Song Let the Sun Fill Me Again

Goethe

Selected Poems

'Ghost-Greetings' - Leopold Schulz (Austrian, 1804 – 1873), The Met

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Translated past A. S. Kline © Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved

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Contents

• The Lovely Night
• May Song
• Welcome and Farewell
• The Rose-Bush on The Moor
• The Violet
• The Artist's Evening Song
• New Love, New Life
• To  Belinda
• 'Holde Lili, warst so lang'
• The Traveller'south Nighttime Song I
• The Traveller'due south Night Vocal II
• The Fisherman
• The ErlKing
• 'Wer nie sein Brot'
• Mignon
• 'Heiss mich nicht redden,'
• 'Nur wer dice Sehnsucht kennt'
• To The Moon (Final Version)
• Song Of The Spirits Over The Water
• To Charlotte Von Stein
• 'Du bist mein und bist so zierlich,'
• Measuring Time
• Anacreon's Grave
• Roman Elegies I
• Roman Elegies II (Beginning Version)
• Roman Elegies III
• Roman Elegies V
• Roman Elegies VII
• Roman Elegies 13
• Roman Elegies XVII
• Roman Elegies Twenty
• The Nearness of the Honey
• Venetian Epigrams I
• Venetian Epigrams XXVII
• Venetian Epigrams XCVI
• Venetian Epigrams CIII
• Permanence In Alter
• Provision for the Journey
• Early Spring
• May Vocal
• Night Song
• The New Copernicus
• Ever and Everywhere
• March
• Apr
• Poetry and Form
• Blissful Yearning
• Dark of the Full Moon
• At Midnight'south Hour
• A Trilogy of Passion
• From the Chinese-German Book of Hours and Seasons
• To the Total Moon Rising
• The Matrimonial
• Legacy
• Index of First Lines

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The Lovely Night

Now I leave this little hut,

Where my beloved lives,

Walking now with veiled steps

Through the shadowy leaves.

Luna shines through bush-league and oak,

Zephyr proclaims her path,

And the birch copse bowing low

Shed incense on her rail.

How cute the coolness

Of this lovely summer nighttime!

How the soul fills with happiness

In this true identify of quiet!

I tin can scarcely grasp the bliss!

Even so, Sky, I would shun

A thou nights like this,

If my darling granted one.

May Song

How sweetly Nature

Brightens round me!

How the lord's day's shining!

How the fields gleam!

Blossoms are bursting

From every leaf,

Thousands of voices

From bushes beneath,

And joy and bliss

From every center.

O Earth, O Dominicus!

O Joy, O Delight.

O Honey, O Dearest!

Then golden fair,

Like morn clouds

On the hillside at that place!

Your splendour blesses

The fields so fresh,

The whole wide world

In a blossoming mist.

O Darling, Darling,

How I love you lot!

How your optics shine!

How you lot beloved likewise!

So the lark loves

Singing on high,

And flowers at dawn

The scented sky,

As I love you

With veins on fire,

You who give me

Youth, Joy, Desire

For new dances

New poetry.

Be happy forever,

As you love me!

Welcome and Farewell

My center was chirapsia, swiftly to horse!

Faster even than thought information technology was done.

Already evening cradled earth's course,

And night hung over the mount cone:

Already the misty oak-tree stood,

A vast behemothic, towering upwardly at that place,

Where from out the shadowy wood

A hundred night eyes seemed to stare.

From a bank of deject the Moon gazed,

Sadly out of the mist almost her,

The winds beat soft wings, and strayed

Around my terror-stricken ears:

The nighttime begot a thousand monsters,

But my spirit was joyful, lively:

Deep within my veins what burn!

Deep inside my heart what heat!

I saw y'all, and full measure of bliss

Flowed to me from your sugariness eyes:

I drew for you my every breath,

My center was wholly on your side.

Springtime'southward rose-red glow, it shone

All about your lovely face, lit

Tenderly for me – dear God!

I had hoped, only non deserved it!

But ah, already at morning light

My centre was crushed in parting:

In your kisses what delight!

In your eyes what suffering!

I went, you stood, looked from to a higher place,

And saw me become with tearful gaze:

And yet what joy to be loved!

Dear God, to love what happiness!

The Rose-Bush on The Moor

A lad he saw a rose-bush growing,

Rose-bush on the moor,

Immature and lovely every bit the morning time,

Quick he ran to run into it glowing,

With delight he saw.

Rose-bush, rose-bush, rose-bush ruby,

Rose-bush on the moor.

Said the lad: I'll pick your blossom,

Rose-bush-league on the moor!

Said the rose: 'Ah, I'll prick you,

So you volition retrieve true,

I'll let you lot do no more.

Rose-bush-league, rose-bush, rose-bush red,

Rose-bush on the moor.

Then her bloom the fell lad picked,

The rose-bush on the moor:

To protect herself she pricked,

Cried, sighed, in vain, but rapidly

Could defend no more.

Rose-bush-league, rose-bush-league, rose-bush carmine,

Rose-bush on the moor.

The Violet

A violet in the meadow grew,

Bowed to earth, and hid from view:

Information technology was a honey sweet violet.

Along came a young shepherdess

Gratis of heart, and calorie-free of step,

Came by, came by,

Singing, through the flowers.

Oh! Thought the violet, were I,

If only for a piddling while,

Nature'due south sweetest flower however,

Till my Beloved picked me, pressed

Me fainting, dying to her breast!

So I might prevarication,

There, for but an hour!

Alas! Alas! The girl went past:

Unseen the violet in the grass,

Was crushed, poor violet.

It drooped and died, and yet information technology cried:

'And though I dice, nonetheless still I dice

By her, by her,

By her feet passing by.'

The Artist'southward Evening Song

Oh, for some inner creative strength

Through my mind, echoing!

That through my easily might course

A sap-filled blossoming.

I only shudder, I only stutter,

And withal can't halt: at terminal,

I feel I know you lot, Nature,

And must concord you fast.

When I call back how all these years

My powers have been growing,

And where barren heath appeared

Now streams of joy are flowing:

How I yearn for you, Nature, then,

And long for y'all, with faith and love!

For me you'll be the leaping fountain,

A thousand springs will hurl to a higher place.

And every single power

In my heed you'll heighten,

And this narrow beingness-here

To Eternity you'll widen.

