Peter Viereck
Translator's comment on Goethe's 'Blessed Longing'
Goethe wrote these stanzas on July 31, 1814, during his flight toward inwardness from that time’s outward wars and politics. The poem was included in his Westöstlicher Divan, 1819. Only later did he append the last quatrain, with the unexpected irregularity of its two trimeter lines. The original had appeared earlier and separately under the title ‘Vollendung’ (‘Fulfilment’), perhaps a better title, in Taschenbuch für Damen. It was inspired by a German translation of the Persian poet Hafiz, whose version likewise has a burned butterfly (actually moth) and the line “the soul burns like the candle”.
The German critic von Loeper called Goethe’s lyric “the profoundest of all German poems”. Usually labelled “mystical”, it also merits the adjective “magical” (in the sense of Keats’ “magic casements opening on the foam / Of perilous seas in fairylands forlorn”.) The critical debates about its “meaning” obscure its distinguished achievement in sheer aesthetic craftsmanship. By concentrating almost exclusively on its undoubted spirituality, most critics unduly subordinate its powerful sexual carnality. Starting with Eckermann, Goethe’s compatriots have been trying to gentrify his true greatness, a conspiracy he himself in the end joined.
This lyric has been called “untranslatable”. Certainly this is true of
line six. Furthermore, the total effect in English depends on keeping,
throughout, as many as feasible of the feminine rhymes, always a
challenge in monosyllabic English.
The German critic von Loeper called Goethe’s lyric “the profoundest of all German poems”. Usually labelled “mystical”, it also merits the adjective “magical” (in the sense of Keats’ “magic casements opening on the foam / Of perilous seas in fairylands forlorn”.) The critical debates about its “meaning” obscure its distinguished achievement in sheer aesthetic craftsmanship. By concentrating almost exclusively on its undoubted spirituality, most critics unduly subordinate its powerful sexual carnality. Starting with Eckermann, Goethe’s compatriots have been trying to gentrify his true greatness, a conspiracy he himself in the end joined.
This lyric has been called “untranslatable”. Certainly this is true of
line six. Furthermore, the total effect in English depends on keeping,
throughout, as many as feasible of the feminine rhymes, always a
challenge in monosyllabic English.
Page(s) 243-244
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