ins all.

AUS "DER STERN DES BUNDES"

Ein wissen gleich fur alle heisst betrug.
Drei sind des wissens grade. Eines steigt
Aus dumpfer menge ahndung: keim und brut
In alle wache rege eures stamms.
Das zweite bringt der zeiten buch und schule.
Das dritte fuhrt nur durch der weihe tor.
Drei sind der wisser stufen. Nur der wahn
Meint dass er die durchspringt: geburt und leib.
Die andre gleichen zwangs ist schaun und fas~en.
Die letzte kennt nur wen der gott beschlief.

169

[GEORGE]

[WHO EVER]
Who ever circled the flame
has to remain its vassal!
Though he may roam and stray:
where he is reached by its splendor,
he has not erred too far.
But when his eye has lost it
and his own light deceives him:
lacking the law of the center
he is dispersed and scattered.

[ONE LORE]
One lore equal for all is an illusion;
three are the grades of knowledge. One ascends
from the dull masses' notions: germ and breeding
in every waking stirring of your tribe.
The book and school of ages brings the secol1d.
The third is found by the initiate only.
Three are the knowers' stages. But conceit
believes that one can skip: body and birth.
The other equal force: seeing and. graspin~.
The last knows only whom the god impregnates.

HUGO
VON
HOFMANNSTHAL

HOfmannSthal was born in Vienna. Some

of his best work was written before he was twenty; for
example, his short verse dramas, Der Tad des Tizian
(1892, The Death of Titian) and Ver Tor und der"Tod
(1900, The Fool and Death). These plays, like most of
his poems, which were also written in the nineties, are
distinguished. by their languid beauty. But in Ver Tor
und der Tad, which leans heavily on the opening monologues of Goethe's Faust, the weariness of the fin de
siecle is given an existentialist twist. Confronted with
death, the fool recognizes the emptiness and futility of
his uncommitted life. After listening to three of the
dead-his mother, a girl who loved him, and a former
friend whose speech is especially fine-Claudio, the
fool, welcomes death: "Only as I die, I feel that I am."
And Death comments in the last speech of the play:
"How strange are these beings who still find a meaning
in what is meaningless."
The preoccupation with man's confrontation of death
is continued in the best known play of the poet's maturity, ledermann (1911, Everyman), which deals with
the death of the rich man. It is annually performed in
Salzburg as part of the Festspiele.

173

[HOFMANNSTHAL]

Hofmannsthal, who was half Jewish by descent, rued

before the Nazis came to power in Germany-in 1929,
shortly after his son's suicide. His reputation at that
time rested largely on the works mentioned and on the
many librettos he had written for Richard Strauss. Since
then critical opinion has changed, and some of his later
works have come to be appreciated more, especially
his late tragedy, Der Turm (1925, revised version 1927;
The Tower), and some of his criticism.
Stefan George was among the first to recognize his
genius-he had begun to publish at sixteen-and befriended the precocious youth. Yet Hofmannsthal was
much too independent to submit to the iron will of the
older poet who liked to mold men as well as language;
and in 1906 the two broke permanently.
The poems that follow are reproduced with the permission of the S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.

174

[HOFMANNSTHAL]

DIE BELDEN
Sie trug den Becher in der Hand,
-ihr Kinn und Mund glich seinem Rand-,
So leicht und sicher war ihr Gang,
Kein Tropfen aus dem Becher sprang.
So leicht und fest war seine Hand:
Er ritt auf einem jungen Pferde,
Und mit nachliissiger Gebiirde
Erzwang er, dass es zitternd stand.
Jedoch, wenn er aus ihrer Hand
Den leichten Becher nehmen sollte,
So war es beiden allzu.rchwer:
Denn heide hehten sie so sehr,
Dass keine Hand die andre fand
Und dunkler Wein am Boden rollte.

BALLADE DES AUSSEREN LEBENS

Und Kinder wachsen auf mit tiefen Augen,
Die von nichts wissen, wachsen auf und sterben,
Und aUe Menschen gehen ihre Wege. .
Und susse Fruchte werden aus den herb en
Und fallen nachts wie _tote Vagel nieder
Und liegen wenig Tage und verderben.

[HOFMANN~THAL ]

175
THE TW'O

She bore the goblet in her handher chin and mouth firm as its bandher stride so weightless and so still
that not a drop would ever spill.
So weightless and so firm his hand:
he rode a young horse for his pleasurl'}
and, looking like incarnate leisure,
compelled it; trembling it must stand.
But when he should take from her hand
the goblet that she lifted up,
the two were quivering so much
that each hand missed the other's touch,
and heavy grew the weightless cup
till dark wine rolled upon the sand.

BALLAD OF OUTER LIFE

And children grow up slowly with deep eyes,
that know of nothing; they grow up and toil
and die, and all men walk their ways.
And bitter fruit grow sweet, drop to the soil
at night, exhausted, like dead birds,
and lie a few days on the ground and spoil.

[HOFMANNSTHAL)

Und immer weht der Wind, und immer wieder

Vernehmen wir und reden viele W orte
Und spiiren Lust und Miidigkeit der Glieder.
Und Strassen laufen durch das Gras, und Orte
Sind da und dort, voll Fackeln, Bitumen, Teichen,
Und drohende, und totenhaft verdorrte ...

Wozu sind diese aufgebaut? und gleichen

Einander nie? und sind unzithlig viele?
Was wechselt Lachen, Weinen und Erbleichen?
Was frommt das alles uns und diese Spiele,
Die wir doch gross und ewig einsam sind
Und wandernd nimmer such en irgend Ziele?
Was frommt's, dergleichen viel gesehen haben?
Und dennoch sagt der viel, der "Abeml' sagt,
Ein Wort, daraus Tiefsinn und Trauer rinnt
Wie schwerer Honig aus den hohlen Waben.

177

[HOFMANN STHAL]

And always blows the wind, and always words

. are heard and spoken as we blether,
and pleasantness and weariness recur.
And roads run through the grass hither and thither,
and there are towns with streetlights, ponds, and trees,
and some look threatening, others, deathlike, wither.
For what are these built? and for what are these
endlessly many? and no two the same?
Why always laughter, weeping, and decease?
What good to us is all this and these games,
when we are great, alone eternally,
and wandering never pursue any aims?
What good is it to have seen much such folly?
And yet he says much that says "evening,"
a word from which meaning and melancholy
issue like honey out of hollow combs.

CHRISTIAN
MORGENSTERN

Morgenstern's work is conveniently divided into three genres. He was a lyrical poet and published several collections, including Melancholie (1906),
Ich und Du (1911), and Wir fanden einen Pfad (19141
We Found a Path). He wrote epigrams, collected in
Stufen (1918, Steps) and Epigramme und Spriiche (1920,
Epigrams and Apothegms). The four epigrams that follow come from the latter volume and were written in
the late nineties. But he is best known fo; his incomparable Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs).
Originally, these appeared in four volumes: Galgenlieder (1905), Palmstrom (1910), Palma Kunkel (1916),
and Gingganz (1919). Later all these poems were collected in Alle Galgenlieder, and some previously unpublished material was added. The motto was taken
from Nietzsche's Zarathustra: "In a real man a child is
hidden-and wants to play." Indeed, there is a good
deal in Zarathustra that is quite close in spirit to Morgenstern's Galgenlieder.
Morgenstern's "Attempt at an Introduction,'! signed
by a fictitious "Jeremias Miiller, Lie. Dr.," is a delightful
parody of pretentious German prose: the last sentence
takes up more than half a page, contains a word that

[MORGENSTERN)

takes up almost an entire line, and ends with a preposterous assembly of verbs. Then there is a preface, entitled "How the Gallows Songs originated." It is only a
page long and consists largely of a somewhat surrealistic fairy tale. The last sentence reads: "From the gallows one looks differently at the world and sees different things than others."
The four epigrams are reproduced with the permission of R. Piper et Co. Verlag, Miinchen, the publisher
of Epigramme und Spriiche, while the three longer
poems are printed with the permission of lnsel-Verlag,
Frankfurt am Main, publisher of Alle Galgenlieder.

[MORGENSTERN]

AN NIETZSCHE
Mag die Torheit durch dich fallen,
mir, mir warst du Brat und Wein,
und was mir, das wirst du allen
meinesgleiehen sein.

DER GELEHRTE UND GOETHE

,leh weiss, was er zu ieder Zeit gesagt,
doeh mein Gewissen hat er nie geplagt.'

[L'ART POUR L'ARTJ

L'art pour l'art, das heisst so viel:
Wir haben nur noch Kraft zum Spiel.

DER SPARSAME DICHTER

,Willst du nicht Artikel schreiben?'Lasst's beim Epigramme bleiben.
Kann ich's eueh in zehn Zeilen sagen,
was eueh verwundert,
warum euch Honorar abjagen
fiir hundert.

PALMSTROM
Palmstrom steht an einem Teiche
Und entfaltet gross ein rates Tasehentuch:
Auf dem Tueh isf eine Eiche
dargestellt sowie ein Mensch mit einem Buch.

[MORGENSTERN]

TO NIETZSCHE
Folly you may lead to fall;
for me you were bread and wine.
What you gave me you'll give all
who are of my kind.

THE SCHOLAR AND GOETHE

'Whatever date you name, I know the text;
my conscience, though, he never vexed.

L'ART POUR L'ART

L'art pour l'art, that is to say:
We've only strength enough to play.

THE ECONOMICAL POET

"Write an article," suggests a letter.
Thank you, epigrams suit me far better.
If in ten lines I can say
what makes you wonder,
why should I ask you to pay
for a hundred?

PALMSTROM
Palmstrom, standing at a lake,
opens a huge handkerchief and takes a look:
on it he beholds an oak
pictured and a man who holds a book.

[MORGENSTERN]

Palmstrom wagt nicht, sich hineinzuschneuzen.

Er gehart zu jenen Kiiuzen,
die oft unvermittelt-nackt
Ehrfurcht var dem Schanen packt.
Ziirtlich faltet er zusammen,
was er eben erst entbreitet.
Und kein Fiihlender wird ihn verdammen,
weil er ungeschneuzt entschreitet.

DIE UNMOGLICHE TATS ACHE

Palmstrom, etwas schon an I ahren,
wird an einer Strassenbeuge
und von einem Kraftfahrzeuge
iiberfahren.
"Wie warC< (spricht er, sich erhebend
und entschlossen weiterlebend)
"maglich, wie dies Ungliick, ia-:
dass es iiberhaupt geschahP
1st die Staatskf:lnst anzuklagen
in bezug aUf KraftfahrwagenP
Gab die Polizeivorschrift
hier dem Fahrer freie TriftP
Oder war vielmehr verboten,
hier Lebendige zu Toten
umzuwandeln,-kurz und schlicht:
D u r f t e hier der Kutscher nicht-PC<

[MORGENSTERN]

Palmstrom does not dare to blow his nose,

for he happens to be one of those
seizable at any time
by regard for the sublime.
Tenderly, he folds again
what but now we had been shown;
and no feeling heart will damn
him that strides off, nose unblown.

THE IMPOSSIBLE FACT

Palmstrom; strolling through the town,
tried to cross the bending road
when an automobile mowed
him down.
"How was (says he, still alive
and resolving to survive)
possible this mishap-or
could it really occur?
Is our statecraft here at fault
anent motorized assault?
Did the police regulation
g~ve the driver a vacation?
Or was it against the norm
at this corner to transform
living men to dead condition:
did this driver l~ck permission?"

186

[MORGENSTERN]

Eingehiillt in feuchte Tiicher,

priilt er die Gesetzesbiicher
und ist also bald im klaren:
Wagen durften dart nicht fahren!
Und er kommt zu dem Ergebnis:
"Nur ein Traum war das Erlebnis.
Weil", so schliesst er messerschar{,
"nicht sein k ann, was nicht sein dar t."

DIE BRILLE
Kart liest gerne schnell und viel;
darum widert ihn das Spiel
all des zwolfmal unerbetnen
Ausgewalzten, Breitgetretnen.

M eistes ist in sechs bis acht

W ortern vollig abgemacht,
und in ebensoviel Satzen
lasst sich Bandwurmweisheit schwatzen.
Es erfindet drum sein Geist
etwas, was ihn dem entreisst:
Brillen, dereri Energieen
ihm den T ext-zusammenziehen!
Beispielsweise dies Gedicht
lase, so bebrillt, man-micht!
Dreiunddreissig seinesgleichen
gaben erst-Ein-Fragezeichen!!

[MORGENSTERN]

Wrapped in towels, he consults

law books and finds the results
beyond any question clear:
cars were not permitted here.
And
that
For,
that

he reaches the conclusion

the mishap was illusion.
he argues razor-witted,
can't be which is not permitted.

THE GLASSES
Korf reacfs mucli, and lie is quick;
hence it simply makes him sick
to find endless repetitions
and vast over-expositions.
Most points, he finds, can be made
in six words, at most in eight;
and in sentences that number
one can lead tapeworms to slumber.
He invents, sad and perplexed,
an ideal remedy:
spectacles whose energy
will condense a longish text.
Would one have to read this poem with glasses like this? Nol
Thirty-three like this would-hark1yield a single question mark!!

RAINER MARIA
RILKE

A s an undergraduate I still considered

Hilke one among many fine German poets and felt that
he was overestimated in the English-speaking world.
But the longer I have lived with his poems, reading
them again and again and translating some of them,
the more I am persuaded that no other poet since
Goethe has written so many superb poems. I mention
this partly because Hilke's unparalleled vogue among
young women may create the presumption that a mature taste should outgrow him.
Still, I have two reservations about him. The poems
that are widely considered his greatest achievement
and have elicited the largest body of interpretations,
commentaries, and criticism, his Duino Elegies, stiU
seem somewhat overrated to me, especially in ,relation
to his other poems. There is no reason for disparaging
them, but there is a growing tendency to measure greatness by the weight and bulk of secondary literature and
to underrate simple excellence, however profound, in
favor of whatever is obs~Ul:e, difficult, long, an.d in
need of explanation. The point is not to deny the beauty
of the elegies but rather to praise his shorter poems
much more than is usual.