New Love, New Life

Heart, my centre, what can it mean?

What could trouble yous so?

What a strange new life, it seems!

You, I no longer know.

Everything you loved is done,

Everything that grieved y'all,

All your work and peace is gone –

How could this overtake you!

Are y'all caught by lovely youth

By that dearest class,

By those eyes and then good and true,

By that all-powerful force?

When I try to run abroad,

Collect myself and flee,

In a moment my path strays

Back to her you see.

By that magic thread, then

That cannot be untied,

The dear wanton girl, oh

She holds me fast: and I

Must lie within her magic spell

And alive where she may go.

How great the alter, I tell!

Honey! Love! Let me go!

To Belinda

Oh, why do you describe me, irresistibly,

Into all this magnificence?

Was I non living happy, virtuously,

In midnight's solitariness?

Quietly secluded in my chamber,

In the moonlight I lay,

Drowned in its shining shower,

Into which I'd stray:

Dreaming of hours, golden, filled

With unmixed please,

Your sweet form now then distilled

Deep within my mind.

Tin can it be me that you imprison

Among all these lights?

Fabricated to hold the insufferable vision

Of faces forever in sight?

The springtime bloom in the meadow

Charms me less by far:

Where you are, Angel, is Love, and Virtue,

Nature is where you lot are.

'Holde Lili, warst and then lang'

Sweetest Lili, for so long

All my joy and all my song!

Ah, at present, all my pain, yet you

Are still all my singing also.

The Traveller's Night Song I

You lot who are from Heaven above

Calming all our pain and sorrow,

Him who's spirit'southward doubly injure,

Renewing, with a double measure.

Oh, I'1000 weary of life's urging!

Why, at present, all this joy and pain?

Sweetest Peace,

Overflowing: oh overflowing my heart again!

The Traveller's Night Song Ii

Over all the hill-tops

Is Remainder,

In all the tree-tops

You can feel

Scarcely a breath:

The piffling birds quiet in the leaves.

Wait now, presently you

Too volition take peace.

The Fisherman

The waters hissed, the waters rose,

The Fisherman alongside,

Quietly gazing at his rod,

Cool at centre, inside.

And equally he listens, every bit he sits,

The waters split and ascent:

Out of the flowing waters hiss

A mermaid meets his optics.

She sang to him, she spoke to him:

'Why practise you lure my children

With human art and cunning,

Upward to their warm extinction?

Ah, if yous knew how snugly

Little fish live in the deep,

Yous yourself would join me,

You'd exist happy indeed.

Doesn't the sweet Sun bathe

And the Moon, here, in the bounding main?

Show with the waves they breathe

Faces doubly brilliant to encounter?

Doesn't this heavenly deep,

Lure yous, this rain-clear blue?

Doesn't your own gaze bound

Drawn down to eternal dew?'

The water hissed, the water rose

Wetting his naked feet:

His heart and then total of yearning, oh,

Every bit if him his Dear did greet.

She spoke to him, she sang to him:

All was soon done, and o'er:

She half pulling, he one-half sinking,

And he was seen nevermore.

The ErlKing

Who rides and then late through the wind and night?

It's a father with his child so lite:

He clasps the boy shut in his arms,

Holds him fast, and keeps him warm.

'My son, why hide your face, all scared? –

'Don't you see, Father, the Erlking's in that location,

The Alder-King with his crown and robe?' –

'My son, information technology's the trail of mist that flows'. –

'Come, love child, come along with me!

The games we'll play will be fine and lovely:

In that location's many a bright blossom by the water,

Many gilt garments has my Mother.'

'And Father, my Begetter, tin't you hear

What the Erlking's whispering in my ear?' –

'Peace, peace, my child, you're listening

To those dry leaves rustling in the current of air.'-

'Fine lad, won't you come along with me?

My lovely daughters your slaves shall be:

My daughters dance every night, and they

Will stone you, sing you, dance you away.'

'And Father, my Father, can't yous see where

The Erlking's daughters stand shadowy in that location? –

'My Son, my Son, I can see them obviously:

Information technology's the ancient Willow-trees shining grey.'

'I love you, I'm overjoyed by your lovely course:

And if you're non willing, I'll have to utilise force.'

'Father, my Father, he's gripped me at final!

The Erlking's hurting me, holding me fast! –

The Father shudders, faster he rides,

Holding the moaning child so tight,

Reaching the house, in fear and dread:

Simply in his arms the kid lies dead.

'Wer nie sein Brot'

Who has never eaten his bread with tears,

Who has never, through night's sorrowful hours,

Saturday on his bed and wept with fear,

He knows non y'all, you heavenly powers.

Yous atomic number 82 us into life, and so

Your Will leads us on, into sin,

Then you deliver us to hurting:

On Earth all mistake's paid over again.

Mignon

Do you know the state where the lemon-trees abound,

In darkened leaves the gold-oranges glow,

A soft wind blows from the pure blue sky,

The myrtle stands mute, and the bay tree loftier?

Do yous know information technology well?

Information technology's in that location I'd be gone,

To be there with you lot, O, my beloved one!

Do you know the firm? It has columns and beams,

There are glittering rooms, the hallway gleams,

Are those figures of marble looking at me?

What take they done, child of misery?

Do yous know it well?

It'south in that location I'd be gone,

To be in that location, with you, O my true guardian!

Do you know the clouded mountain mass?

The mule picks its style through the misted pass,

And dragons in caves raise their ancient breed,

And the cliffs are polished, smooth, past the alluvion;

Practice yous know it well?

It's there I would be gone!

It's there our way leads! Father, we must keep!

'Heiss mich nicht redden,'

Bid me be silent, bid me not speak,

Secrecy is a duty to me:

I could reveal my heart complete,

Simply Fate doesn't wish it to be.

In due flavour, the sun'due south brilliant path

Drives the night away, the low-cal must shine:

The hard stone opens its breast at last

And yields Earth h2o from hidden mines.

Every man seeks rest in a dear friend's arms,

Where the heart tin can express its inner hurting:

Only my lips are sealed by secret charms,

And none merely a god can role them once again.

'Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt'

Only the Yearning, they

Know what I suffer!

Alone, and far away

From all joy severed,

Seeing the heaven ever

On every side.

Who honey me and know me, they

Distantly hide.

I'm dizzied: I'm burned, all solar day

Inwardly shudder.

