A Book Of German Lyrics
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11
RUECKERT
Friedrich Rueckert, born May 16, 1788, died January 31, 1866, represents
the combination of poet and scholar in a more striking degree than even
Uhland, but he lacks the latter's rare critical ability regarding his own
verse. Oriental languages were his special field, and a most astounding
technical skill enabled him to reproduce in German the complex Oriental
verse forms with their intricate rhyme schemes. Something of this
technical skill is apparent in 45, the one well-nigh perfect poem of
Rueckert. The third stanza is an adaptation from a children's rhyme. This
the poet uses as the main motif at regular intervals, slightly varying it
in the sixth to express his own feelings directly, and closing the poem
with it in the ninth. A similar parallelism is apparent in the odd lines
of each stanza. The last line of each stanza must be read with three
accents: _Was mein einst war_, X -- -- --.
45.--7. OB, I _wonder whether_.
14. UNBEWUSSTER WEISHEIT FROH, _joyous in unconscious wisdom_, i.e.,
full of wisdom and not aware of it.
16. SALOMO, _Solomon_, the wise king of the Hebrews. Oriental legends
attributed to him magic and supernatural knowledge.
25. WOHL, concessive, _it is true_.
HEINE
Heinrich Heine was born in Duesseldorf, December 13, 1797, of Jewish
parents. The Napoleonic Wars were among the chief impressions of his
childhood. He saw Napoleon ride through Duesseldorf; he saw the tattered
remains of the Grande Armee return from the disastrous Russian campaign;
and although not without the patriotic fervor of the German youth, he
could not but admire the genius of the great Corsican (46). At Hamburg
the young Heine was to enter upon a commercial career under the guidance
of his rich uncle, but failed. An unrequited love for his cousin Amalie
Heine became for a number of years the subject of his song. His favorite,
almost exclusive vehicle; of expression is the simple stanza of the
_Volkslied_, which he uses with consummate skill for new effects. Heine's
attempts in law proved as futile as those in business; although he did
pass his examination for the degree of _Doctor juris_, the study of
poetry had been his chief endeavor in his university career. Finally he
decided to make literature his profession. Disgruntled with things in
general and more especially with Germany--he had been crossed in his love
for Amalie's younger sister Therese, the rich uncle not wanting a
penniless poet for a son-in-law--Heine went to Paris in 1831, where he
lived till his death (February 17, 1856), often reviling but always
cherishing and loving Germany, the country of sweet romantic song.
Compare his poem _In der Fremde_ (64).
46. The theme of the poem is the loyalty of the humble soldier to his
chosen hero. Its tone is utterly realistic, its language and metaphors
those of everyday prose. Notice the effects Heine achieves by varying the
number of unaccented syllables, e.g., 13 and 33, X -- X -- X -- X -- and
X -- XX -- XX -- XX --.
2. WAREN GEFANGEN, _had been captives_.
6. VERLOREN GEHEN, _to be lost_.
10. WOHL, _indeed_; OB, _because of_.
11. MIR IST WEH, _I am sore at heart_; _mir wird weh_?
13. DAS LIED IST AUS, _the jig is up, all is over_.
18. ICH TRAGE, _I bear, I cherish_.
47--58. A rearrangement from two cycles, _Lyrisches Intermezzo_ and
_Heimkehr_. The main theme is the poet's unrequited love for his cousin
Amalie Heine (49, Therese).
48. The Lorelei is the name of a high cliff overlooking the Rhine.
Clemens Brentano invented the myth, and the theme became popular in the
early decades of the nineteenth century. Heine gave it its final form, in
which it has practically become a folksong. The first four lines give us
the mood of the poet, the second four give the setting of the action.
9-22 describe the action. Notice the utter simplicity of 21 and 22, which
characterizes also the short epilogue, 23 and 24. This simple way of
ending a poem Heine has in common with the folksong.
4. _That does not leave my thought_.
18. Impersonal, best rendered by the passive.
50. Notice that this poem has the same tripartite structure as the
preceding. (Heine's decided preference for this structure is evinced by
the great number of poems of three stanzas.)
