von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Bild von Chamomile. Quelle: MorgueFile
“Das Veilchen” ist ein von mein Lieblingsgedichte, das mir in meiner Entdeckung der deutsche Sprache entgegen kam. Mit Vergnügen lese ich das Gedicht:
Das Veilchen
________The mind's sky________ Der Himmel des Geistes
Es ist so schön!
Danke schön, William.
I don’t understand a word, but you have the most beautiful speaking voice and your enunciation and the value you give to every vowel and consonant tells me that you would also make a very good singer. Bava!
Thank you very much, John, for your support and lovely comments. There are tons of translations of this particular poem, but @anuwildantz found this one, which I think comes closest to capturing the essence of this poem. The word “dust” however does not belong in this poem, in my opinion. It should perhaps rather be “the fairest flower of them all” and the last line of the poem would read better as, “and at her feet no less.”
A violet stood upon the lea
A violet stood upon the lea,
Hunched o’er in anonymity;
So amiable a violet!
Along there came a young shepherdess
Light paced, full of contentedness
Along, along,
The lea, and sang her song.
Ah!” thinks the violet, “were I just
The fairest flower in the dust
For just a little while yet,
Until that darling seizes me
And to her bosom squeezes me!
For just, for just
A quarter hour long!”
Ah! And alas! There came the maid
And no heed to the violet paid,
Crushed the poor little violet.
It sank and died, yet filled with pride:
And though I die, I shall have died
Through her, through her,
And at her feet have died.
Copyright © Walter Meyer 1996.
Thank you Quirina. Agree with “the fairest flower of them all” except it doesn’t rhyme, but then whoever translated this must have taken some trouble to create the rhymes in English; remarkable!
And yes, it is the ultimate love poem, although it starts off very light heartedly and tame, but ends in ultimate tragedy.. powerful stuff indeed!
I agree with you on “dust”. You have me playing with this now. I might try “prettiest flower in the land” and try to find an end rhyme for the previous line to go with that.
This is such a melancholy poem.
There is another lovely translation, by Leon Malinofsky, who renders those lines thus:
” ‘Oh!’ thought the violet, “could I be
The finest flower people see, ”
His translation of the poem is here: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=74035 (His work is copyrighted and requires permission to reproduce; otherwise, I’d have pasted it here.)
Thank you, Chris, for your valuable input here.
Oops, I did not ask the translator permission to put his translation of “Das Veilchen” here. I should have rather linked it. That would have been the right thing to do.
Maybe in his case, it was a creative commons copyright, in which case, you’d be fine. You’ve attributed it to him though, which is probably the most important part.
Schön! (Das Gedicht und deine Lesung.)