But the Yearning, they

Know what I suffer!

To The Moon (Final Version)

Bushes, valleys, silently,

Yous make full with misty lite,

Easing my soul utterly

Again, at concluding, at nighttime:

Soothingly you cast your gaze

Over a dark state,

As gentle and friendly eyes

Guard my destiny.

Glad, and troubled, times

Repeat in my heart,

I walk between pain and please,

In solitude, apart.

Flow on, beloved alluvion: flow on!

I'll never know joy over again,

Laughter and kisses, both are gone,

And loyalty flows away.

There was a time I had as yet

Life's most precious affair!

Ah, a man tin never forget

That which torments him!

River, through the valley, murmur,

Without remainder or peace,

For my singing, gently whisper,

Murmuring melodies,

When you rage on winter nights

And so overflow,

Or when effectually the Spring's delights

Of bursting buds, you go.

Happy are we if, without hate,

Hidden from the earth,

We concord a friend to our heart

And with him explore

What, unknown to all their art,

Ignored, by all mankind,

Through the labyrinth of the centre

Wanders in the night.

Song Of The Spirits Over The Water

Scene from Byron's "Manfred" - Thomas Cole (American 1801 – 1848), Yale University Art Gallery

Listen to Matt Arnett'southward setting of this poem to piano with female vocalists:

The spirit of Man

Resembles h2o:

Coming from sky,

Rising to heaven,

And hither and thither,

To Earth must then

Ever descend.

Information technology leaps from the heights

Of the sheer cliff,

In a pure stream,

And then rises sweetly

In clouds of spray

Against polish stone,

And lightly received

Flows similar a veil

Streaming softly

To depths beneath.

When the sheer rocks

Hinder its autumn,

Information technology foams angrily

Flowing stepwise

Into the void.

Along its flat bed

It wanders the vale,

And on the calm lake

All the bright stars

Gaze at their faces.

Wind is the water's

Sugariness lover:

Air current stirs up foaming

Waves from the deep.

Spirit of Human

How like h2o you lot are!

Man's fate, oh,

How like the wind!

To Charlotte Von Stein

Fate, why did you grant us this depth

Of insightful vision into our future,

So that our honey, earthly happiness,

Is a affair we can trust in happily never?

Why did y'all grant us such intuition,

Such power to know each other's heart,

To meet, amongst life's scattered throng,

The truthful human relationship where we are?

Oh, many thousands of us drift dumbly

Through life, our hearts scarcely known,

Floating hither and there, and aimlessly

Fleeing unexpected pain, without hope:

Rejoicing again, at the unexpected

Morning radiance of swift delight:

Only we ii, love-filled, wretched

Souls are denied that mutual calorie-free

Of loving without knowing one another,

Of seeing in each what each never was,

Setting out anew towards the Dream Lover,

Faltering at phantom Danger's course.

Happy those an empty dream preoccupies,

Happy those whose presentiments prove vain!

Our every meeting, every common sight

Sadly confirms our presentiments, our dream.

Tell me, what does Fate intend for us?

Say, how information technology spring us then strictly, purely?

Oh, in some far off time y'all must

Accept been my wife, been a sister to me.

You knew every feature of my being,

Saw the purest tremor of each nervus,

With a single glance you could read me,

Hard as I am for mortal eye to pierce:

Y'all brought calm to my heated blood,

Guiding my wild and wandering form,

And in your artillery, an angel's arms, I could

Residue as my ravaged heart was restored.

You jump your lover fast with magic ease,

And made many a twenty-four hours pass gloriously.

What happiness could compare with these

Hours of rapture, thankful at your feet,

Feeling his heart menstruum towards your heart,

Feeling himself virtuous in your sight,

All his senses brightened by your art,

The raging blood in his veins grown quiet?

And, of all of that, but a drifting memory

Is left, round his uncertain heart again.

He feels the old truth within, eternally,

While this new state merely brings him hurting.

And we seem to ourselves only one-half alive,

The brightest day is twilight all around.

Happy are nosotros that Fate torments our lives,

Withal can alter aught of what nosotros establish.

'Du bist mein und bist so zierlich,'

You're mine and so squeamish,

You're mine and so mannerly,

All the same nonetheless though you lack something:

You buss now with such pointed lips,

Like a dove, when drinking information technology sips:

You're actually as well squeamish a thing.

Measuring Time

Eros, what have we here! An hourglass in each of your easily!

What? Frivolous god, are you doubly measuring time?

'The hours of lovers apart flow slowly through one:

For lovers together the hours through the second one fly.'

Anacreon'southward Grave

Hither where roses blossom, where laurel and vine both mingle,

Where the turtledove coos, where the cricket sings in delight,

What grave is this that the gods have adorned and planted,

With living beauty? It'south where Anacreon rests.

The happy poet enjoyed spring, summer and fall:

And this mound, at final, from winter is sheltering him.

Roman Elegies I

Tell me you stones, O speak, you towering palaces!

Streets, say a discussion! Spirit of this place, are yous dumb?

All things are live in your sacred walls

Eternal Rome, it's only for me all is nonetheless.

Who'll whisper to me, at what window

Will I see the sweet matter who'll kindle me now, and quicken?

Already I judge the ways, walking to her and from her,

Always and always I'll go, while sweet time slips by.

I'm gazing at church and palace, ruin and cavalcade,

Like a serious human making sensible use of a journeying,

But soon it will happen, and all will be one vast temple,

Dear'south temple, receiving its new initiate.

Though you lot're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,

The earth isn't the world, and Rome tin can't exist Rome.

Roman Elegies II (Start Version)

Ask at present, whoever yous wish, you lot can't accomplish me,

Lovely Ladies, and you, fine Men of the World!

Did Werther really live? Was it really like that?

Which town can truly claim Lotte as resident?

Ah, how often I've cursed those foolish pages,

That showed my youthful sufferings to everyone!

If Werther had been my brother, and I'd killed him,

His sad ghost could inappreciably have persecuted me more.

So Malbrouk persecuted the British traveller

From Paris to Leghorn, so from Leghorn to Rome,

Then down to Naples, and if he'd sailed to Madras

There likewise the harbour would have been filled with the song.

Luckily I've escaped! She'due south barely heard of Lotte

Or Werther, or knows the proper noun of this human of hers.

