Then and Now In younger days each morning I rose with joy, To weep at nightfall; now, in my later years, Though doubting I begin my day, yet Always its end is serene and holy.
To the Parcae" A single summer grant me, great powers, and a single autumn for fully ripened song that, sated with the sweetness of my playing, my heart may more willingly die. The soul that, living, did not attain its divine right cannot repose in the nether world. But once what I am bent on, what is holy, my poetry, is accomplished: Be welcome then, stillness of the shadows' world! I shall be satisfied though my lyre will not
in the union of nature, loyalty is no dream! We part only to be more intimately at one, more divinely at peace with all, with each other. We die so as to live.
Thus the sons of earth now drink in The fire of heaven without danger. And it is our duty, poets, to stand Bare-headed under the storms of God, Grasping with our own hand The Father's beam itself, And to offer the gift of heaven,
Too long now things divine have been cheaply used And all the power of heaven, the kindly, spent In trifling waste by cold and cunning Men without thanks, who when he, the Highest, In person tills their field for them, think they know the daylight and the Thunderer, and indeed Their telescope may find them all, may Count and may name every star of heaven. Yet will the Father cover with holy night, That we may last on earth, our too knowing ..
Come! into the open, friend! admittedly only a little is gleaming today down and narrowly the heaven is enclosing us. Neither the mountains have yet risen of the forest the peak as wished and empty the air is resting of singing It's dull today, the ways and lanes are slumbering and nearly it may seem to me to be as in the leaden time.
The God, when he draws near, will the heart stand fast. But, oh my, shame! when of My shame! And let me say at once That I approached to see the Heavenly, And they cast me down, deep down Below the living, into the dark cast down The false priest that I am, to sing, For those who have ears to hear, the warning song. There
Ja, vergiss nur, dass es Menschen gibt, darbendes, angefochtenes, tausendfach geargertes Herz! und kehre wieder dahin, wo du ausgingst, in die Arme der Natur, der wandellosen, stillen und schonen.
Eagles live in the darkness, And the sons of the Alps Cross over the abyss without fear On lightly-built bridges. *** Growing weak on the separate mountains -- Then give us calm waters;
Ein Zeichen sind wir, deutungslos, Schmerzlos sind wir und haben fast Die Sprache in der Fremde verloren. Wenn namlich uber Menschen Ein Streit ist an dem Himmel und gewaltig Die Monde gehen, so redet Das Meer auch und Strome mussen Den Pfad sich suchen. Zweifellos Ist aber Einer. Der Kann taglich es andern. Kaum bedarf er Gesetz. Und es tonet das Blatt und Eichbaume wehn dann neben Den Firnen. Denn nicht vermogen Die Himmlischen alles. Nam..
Las delicias de este mundo ya he gozado, Los dias de mi juventud hace tanto, !tanto!, que se desvanecieron, Abril y Mayo y Julio estan lejanos, !Ya nada soy, ya nada me complace!
Dass ein liebendes Volk in des Vaters Armen gesammelt, Menschlichfreudig, wie sonst, und Ein Geist allen gemein sei. Aber weh! es wandelt in Nacht, es wohnt, wie im Orkus, Ohne Gottliches unser Geschlecht. Ans eigene Treiben Sind sie geschmiedet allein und sich in der tosenden Werkstatt Horet jeglicher nur und viel arbeiten die Wilden Mit gewaltigem Arm, rastlos, doch immer und immer Unfruchtbar, wie die Furien, bleibt die Muhe der Armen. B..
Halfte des Lebens Mit gelben Birnen hanget Und voll mit wilden Rosen Das Land in den See, Ihr holden Schwane, Und trunken von Kussen Tunkt ihr das Haupt Ins heilignuchterne Wasser. Weh mir, wo nehm' ich, wenn Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo Den Sonnenschein, Und Schatten der Erde? Die Mauern stehn
You wanted greater things But love forces all of us down And sorrow bows us still harder. They bend us back where we began. Are there not in the hallowed night Also right things? Things that are straight and true? So I learned. For never, as mortal teachers do, Have you, my deities, Upholders of all things Led me with caution On level pathways. The gods say to humans, "Taste everything And learn by that nourishment To give thanks for all th..