The Poems of Goethe by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (ebook reader with highlight function txt) 📖

is reproduced by the Western minstrel. They were chiefly composed between the years 1814 and 1819, and first given to the world in the latter year. Of the twelve books into which they are divided, that of Suleika will probably be considered the best, from the many graceful love-songs which it contains. The following is Hanoi's account of the Divan, and may well serve as a substitute for anything I could say respecting it:--

It contains opinions and sentiments on the East, expressed in a series of rich cantos and stanzas full of sweetness and spirit, and all this as enchanting as a harem emitting the most delicious and rare perfumes, and blooming with exquisitely-lovely nymphs with eyebrows painted black, eyes piercing as those of the antelope, arms white as alabaster, and of the most graceful and perfectly-formed shapes, while the heart of the reader beats and grows faint, as did that of the happy Gaspard Debaran, the clown, who, when on the highest step of his ladder, was enabled to peep into the Seraglio of Constantinople--that recess concealed from the inspection of man. Sometimes also the reader may imagine himself indolently stretched on a carpet of Persian softness, luxuriously smoking the yellow tobacco of Turkistan through a long tube of jessamine and amber, while a black slave fans him with a fan of peacock's feathers, and a little boy presents him with a cup of genuine Mocha. Goethe has put these enchanting and voluptuous customs into poetry, and his verses are so perfect, so harmonious, so tasteful, so soft, that it seems really surprising that he should ever have been able to have brought the German language to this state of suppleness. The charm of the book is inexplicable; it is a votive nosegay sent from the West to the East, composed of the most precious and curious plants: red roses, hortensias like the breast of a spotless maiden, purple digitalis like the long finger of a man, fantastically formed ranunculi, and in the midst of all, silent and tastefully concealed, a tuft of German violets. This nosegay signifies that the West is tired of thin and icy-cold spirituality, and seeks warmth in the strong and healthy bosom of the East."

Translations are here given of upwards of sixty of the best Poems embraced in the Divan, the number in the original exceeding two hundred.

I. MORGAGNI NAME.

BOOK OF THE MINSTREL.

TALISMANS.

GOD is of the east possess'd, God is ruler of the west; North and south alike, each land Rests within His gentle hand.

HE, the only righteous one, Wills that right to each be done. 'Mongst His hundred titles, then, Highest praised be this!--Amen.

ERROR seeketh to deceive me, Thou art able to retrieve me; Both in action and in song Keep my course from going wrong.

1819.* -----

THE FOUR FAVOURS.

THAT Arabs through the realms of space

May wander on, light-hearted, Great Allah hath, to all their race,

Four favours meet imparted.

The turban first--that ornament

All regal crowns excelling; A light and ever-shifting tent,

Wherein to make our dwelling;

A sword, which, more than rocks and walls

Doth shield us, brightly glistening; A song that profits and enthrall,

For which the maids are list'ning!

1814. -----

DISCORD.

WHEN by the brook his strain

Cupid is fluting, And on the neighboring plain

Mayors disputing, There turns the ear ere long,

Loving and tender, Yet to the noise a song

Soon must surrender. Loud then the flute-notes glad

Sound 'mid war's thunder; If I grow raving mad,

Is it a wonder? Flutes sing and trumpets bray,

Waxing yet stronger; If, then, my senses stray,

Wonder no longer.

1814. -----

SONG AND STRUCTURE.

LET the Greek his plastic clay

Mould in human fashion, While his own creation may

Wake his glowing passion;

But it is our joy to court

Great Euphrates' torrent, Here and there at will to sport

In the Wat'ry current.

Quench'd I thus my spirit's flame,

Songs had soon resounded; Water drawn by bards whose fame

Pure is, may be rounded.+

1819.*

(+ This oriental belief in the power of the pure to roll-up water into a crystal hail is made the foundation of the Interesting Pariah Legend, that will be found elsewhere amongst the Ballads.)

II. HAFIS NAME.

BOOK OF HAFIS.

SPIRIT let us bridegroom call,

And the word the bride; Known this wedding is to all

Who have Hafis tried.

THE UNLIMITED.

THAT thou can't never end, doth make thee great, And that thou ne'er beginnest, is thy fate. Thy song is changeful as yon starry frame, End and beginning evermore the same; And what the middle bringeth, but contains What was at first, and what at last remains. Thou art of joy the true and minstrel-source, From thee pours wave on wave with ceaseless force. A mouth that's aye prepared to kiss,

A breast whence flows a loving song, A throat that finds no draught amiss,

An open heart that knows no wrong.