She sees in him a free, and vigorous stranger,

Who lives amidst mountains and snowfall, in a wooden house.

Roman Elegies III

Beloved, don't fret that y'all gave yourself so quickly!

Believe me, I don't think badly or wrongly of you.

The arrows of Love are diverse: some scratch us,

And our hearts suffer for years from their tiresome poison.

But others strong-feathered with freshly sharpened points

Pierce to the marrow, and quickly inflame the blood.

In the heroic ages, when gods and goddesses loved,

Desire followed a look, and joy followed desire.

Do yous think the Goddess of Dear was calm for long

Once Anchises attracted her in the groves of Ida?

If Luna had waited to kiss her beautiful sleeper,

Ah, then envious Dawn would take woken him swiftly.

Hero saw her Leander at a loud feast, at once

Her hot lover leapt out into the midnight alluvion.

Rhea Silvia the royal maiden went to the Tiber

To draw h2o, and the God captured her there.

And then Mars conceived his sons! – Then a she-wolf

Suckled twins, so Rome became Queen of the World.

Roman Elegies V

I feel I'm happily inspired at present on Classical soil:

The Past and Present speak louder, more charmingly.

Here, as advised, I foliage through the works of the Ancients

With busy hands, and, each solar day, with fresh delight.

But at night Love keeps me decorated another mode:

I become one-half a scholar but twice as contented.

And am I not learning, studying the shape

Of her lovely breasts: her hips guiding my hand?

And so I know marble more than: thinking, comparing,

See with a feeling eye: feel with a seeing hand.

If my darling is stealing the twenty-four hour period's hours from me,

She gives me hours of night in compensation.

We're non e'er kissing: we often talk sense:

When she's comatose, I lie in that location filled with thought.

Often I've fifty-fifty made poetry there in her arms,

Counted hexameters gently there on my fingers

Over her torso. She breathes in sweetest sleep,

And her jiff burns down to my deepest middle.

Amor trims the lamp and so and thinks of the times

When he did the aforementioned for his three poets of love.

Roman Elegies VII

Oh, how happy I am in Rome, remembering the times

When gray days clung to me, back there in the Due north,

The heaven was dark and weighed heavily on my head,

The world around me colourless, formless, slow,

And I'd sink to brooding over myself, trying to see

Down the gloomy paths of my discontented spirit.

Now the glow of brighter air shines round my forehead:

Phoebus, the god, calls up colour and class.

The dark shines bright with stars, echoes with gentle song,

And the Moon shines clearer to me than Northern day.

What happiness for a mortal! Exercise I dream? Does your

Ambrosial palace, Father Jupiter, receive its guest?

Ah, hither I lie, to your knees extending imploring

Easily. Oh hear me, Jupiter, the Lord of Guests!

How I reached hither, I don't know: Hebe claimed

The wanderer, and has drawn me to these halls.

Did you control her to get and fetch a hero?

Did Beauty err? Pardon her! Let error help me!

Your girl Fortune, as well! She hands out noblest

Gifts, like the daughter she is, as the mood might take her.

Aren't you the God of hosts? Oh then don't hurl

Your guest downwards to Earth from Olympus again!

'Poet, where are yous climbing to?' – Forgive me:

The loftier Capitoline Hill'south your second Olympus.

Accept me here, Jupiter, later allow Hermes lead me,

Quietly, past Cestius' Pyramid, downward to Orcus.

Roman Elegies 13

Amor is still a rogue: if you trust he'll beguile you lot!

The hypocrite came and said: 'Trust me again this once.

I mean well by you: you have, I know and I'yard grateful,

Defended your life and poetry to my worship.

Wait, I've fifty-fifty followed you to Rome! And I'd like

To practise you lot a service of sorts in these foreign fields.

Travellers ever complain hospitality's poor:

With Love'south recommendation it proves outset class.

You're gazing at present in wonder at aboriginal ruins,

Sensibly wandering circular this sacred place,

Y'all revere even more all the works that remain

Past rare artists, whose workshops I frequented.

I created these forms myself! This time, forgive me,

I don't boast: you'll confess what I say is true.

Now you serve me idly where are the lovely forms,

Where are the colours and lite of your inventions?

Practise you wish to create, my Friend? The Greek school

Is still open, the years haven't closed its doors.

I, the teacher, am always young: and love youth.

I don't similar anile cunning! Listen now, look alive!

When those happy ones lived the ancient was new!

Live happily, and the past will be living, in you!

Where are the themes for your song? I'll grant them,

Y'all'll only learn of the highest style from Love,'

So spoke the Sophist. Who could argue with him?

And alas I follow orders when the master commands. –

Now the traitor is keeping his give-and-take, granting a theme,

Ah, and robbing me too of sense, and time and strength:

A loving pair squeeze hands, are exchanging glances:

Affectionate tones: and words of precious significant.

Here lisping is conversation, stammering sweet speech:

A hymn like this rises without verse or metre.

Say how I found you, once, Dawn, the Muses' friend!

Aurora, has Amor, the wanton, seduced you too?

You announced to me at present every bit his friend, and wake me

To a day of feasting again earlier his Altar.

I find the wealth of her hair over my breast!

Her paw weighs on the arm that cradles her cervix.

How gladly I wake to find that the peaceful hours

Show traces of the desire that lulled u.s.a. to sleep! –

She moves in her sleep, sinks down in the wide bed,

Turns from me, and however nevertheless leaves her hand in mine.

True longing and heartfelt honey bind u.s.a. forever,

And simply our passion retains its correct to vary.

A touch of my hand, and I'll see those heavenly eyes

Open once again. – No! Permit me take rest in her Form!

Don't open! You lot'll brand me drunk, confused, snatch me

Too presently from the calm pleasance of pure Beholding.

Her shape, how fine! Her limbs how nobly formed!

If Ariadne, asleep, was and so off-white: Theseus how could you go?

Just one kiss on those lips! O Theseus, tin you leave at present!

Gaze in her eyes! She wakes! – She holds y'all fast for ever.

Roman Elegies XVII

Many sounds annoy me, but still the ane I hate most

Is the barking of dogs: and their ear-splitting yelps.

At that place's simply one dog whose yelp and bark tin make full me

With pleasance: the canis familiaris my neighbor has reared.

He once barked at my sweetheart, when she crept here

On the quiet, and he near betrayed our hush-hush.