3. GANGES, river in India.
9. This bit of nature description, although unconventional, does not
lack truth. Goethe offers a similar example, when he speaks of
_schalkhafte_ (roguish, waggish) _Veilchen_.
51. One of the finest of Heine's nature poems.
52.--6. MORGENLAND, see Vocabulary.
53.--8. NEBELTANZ, _the dance of the mists_.
54. Notice the realism of tone, not a word that rises above the plane of
everyday prose. A whole tragedy compressed into three stanzas.
6, 7. _The first man that happened to come her way_.
8. IST UEBEL DRAN, _is in a sad fix_.
55. Compare 42, where the _Stimmung_, the mood, of a bit of nature is
expressed without any reference to any human element. In this poem of
Heine the charm of the evening is embodied in the fair nymph. Compare 37.
The same tendency is apparent in many of the paintings of Schwind and
Boecklin.
56. Stanzas 1-3 are each divided into two equal parts. In the third
stanza, however, the line of division is less marked; notice also the
effect of the inversion in 12: _Taucht er ins Flutengrab_, -- XX -- X --.
In the fourth stanza each line stands by itself.
57. Notice the effect of the rhyme combining the first and fourth lines
of each stanza. The first two lines of each stanza have four accents, the
last two, three. Notice how the metrical structure of the line is made
subservient to the mood expressed; this is especially true of 3: _Es
dunkelt schon, mich schlaefert_, X -- X -- || X -- X.
59. An apotheosis of Christ, who is represented as the spirit of
universal love permeating all things.
17. SONNENHERZ, _sun heart_, since the sun is his heart.
22 ff. These lines imitate clearly the pealing of church bells.
36. SCHAUERND IN, _thrilled with_.
60. Notice the dainty effect of the tone coloring, heightened by the
skilful use of impure rhymes.
61. The charm of this poem, as of many of Heine's, lies in its suggestive
power. The course of events is only dimly sketched, the tragic end hardly
more than alluded to. While the first two stanzas are composed of two
equal parts each, the last is composed of four.
62.--2, 4. WOHL, translate: _They do_, etc.
63. Of Heine's poems this was the favorite of Lenau. Absolute unity of
form and content: ceaseless change in ceaseless monotony.
7. WO SIND SIE HIN? _Whither are they gone?_
64.--5. DAS, without any definite antecedent.
65. The inscription on Heine's grave in Paris. Compare with it Robert
Louis Stevenson's Requiem.
5. WO = _irgendwo_, _somewhere_.
11. TOTENLAMPEN, lamps burned in the vaults in honor of the dead.
PLATEN
August Graf von Platen-Hallermuende was born in Ansbach, Bavaria, October
24, 1796, and died near Syracuse, Sicily, December 5, 1835. The son of a
noble family, Platen is, barring his _Weltschmerz_ (_world weariness_,
compare Lenau) and the fact that he spent a good part of his life in
foreign lands, the exact opposite of Heine. While Heine affects a certain
carelessness of rhyme and rhythm and diction, Platen observes a studied
elegance. His verse form is faultless as if chiselled in marble, his
rhymes the most careful and pure. His ballads have a stately majesty of
rhythm that reflects the inherent nobility of the poet. On the whole, his
stanzas are characterized by a full and sonorous ring, although effects
of delicate grace are not wanting (67). Platen is one of the greatest
masters of form in German literature and is unrivalled as a master of the
sonnet.
66. ALARICH (_Alaric_), the great leader of the Goths, having conquered
Rome, succumbed to a fever when 34 years old (410 A.D.), and was buried
by his troops near Cosenza (Cosentia) in the river Busento. Notice the
stately dignity of the long trochaic line without any marked caesural
pause. Any attempt to introduce the latter spoils the majestic ring of
the verse.
1. LISPELN, best rendered, _are lisped_, or _resound faintly_.
7. _vied with each other for places in the rows along the stream_.
67. The lily swaying to and fro in the water is perfectly pictured by the
rhythm, especially by the recurring five-syllable rhymes.