And what though all the world should sink!

Hafis, with thee, alone with thee

Will I contend! joy, misery,

The portion of us twain shall be; Like thee to love, like thee to drink,--

This be my pride,--this, life to me!

Now, Song, with thine own fire be sung,-- For thou art older, thou more young!

1817.* -----

TO HAFIS.

HAFIS, straight to equal thee,

One would strive in vain; Though a ship with majesty

Cleaves the foaming main, Feels its sails swell haughtily

As it onward hies Crush'd by ocean's stern decree,

Wrecked it straightway lies. Tow'rd thee, songs, light, graceful, free,

Mount with cooling gush; Then their glow consumeth me,

As like fire they rush. Yet a thought with ecstasy

Hath my courage moved; In the land of melody

I have lived and loved.

1815. -----

III. USCHK NAME.

BOOK OF LOVE.

THE TYPES.

LIST, and in memory bear These six fond loving pair. Love, when aroused, kept true Rustan and Rad! Strangers approach from far Joseph and Suleika; Love, void of hope, is in Ferhad and Schirin. Born for each other are Medschnun and Lily; Loving, though old and grey, Dschemil saw Boteinah. Love's sweet caprice anon, Brown maid + and Solomon! If thou dost mark them well, Stronger thy love will swell.

1817.*

(+ Brown maid is the Queen of Sheba.)

ONE PAIR MORE.

LOVE is indeed a glorious prize! What fairer guerdon meets our eyes?-- Though neither wealth nor power are thine, A very hero thou dost shine. As of the prophet, they will tell, Wamik and Asia's tale as well.-- They'll tell not of them,--they'll but give Their names, which now are all that live. The deeds they did, the toils they proved No mortal knows! But that they loved This know we. Here's the story true Of Wamik and of Asia too.

1827.* -----

LOVE's torments sought a place of rest,

Where all might drear and lonely be; They found ere long my desert breast,

And nestled in its vacancy.

1827.* -----

IV. TEFKIR NAME.

BOOK OF CONTEMPLATION.

FIVE THINGS.

WHAT makes time short to me?

Activity! What makes it long and spiritless?

'Tis idleness! What brings us to debt?

To delay and forget! What makes us succeed?

Decision with speed How to fame to ascend?

Oneself to defend!

1814 -----

FOR woman due allowance make!

Form'd of a crooked rib was she,--

By Heaven she could not straightened be. Attempt to bend her, and she'll break; If left alone, more crooked grows madam; What well could be worse, my good friend, Adam?-- For woman due allowance make; 'Twere grievous, if thy rib should break!

1819.* -----

FIRDUSI (Speaks).

OH world, with what baseness and guilt thou art rife!

Thou nurtures, trainest, and illest the while.

He only whom Allah doth bless with his smile Is train'd and is nurtured with riches and life.

1819.* -----

SULEIKA (Speaks).

THE mirror tells me, I am fair!

Thou sayest, to grow old my fate will be. Nought in God's presence changeth e'er,--

Love him, for this one moment, then, in me.

1819.* -----

V. RENDSCH NAME

BOOK OF GLOOM.

IT is a fault oneself to praise,

And yet 'tis done by each whose deeds are kind; And if there's no deceit in what he says,

The good we still as good shall find.

Let, then, ye fools, that wise man taste

Of joy, who fancies that he s wise, That he, a fool like you, may waste

Th' insipid thanks the world supplies.

1816. -----

VI. HIKMET NAME.

BOOK OF PROVERBS.

CALL on the present day and night for nought, Save what by yesterday was brought.

THE sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.

BE stirring, man, while yet the day is clear; The night when none can work fast Draweth near.

WHEN the heavy-laden sigh, Deeming help and hope gone by, Oft, with healing power is heard, Comfort-fraught, a kindly word.

How vast is mine inheritance, how glorious and sublime! For time mine own possession is, the land I till is time!

UNWARY saith,--ne'er lived a man more true; The deepest heart, the highest head he knew,-- "In ev'ry place and time thou'lt find availing Uprightness, judgment, kindliness unfailing."

THOUGH the bards whom the Orient sun bath bless'd Are greater than we who dwell in the west, Yet in hatred of those whom our equals we find. In this we're not in the least behind.

WOULD we let our