Now, hearing him bark, I ever think: she's hither!

Or remember the time when I waited, and she came.

Roman Elegies XX

Force, generosity, courage become a human,

Ah, but deepest reticence becomes him more than.

Discretion, conqueror of cities, ruler of men,

Honey goddess who led me safely through life,

What a fate is mine! The laughing Muse, and Amor,

That rogue, both are unlocking my sealed mouth.

Ah, already the King'southward shame'south harder to hibernate!

Neither a crown nor a Phrygian cap tin conceal

Midas' long ears: his closest servant has seen,

And at once the undercover weighs heavily on his breast.

He'd gladly bury it deep, and so discover release:

Just World refuses to guard such secrets as these.

Reeds bound upwardly, and rustle and lisp in the current of air:

'Midas, Midas the King, he's grown long ears!'

At present too I'g finding it harder to keep a sweet secret:

Ah, how quickly the heart's fullness flows from the lips!

In that location's no friend I can trust: she might scold me:

No man either: he might be a unsafe rival.

And I'm not lonely enough, or then full of youth,

As to confide in the wood or the echoing cliffs.

Hexameter, and Pentameter, I'll tell it to you,

How she delights me by twenty-four hours and enchants me by night.

Pursued by hosts of men, she avoids the snares

The impudent assuming, and the secretly cunning, lay:

Cleverly, daintily, she slips past, knowing the path

Where her eagerly listening lover waits for her.

Stay, Luna, she comes! Don't let the neighbours run across:

Rustle, breeze, in the trees! And so no one hears her step.

And you abound and blossom, my dear songs,

And sway in the gentlest breath of the loving air,

Reveal to the Romans, like those gossiping reeds,

The lovely cloak-and-dagger at final of this happy pair.

The Nearness of the Beloved

I remember of y'all, when I lookout the sunlight glimmer

Over the sea:

I think of you lot, when the moonbeams shimmer

Over the stream.

I run across yous there, when the dust swirls high

On the far road,

When the traveller shivers, in deepest night,

As it narrows.

I hear you, when with a dull roaring

The waters rise.

Oft in silent groves I become walking

When all is quiet.

I stay with you, however far yous are,

To me you're almost!

The dominicus sets: soon above me are the stars.

Would you lot were here!

Venetian Epigrams I

Sarcophagi, urns, were all covered with lifelike scenes,

Fauns dancing with girls from a Bacchanalian choir,

Paired-off, caprine animal-footed creatures puffing their cheeks,

Forcing ear-splitting notes from clarion horns.

Cymbals and drumbeats, the marble is seen and heard.

How delightful the fruit in the beaks of fluttering birds!

No startling noise tin can scare them, or scare away beloved,

Amor, whose torch waves more gladly in this happy throng.

And then fullness overcomes decease, and the ashes inside

Seem nonetheless, in their silent house, to feel dearest'south please.

So may the Poet'south sarcophagus exist adorned,

With this book the writer has filled with the beauty of life.

Venetian Epigrams XXVII

All Nine often used to come up to me, I mean the Muses:

But I ignored them: my girl was in my artillery.

Now I've left my sweetheart: and they've left me,

And I scroll my eyes, seeking a knife or rope.

But Heaven is full of gods: Y'all came to assistance me:

Greetings, Colorlessness, mother of the Muse.

Venetian Epigrams XCVI

I saw the body of water gleam, and the sugariness waves glitter:

Lively sails crossing information technology, with a following wind.

My center felt no desire: my languishing gaze

Soon turned dorsum once more towards mountains and snowfall.

How many treasures lie South! Notwithstanding 1 in the North

Like a peachy magnet draws me irresistibly back.

Venetian Epigrams CIII

And so, far from all joys, I trifled away

My days and hours in the City of Neptune.

All I found I seasoned with sugariness Retentiveness,

And with Hope: the world's loveliest savours.

Permanence In Change

If only this early blessing

Could terminal a single hour!

Merely the warm west current of air is shaking

Over me a rain of flowers.

Shall I take pleasure in the leaves

Whose shade I once enjoyed?

Soon a tempest volition besprinkle sheaves

Through autumn's trembling void.

If you want to grasp the fruit then,

Hurry now and take your share!

Some of it'due south begun to ripen,

Some is germinating there:

Swiftly and with every shower

There's change along the valley's rim,

Alas, in the selfsame river

A 2d time y'all cannot swim.

Yous yourself also! What was continuing

Firm as rock before your sight,

Wall and Palace, now y'all're seeing

With ever-changing optics.

Wasted at present are those lips

Kisses healed once long ago

And the feet now that skipped

On cliffs like mountain goats'.

And the paw that gently moved,

That articulated structure,

Generously, to exercise good,

Shows a different nature.

And what now in their place

Calls itself past your name,

To the elements in haste

Flows like h2o, as it came.

Let the cease and the beginning

Gather themselves into one!

Allow your own self go flying

Swifter than all these objects can!

Give thanks that the Muses' fine art

Promises one unfading thing,

The Pregnant in your Heart,

And the Course in your Existence.

Provision for the Journey

I was to be weaned from the calorie-free of her optics,

They were to beautify my life no longer.

What men call Fate, inexorable forever,

I know it well: I stepped dorsum in fright.

Now I'd know no other happiness either.

I began at once to wean myself from you,

And you lot, you necessary Things, y'all too:

Nothing seemed necessary but that gaze of hers.

Vino'southward glow, food's enjoyment, sleep

Condolement and friends, and other delights,

I denied: at that place was little left to remove.

At present I can travel through the globe at ease:

Whatever I need's to be constitute on every side,

And I bring the indispensable with me – Love.

Early Leap

Days of delight

Are y'all nearly hither?

Bringing the sunlight

Hills and woods most?

Oh, and the streams

Richer in flow.

Is this the valley?

This the meadow?

How blue now and fresh!

Heaven and meridian!

The bright gilded fish

In the lake's night.

Rainbows of feathers

Rustle the leaves:

Celestial songs, where

Echo deceives.

Under the greenery's

Blossoming powers,

The buzzing of bees

Sipping the flowers.

A gentle motility

Trembling in air,

Slumber-bringing scent

Loveliest stir.

Before long there's a greater

Forcefulness to the cakewalk,

Yet it is lost there,

Now, in the copse.

Merely back to the heart

It's carried again.