68. The peculiar effect is largely due to the preponderance of rhymes on
_a_ or _o_ which have proved an insurmountable obstacle for every
translator. Even Longfellow failed. His rhymes of light, night, change
the whole effect.
9. IN ACHT NEHMEN. _to watch_, in poetry is often construed with the
genitive.
14. Refers to the harmony of the spheres.
18. _Deceptively remote distance._
20. AUFS NEUE, _anew_.
69. PINDAR, the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, died according to
legend as here described. He is justly famous for his majestic odes, and
Platen revered him as his master.
9. SCHAUSPIEL, here _theater_.
11. It was customary in Greece for an older man to cultivate the
friendship of a youth, e.g., Socrates and Alcibiades.
12. In the Greek drama the action was interspersed with choral odes,
which were sung to the accompaniment of flutes.
LENAU
Nikolaus Niembsch von Strehlenau, known as Nikolaus Lenau, the third in
the group of the poets of _Weltschmerz_ (Lord Byron is the best example
in England), was born in Southern Hungary August 13, 1802. The father, a
gambler and libertine, died before the boy was five years old; the
mother, a high strung, passionate woman, battled with poverty for the
sake of her children, of whom Nikolaus was her idol. His first impression
of nature was the silent solitude and vastness of the Hungarian plains,
which probably helped to accentuate an inherent strain of melancholy. Led
astray by a youthful errant passion, he is haunted by a feeling of guilt,
of lost innocence, and Dame Melancholy becomes his faithful life
companion. When later happiness in the guise of human love crosses his
pathway, he does not dare stretch out his hand. Shuddering, he feels
there is something "too fatally abnormal about him that he should affix
that heavenly rose to his dark gloomy heart." Living only for his art and
ever eager to enrich it with new impressions, he goes to America. There
Nature was virgin still, untouched by the hands of man. What a lure!
Incidentally he hopes to be cured of his melancholy and to gain an easy
competence by investing in government land. After a winter spent on the
American frontier (1832-1833) he returns to Germany a sadder, if not a
wiser man, and becomes a restless wanderer until in 1844 the fate that he
always dreaded overtakes him: his spirit is enshrouded in insanity. Six
years later, August 22, 1850, he dies in an asylum near Vienna.
Lenau's poetry is for the most part an expression of intense melancholy,
full of "sadness at the doubtful doom of humankind." It abounds in subtle
nature descriptions, often quite impressionistic in their effect (76 and
especially 77). Sometimes the poet employs a homely realism (75). Lenau
was a master of the violin, and his verse is full of striking rhythmical
effects; on the whole he prefers the slower cadences so well suited to
his nature.
70. An apostrophe to the night, which is addressed as _du dunkles Auge_.
5, 6. VON HINNEN NEHMEN, _to take away_.
8. FUER UND FUER, _forever and ever_.
71.--3. Describes vividly the effect of the pale moonlight on the green
sedge.
72.--7. WAS for _etwas_.
10. WILL, _wills_.
73.--1 ff. In German, May is the incarnation of all spring-time beauty
and bliss. Compare 2 and 110 and the word _Maienglueck_ in 29.
3. OB = _ueber_.
8. STRASSEN, old weak dative.
12. FRUEHLINGSKINDER, i.e., birds.
29 f. MITTEN IN ... INNEN, _in the midst of_.
42. MAG, _may_.
44. ERDEN, see note on 8.
46. 'S IST EWIG SCHADE, _it is too bad_, _it is a pity_.
56. DRAENGE, subjunctive of purpose.
59. OB, instead of _als ob_. Common with Lenau.
60. STIMMEN, instead of _einstimmen_; _in ein Lied einstimmen_ = _to
join in a song_.
63. LAG, _lingered_.
74. The heavy, slow moving rhythm is in apt harmony with the scene
portrayed.
12. 'EINER UM DEN ANDEREN', _one after another_, _in turn_.
75.--13. 'DAS AUFGESCHLAGNE GEBET', _the prayer to which the book was
opened_.