[RILKE]

The other reservation concerns the man behind the

poems and the unusually large body of his letters. While
Heine strikes me as a world-historical figure whose significance is insufficiently suggested by a few of his
poems, no matter which, Rilke seems a much less significant human being, and his letters, in which he takes
himself far too seriously and often poses as a sage, do
not add to his stature. Many are interesting, many embarrassing. To put it differently and a little too simply:
his lack of a sense of humor does not mar his poems
but seems a defect in the man. He was not a human
archetype like Goethe and Holderlin, Heine and Nietzsche. But his poems constitute one of the greatest
'treasures of world literature.
The first of those that follow, "Rabbi Loew," has been
included only for its historical interest. It was one of
his earliest poems, included in his first volume of verse,
Larenopfer (1895); and it shows how he, too, had to
learn his craft. The poem contains two Hebrew words:
the "bocher" is a young man, a student; and "Beth
Chaim," literally house of life, means cemetery.
The verses addressed "To Stephan [sic 1 George"
(winter 1897-98) start well enough, but soon become
mannered to the point where they approximate parody,
and throughout the alliterations are on the heavy side.
Here, of course, the inter~st resides in large measure in
the contents: Rilke tells us why, although he, too, abhors vulgarity, he does not feel drawn toward George.
The older poet's world seems too solemn and pale for
his taste, indeed frozen and lifeless. He is looking for
something softer and less willful. The last five lines,
which at first reading are apt to seem obscure, strike a

[RILKE]

theme encountered again in Rilke's last poems, especially in the third sonnet to Orpheus (found later in
this volume: "A god can do it ..."). George's approach, spreading his arms like a hierophant expecting
a revelation that he has tried to invoke with his spells
and charms, spoils the inspiration that might have come.
His domineering will ensures verses as cold as ice.
"The Song of the Idiot" comes from Vas Buch der
Bilder (1903, The Book of Images). Rilke's Bilder (pictures or images) are not severe and frozen but attempts
to penetrate the heart of what he sees. The same is true
of most of the poems from the two volumes of Neue
Gedichte (1907/08, New Poems) that follow. All the
poems from "Love Song" through "Buddha in the Glory"
come from these two collections. "Song" is from his
only major prose work, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte
Laurids Brigge (1910, The Notes of Malte Laurids
Brigge). The ten Duino Elegies, of which only the ninth
is included here, and the Sonnets to Orpheus were originally published in 1923. The three poems that conclude
the Rilke selections were written during the last three
years of the poet's life and published posthumously.
My translations of some of these poems appeared
originally in two essays on "Nietzsche and Rilke" and
"Art, Tradition, and Truth"-first in The Kenyon Review and Partisan Review (both Winter 1955), then 'in
my book, From Shakespeare to Existentialism (Chapters
12 and 13). There I have also offered detailed discussions of the following pOl2ms: "The Song of the Idiot,"
"Love Song," "The Panther," "Archaic Torso of Apollo,"
the three Sonnets to Orpheus, and Rilke's last poem-

193

[RILKE]

and these two chapters should also facilitate the understanding of the other poems.
"Roman Fountain" invites comparison with Meyer's
poem on the same theme, found earlier in this volume;
"Leda," with Yeats' "Leda and the Swan," which was
written later, in 1923.
Many, but by no means all, of these poems are available in other translations. Mine were made independently, but I have found it interesting to compare them
afterwards. Two of the poems selected here have also
been "imitated" by Robert Lowell, who says in the Introduction to his Imitations (1961): "I have been reckless with literal meaning, and labored hard to get the
tone." No reader is likely to quarrel with the first part
of that statement. What is interesting, however, is the
widespread assumption that bold departures from the
original are all but indispensable "to get the tone." Consider the long poem on Orpheus and Eurydice. Lowell's
version appears not only in his Imitations but also in
Flores's An Anthology of German Poetry from Holderlin to Rilke. It ends:
[Hermes] pushed off again.
His caduceus was like a shotgun on his shoulder.
Lowell has also imitated Rilke's last poem, calling it
"Pigeons" and adding a stanza in which Leonidas' Spartan soldiers "combed one another's golden Botticellian
hair," being "friends and lovers," before they "moved
into position to die." Presumably this is meant to illustrate the idea that the experience of danger can make

194

[RILKE]

gentle. The last line of this "imitation" features a triple

alliteration and ends "mania to return."
One of the themes that runs through Rilke's verse,
from beginning to end, is the repudiation of any "mania
to return"-or to do anything at all. This point is made
most clearly in the first of the three Sonnets to Orpheus
that have been included here, especially in the last two
lines. Selden Rodman's translation of the final word as
"gale" instead of "breeze" misses the point. The young
Rilke is a poet of "soft solitudes" and "incense clouds,"
who shrinks from Stefan George's willfulness. The image
of a ball that is thrown, passively, intrigues him. He
celebrates the Buddha in three poems (two of them included here)-poems in praise of a state of being th_at is
beyond all agitation. In Rilke's vision even the Roman
Fountain has a gentle, peaceful smile. His Eurydice is
"uncertain, soft, and void of all impatience"-and these
are the concluding words of his poem. (Does a "shotgun," even if it does alliterate, help to catch that tone?)
The challenge to change our life comes from an archaic
torso that has a perfection quite lacking in the mania of
our lives. Even in "Leda" this theme is present. Yeats'
sonnet has a powerful last line: "Before the indifferent
beak could let her drop?" But while in Yeats all is over
as the passion is sp,ent, Rilke's sonnet characteristically
reaches its climax after the sexual climax, after the release of passion. In the Sonnet to Orpheus that begins
"Choose to be changed," Rilke again depreciates hardness and extols unreserved, utterly abandoned openness
-symbolized, in the final word, by the wind:
In one of the two poems of 1924, written a year after
the Sonnets and two years before his death, "Winged

195

[RILKE]

enchantment .
," Rilke says that it won't do "merely"
to be borne, merely to drift, entirely passive; but the
great miracle he celebrates is still "an achievement,
granted and unstrained." We must practice and develop
our powers to be ready for the gift of grace; we must
help by being ready, by having prepared ourselves, by
being available, by not having sought premature refuge
in some hard shell.
"As nature leaves ..." has been interpreted at length
by Martin Heidegger (Holzwege, 1952) who, characteristicaIIy, fInds the message of the poem where Rilke
left four dots. But there is no need to interpolate; Rilke
says what he wants to say-and, being a great poet, says
it better than his commentators. Taken one at a time, his
late poems are extremely "dense" in the sense suggested
in the introduction to this volume-in other words, they
are at opposite poles from Heidegger's exceedingly pro'lix prose. A few of Rilke's phrases and lines are captivating even at fIrst reading, and to understand the
poems one rarely requires more than three things: one
has to read some of these poems several times and live
with them for a while; one has to read them in the context 'of Rilke's other poems, which provide the best
commentary there is; and then the poems gradually
become clear-unless one lacks the experience of which
they speak. But if that is the case, a commentary would
be almost as iII advised as explaining love poems to
children.
"As nature leaves . . ." develops the theme we have
been foIIowing. There is no hiding place, no protection;
living means being in danger; and man may even "will
this venture." PreCisely this decision to "live danger-

[RILKE)

ously" is, as Nietzsche put it when he coined this phrase

in The Gay Science (Section 283), "the secret of the
greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence." Rilke, like Nietzsche before him, associates it
with an ultimate affirmation of life.
In the last poem the image of the ball recurs conjoined with the idea of daring. Those who have hidden,
"always most protected," have missed out on what is
best. Those who have lived dangerously and experienced terror may not look different afterwards, but they
are different.
The difficulty of these poems does not lie in the presence of allusions and other matters that are conveniently elucidated in footnotes or seminars; it is a matter of rare experiences. Since these experiences are the
subject of other literary masterpieces, too, one can, of
course, refer to other books; for example, to the concluding pages of Nietzsche contra Wagner (a complete
translation may be found in The Portable Nietzsche).
Apart from life itself, nothing is so apt to help us understand Rilke's verse as some acquaintance with Goethe,
H6lderlin, and Nietzsche. Not only the translations but
also the context provided by Twenty German Poets
should offer some illumination.
The most complete German edition of Rilke's works
is Siimtliche Werke, published by the Insel-Verlag. The
first volume contains all the poems that Rilke himself
collected in books, from Larenopfer (1895) to Sonette
an Orpheus (1923). The second volume offers what else
remains of Rilke's verse written during the years from
1906 to 1926, along with the poems he wrote in French.
The third volume contains his early verse, written be-

197

[RILKE]

fore 1906. Each of these volumes runs about goo pages

and features helpful notes as well as superb indices;
and wherever possible the exact dates of composition
are given. Volumes four and five are devoted to Rilke's
prose.
Of the poems that follow, the last three are found in
Volume II; the poem to George, in Volume Ill; all the
others, in Volume I. The kind permission of the InselVerlag, and also of W. W. Norton & Company, New
York, Rilke's first major publisher in the United States,
is gratefully aclmowledged.

198

[RILKE]

RABBI LOW
1

"Weiser Rabbi, hoher Liva, hilf uns aus dem Bann der
Not;
heut gibt uns I ehova Kinder, morgen raubt sie uns der
Tad.
Schon fasst Beth Chaim nicht die Scharen, und kaum hat
der Leichenwart
eins bestattet, nahen andre Tote; Rabbi, das ist hart."
Und der Rabbi: "Ceht und schickt mir einen Bacher
rasch herein."So geschiehts: "Wagst du nach Beth Chaim diese Nacht
dich ganz allein?"
"Du befiehlst es, weiser Meister?" " Cut, so hor, um
M itternacht
tanzen all die Kindergeister auf den grauen Steinen sacht.
Birg dich dorten im Cebete, und wenn Furcht de in H erz
beklemmt,
streit sie ab: Du raubst dem niichsten Kinde kuhn sein
Leichenhemd,
raubst es,-bringst es her im F1uge, her zu mir! Begreifst
du wahl?"
"Wie du heissest tun mich, Meister, tu ich!" k1ingt die
Antwort hoh1.
2

Mitternacht und Mondgeg1eisse,... und es sturzt der totenblasse

Bacher bebend durch die Cilsse,
in der Hand das Hemd, das weisse.

199

[RILKE]

RABBI LOEW
1

"Sage and rabbi, stoop to help us from the ban of our

sorrow;
though Jehovah gives us children, death takes all of
them tomorrow.
Beth Chaim does not hold their hosts, and as soon as
Beth Chaim's guard
buries one come other dead ones; rabbi, that is hard."
Says the rabbi: "Get a bocher, send him here and don't
postpone."
It is done. "Tonight to Beth Chaim-dare you go there
all alone?"
"You command it, sage and rabbi?" "Good, so hear: at
twelve o'clock
all the children's sprites are dancing softly on the silver
. rock.
There you hide yourself in prayer, and if fear should disconcert
you, be brave, approach the nearest child and steal its
little shirtsteal it, bring it here aBying, here to me. Now, do you
follow?"
"As you say I do, my master," sounds the bacher's answer hollow.
2

Midnight, yet the moon is bright,

and the bacher, deadly pallid,
dashes, trembling, through the alley,
in his hand the shirt so white.

200

Va ietzt ... sind das seine Schritte? ...

lach kehrt er zuritck das bleiche
Antlitz: Weh, die Kindesleiche
folgt ihm nach, im Aug die Bitte:
" ... Gib das Linnen, ohne Linnen
lassen mich nicht ein die Geister . .."
Und der Bocher, halb von Sinnen,
reicht es endlich seinem Meister.
Und schon naht der Geist mit Klagen ..
"Sag, was sterben hundert binnen
Tagen?-Kind, du musst es sagen,
frither darfst du nicht von hinnen."
So der Rabbi.-"Wehe, wehe,"
ruft der Geist, "aus unserm Stamme
haben zwei entehrt der Ehe
keusche, reine Altarflamme!
Hier die Namenl-Sucht nicht fremde
Ursach, dass euch Tod beschieden . .."
Und der Rabbi reicht das Hemde
;etzt dem Kinde: "Zieh in Friedenf"

3
Kaum, dass aus dem Nachtkelch mai;ung
stieg der Tag in rosgem Licht,
hielt der Rabbi schon Gericht,und der Unschuld ward Befreiung.

[RILKE]

201

There-he hears another's pace,

and he turns around, all pale,
sees a child and hears it wail
with this plea writ in its face:
"Give the shroud! Without my shroud"crazed with fear he runs but faster"to return I'm not allowed"and he hands it to his master.
And the sprite comes, too, in sorrow.
"Say, why do a hundred die
within days? You must comply
or I keep you till the morrow."
Thus the rabbi.-"Woe, oh woe,
.two of our tribe," it falters,
"stained the chaste and holy glow
of the light on wedlock's altars.
Here, the names.-Don't search the clouds
for the cause of our decease."
And the rabbi hands the shrouds
to the child: "Leave, then, in peace."

3
.
Hardly had the morning's steed
soared from darkness, golden-feathered,
when the rabbi's court had gathered
and the innocent were freed.

[RILKE]

202

[RILKE]

Mit der Geissel des Gesetzes

brandmarkt er die Sunderstirn;langsam taste jedes Him
sich vom Bann des Fluchgenetzes.
Manches Paar war da erschienen,
dankerfiillt, dass Gott verzieh,
und der Weise segnet sie.Freude lag auf aller Mienen.
Nur der Bocher wart, der bleiche,
sich im Fieber hin und her ...
Doch nach Beth Chaini lange mehr
trug man keine Kindesleiche.

AN STEPHAN GEORGE
Wenn ich, wie du, mich nie den Markten menge
und leiser Einsamkeiten Segen suche,ich werde nie mich neigen var der Strenge
der bleichen Bilder in clem tiefen Buche.
Sie sind erstarrt in ihren Diimmernischen,
und ihre Stirnen schweigen deinen Schwiiren,
nur wenn des Weihrauchs Wellen sie verwischen,
scheint ihrer Lippen Lichte sich zu ruhren.
Doch, dass die Se.ele dann dem Offenbaren
die Arme breitet, wird ihr Lacheln liihmen;
sie werden wieder die sie immer waren:
Kalt wachsen ihre alabasterklaren
Gestalten aus der scheuen Arme Schiimen.

203

[nILKE]

With the scourging law he brands

openly the sinners' forehead,
and the curse is gone, the deadly
net is torn like paper bands.
Full of thanks because the Lord
had forgiven, many came
whom the sage blessed in His Name.Happiness was thus restored.
But the hocher in his room
lay in fever, white and harried.
Yet for years they never carried
children's bodies to the tomb.

