Welcome and Farewell
Welcome and Farewell (original title: Willkommen und Abschied) was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and belongs to the sesenheimer songs. It is regarded as one of his most famous poems. It was published for the first time in 1775 in the women's magazine Iris.
Origin and content
In 1770 Goethe went to Strassburg and assumedly wrote the love song in the following spring of 1771. It was written in the spirit of the sturm and drang time for the daughter of a priest, Friederike Brion.
Written out of the perspective of a churned up spark the poem retrospectively depicts a meeting between him and his lover. The lyrical I delineates his ride through a scary nightly landscape, followed by the meeting with his lover which ends in an emotional roller coaster and at last their farewell.
Film
In the German movie Goethe! by the director Philipp Stölzl from the year 2010 the poem is being recited by the protagonist and its content plays a central role in the movie.
In 2012 the poem was also turned into a song and musicvideo called Future Goethe & his intercrackalactic Muse by Trip AM .
Text (Translation)
In 1789 the poem was translated into English by Christopher Middleton:
My heart beat fast, a horse! away!
Quicker than thought I am astride,
Earth now lulled by end of day,
Night hovering on the mountainside.
A robe of mist around him flung,
The oak a towering giant stood,
A hundred eyes of jet had sprung
From darkness in the bushy wood.
Atop a hill of cloud the moon
Shed piteous glimmers through the mist,
Softly the wind took flight, and soon
With horrible wings around me hissed.
Night made a thousand ghouls respire,
Of what I felt, a thousandth part
My mind, what a consuming fire!
What a glow was in my heart!
You I saw, your look replied,
Your sweet felicity, my own,
My heart was with you, at your side,
I breathed for you, for you alone.
A blush was there, as if your face
A rosy hue of Spring had caught,
For me-ye gods!-this tenderness!
I hoped, and I deserved it not.
Yet soon the morning sun was there,
My heart, ah, shrank as leave I took:
How rapturous your kisses were,
What anguish then was in your look!
I left, you stood with downcast eyes,
In tears you saw me riding off:
Yet, to be loved, what happiness!
What happiness, ye gods, to love!
External links
Wikisource: Willkommen und Abschied (1775) – Quellen und Volltexte Wikisource: Willkommen und Abschied (1827) – Quellen und Volltexte
References
- Vermutung von Erich Trunz (Hrsg.): Goethes Werke. Hamburger Ausgabe, Bd. I, Christian Wegner, Hamburg 1948, S. 453.
- Nach der Abschrift aus Friederike Brions Nachlass. Siehe Erich Trunz (Hrsg.): Goethes Werke. Hamburger Ausgabe, Bd. I, Christian Wegner, Hamburg 1948, S. 28 f.
- Text taken from http://taimur.org/goethe/selected-poems-of-goethe/
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