76. This may be the direct description either of a Dutch landscape or of
a painting. Holland, like most of the North Sea Plain, is one vast level
expanse of country, through which the rivers and brooks move but
sluggishly. Here and there a Dutch windmill looms up; like all other
objects it seems to peer forth from a haze because of the moisture-laden
atmosphere. Nowhere else does nature assume such a bewitchingly drowsy
aspect in autumn as here.
10. OB, compare note to 73, 59. TRUTZE = trotze.
11. STROHKAPUZE, refers to the straw thatched roof.
77.--6. IN EINS FALLEN, _to coalesce_.
8. _And in sadness become oblivious of each other_.
9. HIN UND WIEDER, _back and forth_.
78. The last of Lenau's _Waldlieder_. The morbid melancholy of the poet
has softened, and death is to him _heimlich still vergnuegtes Tauschen_,
_silent sweet passing from one state to another_.
5. VON HINNEN, _away_.
MOERIKE
Eduard Moerike was born in Ludwigsburg, September 8, 1804. Circumstances
forced him into the study of theology, and so he passed through the
schools preparatory to the famous Tuebingen School of Divinity, where he
completed his studies. He proved but an indifferent student (his thorough
knowledge of Greek and Latin was in good part the result of later
studies), he preferred to live in a fairy world of his own creation.
Nature, music, and poetry were his delight, and of all the poets Goethe
was always his favorite. For eight years Moerike was vicar in various
villages of Wuerttemberg, more than once tempted to give up the ministry,
but finally realizing that there was no better place to live his poet
dreams than the attic room of a Suabian parsonage.
In 1834 he became pastor in Cleversulzbach, a secluded little village,
nestling among the Suabian hills. Here the poet, with his mother and
sister, lived an idyllic existence, his most frequent visitor the Muse.
Ill health forced him to resign in 1843, and Moerike once more became a
wanderer. During these years love again crossed his path, and to be able
to marry--his pension was too meager--he accepted (1851) a position at a
girls' seminary in Stuttgart, where he taught German Literature for one
or two hours a week, a none too heavy and an altogether congenial task.
Moerike died June 4, 1875.
Moerike's poetry gives abundant proof of a rich creative imagination. Even
his everyday speech was of an astounding concreteness, and thus the
various aspects of Nature assume bodily shape. Spring becomes a youth,
the symphony of spring the soft tone of a harp (81); the night--a fairy
woman--leans against the rocky cliff listening to the azure of the sky
(79). Although the idyllic predominates, deeper tragic notes are not
wanting (84, 85) nor is the full note of exuberant joy (86). But early in
life Moerike realized that any overflowing measure of joy or grief would
prove destructive to his oversensitive nature, and the golden mean became
inevitably his ideal (88). Never has he expressed that sweet serenity of
soul, which he gained not without a bitter struggle, more beautifully
than in the melodious lines: "_Auf eine Lampe_" (87).
79. In its allegorical personification the poem might be compared to a
painting of Boecklin. Like Venus of yore, the night rises from the sea and
at midnight sees the golden balance of time (the heavenly bodies) rest in
equilibrium. The springs try to lull the night, their mother, to sleep
with a song of the beauty of the day. She prefers the azure melody of the
midnight sky, but the waters continue to sing, even in their sleep, of
the day that has just passed. This contest the poet has also portrayed
rhythmically: compare the measured trochaic movement of the first half of
each stanza with the lighter and more rapid dactylic movement of the
second half.
5. KECKER, since the noises of the day no longer interfere with their
song.
12. In apposition with _des Himmels Blaeue_. The firmament is the yoke
along which the fleeting hours glide; GLEICHGESCHWUNGEN, _equally
arched_, i.e., perfectly circular.
80.--3. SCHLEIER, of mist.
5. HERBSTKRAEFTIG, full of autumnal vigor; GEDAEMPFT, because the mists
and the haze have softened all sharpness of outline and color.
81.--1. BLAUES BAND, metaphorical for blue sky.