TO STEPHAN GEORGE
Though I, like you, don't crowd the marketplaces
but seek the blessing of soft solitudes,
I'll never bow before the solemn faces
in the pale pictures of a book that broods.
They are long frozen in their twilit niches,
their foreheads remain silent to your charms;
only when incense clouds them and bewitches
the stony lips, their light appears to stir.
But when the soul spreads out its eager arms
for revelation, smiles are paralyzed,
and they return to what they always were:
their shapes, as clear as alabaster, rise
out of the shame of the shy arms like ice.

I RILKE}

204

DAS LIED DES IDIOTEN

Sie hindern mich nicht. Sie lassen mich gehn.
Sie sagen es konne nichts geschehn.
Wie gut.
Es kann nichts geschehn. Alles kommt und kreist
immerfort um den heiligen Geist,
um den gewissen Geist (du weisst)-,
wie gut.
Nein man muss wirklich nicht meinen es sei
irgend eine Gefahr dabei.
Da ist freilich das Blut.
Das Blut ist das Schwerste. Das Blut ist schwer.
Manchmal glaub ich, ich kann nicht mehr-.
(Wie gut.)
Ah Was ist das fiir ein schoner Ball;
rot und rund wie ein Oberall.
Gut, dass ihr ihn erschuft.
. Ob der wohl kommt wenn man rUft?
,

W ie sich das alles seltsam benimmt,

ineinandertreibt, auseinanderschwimmt:
frfJundlich, ein wenig unbestimmt.
Wie gut.

LIEBES-LIED
Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, dass
sie nicht an deine riihrt? Wie soll ich sie

[HILKE]

205

THE SONG OF THE IDIOT

They do not hinder me. They let me go.
They say, nothing could happen even so.
How good.
Nothing can happen. Everything revolves engrossed
always around the Holy Ghost,
around a certain ghost (you know)how good.
No, one really should not suppose
that there is any danger in those.
There's of course the blood.
The blood is the hardest thing. The blood is a chors
sometimes I think I can't any more.
(How good.)
Look at that ball, isn't it fairred and round as an everywhere.
Good you created the ball.
Whether it comes when we call?
How oddly all things seem to humor some whim,
they flock together, apart they swim,
friendly and just a little dim;
how good.

LOVE SONG
How could I keep my soul so that it might
not touch on yours? How could I elevate

206

[RILKE]

hinheben uber dich zu andern Dingen?

Ach gerne mocht ich sie bei irgendwas
Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen
an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die
nicht weiterschwingt, wenn deine Tiefen schwingen.
Doch alles, was uns anruhrt, dich und mich,
nimmt uns zusammen wie ein Bogenstrich,
der aus zwei Saiten eine Stimme zieht.
Auf welches Instrument sind wir gespannt?
Und welcher Geiger hat uns in der Hand?
o sUsses Lied.

BUDDHA
Als ob er horchte. Stille: eine Ferne . ..
W ir halten ein und horen sie nicht mehr.
Und er ist Stern. Und andre grosse Sterne,
die wir nicht sehen, stehen um ihn her.

o er ist Alles. Wirklich, warten wir,

dass er uns sahe? Sollte er bedurfen?
Und wenn wir hier uns vor ihm niederwurfen,
er bliebe tief und trage wie ein Tier.
Denn das, was uns zu seinen FUssen refsst,
das kreist in ihm seit Millionen Jahren.
Er, der vergisst wqs wir erfahren
und der erfahrt was uns verweist.

[HILKE]

20

it over you to reach to other things?

Oh, I would like to hide it out of sight
with something lost in endless darkenings,
in some remote, still place, so desolate
it does not sing whenever your depth sir1gS
Yet all that touches us, myself and you,
takes us together like a violin bow
that draws a single voice out of novo strings.
Upon what instrument have we been strung?'
And who is playing with us in his h~md?
Sweet is the song.

BUDDHA
As if he listened. Silence: something farwe pause but do not hear it anymore.
And he is star. And other mighty stars
that we do not perceive, surround his core.
Oh, he is all. And do we wait indeed
that he might see us? Should he be in need?
Though we dropped to the ground like wind-swept
fruit,
he would stay deep and ~nert as a brute.
For that which tears us down before his feet,
revolves in him for many million years.
He who forgets that which to us appears,
and who beholds what censures our conceit.

208

[RILKE)

DER GEFANGENE
I

Meine Hand hat nur noch eine

Gebarde, mit der sie verscheucht;
aUf die alten Steine
fallt es aus Felsen feucht.
I ch hare nur dieses Klopfen
und mein H erz halt Schritt
mit dem Gehen der Tropfen
und vergeht damit.

Tropften sie doch schneller,

kame doch wieder ein Tier.
Irgendwo war es heller-.
Aber was wissen wir.
II

Denk dir, das was jetzt Himmel ist und Wind,

Luft deinem Mund und deinem Auge Helle,
das wurde Stein bis um die kleine Stelle
an der dein Herz und deine Hiinde sind.
Und was ;etzt in dir morgen heisst und: dann
und: spaterhin und niichstes Jahr und weiterdas wurde wund in dir und voller Eiter
und schware 'nur und brache nicht mehr an.
Und das was war, das ware irre und
raste in dir herum, den lieben M und
der niemals lachte, schaumend von Geliichter.
Und das was Gott war, ware nur dein Wacl:tter
und stopfte boshaft in das letzte Loch
ein schmutziges Auge. Und du lebtest doch.

209

{RILKE]

THE PRISONER
I

My hand is left but one

gesture with which it wards off;
on the ancient stone
it drips as into a trough.
I only hear how it knocks,
and my heart keeps pace
as it drips on the rocks
and leaves no trace.
That the drops were not so slow,
or another animal camel
Somewhere it was brighter.
But what do we know?
II

. Imagine that what now is wind and sky,

air for your mouth and brightness for your eye,
would become stone except for that small part
in which your hands are and your heart.
And what you call Tomorrow now, or Then,
or Later On, Another Year, and thus,
would turn to sores in you and fill with pus
and festered only and would not begin.
And that which was, turned mad and raged around
within you, lips that laughter never crowned,
screaming with laughter, foaming in disorder.
And that which once was God, was but your warder
and plugged, malignant, into the last hole
a dirty eye-but did not take your soul.

210

[RILKE]

DER PANTHER
1M JARDIN DES PLANTES, PARIS

Sein Blick ist vom Vorubergehn der Stiibe

so mud geworden, dass er nichts mehr hiilt.
Ihm ist, ais ob es tausend Stabe gabe
und hinter tausend Staben keine Welt.
Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
in der betiiubt ein grosser Wille steht.
Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupillf3
sich lautlos auf-. Dann geht ein Bild hinein,
geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stilleund hart im H erzen auf zu sein.

EIN FRAUEN-SCHICKSAL
So wie der Konig auf der Jagd ein GTas
ergreift, daraus :w trinken, irgendeines,und wie hernach der welcher es besass
es fortstellt und verwahrt ais war es keines:
so hob vielleicht das Schicksal, durstig auch,
bisweilen Eine an den Mund und trank,
die dann ein kleines Leben, viel zu bang
sie zu zerbrechen, abseits vom Gebrauch

[RILKE]

211

THE PANTHER
IN THE JARDIN DES PLANTES, PARIS

His glance, wom by the passing of the bars,

has grown so weary it has lost its hold.
It seems to him, there are a thousand bars,
and then behind a thousand bars no world.
The soft gait of the supple, forceful paces,
revolving in a circle almost nil,
is like a dance of power that embraces
a core containing, dazed, a mighty will.
Rare1y the pupiYs curtain, sound1ess1y,
is raised-and then an image enters him,
goes through the silent tension of the limbsand in his heart ceases to be.

A WOMAN'S FATE
Even as a king may sometimes seize a glass
to drink from it when hunting-any oneand afterwards the one whose glass it was
puts it away just as if it were none:
so Fate perhaps has sometimes thirsty, too,
raised one up to his eager lips and drunkwhom, far too anxious, a small life has shrunk
from breaking and has, far from any use,

212

[RILKE]

hinstellte in die angstliche Vitrine,

in welcher seine Kostbarkeiten sind
(oder die Dinge, die fur kostbar gelten).
Da stand sie fremd wie eine Fortgeliehne
und wurde einfach ait und wurde blind
und war nicht kostbar und war niemals selten.

ROMISCHE FONTA.NE
BORGHESE

Zwei Becken, eins das andre ubersteigend

aus einem alten runden Marmorrand,
und aus dem oberen Wasser leis sich neigend
zum Wasser, welches unten wartend stand,
dem leise redenden entgegenschweigend
und heimlich, gleichsam in der hohlen Hand
ihm Himmel hinter Grun und Dunkel zeigend
wie einen unbekannten Gegenstand;
sich seIber ruhig in der schOnen Schale
vet breitend ohne H eimweh, Kreis aus Kreis,
nur manchmal triiumerisch und tropfenweis
sich niederlassend an den Moosbehiingen
zum letzten Spiegel, der sein Becken leis
von unten liicheln ~cht mit Ubergiingen.

2 13

[RILKE]

placed on a fragile cupboard's crystal tray

on which it keeps all its most precious finds
(or what is so considered anywhere).
And there she stood, strange as one loaned away,
and simply became old and became blind,
and was not precious and was never rare.

ROMAN FOUNTAIN
BORGHESE

Two basins-and, surpassing, one ascends

out of an ancient, rounded marble band,
and from the upper, water softly tends
to waters that beneath it waiting stand
and meet with silence the soft-speaking friends,
and secretly, as in a hollow hand,
show them the sky where green and darkness ends,
as if it were a new-discovered land;
and, quiet, circle spreads from circle, while
they fill the bowl and feel no homeward longing;
only sometimes some- dreamy drops are thronging
over the mossy rim, slide, and repose
on the last level which brings a soft smile
upon the stone beneath with overflows.

[RILKE]

214

ORPHEUS. EURYDlKE. HERMES

Das war der Seelen wunderliches Bergwerk.
Wie stille Silbererze gingen sie
als Adem durch sein Dunkel. Zwischen W urzeln
entsprang das Blut, das fortgeht zu den Menschen,
und schwer wie Porphyr sah es aus im Dunkel.
Sonst war nichts Rotes.
Felsen waren da
und wesenlose Walder. Brficken fiber Leeres
und jener grosse graue blinde Teich,
der fiber seinem fernen Grunde hing
wie Regenhimmel fiber einer Landschaft.
Und zwischen Wiesen, sanft und voller Langmut,
erschien des einen Weges blasser Streifen,
wie eine lange Bleiche hingelegt.
Und dieses einen Weges kamen sie.
Voran der schlanke Mann im blauen Mantel,
der stumm und ungeduldig vor sich aussah.
Ohne zu kauen frass sein Schritt den Weg
in grossen Bissen; seine Hande hingen
schwer und verschlossen aus dem Fall der Falten
und wussten nicht mehr von der leichten Leier,
die in die Linke eingewachsen war
wie Rosenranken in den Ast des Olbaums.
Und seine Sinne waren !Vie entzweit:
indes der Blick ihm wie ein Hund vorauslief,
umkehrte, kam und immer wieder weit .
und wartend an der nachsten Wendung stand-

2 15

[RILKE]

ORPHEUS. EURYDICE. HERMES

That was the souls' weird mine.
Like silent silver ores they penetrated
as veins its dark expanses. Between roots
welled up the blood that flows on to mankind,
and in the dark looked hard as porphyry.
Else nothing red.
But rock was there
and woods that had no nature. Bridges spanned the void
and that great gray blind pond
suspended over its far distant depth
as rainy skies above a landscape.
And between meadows, soft and full of patience,
appear~d the ashen streak of the one way
as a long pallor that has been stretched out.
And it was on this one way that they came.
In front, the slender man in the blue mantle
who looked ahead in silence and impatience.
His paces, without chewing, gulped the way
in outsized swallows; and his hands were hanging
heavy and sullen from the fall of folds,
knowing no longer of the weightless lyre
grown deep into his left as rambler roses
into the branches of an olive tree.
His senses were as if they had been parted:
and while his glances, doglike, ran ahead,
turned back, and came, and always stood again
as waiting at the next turn of the way-

blieb sein Gehor wie ein Gerueh zuriiek.

Manchmal ersehien es ihm als reiehte es
bis an das Gehen jener beiden andern,
die folgen sollten diesen ganzen Aufstieg.
Dann wieder wars nur seines Steigens Naehklang
und seines Mantels Wind was hinter ihm war.
Er aber sagte sieh, sie kiimen doeh;
sagte es laut und hOrte sieh verhallen.
Sie kiimen doeh, nur wiirens zwei
die furehtbar leise gingen. Diirfte er
sieh einmal wenden (ware das Zuriiekschaun
nicht die Zersetzung dieses ganzen Werkes,
das erst vollbracht wird), miisste er sie sehen,
die beiden Leisen, die ihm schweigend nachgehn:
Den Gott des Ganges und der weiten Botschaft,
die Reisehaube iiber hellen Augen,
den schlanken Stab hertragend vor demo Leibe
und fliigelschlagend an den Fussgelenken;
und seiner linken Hand gegeben: sie.
Die So-geliebte, dass aus einer Leier
mehr Klage kam als je aus Klagefrauen;
dass eine Welt aus Klage ward, in der
alles noeh einmal da war: Wald und Tal
und Weg und Ortschaft, Feld und Fluss und Tier;
und dass um diese Klage-Welt, ganz so
wie um die andre Erde, eine Sonne
und ein gestirnter stiller Himmel ging,
ein Klage-Himmel mit entstellten Sternen-:
Diese So-geliebte.

21 7

[RILKE

his hearing stayed behind him as a smell.

Sometimes it seemed to him as if it reached
back to the walking of those other two
who were to follow him this whole ascent.
Then it was but the echo of his climbing
and his own mantle's wind that was behind him.
Yet he said to himself that they would come;
said it out loud and heard it fade away.
They would come yet, only were two
walking most silently. And if he might
turn only once (and if his looking back
were not destruction of this whole endeavor
still to be ended), he would surely see them,
the quiet two who followed him in silence:
the god of going and of the wide message,
the travel hood shading his brilliant eyes,
be~ring the slender staff before his body,
the beat of wings around his ankle bones;
and given over to his left hand: she.
The one so loved that from a single lyre
wails came surpassing any wailing women;
that out of wails a world arose in which
all things were there again: the wood and valley
and way and village, field and brook and beast;
and that around this wailing-world, just as
around the other earth, a sun revolved
and a vast sky, containing stars and stillness,
a wailing-sky full of disfigured starsthis one so loved.

