The Most Beautiful German Poem

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:

Auf dem See

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.

Comments

[hattie]

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.

[Richard]

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 ...

[David]

Richard,

Thanks for your comment I also love Trakl, but much of his work is opaque, virtually inaccessible.

[Lukas am Sa]

An sich ist das ne super Story, ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das ständig brauchbar ist!

[Marketingaktion]

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!

[Rujuta]

Thank you. Some describe it as a poem with a broken love as the central idea. However, your interpretation appealed to me more. It would be nice if you could elaborate it even further. Thank you. Regards, Rujuta.

[zahoor naqi]

sooo nice poem

[Dennis walder]

Goethe doesn't quite reach the sublime; Rilke does, in many poems ...

[hi]

Great poem

[hi]

Yo

[yu]

Hi!! I just wonder if this English translation of the poem is yours!!

[michael burnham]

The leaves on the trees are bleeding
Just like the tears in your eyes
The colors faded
Tainted they lye
In the empty cup nothing left to fill it up

written by Michael Burnham
In the late 90’s at die berg lake outside Darmstadt
Would love to c the German translation

[Shreya's Poetry]

Wow,wonderful poetry by both legends.If interested,check out my poetry blog too at https://shreyaspoetry.blogspot.com

[Nancy Chamness, Ph.D]

Translation is a tricky business, especially with poetry. What is more important: the meanings of the words, the images and metaphors, the rhyme scheme, the meter? Here is my translation. It is very different:

On the lake

And I soak up new sustenance, new blood
From the wide, free world
How gentle and good nature is
Who holds me to her breast!

The waves rock our little boat
Rising to the movement of our oars
And mountains reaching to the clouds
Meet us on our path.

WHy are my eyes looking downwards?
My golden dreams, will you ever return?
Away with you, dreams, though you are golden and perfect
Here we still have life, embodied in us.

A thousand swaying stars
Sparkle upon the waves
A gentle mist rises
Encircling the towering horizon.

Morning breezes waft by
In our secluded bay
And the lake mirrors
The fullness of the ripening fruit.

It's not perfect - it was just an experiment. If I started again, I would probably do it differently. If the lines had to rhyme, differently again. What I am left with is the sense of an upbeat: "And I soak up..." starting in the middle of a sentence and immediately we are part of the scene with the poet; the boat lifting out of the waves with each pull of the oars, the poet admonishing himself to look up, to see, to expand within as the landscape expands before him. The fact that it takes place on the water makes everything more fluid--no pun intended--and the reader is invited to join in.

[Gottfried]

Hi Nancy,

Thanks so much for sharing your translation. I feel your effort does capture the essence of the poem.

I especially love your your penultimate stanza:

"A thousand swaying stars
Sparkle upon the waves
A gentle mist rises
Encircling the towering horizon."