7. HARFENTON, the symphony of spring, the heard and unheard stirring
of new life.
82. The stanza form is an adaptation of a famous Lutheran hymn: _Wie
schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern_.
83. Of the character of the _Feuerreiter_, a creation of Moerike, only
this much is clear: he fights fire and has often used sinfully
(_freventlich_) holy means (_des heil'gen Kreuzes Span_) to charm fire.
Finally, however, he becomes a victim of the infernal powers.
21. DER ROTE HAHN, the symbol of fire.
26. FEIND, Satan.
40. As the refrain in the preceding stanzas has depicted the tolling
of the bell, so the sudden break here depicts the ceasing.
42. MUESSEN, old weak dative.
84. In its beautiful simplicity this song has become a folksong, Since it
presents many metrical irregularities, the following scansion may be
found useful. A dot is used to indicate pitch accent.[*]
[* Transcriber's note: Here represented by 'Y'.]
X -- X -- X -- -- XX -- X --
XX -- XX -- X -- XX -- X
Y -- X -- X -- X -- X -- X --
X -- X -- X X -- X -- X
Y -- X -- X -- -- XX -- X --
X -- XX -- X -- XX -- X
X -- X -- -- X -- X -- X --
X -- X -- X X -- X -- X
86. Moerike found the name _Rohtraut_ by chance in an old German lexicon.
The full vowel coloring appealed to him and called forth this ballad.
5. TUT etc., dialectic periphrastic conjugation = _fischt und jagt_.
19. WUNNIGLICH (_wonniglich_). 22. VERGUNNT (_vergoennt_)--these
archaic forms are in keeping with the tone of the ballad and the
patriarchal life at King Ringang's court.
87. Appropriately written in the stately Greek trimeter (iambic verse of
six feet). Compare with this poem the closing lines of Keats' _Ode to a
Grecian Urn_:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
_Was aber schoen ist, selig scheint es in ihm selbst._
_But beauty seems a thing all blessed within itself._
6. SCHLINGT DEN RINGELREIHN, circle about in a round dance.
10. IHM, old reflexive instead of _sich_.
88. The confession of Moerike's ideal.
1. WILLT = _willst_.
2. _A thing of joy or a thing of sorrow._
5-7. WOLLEST NICHT UEBERSCHUETTEN, _pray do not overwhelm with a flood
of_.
89. Lines of three and of two accents alternate, so that the poem is
really written in blank verse; its character is, however, entirely
changed, since the last word of each line stands out because of the
necessary rhythmical pause. Notice the change in the last two lines.
HEBBEL
Friedrich Hebbel, Germany's greatest master of tragedy since the days of
Schiller, was born March 18, 1813, in the little village of Wesselburen
in Holstein. Thus his first impression of nature was the infinite expanse
of the North Sea Plain. Bitterest poverty was his lot from childhood;
poverty and loneliness put their harsh imprint on his youth and early
manhood. Haunted by hunger, he battled for years to gain a mere living,
often on the brink of despair. His only help was a small stipend from the
king of Denmark, which enabled him to spend two years in Paris and Rome,
and the meager pennies that his devoted friend Elise Lensing, a poor
seamstress in Hamburg, sent him. His short stories, his dramas, although
they brought him fame, were of little avail in this struggle that seemed
all too hopeless. Then a sudden change for the better came. Stopping at
Vienna on his return from Rome, he found himself in a small circle of
ardent admirers. He met Christine Enghaus, at that time Germany's
greatest tragic actress, who became the most congenial interpreter of
Hebbel's heroines. The attraction was mutual and on May 26, 1846,
Friedrich Hebbel and Christine Enghaus were married. Now followed years
of calm maturity, the greatest period of Hebbel's dramatic production.
Hebbel died in Vienna December 13, 1863. His lyric poetry, for the most
part the product of his earlier years, is marked above all by a tendency
towards symbolism, these symbols usually of a rich sensuous beauty and
often of a rare delicacy. A homely realism is, however, by no means
lacking. The musical quality of his verse attracted the genius of Robert
Schumann, who set the _Nachtlied_ to music.