---

[RILKE]

218

Sie aber ging an jenes Gottes Hand,

den Schritt beschriinkt von langen Leichenbiindern,
unsicher, sanft und ohne Ungeduld.
Sie war in sich, wie Eine hoher Hoffnung,
und dachte nicht des Mannes, der voranging,
und nicht des Weges, der ins Leben aufstieg.
Sie war in sich. Und ihr Gestorbensein
erfiillte sie wie Fiille.
Wie eine Frucht von Siissigkeit und Dunkel,
so war sie vall von ihrem grossen Tode,
der also neu war, dass sie nichts begriff.
Sie war in einem neuen M iidchentum
und unberiihrbar; ihr Geschlecht war zu
wie eine junge Blume gegen Abend,
und ihre Hiinde waren der Vermiihlung
so sehr entwohnt, dass selbst des leichten Gottes
unendlich leise, leitende Beriihrung
sie kriinkte wie zu sehr Vertraulichkeit.
Sie war schon nicht mehr diese blonde Frau,
die in des Dichters Liedern manchmal anklang,
nicht mehr des breiten Bettes Duft und Eiland
und jenes Mannes Eigentum nicht mehr.
Sie war schon aufgelost wie fangos Haar
und hingegeben wie gefallner Regen
und ausgeteilt wie hundertfacher Vorrat.
Sie war schon Wurzel

[RILKE]

220

Und als plOtzIich jiih

der Gott sie anhielt und mit Schmerz im Ausruf
die W orte sprach: Er hat sich umgewendet-,
begrifJ sie nichts und sagte leise: Wer?
Fern aber, dunkel vor dem klaren Ausgang,
stand irgend jemand, dessen Angesicht
nicht zu erkennen war. Er stand und sah,
wie auf dem Streifen eines Wiesenpfades
mit trauervollem Blick der Gott der Botschaft
sich schweigend wandte, der Gestalt zu folgen,
die schon zuruckging dieses selben Weges,
den Schritt beschriinkt von langen Leichenbiindern,
unsicher, sanft und ohne Ungeduld.

ARCHAISCHER TORSO APOLLOS

W ir kannten nicht sein unerhortes Haupt,
darin die Augeniipfel reiften. Aber
sein Torso gliiht noch wie ein Kandelaber,
in dem sein Schauen, nur zuriickgeschraubt,

sich hiilt und gliinzt. Sonst konnte nicht der Bug

der Brust dich blenden, und im leisen Dl'ehen
der Lenden konnte nicht ein Liicheln gehen
zu tener Mitte, die die Zeugung trug.
Sonst stunde dieser Stein entstellt und kurz
unter der Schultern durchsichtigem Sturz
und flimmerte nicht so .wie Raubtierfelle;

221

[RILKE]

And when with sudden force

the god stopped her and with pain in his cry
pronounced the words: He has turned backshe comprehended nothing and said softly: Who?
But far off, dark beyond the clear egress,
stood someone, anyone, whose countenance
could not be recognized. He stood and saw
how on the pale streak of a meadow path,
with sorrow in his eyes, the god of message
turned silently to follow back the form
that even then returned this very way,
her striding straitened by the grave's long wraps,
uncertain, soft, and void of all impatience.

ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLLO

We did not know his high, unheard-of head
where his eyes' apples ripened. Yet his torso has
retained their glowing as
a candelabrum where his vision, not yet dead,
only turned low, still shines. For else the breast
could not blind you, nor could we still discern
the smile that wanders in the loins' faint tum
to that core which once carried manhood's crest.
Else would this stone, disfigured and too small,
stand mute under the shoulders' lucid fall,
and not gleam like a great eat's skin, and not

[RILKE]

222

und briiche nicht aus allen seinen Randern

aus wie ein Stern: denn da ist keine Stelle,
die dich nicht sieht. Du musst dein Leben andern.

LEDA
Als ihn der Gott in seiner Not betrat,
erschrak er fast, den Schwan so schon zu finden;
er liess sich ganz verwirrt in ihm verschwinden.
Schon aber trug ihn sein Betrug zur Tat,
bevor er noch des unerprobten Seins
Gefiihle priifte. Und die Aufgetane
erkannte schon den Kommenden im Schwane
und wusste schon: er bat um Eins,
das sie, verwirrt in ihrem Widerstand,
nicht mehr verbergen konnte. Er kam nieder
und halsend durch die immer schwachre Han
liess sich der Gott in die Geliebte los.
Dann erst empfand er gliicklich sein Gefiede
und wurde wirklich Schwan in ihrem Schoos:

BUDDHA IN DER GLORIE

Mitte aZZer Mitten, Kern der Kerne,
Mandel, die sich einschliesst und versiisst,.
dieses Alles bis an alle Sterne
ist dein Fruchtfleisch: Sei gegriisst.

223

[RILKE]

burst out of all its contours, bright

as a great star: there is no spot
that does not see you. You must change your life.

LEDA
When the god entered him, impelled by need,
he felt the beauty of the swan, amazed;
he vanished into him, frightened and dazed.
Yet his deceit swept him into the deed
before, in his new state, he could have tested
its untried feelings. And, all opened, she
already recognized the deity,
already knew: what he requested,
she, dazed in her defense, could not withstand
nor hide from him. He came down, smooth and white,
and sliding his neck through her weakening hand,
he loosed his godhead in her lovelinessthen only felt his feathers' full delight
and truly became swan in her caress.

BUDDHA IN THE GLORY

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond, self-enclosed as it grows sweetall of this up to all stars
is your fruit flesh: you I greet.

[RILKE]

224

Sieh, du fiihlst, wie nichts mehr an dir hiingt;

im Unendlichen ist deine Schale,
und dart steht der starke Saft und drangt.
Und von aussen hilft ihm ein Gestrahle,
denn ganz oben werden deine Sonnen
voll und gliihend umgedreht.
Doch in dir ist schon begonnen,
was die Sonnen iibersteht.

LIED
Du, der ichs nicht sage, dass ich bei Nacht
weinend liege,
deren Wesen mich miide macht
wie eine Wiege.
Du, die mir nicht sagt, wenn sie wacht
meinetwillen:
wie, wenn wir diese Pracht
ohne zu stillen
in uns ertriigen?
Sieh dir die Liebenden an,
wenn erst das Bekennen begann,
wie bald sie liigen.
Du machst mich allein. Dich einzig kann ich vertauschen.
Eine Weile bist dU8, dann wieder ist es das Rauschen
oder es ist ein Duft ohne Rest.
Ach, in den Armen hab ich sie alle verloren,
du nur, du wirst immer wieder geboren:
weil ich niemals dich anhielt, halt ich dich fest.

[lULKE]

See, you feel how nothing weighs on you;

in the infinite you have your shell,
and there stands the surging sap and brews.
And from outside a vast radiance helps,
for immeasurably above, your suns
are revolving, full and glowing.
Yet in you that has begun
which, when suns are dead, keeps growing.

SONG
You whom 1 don't tell that 1 lie awake
at night and weep,
whose being, like a cradle, makes
me tired and tender;
you who don't tell me when for my sake
you cannot sleep:
what if we endured this splendor
and let it ache
without relieving?
Look, when the lovers start
confiding the thoughts of their heart,
how soon they're deceiving.
You make me alone. You only I can exchange.
A while it is you, then a noise that seems strange,
or it is a fragrance without endeavor.
All whom I held in my arms did not remain,
but you are reborn again and again:
because I never held you, I hold you forever.

[llILKE]

DIE NEUNTE ELEGIE

Warum, wenn es angeht, also die Frist des Daseins
hinzubringen, als Lorbeer, ein wenig dunkler als alles
andere Griin, mit kleinen Wellen an iedem
Blattrand (wie eines Windes Lacheln)-: warum dann
Menschliches miissen-und, Schicksal vermeidend,
sich sehnen nach Schicksal? ...
Oh, nicht, weil Gliick ist,
dieser voreilige Vorteil eines nahen Verlusts.
Nicht aus Neugier, oder zur Vhung des Herzens,
das auch im Lorbeer ware....
Aber weil Hiersein viel ist, und weil uns scheinbar
alles das Hiesige braucht, dieses Schwindende, das'
seltsam uns angeht. Uns, die Schwindendsten. Ein Mal
iedes, nur ein Mal. Ein Mal und nichtmehr. Und wir auch
ein Mal. Nie wieder. Aber dieses
ein Mal gewesen zu sein, wenn auch nur ein Mal:
irdisch gewesen zu sein, scheint nicht widerrufbar.
Und so drangen wir uns und wollen es leisten,
wollens enthalten in unsern einfachen Handen,
im iiberfiillteren Blick und im sprachlosen H erzen.
Wollen es werden.-W em es geben? Am liebsten
alles behalten fiir i"!mer ... Ach, in den andern Bezug,
wehe, was nimmt man hiniiber? Nicht das Anschaun, das
hier langsam erlernte, und kein hi~r Ereignetes. Keins.
Also die Schmerzen. Also vor allem das Schwersein,
, also der Liebe lange Erfahrung,-also
lauter Unsagliches. Aber spater,
unter den Stemen, was soIls: die sind besser unsaglich.

227

[RILKE

ELEGY IX
Why, if the span of existence may be completed as
laurel, a little darker than all
other green, with little waves on the
edge of every leaf (like the smile of a wind): why then
have to be human and, dodging destiny,
languish for destiny?
Oh, not because happiness comes,
this hasty advantage of an impending loss.
Not for curiosity's sake or to train the heart
which would be in the laurel, too.
But because being here is much, and because apparently
all that is here needs us, all the Heeting that
strangely concerns us. Us, the most Heeting. Once
everything, only once. Once and no more. And we, too,
once. Never again. But having
been this once, even though only once:
having been on earth does not seem revokable.
And so we strain and want to accomplish it,
want to contain it in our simple hands,
in still more overcrowded eyes and a speechless heart.
Want to become it. Give it to whom? Would love to
hold on to all forever. Oh, to that other relation,
alas, what can one take across? Not the art of seeing,
slowly
learned here, and no event from here. None.
Only our suffering. Only, that is, what was hard;
only the long experience of love-only
what is unsay able. But later,
under the stars, what matter? They are rightly unsayable.

228

[r: ILKE ]

Bringt doch der Wanderer auch vom H ange des

Bergrands
nicht eine Hand voll Erde ins Tal, die Allen unsagliche,
sondern
ein erworbenes Wort, reines, den gelben und blaun
Enzian. Sind wir vielleicht hier, um zu sagen: H aus,
Briicke, Brunnen, Tor, Krug, Obstbaum, Fenster,hochstens: SauIe, Turm . ... aber zu sagen, verstehs,
oh zu sagen so, wie selber die Dinge niemals
innig meinten zu sein. 1st nicht die heimliche List
dieser verschwiegenen Erde, wenn sie die Liebenden
drangt,
dass sich in ihrem Gefiihl jedes und jedes entziickt?
Schwelle: was ists fur zwei
Liebende, dass sie die eigne altere Schwelle der Tur
ein wenig verbrauchen, auch sie, nach den vielen vorher
und vaT den Kiinftigen. ..., leicht.
Hier ist des Saglichen Zeit, hier seine Heimat.
Sprich und bekenn. Mehr als je
fallen die Dinge dahin, die erlebbaren, denn,
was sie verdrangend ersetzt, ist ein Tun ohne Bild.
Tun unter Krusten, die willig zerspringen, sobald
innen das Handeln entwachst und sich anders begrenzt.
Zwischen den Hammern besteht
unser H erz, wie die Zunge
zwischen den Zahnen, die doch,
dennoch, die preisende bleibt.

Freise dem Engel die Welt, nicht die unsiigliche, ihm

kannst du nicht grosstun mit herrlich Erfiihltem; im
Weltall,

229

[RILKEJ

After all, the wanderer from the slope of the mountain,

too,
does not bring to the valley a handful of earth, the unsayable, but
some acquired word, pure, the yellow and blue
gentian. Are we perhaps here just to say: house,
bridge, well, gate, jug, fruit tree, windowat most: column, tower-but to say it, understand,
oh, to say it as the things themselves never
thought of existing intensely. Is it not the secret cunning
of this taciturn earth when it urges lovers
that in their feeling everything, everything delights?
Threshold: what is it to
two lovers that they wear down their own, already old,
threshold
a little, they, too, after the many before them
and before those to come-so slightly.
Here is the time for what is sayable, here is its home.
Speak and confess. More than ever
things crumble away that we can experience, for
that which replaces them is imageless action.
Action under crusts that willingly burst as soon as
the activity'inside outgrows them and seeks other limits.
Between the hammers endures
our heart, like the tongue
between our teeth that yet
continues to praise.

Praise the world to the Angel, but not the unsayable;

him
you cannot impress with the splendor of feelings; out in
space

230

[RILKE

wo er fiihlender fiihlt, bist du ein Neuling. Drum zeig

ihm das Eintache, das, von Geschlecht zu Geschlechtern
gestaltet,
als ein Unsriges lebt, neben der Hand und im Blick.
Sag ihm die Dinge. Er wird staunender stehn; wie du
standest
bei dem Seiler in Rom, oder beim Topter am Nil.
Zeig ihm, wie gliicklich ein Ding sein kann, wie schuldlos
und unser,
wie selbst das klagende Leid rein zur Gestalt sich
entschliesst,
dient als ein Ding, oder stirbt in ein Ding-, und jenseits
selig der Geige entgeht.-Und diese, von Hingang
lebenden Dinge verstehn, dass du sie rilhmst;
vergiinglich,
traun sie ein Rettendes uns, den Vergiinglichsten, zu.
Wollen, wir sollen sie ganz im unsichtbarn H erzen
verwandeln
in-o unendlich-in uns! Wer wir am Ende auch seien.
Erde, ist es nicht dies, was du willst: unsichtbar
in uns erstehn?-Ist es dein Traum nicht,
einmal unsichtbar zu sein?-Erde! unsichtbar!
Was, wenn Verwandlung nicht, ist dein driingender
Auftrag?
Erde, du liebe, ich will. Oh glaub, es bediirfte
nicht deiner Friihlinge mehr, mich dir zu gewinnen-,
einer,
ach, ein einziger ist schon dem Blute zu viel.
, Namenlos bin ich zu dir entschlossen, von weit her.
Immer warst du im Recht, und dein heiliger Eintall
ist der vertrauliche T od.

