Goethe

I found the Oxford Companion to German Literature at UW Bookstore for $4.99. It’s like discovering buried treasure. The information in it is assisting my knowledge of so many German greats — I am currently smitten by Goethe. (I know what you’re thinking: what took you so long.) Here is an early poem I especially like:

SONG OF THE SPIRITS
OVER THE WATERS
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man’s soul
Equals the water:
From Heaven it comes,
To Heaven it rises,
And downward again
It must descend to the earth,
Forever changing.

When there streams from the high,
Steep wall of the rock
The pure jet of water,
Then it foams in lovely sprays
In waves of clouds
To the smooth rock,
And gracefully received,
It floats, enveiling,
Murmuring softly
Down to the deep.

Where cliffs arise
In the face of the downpour,
It foams, out of temper,
Step upon step,
Down to the abyss.

In the shallow bed
It creeps down the meadowy valley
And in the smooth lake
Their countenance feast
All heavenly bodies.

The wind is the wave’s
Beautiful wooer;
The wind stirs up from the bottom
Foaming waves.

Soul of Man,
How you resemble the water!
Fate of Man
how you resemble the wind!

[translation from Introduction to Germany Poetry ed. by Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1987]