Muses, help me with art,

To suffer joy's pain!

Since yesterday say, here,

What's happened to me?

My Beloved Sisters,

The Beloved I see!

May Song

Between wheat-field and corn,

Between hedgerow and thorn,

Betwixt grasses and tree,

Where's my darling?

Tell it me!

I know my darling

She's not at dwelling house:

My precious thing

Wishes to roam.

May is shining,

Blossoming, green,

There goes my darling

Happy and free.

Near the stone, by the brook,

Where her kisses I took,

That first time in the leaves,

What practise I see!

Could it be?

Night Song

Oh, on your soft pillow

Dreaming at present, half-hear!

In my music's repeat

Sleep! What would you lot more than?

In my music'southward echo

The starry host appear,

Eternal feelings, bless, now:

Slumber! What would yous more?

Eternal feelings, bless, now,

Lift me higher and higher,

From all earthly beings: oh,

Sleep! What would yous more than?

From all earthly beings, oh,

Yous bear me, now, and so far,

Enchanted by the absurd flow:

Sleep! What would you lot more than?

Enchanted by the cool flow,

Dreaming now, you hear.

Ah, on your soft pillow,

Slumber! What would you more?

The New Copernicus

I have a house, a footling one,

And subconscious there inside

I'thou screened quite nicely from the sun,

And the called-for calorie-free.

For there are tiny windows,

Latches, shutters there,

Alone I am equally happy

Equally with a pretty daughter.

Since, O wonder! Just for me

The wood moves about,

And the farthest state

Comes nearer to my middle.

And the wooded hills too

They come up dancing by:

The simply thing that's missing

Is the merry dwarf's wild cry.

However then completely repose and hushed

Information technology rushes by me there,

Sometimes straight, and often curved,

And that'due south what I prefer.

If I choose to look more closely, till

All's carefully considered,

Perhaps these things are standing still –

And I myself have travelled.

Always and Everywhere

Penetrate deep mountain caverns,

Follow clouds towards the heavens:

Muses phone call, to stream and valley,

Many a thousand times, oh, many.

As shortly as fresh flowers meet the eye,

New songs our efforts earn:

And though fleeting fourth dimension goes by,

The seasons they return.

March

Await, it's snowed for hours,

The time is non all the same right,

For all the little flowers,

For all the picayune flowers,

To fill our hearts with calorie-free.

The sunlight is deceiving,

Mild but fake it shone,

Even the swallow's cheating,

Fifty-fifty the eat's cheating,

Why? He comes lone!

Alone, could I be happy

Even though spring is well-nigh?

But if you were with me,

But if you were with me,

Of a sudden summer'south at that place.

Apr

Eyes tell, tell me, what you tell me,

Telling something all likewise sugariness,

Making music out of beauty,

With a question hidden deep.

Still I recall I know your meaning,

There behind your pupils' effulgence,

Love and truth are your heart's lightness,

That, instead of its own gleaming,

Would so truly like to greet,

In a earth of dullness, blindness,

I true expect of human kindness,

Where ii kindred spirits meet.

And since I'm lost, in what entrances,

Studying those mysteries,

Optics, may you exist fatigued to see,

The intention in my glances!

Verse and Form

Allow the Greek mould his clay

To the forms he'due south planned,

And take increasing pleasure

In the product of his hands:

Just to usa it'southward beatific when

We clutch at the Euphrates,

And in the flowing element,

Swish to and fro, with ease.

Quenching, so, my burning soul,

I'll utter what I feel:

Gathered in the poet's pure hand

The waters will congeal.

Beatific Yearning

(From the West-Eastern Divan)

Tell information technology no ane just the wise,

The crowd volition only jeer:

The living thing I praise,

That longs for death by fire.

Cooling, in those nights of beloved,

Conceiving as you were conceived,

A strange emotion fills you

While the quiet candle gleams.

You're no longer in the grasp

Of shadows, darkening,

A new desire lifts you lot up

On to a college mating.

No distances can weigh you lot downwards,

Enchanted you lot come flying,

And greedy for the light, at last,

A moth, yous burn in dying.

And every bit long as you lack this

True word: Die and Go!

Yous'll be but a dismal invitee

In Earth'due south darkened room.

Night of the Full Moon

(From the W-Eastern Divan)

Lady, say, what do yous whisper?

What and then softly moves your lips?

To yourself you're murmuring,

Sweeter than the wine in sips!

Would you remember to those twin sisters

To summon upwardly another twin?

'I would buss! Would kiss! I say.'

Look! In the uncertain eve

Every branch is glowing, flowering,

Star is shining downward on star:

And a thousand gems are glowing

Emerald throughout the leaves:

Yet your spirit travels far.

'I would kiss! Would kiss! I say.'

Your beloved, feels likewise

The bittersweet, far afar now,

Filled with a sad happiness.

You both swore a sacred vow,

To greet each other at the rise

Of the full moon, which information technology is.

'I would kiss! Would buss! I say.'

At Midnight's Hr

At midnight'due south hour I'd get, unwillingly,

Past the Church building, a little tiny boy

To the priest'due south, my father's house: how beautifully

Star on star shone in that location in the heaven:

At midnight'southward hour.

And when later on on in my life, I must

Go to my dearest, must, drawn by her centre,

The stars and northern lights warred above,

Coming and going, I breathed my delight:

At midnight's hour.

Till finally the total Moon's radiance

And then bright and clear overflowed my nighttime,

And swift willing Thought's meaning glance,

Swallowed past and future in its light:

At midnight's hour.

A Trilogy of Passion

To Werther

Once more you venture, much-lamented Shadow,

Into the open lite of day,

Encountering me in freshly flowering meadows,

Unembarrassed at present by my gaze.

It'due south as if yous re-lived that onetime season,

When we 2 were refreshed by the same field's dew,

When after the solar day's unwelcome exertions,

The setting sun's last rays gave pleasure too:

I fated to remain, and yous to vanish,

You went before – missed piffling at the finish.

Homo life seems a pleasant fate:

The day and so sweet, and the dark so great!

And, in an enchanted Paradise, set up down,

Nosotros've scarce begun to enjoy the heavenly sun,

When all at once our own confused endeavour

Conflicts with our ain self, and then the other:

Nothing is complementary, every bit nosotros'd wish,

It darkens outside when inside information technology's bliss,

A bright exterior'southward hidden from our gaze,

Joy is near – yet no ane knows its face.