1"-

23 1

[RILKE]

where he feels more feelingly, you are a novice. Therefore show

him what is simple and, molded from generation unto
generation,
lives on as ours beside our hands and in our eyes.
Say the things to him. He will stand more astonishedas you stood
before the roper in Rome or the potter in Egypt.
Show him how happy a thing can be, how innocent and
how much ours,
how even lamenting grief purely resolves to tllke form,
serves as a thing or dies into a thing-and escapes beyond
from the violin, blissfully. And these things that live
on destruction understand that you praise them; evanescent,
they trust that we, the most evanescent, can save them.
Wish that we might transform them entirely in our invisible hearts
into-oh, infinite!-into ourselves, whoever we may be.
Earth, is not this what you want: to arise in us
invisible?-Is it not your dream
to be invisible once?-Earth! invisible!
What if not transformation is your urgent command?
Earth, my beloved, I will. Oh, believe me, it requires
your springs no longer to win me for you; one,
alas, even one is already too much for my blood.
Nameless, I am resolved to you from afar.
Always you have been right, and your holy-idel.l.
is intimate death.

23 2

[RILKE]

Siehe, ich lebe. W oraus? Weder Kindheit noch Zukunft

werden weniger. ... Oberziihliges Dasein
entspringt mir im H erzen.

SONETTE AN ORPHEUS: (1, 3)

Ein Gott vermags. Wie aber, sag mir, soll
ein Mann ihm folgen durch die schmale Leier?
Sein Sinn ist Zwiespalt. An der Kreuzung zweier
Herzwege steht kein Tempel fur Apoll.
Gesang, wie du ihn lehrst, ist nicht Begehr,
nicht Werbung um ein endlich noch Erreichtes;
Gesang ist Dasein. Fur den Gott ein Leichtes.
Wann aber sind wir? Und wann wendet er
an unser Sein die Erde und die Sterne?
Dies ists nicht, liingling, dass du liebst, wenn auch
die Stimme dann den Mund dir aufstOsst,-lerne
vergessen, dass du aufsangst. Das verrinnt.
In Wahrheit singen, ist ein andrer Hauch.
Ein Hauch um nichts. Ein Wehn im Gott. Ein Wind.

233

[RILKE]

Behold, I am living. From where? Neither childhood

nor future
grow less.-Superabundant existence
leaps up in my heart.

SONNETS TO ORPHEUS (1,3)

A god can do it. But how can one follow,
mere man, oh, tell me, through the narrow art?
Man's sense is discord. Where ways of the heart
are crossing stands no temple for Apollo.
Song, as you teach it, does not reach nor yearn,
nor does it woo what is at last attained;
song is existence. For the god, unstrained.
But when do we exist? When will he turn,
to help us to exist, the earth and sky?
It is not this, youth, that you love, although
your voice then opens up your lips-oh, try

1/

forgetting that you ever sang. That Bees.

Singing in truth is breath that does not Bow.
An aimless breath. Suspense in god. A breeze.

234

[RILKE]

SONETTE AN ORPHEUS: (II, 9)

Ruhmt euch, ihr Richtenden, nicht der enthehrlichen
Folter
und dass das Eisen nicht langer an HiiJsen sperrt.
Keins ist gesteigert, kein Herz-, weil ein gewollter
Krampf der Milde euch zarter verzerrt.
Was es durch Zeiten bekam, das schenkt das Schafott
wieder zuruck, wie Kinder ihr Spielzeug vom vorig
alten Geburtstag. Ins reine, ins hohe, ins thorig
ofJene H erz triite er anders, der Gott
wirklicher Milde. Er kiime gewaltig und grifJe
strahlender um sich, wie Gottliche sind.
Mehr als ein Wind fur die grossen gesicherten SchifJe.
Weniger nicht, als die heimliche Leise Gewahrung,
die uns im Innern schweigend gewinnt
wie ein still spielendes Kind aus unendlicher Paarung.

SONETTE AN ORPHEUS: (II, 12)

Wolle die Wandlung. 0 sei fur die Flamme begeistert,
drin sich ein Ding dir entzieht, das mit Verwandlungen
prunkt;
tener entwerfende Geist, welcher das Irdische meistert,
lieht in dem Schwung der Figur nichts wie den
wendenden Punkt.

235

[RILKE]

SONNETS TO ORPHEUS: (II, 9)

Jubilate not when you judge that no rack is required,
men's necks no longer stretched in metallic splendor.
None is enhanced, no man's heart, because a desired
spasm of mildness makes your contortion more tender.
What they received through the ages, the rack and the
rod,
scaHolds surrender as children the toys of their previous
birthday. Into the pure, the high, the undevious,
opened-up heart-thus does not enter the god
of genuine mlldness. He wou\d come with might arui
expand
radiantly as but the godlike will.
More than a wind for huge ships that are safe near the
land.
Neither less than the secret, silent vibration
conquering us from within like a still
playing child of an infinite copulation.

SONNETS TO ORPHEUS: (II, 12)

Choose to be changed. Oh experience the rapture of fire
in which a life is concealed, exulting in change as it
burns;
and the projecting spirit who is master of the entire
earth loves the figure's flight less than the point where it
turns.

[RILKE]

Was sich ins Bleiben verschliesst, schon ists das Erstarrte;

wiihnt es sich sicher im Schutz des unscheinbaren Grads?
Warte, ein Hiirtestes warnt aus der Ferne das Harte,
Wehe-: abwesender Hammer holt aus!

Wer sich pls Quelle ergiesst, den erkennt die Erkennung;

und sie fiihrt ihn entziickt durch das heiter GeschafJne,
das mit Anfang oft schliesst und mit Ende beginnt.
'eder gliickliche Raum ist Kind oder Enkel von
Trennung,
den sie staunend durchgehn. Und die verwandelte
Daphne
will, seit sie lorbeern fiihlt, dass du dich wandelst in
Wind.

[FEBRUAR, 1924J
Da dich das gefliigelte Entziicken
iiber manchen friihen Abgrund trug,
baue jetzt der unerhorten Brucken
kiihn berechenbaren Bug.
Wunder ist nicht nur im unerkliirten
Oberstehen der Gefahr;
erst in einer klaren reingewiihrten
Leistung wird das Wunder wunderbar.

237

[RILKE]

That which would lock itself up-already is frozen.

Does it feel safe in the shadow of colorless gray?
Wait, what is hardest will warn from afar what has
chosen
hardness: a hammer will shatter its prey.
He that squanders himself as a well is cognized by cognition
and it leads him rejoicing through the serene creation
which often ceases to start and begins with the end.
Every span of delight is the child or grandchild of
division
which they traverse in wonder. And Daphne, since her
transformation
into a bay tree, desires that you choose to be changed
into wind. .

[FEBRUARY, 1924]
Winged enchantment bore you through the dark
over many early clefts and ridges,
now construct the boldly reckoned arc
of unheard-of bridges.
Miracle is not just unexplained
weathering of danger;
an achievement, granted and unstrained,
is a miracle far stranger.

[RILKE]

Mitzuwirken ist nicht Vberhebung

an dem unbeschreiblichen Bezug,
immer in niger wird die Verwebung,
nur Getragensein ist nicht genug.
Veine ausgeiibten Kriifte ~anne.
bis sie reichen, zwischen zwein
Widerspruchen ... Venn im Manne
will der Gott beraten sein.

(FOR HELMUTH FREIHERRN LUCIUS VON

STOEDTEN)
Wie die Natur die Wesen iiberliisst
dem Wagnis ihrer dumpfen Lust und keins
besonders schiitzt in Scholle und Geiist:
so sind auch wir dem Urgrund unseres Seins
nicht weiter lieb; er wagt UllS. Nur dass wir,
mehr noch als Pflanze oder Tier,
mit diesem Wagnis gehn; es wollen; manchmal auch
wagender sind (und nicht aus Eigennutz)
als selbst das Leben, ist-, um einen Hauch
wagender .... Dies schafft uns, ausserhalb von Schutz.
ein Sichersein, dort wo die Schwerkraft wirkt
der reinen Kriifte; was uns schliesslich birgt
ist unser Schutzlossein und dass WiT'S so
. ins OUne wandten, da wir8 drohen sahen,
um es, im weitsten Umkreis, irgendwo,
wo das Gesetz uns anruhrt, zu be;ahen.

239

[RILKE]

Toward the indescribable connection

helping is not haughty or omniscient;
as the web increases in affection,
merely being borne is not sufficient.
Stretch your practiced powers like arms of lyres
till they reach, until they span
contradictions.-For the god requires
helpful counsel from the man.

[A DEDICATION OF 1924]
As nature leaves whatever lives to face
the venture of blind pleasure, without freeing
a single one to find a hiding place,
we too are to the ground of our being
in no way dear; it ventures us. Yet still
much more than plant or beast, we will
this venture, move with it, and sometimes even are
more venturous (and not from selfishness)
than even life itself, by a breath more
venturous. . .. This fashions us, though shelterless,
, safe dwelling at the core of gravitation
amid pure forces; what brings us salvation
is that, confronted with the threat, we dare
to turn into the' open, shelterless,
till in the widest spaces, anywhere,
where the law touches us we may say Yes.

[ RILKE

(AUS DEM BRIEFWECHSEL

MIT ERIKA MITTERER)
Taube, die draussen blieb, ausser dem Taubenschlag,
wieder in Kreis und Haus, einig der Nacht, dem Tag,
weiss sie die Heimlichkeit, wenn sich der Einbezug
fremdester Schrecken schmiegt in den gefiihlten Flu
Unter den Tauben, die allergeschonteste,
niemals gefiihrdetste, kennt nicht die Ziirtlichkeit;
wiedererholtes H erz ist das bewohnteste:
freier durch Widerruf freut sich die Fiihigkeit.
Ober dem Nirgendssein spannt sich das Oberall!
Acn der geworfene, acn der gewagte Ha[!,
fiillt er die Hiinde nicht anders mit Wiederkehr:
rein um sein Heimgewicht ist er mehr.

Ragaz, am 2+ August 1926

[RILKE]

[PROBABLY RILKE'S LAST GERMAN POEM]

(FROM THE COI\RESPONDENCE WITH ERIKA MITTEnEn)

Dove that remained outside, outside the dovecote,

back in its sphere and home, one with the day and
night,
it knows the secrecy when the most remote
terror is fused into deeply felt flight.
Of all the doves the always most protected,
never endangered most, does not know tenderness;
richest of all hearts is the resurrected;
turning back liberates, freedom rejoices.
Over .the nowhere arches the everywhere.
Oh, the ball that is thrown, that we dare,
does it not fill our hands differently than before?
By the weight of return it is more.

GEORG TRAKL

om in Salzburg, Trakl studied pharmacy,

served for some time as a medical orderly, and then as a
civil servant. He was plagued with anxieties, depressions, and despair. In 1913 he took an overdose of Veronal. The person closest to him was his sister, who later
ended her own life in 1917. In the army in the early
months of the war, he lived through the battle of
Grodek, then had to look after ninety severely wounded
men whom he felt unable to help. He attempted suicide,
was taken to a military hospital for observation, and
died of an overdose of cocaine.
He himself published several volumes but was content only with his little collection of Gedichte (1913) and
Sebastian im Traum (1914, Sebastian in a Dream). Much
material was published only posthumously.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Viennese philosopher who
eventually became a professor at Cambridge University
in England, at one time made large financial gifts, anonymously, to help Hilke and. Trakl, but preferred TrakI's
verse because he found him less pretentious. Martin Heidegger, whose Hilke interpretation has been mentioned,
has also published an essay on "Georg Trakl" in the
periodical, Merkur (Stuttgart, March 1953). The short-

245

[TRAKL]

comings of this exegesis have been analyzed by Walter

Muschg, professor of German literature at Basel, in Die
Zerstorung der deutschen Literatur (1956, The Destruction of German Literature), in the tragicomic chapter
"Zerschwatzte Dichtung." The comic touch is supplied
by the quotations from Heidegger and his minions.
In English, little has been written on Trakl, but
Michael Hamburger's Reason and Energy: Studies in
German Literature (1957) contains a chapter on Trakl as
well as essays on H6lderlin, Novalis, Heine, and Benn,
to mention only poets represented in this volume. Although the Trak! interpretation takes issue with Heidegger on some points, it quite fails to prick Heidegger's
bubble as Muschg did, who is not mentioned, and the
whole discussion moves more or less on Heidegger's
plane and in places approximates what Muschg calls
"Zerschwatzte Dichtung"-poetry chattered to bits. Consider a few of Hamburger's comments on Trakl's "Lament," one of the three poems that follow.
"What is important is that the poem deals with two
different disasters. The first ... is that 'eternity's icy
wave would or may swallow' the 'golden image of man;
that is to say, that men will be untrue to their Creator
beyond all possibility of redemption." The critic goes on
to admit immediately "that 'eternity's icy wave' is not a
Christian concept; but Trakl, after all, had read Nietzsche, . . . and his despair was bound to be coloured
by the current modes of unbelief ... In order to express his despair-a conditional despair-he had to resort
to the language of unbelief . . ."
The exegete's "that is to say" is reminiscent of a
preacher reading his thought for the week into an all

[TRAKL]

but unrelated text. The moody vagueness and allusiveness of the poet's melancholy images are sacrificed to
theological cliches; the absence of anything Christian is
explained away along with the presence of admittedly
un-Christian concepts; and in case we are not persuaded
by the critic's strong claim that the images of unbelief
were "bound to" enter, we are told once more that Trakl
''had to resort to the language of unbelief."
'
"Since boats symbolize existence, the sinking boat of
the tenth line has the effect of a final disaster." Is it no
disaster when boats sink that do not symbolize existence? But the worst is yet to come: "One would be in~
clined to read a reference to Trakl's own death into these
lines, if the tone of the poem were not so impersonal."
Indeed one would; and if one can put out of one's mind
the critic's theology, the poem ceases to be impersonaL
Three pages before all this (on p. 263), Trakl's sistey
has been spirited out of the poem: "The 'sister' of other
late poems . . . although not a hermaphrodite in herself, ... is the feminine complement of the poet's
masculine spirit. The absurdity of identifying this sister
with Trakl's sister Margarete is evident from his last
poem, in which it is the sister's shade that appears; and
Trakl's sister was neither dead at the time ... nor actually present on the battlefield." Evident indeed! Is it
not cricket for a poet to think of the person closest to
him as coming toward him unless she is either -dead or
actually present? Of course, Michael Hamburger is an
able poet and translator,_and there is much to belearned
from the volume cited. The passages quoted are representative not of the book as a whole but only of its very
worst pag:es-and of much Trakl interpretation. That is

247

[TRAKL]

the reason for citing them here: to give some idea of

Trakl's reception by the critics-a story almost as melancholy as the poet himself, but not without involuntary
hUIhor.
Perhaps Trakl tended, a little like Eichendorff in this
respect, to write the same poem over and over again.
But his poem is not so innocuous and least of all contrived: it is an anguished vision, a deeply personal outcry. And instead of letting Trakl's lament speak straight
to the heart and mind, too many critics have buried it
under the icy wave of pretentious interpretations.
Trakl's poems are collected in his Gesammelte Werke,
Otto Miiller Verlag, Salzburg, and the three that follow
are reproduced with the publisher'S kind permission.