90. In the spring of 1836 Hebbel went to Heidelberg. A child of the North
Sea Plain, he came in contact here with a richer, softer beauty of a more
Southern landscape, a beauty which seemed to set free his latent powers.
A night in the month of May on the wooded summits near Heidelberg called
forth this song. The giant magnitude of the starry heavens awakened in
the poet to an overpowering degree the feeling of the greatness of cosmic
life; he feels the insignificance of his own individual existence, he
feels as if it were in danger of being extinguished by the vastness of
the great All; but then sleep comes as a kindly nurse and draws her
protecting circle about the meager flame of individual existence. Notice
the internal rhymes in the first and second stanzas that picture cosmic
life and its reflection in the individual, and the utterly different
effect of the third stanza, that returns to the narrower sphere of
individual life.
91.--3. SPIELT HEREIN, _comes playing into the room_.
6. GEFAELLT IHM GAR ZU SEHR, _it likes all too well_.
92.--10. It was customary for the neighbors to perform the last kindly
offices for the dead.
16. WAS, _which_.
93.--1. DIE DU, _thou who_.
95.--6 ff. WIR STERBEN: because in this union, when even the last barrier
separating the "I" from the "Thou" has fallen, the aim of life has been
reached in utter harmony which overcomes the limitations of individual
existence. Thus these two souls may return into the All, as expressed in
the beautiful symbol of the last stanza.
11. ZERFLIESSEN IN EINS, _coalesce_.
97. Compare Keats' _Ode to Autumn_.
98. Addressed to Christine Hebbel, the poet's wife.
3, 4. IN FLAMMEN STEHEN, _to be aflame_. This passage could be
rendered, _that stands as if aflame with morning light at the
farthermost horizon_.
10. LAESST = _verlaesst_.
KELLER
Gottfried Keller, best known as the master of the _Novelle_, was born in
Zuerich, July 19, 1819, as the son of a master turner. A love for the
concrete world of reality induced him to take up painting. Keller was not
without talent in this line, but achieving no signal success, he gave up
painting for letters. To secure for himself a stable footing in the civic
world, Keller, after a number of years spent in Germany, in 1861 assumed
the office of a municipal secretary of his native city, where he died
July 15, 1890. Early in life, Keller threw aside all conventional
beliefs, and his religion henceforth was a deep love of and a joyous
faith in all life. Although Keller was in many respects decidedly
matter-of-fact, a calm objective observer with a strong leaning toward
utilitarian ideals--he had all the homely virtues of his ancestry--he
nevertheless delighted in a myth-creating fancy. Thus Keller is very much
akin to his countryman Arnold Boecklin, whom the German world honors as
its greatest modern painter.
99. One of the finest expressions extant of love for one's native land.
The various national anthems pale before its beauty.
3. OB = _obgleich_.
9. HELVETIA, _Switzerland_.
13. GUT UND HAB (usually _Hab und Gut_), _possessions_; render, _all
that I have_.
15. OB, compare 3.
100. The grief and woe of Nature held by the fetters of winter
personified by this nymph climbing the "_Seebaum_," whose branches are
held by the ice. A mythical creation such as Boecklin delighted in.
12. GLIED UM GLIED, _limb upon limb_, i.e., _each separate limb_.
14. HER UND HIN, _forth and back_.
16. The very sound of this line is a cry of pity.
101. Written 1879. Theodor Storm called it the best lyric poem since
Goethe. Compare C. F. Meyer's letter to Keller congratulating him on his
seventieth birthday. Meyer praises Keller's poetry because of its
"_innere Heiterkeit_," and continues: "_Auch meine ich, dass Ihr fester
Glaube an die Guete des Daseins die hoechste Bedeutung Ihrer Schriften ist.
Ihnen ist wahrhaftig nichts zu wuenschen als die Beharrung in Ihrem Wesen.
Weil Sie die Erde lieben, wird die Erde Sie auch so lange als moeglich
festhalten._"
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