Now we retrieve nosotros've grasped it! With its ability

A adult female's seductive shape fills the hour:

A young man, happy, in the flower of youth,

Steps out, in Spring, and is the Spring, in truth,

Delighted, wondering, who achieved this thing?

He looks around – the world'due south a souvenir to him.

Some jerky impulse draws him swiftly on,

And neither wall nor palace cake his vision:

Similar the birds that skim the wooded peaks,

He hovers, and effectually his love he sweeps,

Ready to dive downwards from the sky to observe

Her loving glance, and and so it closely binds.

Just first too early, then also late prepared

He feels his flight hemmed in: himself ensnared.

To run into her is a joy, to function is pain,

A greater joy to see her withal again,

A single glance repays the years past:

But a harsh Cheerio waits at the last.

You grinning, my Friend, with feeling, as is correct:

A fearsome parting made your proper noun polish bright:

To your misfortune'south wretchedness we're kind,

For better or worse, you left the states all behind.

And nosotros were drawn uncertainly again

Down all of passion's labyrinthine ways:

And for u.s.a. there'south ache with each jiff,

And then, at terminal, the parting – which is a death!

How sweet it sounds, when the poet sings,

Evading the true death that departing brings!

Entangled in these torments, half to blame,

May some god requite them ability to speak their pain.

Elegie

And, if Mankind in torment'southward impaired, over again

May some god give me ability to speak my pain.

What tin I hope for now from this fresh coming together,

From this solar day's withal tightly unopened flower?

Paradise and Hell open to me in greeting:

What hesitation rules my inward ability! –

No further doubtfulness! She's there at Sky'south door,

And 1 is gathered in her arms over again.

And then one was received in Paradise over again,

As if worthy of life's beauty in that location forever:

No wish, no hope, no longing still remained,

Here was the goal of innermost want,

And in that vision of unique loveliness

At in one case the fount of yearning tears grew less.

How piffling Day restrained his swift-beating wings,

And seemed to drive the minutes there before him!

A closely binding seal, the kiss at evening:

Then at the next mean solar day'southward dawn information technology would remain.

The hours too softly following each other,

Like sisters, but no ane quite like some other.

The kiss, the last, cruelly sweet, at present fierce

The glorious cyberspace of intertwined desires.

The foot now flees the threshold, swift, so faltering,

As if a Cherub drove it thence with fires.

The eye frustrated sees the path is darkened,

Information technology looks behind, and now the gate is fastened.

And now within itself the heart's imprisoned

As if it had never opened out: unknown

Those blest hours beside her, when it shone

As bright as all the stars the heavens showed:

And remorse, reproach, and irritation, intendance

Counterbalance it down below the oppressive air.

Isn't the world there still? Are the rocky heights

No longer crowned with all their holy shadow?

Doesn't the harvest ripen? The countryside

Still lie, green leaves and fields, where rivers flow?

And doesn't the overarching vastness fill

With hosts of forms, emptying itself, still?

How low-cal and dainty, clearly, tenderly formed

Through the stern choir of clouds, like a Seraph,

A slender shape, as if it were her shape, soars

Fabricated of vivid mists, through the bluish heaven to a higher place!

So you saw her, move happily in the dance,

The loveliest of those sweet forms that archway.

But for no more than a moment practice you cartel

Agree an ethereal prototype fast in her place:

Return to your heart! Much more easily in that location

Y'all'll find her, there she moves in changing shapes:

Though she'southward I, the Many you detect,

Thousand-fold and ever, ever dearer.

How she waited at the gate to welcome me,

And delighted me, from and then on, step past step,

And all the same after the terminal kiss ran after me,

To press the final kiss of all to my lips:

This epitome of the Dear, so quick and clear,

Is written on my heart, in fiery messages at that place.

On my center, that firm as a towering wall,

Holds itself for her, and her within itself,

That joys, for her sake, in existence here at all,

Knows itself only when she reveals herself,

Feels itself freer in such dear bonds,

And only beats for her, for all, in thank you.

Its power to love, its need for love in return

Had been consumed and vanished completely,

But I found the glad impulse to hope again,

To make decisions, and take activeness swiftly!

If ever Love inspired a lover, then see,

It accomplished it most delightfully with me:

And that was through her! – How unwelcome

The weight of inner care on my mind and body:

Images of dread, surrounding my gaze, loom

Through the eye'southward wasteland, broken-hearted and empty:

At present hope dawns across the familiar sill,

In gentle sunlight she shines, herself, still.

To God's peace that down here – nosotros acquire –

Brings a blessedness that passes agreement,

The tranquil peace of Dear I would compare,

In the presence of the object of our loving:

Then the heart rests and nothing can disturb

The deepest sense: the sense of being hers.

An impulse rises in the heart's articulate depths,

To give ourselves freely, and gratefully,

And so entering into the eternally nameless,

To something higher, purer, unknown, entirely:

Information technology's piety, we say! – When I stand before her

Information technology's this high blessedness that I seem to share.

Before her gaze, as before the sun's force,

Earlier her breath, every bit before the leap breeze,

Self-regard, for so long frozen, thaws

And melts abroad within its wintry deeps:

No self-interest, no self-will remains,

At her coming they dissolve again.

It's every bit if she said: 'Hour by kindly 60 minutes,

Life is offered to us, even though

Our yesterdays leave lilliputian trace, and our

Tomorrows – we are not allowed to know:

And if ever I shrank from the evening, pitiful,

The lord's day however set on sights that made me glad.

Do as I do, and look the Moment in the heart,

With joy and agreement! No evasion!

See it with goodwill, swiftly as it flies,

Whether in Love's pleasures or in activity.

Exist only where you lot are, be childlike ever,

You'll and then be all things, exist defeated never.'

I idea: you may well say and then: for companion

Some god granted y'all the Moment'due south grace,

In your sweet presence surely every human being

At once feels he'due south the favourite of fate:

But I fear a sign, that takes me from y'all –

To learn such noble wisdom, what's the use!

Now I am far! The present infinitesimal at present,

What does it ask? I accept no manner to see:

It has many adept and lovely things to show,

They're simply burdens I must cast from me.

I'm driven on by an unyielding yearning:

No counsel left, but just tears unending.

Flow on then, tears, and flow unquenchably:

Though you could never quench the inner burn down!