[TRAKL1

UNTERGANG
AN KARL BORROMAUS HEINRICH

Ober den weissen Weiher

Sind die wilden Vagel fortgezogen.
Am Abend weht von unseren Sternen ein eisiger
Wind.
Ober unsere Graber
Beugt sich die zerbrochene Stirne der Nacht.
Unter Eichen schaukeln wir auf einem silbernen
Kahn.
Immer klingen die weissen Mauern der Stadt.
Unter Dornenbogen
o mein Bruder klimmen wir blinde Zeiger gen
Mitternacht.

RUH UND SCHWEIGEN

Hirten begruben die Sonne'im kahlen Waldo
Ein Fischer zog
In harenem Netz den Mond aus frierendem Weiher.
In blauem.Kristall
Wohnt der bleiche Mensch, die Wang' an seine Sterne
gelehnt;
,Oder er neigt das Haupt in purpurnem Schlaf.

249

[TRAKL]

UNTERGANG
Over the white pond
the wild birds have flown away.
From our stars blows in the evening an icy
wind.
Over our graves
the broken brow of the night bends down.
Under oaktrees we rock in a silver
skiff.
Always the white walls of the town resound.
Under bows of thorns
a my brother we climb, blind hands, toward
midnight.

REST AND SILENCE

Shepherds buried the sun in the bare forest.
A fisherman hauled
in a hairy net the moon from a freezing pond.
In blue crystal
dwells the pallid man, his cheek leaning against his stars;
or he inclines his head in crimson sleep.

[1'RAE:Ll

Doch immer riihrt der schwarze Flug der Vagel

Den Schauenden, das Heilige blauer Blumen,
Denkt die nahe Stille Vergessenes, erloschene Engel.
Wieder nachtet die Stirne in mondenem Gestein;
Ein strahlender Jiingling
Erscheint die Schwester in Herbst und schwarzer
Verwesung.

KLAGE
Schlaf und Tod, die diistern Adler
Umrauschen nachtlang dieses Haupt:
Des Menschen goldnes Bildnis
Verschliinge die eisige W oge
Der Ewigkeit. An schaurigen Riffen
Zerschellt der purpurne Leib.
Und es klagt die dunk Ie Stimme
Ober dem Meer.
Schwester stiirmischer Schwermut
Sieh ein iingstlicher Kahn versinkt
Unter Sternen,
Dem schweigenden Antlitz der Nacht.

[TRAKL]

Yet always the black Hight of the birds moves

the visionary, the sacred of blue blossoms,
the near stillness thinks what is forgotten, extinguished
angels.
Again the brow sleeps in moonish stone;
a radiant youth,
the sister appears in autumn and black decay.

LAMENT
Sleep and death, the gloomy eagles,
roar all night around this head:
that the golden image of man
is devoured by the icy wave
of eternity. On eerie cliffs
the crimson body is smashed.
And the dark voice is lamenting
over the sea.
Sister of sformy melancholy,
see an anxious skiff sink
under stars,
the silent face of the night.

FRANZ WERFEL

W.rfel was born in Prague, like Rilke. He

attended the old university there, also studied in Leipzig
and Hamburg, and on the eve of World War I was an
editor in Kurt Wolff's publishing house. He was a soldier
during the war, then went to Berlin, later to Vienna. He
married the widow of Gustav Mahler, the composer. Being a Jew, he emigrated to France in 1938, and hence to
the United States where he spent the last five years of
his life.
His international reputation was built on his novels,
which were widely translated. Probably the best known
of these, though not necessarily the best, is Das Lied der
Bernadette (1941, The Song of Bernadette), which was
made into a very popular motion picture. Among his
plays, Jacobowsky und der Oberst (1943) gained a worldwide success when it was filmed under the title, Me and
the Colonel, starring Danny Kaye and Curt Juergens.
His poetry is not nearly so well known, but literary
historians consider him the most important lyric poet of
German expressionism. And The Oxford Book of German Verse (2nd edition, 1927) concludes with the poem
reprinted here-of course, only in German. This sonnet
may well be his finest poem. It was originally published

255

[WERFEL]

in the collection WiT sind (1913, We Are), and is reprinted here with the kind permission of S. Fischer
Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.

-[WERFEL]

ALS MICH DEIN W ANDELN AN DEN TOD

VERZOCKTE
Als mich dein Dasein triinenwiirts entriickte,
Und ich durch dich ins Unermessne schwiirmte,
Erlebten diesen Tag nicht Abgehiirmte,
Miihselig Millionen Unterdriickte?
Als mich dein Wandeln an den Tod verziickte,
War Arbeit um uns und die Erde liirmte.
Und Leere gab es, gottlos Unerwiirmte,
Es lebten und es starben Niebegliicktel
Da ich von dir geschwellt war zum Entschweben,
So viele waren, die im Dumpfen stampften,
An Pulten schrumpften und vor Kesseln dampften.
Ihr Keuchenden aUf Strassen und auf Fliissen!
Gibt es ein Gleichgewicht in Welt und Leben,
Wie werd ich diese Schuld bezahlen miissen!?

257

[WERFEL]

WHEN YOU ENRAPTURED ME

When my eyes filled, by your presence possessed,
and thanks to you I soared through the untoldl
was not that day felt by the sick and old,
by millions that were cruelly oppressed?
When you enraptured me till death seemed best,
toil was around us, noise, decay, and mold,
and emptiness, and godless ones were cold;
men lived and died that never had been bless(~d.
When you had swened me ti11 my senses swir1ea
and I could fly, the musty dark was teeming,
at desks men shriveled, and the mills were steaming.
You that on roads and rivers chafe and fret:
if there is any balance in the world,
how shall I have to pay this guilty debt?

GOTTFRIED BENN

enn studied medicine at the University of

Berlin and became a doctor. Morgue (1912), his first collection of verse, came out as he absolved his military
service. A few days later, April 9, 1912, his mother died
of cancer. Later the same year, Benn published his
poem about the cancer ward in a periodical. During the
War, while he was in the service, all five of the poems
that follow appeared along with some of his other verse
in a little book with the title Fleisch (translatable as
either Flesh or Meat)-the third volume in a new series
of Aktions-Lyrik (Action Poetry).
It is very doubtful whether any of Benn's later verse
ever equaled the power and originality of these early
poems. They were not his first. When he was 18, he had
submitted some of his poems to a journal that offered to
review anonymously submitted verse, and after a few
weeks received the verdict: "G.B.-friendly in outlook,
weak in expression." But he never published his juvenilia. His late verse (1937-1955) is considered his best
by some German critics; and the fact that some of his
late poems are unimpressive does not constitute a refutation: Goethe,
for example, -,also
.., wrote many unimportant
poems. -But even the poems most highly regarded by

[BENN1

some of Benn's admirers are deficient in originality: they

are all too similar to the late verse of Rilke, particularly
to such poems as the two of 1924 that are included in
this volume. Some are also modeled after the late wisdom poems of Goethe, occasionally to the point of only
slightly varying some of Goethe's lines.
Benn's name has always been associated with his early
poems. Whether one thinks of Auschwitz as one reads
them or whether one considers them early harbingers of
existentialism, one can hardly deny their shocking power
which is far greater than that of most beatnik poetry.
There are at least two reasons for this.
First, these poems do not conform to a familiar pattern; they are not just another example of something
that many others had done before or were doing at the
same time. What shocks is the brutal honesty of an unprecedented perception. Like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche,
and unlike the existentialists after World War I and the
beatniks after World War II, Benns early verse is unzeitgemiiss (untimely)-prophetic rather than fashionable.
Secondly, these poems, like Bemis late verse, are
highly diSCiplined and do not spend their force in repetitions or invective. It is not surprising that Nietzsche
should have been one of Benns heroes. One is reminded
of Nietzsche's nne phrase, "the economy of the great
style"; of Nietzsche's remark, "it is my ambition to say
in ten sentences what everyone else says in a bookwhat everyone else does not say in a book"; and of
Nietzsche's contempt for poetry that is "too popti,ar-a
,mere garrulity of eelings"-(Twilight of the Idols, 1889,
in The Portable Nietzsche, 556f.).
In 1950 Benn wrote an essay on Nietzsche {included

263

[BENN]

in the first volume of his Gesammelte Werke, 1959):

"Really everything discussed by my generation, thought
through in our minds-one could say: suffered through;
one could also say: spun out [bl'cittrat]-all that has already been expressed and exhausted by Nietzsche; he
had given the dennitive formulations, all the rest was
exegesis. His dangerous, tempestuous, lightninglike manner, his restless diction, his denying himself every idyl
and every universal ground, his positing of a psychology
of drives, of a man's constitution as a motif, of physiology as a dialectic-'knowledge as an affect,' the whole of
psychoanalysis, the whole of existentialism-all this is his
deed. He is, as becomes ever more apparent, the farreaching giant of the post-Goethean epoch. Now some
people come and say that Nietzsche is politically dangerous. Now one really should consider politicians in this
perspective. They are people who, when they become
rhetorical, always hide behind the theses of men whom
they do not understand-men of the spirit. . . . Nietzsche saw that coming. . .. The blond beast that materialized he would certainly not have welcomed. He, as a
human being, was poor and pure-a great martyr and
man. I might add: for my generation he was the earthquake of the epoch and since Luther the greatest master
of the German language (das grosstc deutsche Sprachgenie]."
The German word breittreten is much more picturesque than "spin out": it means stepping on something,
especially a joke or a nne point, and thus flattening it
out, spoiling it by overelaboration. Compare Christian
Morgenstern's "The Economical Poet" and "The Glasses,"
above.

[BENN]

Benn's remarks about Nietzsche and the Nazis are

doubly noteworthy because he might easily have been
tempted to cite Nietzsche in extenuation of his own reception of Hitler. But what he did say is in line with the
verdict of all informed students of Nietzsche's works.
In 1931 Benn had delivered and printed a celebrated
speech in honor of Heinrich Mann. In 1933, after Hitler
had taken over Germany, Benn received an open letter
from Thomas Mann's son, Klaus, from France: "... you
-as indeed the only German author our kind had
counted on-have not resigned from the Academy. . . .
What could induce you to put your name-to us a byword for high standards and an all but fanatical purityat the disposal of men whose lack of standards is unmatched in European history and from whose moral
squalor the world recoils? ... What friends can you
gain on so wrong a side? ... Heinrich Mann, whom
you worshipped as no one else, has been shamefully
kicked out of the same organization you're staying in .
. . . You, of course, must know what you get in exchange for our love ... ; unless I'm a bad prophet, it
will eventually be ingratitude and derision." In reply,
Benn published his Antwort an die literarischen Emigranten (Reply to the Literary Emigrants) in a little
book, Der neue Staat und die Intellektuellen (1933, The
New State and the Intellectuals). A translation of this
"Reply" may be found in Primal Vision: Selected Writings of Gottfried_, Benn (1958), edited by E. B. Ashton,
from whose introduction parts of Klaus Mann's ,letter
. have been quoted here. In his "Reply" Benn said, in
italics: "I do not belong to the Party, have no relationship to its leaders, and I do not count on new friends."

".-

[BENN]

But he also made clear that he was quite taken in by

Hitler's propaganda, and for a few months he and some
of his essays were considered very useful and given considerable publicity by the government. Before the end
of 1934 he was persona non grata, and in 1935 he went
back into the German army, as a doctor, defining his
course as "an aristocratic form of emigration."
On May 7, 1936, a few days after his fiftieth birthday,
Vas Schwarze Korps, the newspaper of the S.S., addressed him "Vu Schwein" (you swine); and by 1938 he
was officially forbidden to publish. His comeback after
the War began with the publication in Switzerland of
Statische Gedichte (1948, Static Poems), and during the
following decade his fame grew steadily.
The poems that follow are reprinted with the kind
permission of Limes Verlag, Wiesbaden, publisher of
Benn's Gesammelte Werke.

[BENNJ

MORGUE
SCHONE JUGEND

Der Mund eines Miidchens, das lange im Schilf gelegen

hatte,
sah so angeknabbert aus.
Als man die Brust aufbrach, war die Speiserohre so
lOcherig.
Schliesslich in einer Laube unter dem Zwerchfell
fand man ein Nest von jungen Ratten.
Ein kleines Schwesterchen lag tot.
Die andern lebten von Leber und Niere,
tranken das kalte Blut und hatten
hier eine schone lugend verlebt.
Und schOn und schnell kam auch ihr Tod:
Man warf sie allesamt ins Wasser.
Ach, wie die kleinen Schnauzen qUietschten!

KREISLAUF

Der einsame Backzahn einer Dirne,

die unbekannt verstorben war,
trug eine Goldp!ombe.
Die iibrigen waren wie aUf stille VerabredunL
ausgegangen.
Den schlug der Leichendiener sich heraus,
versetzte ihn und ging fiir tanzen .
. Denn, sagte er,
nur Erde salle zur Erde werden.

[BENN]

BEAUTIFUL CHILDHOOD

The mouth of a girl who had lain long in the reeds

looked so gnawed at.
When one broke open the breast, the esophagus was so
full of holes.
Finally in a bower under the diaphragm
one found a nest of young rats.
One little sister lay dead.
The others were living on liver and kidney,
drank the cold blood and had
spent a beautiful childhood here.
And beautiful and fast their death, too, came:
One threw the lot of them into the water.
Oh, how the little snouts squeaked!

CYCLE

The lonely molar of a whore

who had died unknown
had a filling of gold.
The others, as if they had a silent understanding,
had gone out.
That one the morgue attendant knocked out,
marketed, and went dancing.
For, he said,
only earth shall return to earth.

