April is National Poetry Month, so, naturally, it is imperative to blog about poetry. Last year in Slate Ron Rosenbaum made a convincing argument that Keats' Ode to Autumn is the most beautiful poem in the English language. So that got me thinking: what is the most beautiful German poem? The list of candidates is long: Mörike's Auf eine Lampe, or Denk es, O Seele!, Abendlied (Claudius), virtually any poem in Rilke's Neue Gedichte. Quickly, though, my search focused on Goethe. But here, too, there were many possibilities: Auf den Mond, Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, Wanderers Nachtlied, and a dozen others. Finally, I made my choice: Auf dem See (1775). The poem achieves an exquisite harmony of rhythm, sound, and meaning that, for me, in incomparable German poetry. Here is the poem, English translation below the break:
Und frische Nahrung, neues Blut
Saug ich aus freier Welt:
Wie ist Natur so hold und gut,
Die mich am Busen hält!
Die Welle wieget unsern Kahn
Im Rudertakt hinauf,
Und Berge, wolkig himmelan,
Begegnen unserm Lauf.
Aug, mein Aug, was sinkst du nieder?
Goldne Träume, kommt ihr wieder?
Weg, du Traum! so gold du bist:
Hier auch Lieb und Leben ist.
Auf der Welle blinken
Tausend schwebende Sterne,
Weiche Nebel trinken
Rings die türmende Ferne;
Morgenwind umflügelt
Die beschattete Bucht,
Und im See bespiegelt
Sich die reifende Frucht.
The poet's exuberant response to maternal nature in the first stanza is emphasized by the upbeat "Und" in the first line, before settling into a steady iambic beat. The middle stanza changes abruptly into a more reflective trochaic rhythm, with the double stress in the last line "Hier auch" shaking the poet from his reverie. The final two stanzas maintain the trochaic rhythm, combined with the rhyme scheme of the first section, which, however, is subtly modulated - asymmetry within the symmetry - signifying the progress of the poet's development in the poem.
A boat ride across Lake Zurich becomes a journey of emotional maturation. The infantile ego of the first stanza (an earlier version began "ich saug an meiner Nabelschnur" "I suck from my umbilical cord") rocking within nature's bosom is suddenly disturbed by dreams from the past. By the last stanza the "I" dissapears, or, rather is contained within the reflexive "sich" of the "ripening fruit". Nature, as well, becomes diffused from the towering mountains and the sun ("Aug"), to the reflection of a "thousand stars", while the mountains become obscured in the morning mist. By the final stanza the poet has reached the safe habor of the alliterative "beschattete Bucht" putting his infantile dreams behind him.
Bonus: Listen to Franz Schubert's rendition of Auf dem See.
On the Lake
And I draw in fresh sustenance,
New blood from the untrammeled world:
How gracious and generous is nature,
Who holds me to her bosom!
The wave sways our boat
To the rhythm of the oars,
And mountains, nebulously reaching for heaven,
Meet our course.
Eye of mine, why are you downcast?
Golden dreams, have you returned?
Away dream, golden though you are:
Here, too, there are love and life.
A thousand hovering stars twinkle on the wave,
Soft mists drink the towering horizon around us,
The morning breeze flutters over the shaded bay,
And the lake reflects the ripening fruit.
Yes, Keats in English and Goethe in German. They have never been surpassed. But I put my vote in for Wanderers Nachtlied as the perfect poem.
Posted by: hattie | April 16, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Comparing the two - Goethe's poem is not anywhere as good as Keat's poem - that is going by the English.
But I cannot read German as such so - Keat's poem depends on alliteration and the sensual sounds and great imagery...
There is a presence felt - one feels the Autumn - the fruit, the grapes or fruit "oozing" - words such as "laden" and devices so on the repetition of "hours and hours" make Keat's poem unnecessary to put into music - it is one of my favourites since we learnt it at school.
A great German poet? There are many - but one of my favourites is Georg Trakl - I can even "read" the German (with and English translation beside it) and appreciate it - his sense of sound and imagery is wonderful - the depth (and quality almost mystical of 'silence') in his work is not in many or perhaps any poets anywhere else.
This is not to say Goethe is not.
I would like to see more of Schiller's work in English - my grandson's father - who is German read he said (of Schiller) "A long poem about bell.." bow I read it in translation and that poem is great - but perhaps not for every German schoolboy!
Schubert's songs are great but he often used inferior poems...Goethe's poem (here) seems to diffuse, too vague ...
Posted by: Richard | April 19, 2009 at 02:20 AM
Richard,
Thanks for your comment I also love Trakl, but much of his work is opaque, virtually inaccessible.
Posted by: David Vickrey | April 19, 2009 at 08:10 AM
An sich ist das ne super Story, ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das ständig brauchbar ist!
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Je veux passer à un thème propre nouvelle WordPress pour un site, mais Google a indexé 2500 pages de l'ancien site (principalement en raison d'un module de calendrier créer une nouvelle page pour chaque jour). Comment puis-je m'assurer que toutes ces pages restent accessibles pour Google, sans jeter un «Page non trouvée» lorsque quelqu'un essaie d'y accéder après l'installation du nouveau thème WordPress. Le site actuel est contenu géré et est en cours d'exécution PHP .. all the best in 2013!
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