Already my centre is torn by violent frenzy,

By life and death struggles, hideous desire.

In that location may be herbs to heal the body'due south hurting,

But the spirit fails to volition or act over again,

Fails to grasp: how can I live without her?

Imagining her shape a thousand ways.

At present indistinct now radiantly clear,

Now slow to course, now swiftly snatched away.

What slightest comfort could this e'er bring,

This ebb and flow, this coming and this going?

Loyal comrades, go out me in this place!

Get out me alone with marsh and mossy stone:

Go ever onwards! Earth gives you the infinite,

The world is wide, the sky's celestial zone:

Search and consider, its details join,

And slowly spell out the mysteries of Nature.

All's lost to me, myself likewise I've lost,

I who was once the darling of the gods:

They tested me: they gave me Pandora'southward box,

Full of blessings, fuller of danger's cost:

To their bountiful lips, then they pressed me,

They role me from them, now, and destroy me.

Reconciliation

Passion brings pain! – Who will soothe you,

Troubled heart that has lost so, lost completely?

Where are the hours that all too swiftly flew?

In vain were y'all granted a sight of Beauty!

The spirit is clouded: purposes confused:

How the world's splendour fades from our view!

But music soars aloft now on affections'south wings,

Millions of notes on notes are intertwined,

Piercing through and through all mortal being,

Eternal dazzler flows now through the mind:

The eyes are dim, and filled with highest yearning,

The divine power of tears, and music's singing.

And so the heart is eased, and one time more than feels

It lives and throbs, must become on throbbing,

And in pure thanks a willing offering yields,

Of self, in kind, for this then generous giving.

Then it is felt – that it might last forever! –

The double joy of love, and music's singing.

From the Chinese-High german Book of Hours and Seasons

I

White as lilies, purest candles

Like the stars, now gently bowing,

Red-rimmed from their hearts' centres

Radiance of affection glowing.

So the earliest Narcissi

Flower in garden rows, and peradventure

In their goodness they know why

And for whom they're neatly waiting.

II

Twilight sinks downwardly from to a higher place u.s.,

Swiftly all the about is far:

But offset shining loftier higher up us

Radiant is the evening star!

Everything is drifting vaguely,

Mist steals upward to the height:

And the still lake mirrors darkly

Black abysses of the night.

Now in all the eastern distance

I suspect moon's gleam and glow,

Slender willow'southward abaft branches

Dally with the neighbouring menses.

Through the play of moving shadows

Trembling lunar magic shines,

And a soothing coolness follows,

To the heart now, through the optics.

To the Full Moon Rise

Are y'all leaving me already?

Simply at present, y'all were so near!

Deject-mass shadows you, I see,

And you're no longer hither.

Withal yous feel how sad I am,

Your rim still shines, a star!

Telling me how loved I am,

Though my Beloved's far.

So pursue, at present! Brighter, brighter,

Purer ways, with greater light!

Though my heart in pain beats faster,

More than blessed is the Dark.

The Betrothed

At midnight'southward hour I slept, waking in my breast

My love-filled heart, as though it were still day:

Daylight came: to me, it still seemed dark at all-time –

What's twenty-four hours to me, whatever gifts it makes?

She'll not be there! Information technology was for her sake only,

I worked and strived through all the fiery hoard

Of burning hours: and then in the cool evening,

Was and so refreshed! That was my true reward.

The sun ready, twined together paw in hand

We greeted the last sacred gleam of calorie-free,

And eye with clear eye met, to empathise:

Promise, all the same: for from the East dawn rises vivid.

At midnight'south hr the shining stars direct me

In sweet dream to the threshold where she lies.

For me also may a resting-place exist fix!

Whatsoever it may be, information technology is skilful, this Life.

Legacy

(For Marianne von Willemer)

To the optics of my Beloved,

To her fingers that prepared them –

Once with such a burning longing

And so awaited, and received, then –

To the heart from which they flowed,

Shall these messages once again go,

Ready ever to recall,

The about perfect time of all.

---

Index of First Lines

• At present I exit this little hut,
• How sweetly Nature
• My eye was beating, swiftly to horse!
• A lad he saw a rose-bush growing,
• A violet in the meadow grew,
• Oh, for some inner creative force
• Heart, my centre, what can information technology hateful?
• Oh, why practice you draw me, irresistibly,
• You who are from Heaven above
• Over all the hill-tops
• The waters hissed, the waters rose,
• Who rides so late through the current of air and night?
• Who has never eaten his bread with tears,
• Do you know the land where the lemon-trees grow,
• Bid me exist silent, bid me not speak,
• Merely the Yearning, they
• Bushes, valleys, silently,
• The spirit of Homo
• Fate, why did yous grant us this depth
• Y'all're mine and so prissy,
• Eros, what have nosotros here! An hourglass in each of your hands!
• Here where roses blossom, where laurel and vine both mingle,
• Tell me you stones, O speak, you towering palaces!
• Ask now, whoever you wish, yous can't reach me,
• Honey, don't fret that you gave yourself and so apace!
• I feel I'm happily inspired now on Classical soil:
• Oh, how happy I am in Rome, remembering the times
• Amor is still a rogue: if you trust he'll beguile you!
• Many sounds annoy me, but nonetheless the one I hate most
• Strength, generosity, courage become a homo,
• I think of y'all, when I scout the sunlight glimmer
• Sarcophagi, urns, were all covered with lifelike scenes,
• All Ix frequently used to come to me, I mean the Muses:
• I saw the sea gleam, and the sweet waves glitter:
• I was to be weaned from the light of her eyes,
• Days of please
• Betwixt wheat-field and corn,
• Oh, on your soft pillow
• I take a house, a little 1,
• Penetrate deep mountain caverns,
• Look, it's snowed for hours,
• Eyes tell, tell me, what you lot tell me,
• Let the Greek mould his clay
• Tell information technology no i but the wise,
• Lady, say, what do you whisper?
• At midnight's hour I'd get, unwillingly,
• Once more you venture, much-lamented Shadow,
• White as lilies, purest candles
• Twilight sinks down from above us,
• Are y'all leaving me already?
• At midnight's hr I slept, waking in my breast
• To the eyes of my Dearest,
• To her fingers that prepared them –
• In one case with such a burning longing

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Source: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/German/Goethepoems.php