~68

[BENN]
NEGERBRAUT

Dann lag auf Kissen dunklen Bluts gebettet

der blonde Nacken "ciner weissen Frau.
Die Sonne wiitete in ihrem Haar
und leckte ihr die hellen Schenkel lang
und kniete um die briiunlicheren Briiste,
noch unentstellt durch Laster und Ceburt.
Ein Nigger neb en ihr: durch Pferdehufschlag
Augen und Stirn zerfetzt. Der bohrte
zwei Zehen seines schmutzigen link en Fusses
ins Innere ihres kleinen weissen Ohrs.
Sie aber lag und schlief wie eine Braut:
am Saume ihres Cliicks der ersten Liebe
und wie vorm Aufbruch vieler H immelfahrten
des jungen warmen Blutes.
Bis man ihr
das Messer in die weisse Kehle senkte
und einen Purpurschurz aus totem Blut
ihr um die Hiiften warf.

[BENN]
NEGRO BRIDE

Then, bedded upon pillows of dark blood,

the blond neck lay of a white woman.
The sun was raging in her hair
and licked the length of her light thighs
and kneeled around the slightly browner brf-lasts,
that neither vice nor birth had yet disflgured.
A nigger next to her: by a horse's hoof
his eyes and forehead shredded. He dug
two toes of his dirty left foot
into the inside of her small white ear.
Yet she lay sleeping like a bride:
'\)'\'> \"""" ""~~"" '\)~ \"""" )'\)'3'" '\)~ """"';. ~';."'\ \wv"",
as on the eve of many an Ascension
of the warm youthful blood.
Until one plunged
the knife into her white throat, throwing
a crimson apron of dead blood
around her hips.

[BENN]

MANN UND FRAU GEHN DURCH DIE

KREBSBARACKE
Der Mann:
Hier diese Reihe sind zerfallene SchOsse
und diese Reihe ist zerfallene Brust.
Bett stinkt bei Bett. Die Schwestern wechseln stundlich.
Komm, hebe ruhig diese Decke auf.
Sieh, dieser Klumpen Fett und faule Safte,
das war einst irgendeinem Manne gross
und hiess auch Rausch und H eimat.
Komm, sieh aUf diese Narbe an der Brust.
Fuhlst du den Rosenkranz von weichen Knoten?
Fuhl ruhig hin. Das Fleisch ist weich und schmerzt nicht.
Hier diese blutet wie aus dreissig Leibern.
Kein Mensch hat so mel Blut.
H ier dieser schnitt man
erst noch ein Kind aus dem verkrebsten Schoss.
Man liisst sie schlafen. Tag und Nacht.-Den Neuen
sagt man: Hier schliift man sich gesund.-Nur sonntags
fur den Besuch liisst man sie etwas wacher. .
I

Nahrung wird wenig noch verzehrt. Die Rucken

sind wund. Du siehst die Fliegen. Manchmal
wascht sie di~ Schwester. Wie man Banke wiischt.
Hier schwillt der Acker schon um iedes Bett.
Fleisch ebnet sich zu Land. Glut gibt sich fort.
Saft schickt sich an zu rinnen. Erde ruft.

271

[BENN]

MAN AND WOMAN

WALK THROUGH THE CANCER WARD
The man:
Here this row is disintegrated wombs,
and this row is diSintegrated breast.
Bed stinks by bed. Nurses change hourly.
Come, do not hesitate to lift this blanket.
Look here, this lump of fat and putrid juices,
this once was great for some man somewhere
and was called ecstasy and home.
Come, look here at this scar on that breast.
You feel that rosary of softened knots?
Don't hesitate. The Hesh is soft and hurts not.
Here this one bleeds as if from thirty bodies.
No human has such quantities of blood.
From this a child
had to be cut first from her cancerous womb.
One lets them sleep. Both day and night.-The new ones
are told: here one sleeps oneself healthy.-Only Sundays,
for visitors, they're left a little more awake.
They do not take much nourishment. Their backs
are sore. You see the Hies. Sometimes
the nurses wash them. As one washes benches.
Here the field swells already round each bed.
Flesh becomes almost soil. Ardor is spent.
Juices prepare to How. The earth is calling.

272

[BENN)

SAAL DER KREISSENDEN FRAUEN

Die armsten Frauen von Berlin
-dreizehn Kinder in anderthalb Zimmern,
Huren, Gefangene, Ausgestossenekrummen hier ihren Leib und wimmern.
Es wird nirgends so viel geschrien.
Es wird nirgends Schmerzen und Leid
so ganz und gar nicht wie hier beachtet,
weil hier eben immer was schreit.
"Pressen Sie, Frau! Verstehn Sie, ja?
Sie sind nicht zum Vergnugen da.
Ziehn Sie die Sache nicht in die Lange.
Kommt auch Kat bei dem Gedrange!
Sie sind nicht da, um auszuruhn.
Es kommt nicht selbst. Sie mussen was tun!"
Schliesslich kommt es: blaulich und klein.
Urin und Stuhlgang salben es ein.
Aus elf Betten mit Tranen und Blut
grusst es ein Wimmern als Salut.
Nur aus zwei Augen bricht ein Char
von Jubilaten zum Himmel empor.
Durch dieses kleine fleischerne StUck
wird alles gehen: Jammer und GlUck.
Und stirbt es dereinst in Rocheln und Qual,
liegen zwolf andere in diesem Saal.

273

[BENN]

LABOR ROOM
The poorest women of Berlin
-in a room and a half they expect thirteenprisoners, outcasts, whores,
writhe here and sob.
Nowhere else is there so much screaming.
Nowhere else is suffering and pain
something one so completely ignores
because here something always screams.
"Bear down, woman! Understand? Bear down!
You did not come here to have fun.
Don't draw it out. Don't just wait.
Push even if you evacuatel
You are not here to get a rest.
It does not come by itself. You have to press!"
At last it comes: small and somewhat blue,
anointed with urine and feces, too.
From eleven beds of tears and blood
sobbing greets it as a salute.
A choir rises from only two eyes
to bear jubilation to the skies.
Through this little hunk of flesh here all
will pass in time: delight and gall.
And once it dies rattling and meets its doom,
others will fill the twelve beds in this room.

KLABUND

H i s first poems, sponsored by Alfred Kerr,

a highly perceptive and influential critic, netted him a
lawsuit, on a charge of blasphemy. He won and was
famous. His real name was Alfred Henschke, but his
fame has always been tied to his pseudonym.
He published several volumes of verse and some passionate and powerful novels, including Moreau (1915),
Mohammed (1917), Piotr (1923, the story of Peter the
Great), Rasputin (1928), and Borgia: Roman einer
Familie (1928, Borgia: The Novel of a Family). He also
wrote a brief history of world literature that has been
very widely read, and some unsurpassed recreations of
Japanese and, above all, Chinese poems. His version of
a Chinese play, Der Kreidekreis (1924, The Chalk Circle)
became especially popular and helped to inspire Bertold
Brecht's drama, Der kaukasische Kreidekreis (1949).
Perhaps his versions of Chinese lyric poems; (colJected
in Chinesische Gedichte: Nachdichtungen, Gesamtausgabe) have enriched German literature as much as anything he wrote: the more one reads rival versions,
wheth~r in German or in English, the more impressive
they seem.
Like Rilke before Bim and George after him, he died

277

[KLABUND]

in Switzerland-but in the German-speaking part, at

Davos, of consumption. He was buried where he had
been born, at Krossen on the Oder; and Gottfried Benn
spoke, recalling how they had gone to school together
and been friends for twenty-five years.
The poems that follow are reprinted by courtesy of
Phaidon Press, London.

[XLA"BUND]

ALLES, WAS GESCHIEHT

Alles, was geschieht,
1st nur Leid und Lied.
Gott spielt auf der Harte Trost sieh zUJ
Welle fallt und steigt.
Ach wie bald schon neigt
Sich dein Haupt im Tod. Dann liichle duo

WAFFENSPRUCH (TSOI-TAO)
Wie ihr den Bogen span nt-so spannt auch eure Seele!
Besorgt, dass nicht der Pfeil zu kurz geschnitten
werde ...
Zielt bei Attacken aUf die Pferde!
Seht, dass ihr eure F einde lebend fangt-und lebend ihre
Generiile ...
Tut alles recht im Zweck, so muss es euch gelingen.
Was niitzt es, tagelang im Blute waten?
Es ziele euer Ruhm: den Feind zu z win g en.
Inr seia keie Mbrtier. Inr seid Soldaten.

RITT
Der Schimmel raucht. Wie Hunde springen braun
Walder an mir empor. Der Tempel. Fromm
Geliiut des Morgens. Schrage Sonne hangt
Wie Blendlaterne in getriibter Luft.

279

[KLABUND}

ALL THAT COMES TO BE

All that comes to be
is pain and poetry.
Cod plays on the harp to soothe his grief.
Waves fall and ascend.
Ah how soon you bend
your head in death. Then smile relief.

AFTER TSUI-TAO
As you must strain the bow, thus strain your souls and
strive
to cut a long and deadly sharpened arrow.
In battle aim to pierce the horses' marrow.
See that you catch your enemies unharmed and all their
generals alive.
Serve righteo~sly the cause, and you will overthrow.
What good to wade in blood by day and night?
Your glory is to force the foe.
You shall not murder. You shall fight.

RIDE (AFTER AN UNKNOWN

CHINESE POET)
The horse is foam'ing. Like dogs brown
forests jump at me. The temple. Pious
morning bells. The sun suspended like
a brilli!lnt lantern in the misty air.

[KLABUND]

280

o welch~s GlUck, aUf einem Tier zu sein

Und Fliigel haben an dem Ackergold!
Ein Pfeil. Ich falle hell. Zweibeinig steigt
Vas Pferd ins Licht. In seinen Ieeren Augen
Steht das Entsetzen wie ein schwarzer Turm.

WINTERKRIEG (LI-T AI-PE)

Ich traume von dem Regenbogen
Und den Garten meiner Heimat Thsin.
Mimosen blUhen geib. Gazellen hiipfen.
W ohl ist Krieg. Aber Krieg von Sonne warm.
Wir frieren mit den Pferden am Wege fest.
Manchem werden eiserne Beine abgeschnitten.
In den Stiefein. Augen erfrieren wie Glas.
Wohl dem, der unterm Schneeweiss schliift, zu Tod
gebraunt.
Wir Bettler. Unsre Kleider sind zerfetzt.
Feis starrt wie Eis, und Eis starrt wie Gestein.
In Spiralen dreht sich zuckend des Pass.
Hiindisch klettern wirde11 Mond hinauf.
Wie Maulbeerborke platzt die Haut.
Unser eignes Blut rinnt aufs Schwert.
Horner klingen in dumpfer Qua!.
Siisser sang ich zur Flote einst.
Keiner H eimkehr bin ich mir bewusst.
Ein Tiger, aufgescheucht, schlagt mit dem Schweif,

[KLABUND]

Infinite joy to be on horseback now

with wings outspread while all the fields ~re golden I
An arrow. I fall sharply. The horse ascends
two-legged into the light. And in his empty eyes
stands horror like a tower, black.

WINTER WAR (AFTER LI PO)

I dream of the rainbow
and of the gardens of my homeland.
Mimosas bloom yellow. Gazelles are leaping.
There is war. But war warm with sun.
On o~r horses we freeze fast to the road.
Some have their legs cut off, iron.
In their boots. Eyes freeze like glass.
Blessed are those who sleep under snow, tanned to death.
We beggars. Our clothes in shreds.
Rocks glare like ice. And ice like stone.
Trembling in spirals turns the mountain pass.
Doglike we climb the moon.
Like bark our skin cracks.
Our own blood drips on our swords.
Horns sound in muted agony.
Sweeter I sang to the flute once.
I know of no return.
A tiger, awakened, beats the snow with his tail,

[K1.ABUND]

Fletscht seine Zahne, weiss wie Reif, und dUfl.kel

Rollt sein brUllender Ruf ins Tal.
Zeige jemand sein Herz! Vogel fallt vom Baurtl.
Trete hervor und zeige sein Herz. Wo ist rot ein Herz?
Tannen stehn beschneit, und auf den Zweigert.
Hocken wir steif und kriihn im Nebel des BltLts.

Himmel! Heiliger! Hilf, verbrenne mich!

Lass Wintergewitter grau erdonnern-und wiri
Den Blitz in die erstarrt erhobene Stirne,
Dass ich aufsteige, Feuersaule, in Nacht.

[KLABUND}

bares his teeth, white like frost, but dark

rolls his thundering roar to the valley.
Show someone his heart. A bird falls from a tree.
Step out and show his heart. Where is, red, a heart?
Fir trees stand snowed in, and on the branches
we crouch stiff and caw in a mist of blood.

o heaven! Holy one! Help! Burn me!

Let winter storms thunder up gray and cast
lightning on my frozen raised-up forehead
that I ascend, a pillar of fire in the night.

..

ERICH KASTNER
(BORN 1899)

 ....................................... .

Kastner was bom in Dresden. He was 15

when World War I broke out, but old enough to participate before it was over. After the War he studied German literature and received his doctorate. He began his
literary career as an editorial writer for a newspaper in
Leipzig, but later went to Berlin to make his living as a
writer. Between 192 7 and 1932 he published four volumes of verse. The first two poems that follow come
from Ein Mann gibt Auskunft (1930, A Man Gives Information); the last is taken from Gesang zwischen den
Stiihlen (193 2 , Song Between the Chairs). In 1959 his
Gesammelte Schriften in Sieben Biinden (Collected
Works in Seven Volumes) appeared, and the first volume
contains all of his verse, including Kurz und Biindig:
Epigramme (1948, expanded edition 1950 ; Brief and
Pithy: Epigrams).
'
Kastner's most successful book appeared in 1928 : Emil
und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives). Like many
of the best children's books, it proved equally appealing
to grown-ups; it was made into a play, filmed, and translated into at least twenty languages. Of his many
other books for children Piinktchen und Anton (192 9,
Piinktchen is the nickna~e of a girl) is perhaps the most

[KASTNER]

brilliant; but other readers may well prefer another volume. Both books, as well as Kastner's poems, blend
humor with serious moral concerns and are not lacking
in pedagogic intent. Kastner has never been afraid to
deal with the most serious matters with a light touch,
and he has never hidden his abundant wit under a
bushel. Neither has he been afraid to be a moralist in an
age in which that was distinctly not fashionable. The
title of his bitterest book is Fabian: Die Geschichte eines
Moralisten (1931, Fabian: The Story of a Moralist), and
in a postscript, published later, the author keeps insisting that he is a moralist.
He was 33 when Hitler came to power. Besides his
novel and his four volumes of verse, he had published a
play and five children's books. He had left no doubt
where he stood. Twenty-four years later, in 1957, when
he received the Georg Buchner Prize (awarded to Benn
in 1951), Kastner said: "In May 1933 the book burning
took place, and among the twenty-four names selected
by the minister for literary cremation to articulate his
hatred mine was included. I was strictly forbidden to
publish anything further in Germany. During the following years I was arrested twice, and until the collapse of
the dictatorship I was under surveillance," being "undesirable and politically unreliable."
He was actually in Switzerland in 1933 and need not
have returned to Germany, and the following year a
Nazi official asked him whether he might not like to
settle down in Switzerland "to found a journal against
the emigrants, with secret German state funds. I realized
that his views regarding the relation of talent and character were even more rigorous than mine. On the basis

288

[KASTNER]

of his experiences in the ministry, he evidently thought

that talent and character were mutually incompatible as
a matter of principle." Kastner believes that "there always have been and are talented people who are nevertheless decent human beings"; and his career helps to
prove him right.
During the Nazi years, Kastner was allowed to publish books abroad, provided they passed German censorship. He published several children's books in Zurich;
three of his books were filmed; and he made a selection
from his verse, omitting the "offensive" poems included
here, under the title Doktor Erich Kiistners Lyrische
Hausapotheke (1936, Doctor Erich Kastner's Lyrical
Home Pharmacy). Mter World War II he resumed publication in Germany, mainly in the same genres as before. He also published two comedies, the second under
the title Die Schule der Diktatoren (1956, The School of
the Dictators); two volumes entitled Chansons und
Prosa; and Als ich ein kleiner Junge war: Kindheitserinnerungen (1957, When I Was a Small Boy: Childhood
Reminiscences). In the last named book he speaks of his
mother in a manner that throws light on his portraits of
Emil's and Anton's mothers in his two most popular
children's books: "Therefore I became the best pupil
and son. I had to become the perfect son. . . . After all,
I found the hastily scribbled notes when I came home
from school! -They lay on the kitchen table. 'I can't" go
on any more!' they said. 'Don't look for mel' they said.
'Farewell, my dear boy!' they s;lid. And the apartnIent
was empty and cold. . . . Almost always I found her
... on one of the bridges . . . . " Kastner's life, ,like
that of most good satirists, has not been easy. What

[KASTNER]

saved him again and again was surely his wonderful

sense of humor.
The poems that follow are reprinted by permission of
the author and Atrium Verlag Zurich. They are also included in Kastner's Bei Durchsicht meiner Bucher, copyright Atrium Verlag Zurich.

[KASTNEIt]

DIE ANDRE M6GLICHKEIT

Wenn wir den Krieg gewonnen hatten,
mit W ogenprall und Sturmgebraus,
dann ware Deutschland nicht zu retten
und gliche einem Irrenhaus.
Man wiirde uns nach Noten zahmen
wie einen wilden V olkerstamm.
Wir sprangen, wenn Sergeanten kamen,
Dom Trottoir und stiinden stramm.
Wenn wir den Krieg gewonnen hatten,
dann waren wir ein stolzer Staat.
Und pressten noch in unsern Betten
die Hande an die Hosennaht.
Die Frauen miissten Kinder werfen.
Ein Kind im Jahre. Oder Haft.
Der Staat braucht Kinder als Konserven.
Und Blut schmeckt ihm wie Himbeersaft.
Wenn wir den Krieg gewonnen hatten,
dann war der Himmel national.
Die Pfarrer triigen Epauletten.
Und Gott war deutscher General.
Die Grenze war ein Schiitzengraben.
Der Mond war ein Gefreitenknopf.
Wir wiirden einen Kaiser haben
und einen Helm statt einem Kopf.

[KASTNER1

THE OTHER POSSIBILITY

If we had won the war with waving
of flags and roaring, if we had,
then Germany would be past saving,
then Germany would have gone mad.
One would attempt to make us tame
like savage tribes that one might mention.
We'd leave the sidewalk if a sergeant came
and stand attention.

1 we had won the war of late

we'd be a proud and headstrong stat~
and press in bed in our dreams
our hands to our trouser seams.
Women must bear, each woman serv~s
a child a year. Or calaboose.
The state needs children as preserves,
and it swills blood like berry juice.

If we had won the war, I bet

that heaven would be national,
the clergy would wear epaulets,
God be a German general.
Trenches would take the place of borders.
No moon, insignia instead.
An emperor would issue orders.
We'd have a helmet and no head.

[KASTNER]

Wenn wir den Krieg gewonnen hatten,

dann ware jedermann Soldat.
Ein V olk der Laffen und Lafetten!
Und ringsherum war Staeheldraht!
Dann wurde auf Befehl geboren.
Weil M enschen ziemlich billig sind.
Und weil man mit Kanonenrohren
allein die Kriege nicht gewinnt.
Dann lage die Vernunft in Ketten.
Und stiinde stiindlieh vor Gericht.
Und Kriege gab's wie Operetten.
Wenn wir den Krieg gewonnen hiittenzum Gluck gewannen wir ihn nicht.

RAGOUT FIN DE SIEGLE

(1M HINBLICK AUF GEW1SSE LOKALE)

H ier konnen kaum die Kenner

in Herz und Nieren schauen.
Hier sind die Frauen Manner.
Hier sind die Miintler Frauen.
Hier tanzen die Junglinge selbstbewusst
im Abendkleid und mit Gummibrust
und spreehen hochsten piskant.
Hier haben die Frauen Smokings an
und reden tief wie der Weihnaehtsmann
und steeken Zigarren in Brand.

293

[KisTNER]

If we had won, then everyone

would be a soldier; the entire
land would be run by goon and gun,
and all around would be barbed wire.

On order, women would throw twins,

for men cost hardly more than stone,
and above all one cannot win
a war with guns alone.
Then reason would be kept in fetters,
accused and always ,on the spot.
And wars would come like operettas.
If we had won the last war-but
we were in luck and we did not.

RAGOUT FIN DE StEeLE

(wrm REFERENCE TO CERTAIN c.AffEs )

Here even experts can

hardly see clear:
the women are men,
the men are women here.
Young men are dancing here with zest
in evening dress with rubber breast
while talking in sopranos.
The women wear tuxedos
and talk like Santa Claus
while lighting big Havanas.

294

[KASTNER]

Hier stehen die Manner vorm Spiegel stramm

und schminken sich selig die H aut.
H ier hat man als Frau keinen Brautigam.
Hier hat jede Frau eine Braut.
Hier wurden vor lauter Perversion
Vereinzelte wieder normal.
Und kiime Dante in eigner Personer friisse vor Schreck Veronal.
Hier findet sich kein Schwein zurecht.
Die Echten sind falsch, die Falschen echt,
und alles mischt sich im Topf,
und Schmerz macht Spass, und Lust zeugt Zorn,
und Oben ist unten, und Hinten ist vorn.
Man greift sich an den Kopt.
Von mir aus, schlaft euch seiber bei!
Und schlaft mit Drossel, Fink und Star
und Brehms gesamter Vogelschar!
M ir ist es einerlei.
Nur, schreit nicht dauernd wie am Spiess,
was ihr fiir tolle Kerle wart!
Bloss weil ihr hint~nrum verkehrt,
seid ihr noch nicht Genies.
Na fa, das ware. dies.

295
The men go to the powder room
to put cream on their hide.
No woman here has any groom,
each woman has a bride.
Here some tried so hard for perversion
that they returned to the norm.
And if Dante came here on excursior1
he would take chloroform.
Here nobody knows what is what.
The true are false, the false are not,
and all is mixed up in a pot,
and pain is fun, pleasure makes mad;
and up is down, and front behind.
One simply goes out of one's mind.
For all I care, have an affair
with yourselves or a mastodon,
or every bird in Audubon.
I do not give a damn.
Only don't scream ad nauseam
that you are great.
That you prefer it from behind
does not prove an ingenious mind.
So much for that.

[KASTNER]

LEGENDE, NICHT GANZ STUBENREIN

Weihnachten vergangnen Jahres
(17 Uhr prazise) war es:
Dass der liebe Gatt nicht, wie gewohnlich,
den Vertreter Ruprecht runterschickte,
sondem er besuchte uns personZich.
Und erschrak, aIs er die Welt erblickte.
Er beschloss dann doch, sich aufzuratfen.
Schliesslich hatte er uns ja geschatfen!
Und er schritt (bewacht von Detektiven
des bewahrten Argus-Institutes,
die, wo er auch hinging, mit ihm Zieten)
durch die Stiidte und tat nichts aIs Gutes.
Gott war nobel, sah nicht auf die Preise,
und er schenkte, dies nur beispieIsweise,
den Ministersohnen Dampfmaschinen
und den Kindem derer, die im Jahre
mehr aIs 60 000 Mark verdienen,
Autos, Boote-lauter prima Ware.
Derart reichten Gottes Geld und Kasse
abwarts bis zur zwolffen Steuerklasse.
Doch dann folgte eine grosse Leere.
Und die Deutsche Bank gab zu bedenken,
dass sein Konto uberzogen ware.
Und so konnte er nichts weiter schenken.

297

[KASTNER]

LEGEND, NOT QUITE HOUSEBROKEN

Last year's ChI'istmas Eve at five
Santa Claus did not arrive.
God dispensed with his old substitute,
feeling he himself ought to be calling.
Breaking custom, he stooped to commute
and, arriving, found the world appalling.
But he felt he must not make a fuss:
after all, he had created us.
And he went (well guarded by detectives,
Pinkerton's whom no firm supersedes,
men who followed him to all objectives)
through the towns, did nothing but good deeds.
God was liberal and did not ration,
and he gave, to give an illustration,
steam engines to sons of politicians,
and to those whose fathers earned enough,
boats and cars with up-to-date transmissions.
Prices he ignored, gave first-rate stuff.
God's funds were sufficient, and the racket
did not stop till through the surtax bracket.
Suddenly, a gap began to yawn;
and his bank informed him: Do not spend
any more, account is overdrawn.
So the present-giving had to end.

[KASTNER]

Gott ist gut. Und weiss es. Und wahrscheinlich

war ihm die Geschichte ausserst peinlich.
Deshalb sprach er, etwa zehn M inuten,
zu drei sozialistisch eingestellten
!ournalisten, die ihn interviewten,
von der Welt aIs bester aZZer Welten.
Und die Armen milssten nichts entbehren,
wenn es nur nieht so sehr viele waren.
Die Reporter nickten auf und nieder.
Und Gatt brachte sie bis ans Portal.
Und sie fragten: "Kommen Sie bald wieder?"
Doeh er sprach: "Es war das letzte Mal."

299

[KASTNER]

God is good. And knows it. So he sighed

and presumably felt mortified.
He consented to an interview
with three journalists who heard him tellthey were of a socialistic huethat this world was the best possible.
And the poor need not forego a thing
if their numbers were not towering.
The reporters nodded embarrassed, and then
God took them to the golden door.
They asked: Will you come soon again?
But he replied: No, nevermore.

HERMANN HESSE
(BORN 1877)

Like Benn, Hesse is the son of a German minister and a mother of (French) Swiss descent. He was
born in Calw, near Stuttgart; his mother, in Farther
India. His maternal grandfather was a missionary like
his father but also an Orientalist. From his third to his
ninth year, Hesse lived in Basel. His family had hoped
that he would become a minister, but he worked off and
on in bookstores. In 1911 he traveled to India. When
World War I broke out, he was in Switzerland, where
he decided to stay permanently. He moved to Montagnola, in the Italian part of Switzerland, in 1919, and
became a Swiss subject in 1923. He was elected to the
Prussian Academy of Poets in 1926, but resigned five
years later. In 1946 he won the Nobel Prize for literature.
His career as a poet began with Romantische Lieder
(1899), but his name became known chiefly through his
novels; especially Peter Camenzind (1904), Gertrud
(1910), Rosshalde (1914), and Knulp (1915). During
World War I he suffered ~ profound personal crisis,
from which he emerged as a writer of European stature.
In 1919 he published an essay, Zarathustras Wiederkehr
(Zarathustra's Return); a short story, Klein und Wagner;

30 3

[HESSE]

and, under the pseudonym of Emil Sinclair, his greatest

novel up to that time, Demian. It was awarded a prize,
as a first novel, which Hesse returned, admitting his
authorship. Demian marked a new beginning. Hence the
road led to the short story, Klingsors letzter Sommer
(1920, Klingsor's Last Summer); to Siddharta (1922);
Steppenwolf (1927); Narziss und Goldmund (1930, translated as Death and the Lover); Die Morgenlandfahrt
(1932, translated as Journey to the East); and Das Glasperlenspiel (1943, translated as Magister Ludi, later
also as The Bead Game).
In 1952, when Hesse's Gesammelte Dichtungen were
published in seven volumes, his poems were collected,
along with some of his prose, in volume 5. The poem
that follows and concludes this book was written a few
years before World War I, but it is certainly not dated
by any of Hesse's later work.
The poem is reprinted with the kind permission of
Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin und Frankfurt am Main.

[HESSE1

ALLEIN
Es fiihren iiber die Erde
Strassen und Wege viel,
Aber aIle haben
Dasselbe Ziel.

Du kannst reiten und fahren

zu zwein und zu dreiri,
Den letzten Schritt musst du
Gehen allein.
Drum ist kein W issen
N och K6nnen so gut7
Als dass man alles Schwere
Alleine tut.

[HESSE]

ALONE
All over the earth are roads
and more ways than man has kenned,
but all of them have
the identical end.
You can ride or travel
with two or three,
the last step you take
Without company.
Bence nothing better
has ever been known
than that all that is hard
is done alone.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

WALTER KAUFMANN was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1921, came to the United States in 1939, and
graduated from Williams College in 1941.. During World
War II he served first with the U. S. Army Air Force and
then returned to Europe with Military Intelligence. In
1947 he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and
became an Instructor at Princeton University, where he
is now Professor of Philosophy.
He has also been a visiting professor at Cornell, Columbia, The New School, and the Universities of Michigan
and Washington; and, on Fulbright grants, at Heidelberg
(1955-56) and Jerusalem (1962-63). In 1961 he was
awarded an international Leo Baeek Prize. He has published a dozen books, including a verse translation of
Goethe's Faust (1961) and Cain and Other Poems (1962.).