Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
"goethe" poems
**Tell no one else, only the wise For the crowd will sneer at one I wish to praise what is fully alive, What longs to flame toward death. When the calm enfolds the love-nights That created you, where you have created A feeling from the Unknown steals over you While the tranquil candle burns. You remain no longer caught In the peneumbral gloom You are stirred and new, you desire To soar to higher creativity. No distance makes you ambivalent. You come on wings, enchanted In such hunger for light, you Become the butterfly burnt to nothing. So long as you have not lived this: To die is to become new, You remain a gloomy guest On the dark earth.**
0
Oct 4, 2013
Oct 4, 2013 at 11:42 PM UTC
Blessed Longing by Goethe (Translated by John O'Donohue)
Who on Earth were these people From the past, who made sense Of a world without iPods, iPads or plumbing? What’s up with those towering minds of yesteryear? From where did they come and how come? Goethe standing so tall Voltaire you tower! And bend over Beethoven, I can’t reach your low five. What grant of Gods favor gave them sight? Awesome mighty minds of the past. Descartes, I think so you are, So smart that I think I am not. Galileo you saw heaven before I had eyes. Einstein, Da Vinci, Archimedes You and your kind will all live forever, Men will stand upon your shoulders And then die.
0
Dec 11, 2012
Dec 11, 2012 at 10:00 PM UTC
Crude Tribute to Intellect
As I let my mind wander into time, and release these binds that have me confined, I began to feel a great energy, like the sun had been compressed and put into me, and as time tic tocs and unwinds into its trail of infinity. I realize a trinity mind body soul, they burn as a whole, for the mightiest of goals. and as time unwinds it'll leave you behind. unless you get your spot in, a line of legacys never to be forgotten Confucius, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, George Washington, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Nelson Mendala, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawkins, Leonardo Da Vinci, Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart, nikola tesla, Wael Ghonim, Jimi Hendrix, Joseph Stiglitz, Reed Hastings, François Rabelais, Archimedes, Sigmund Frued, Charles Darwin, Aryabhata, Bob Marley, Garrett Morgan, George Washington Carver, Aristotle, John Locke, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Plato, Galileo Galilei...and many many more... Stand for something. Think outside the box. Evolve and express yourself. Make a difference  #STEM #LegacyToIfinity
0
Nov 28, 2014
Nov 28, 2014 at 5:31 PM UTC
Thoughts of a Legacy
Run Run Run Run But I'm a creep I'm a ****** What the hell am i doing here? I don't belong here "There's something wrong with the waters Mr Goethe It feels like yesterday was spring Now it's time, it's mere time Till the frogs hop around Gosh god does play dice with the world Or else how have you found Ms Goethe and that jolly girl of yours Oh ****** me, how is she?" "She's fine, she's dust" "It's almost like I didn't get to meet her when she was around For the employee party Tell me what is she wearing so heavy that she can't move once" "Oh no barely dirt, i shot her dead and my child" "Oh look the frogs are here near this meadow" Run Run Run Run
0
Apr 4, 2023
Apr 4, 2023 at 11:55 PM UTC
You float like a feather
No, I have borne in mind this hill, For once before I came its way In hours when summer held her breath Above her innocents at play; Knew the leaves deepening the green ground With their green shadows, there as still And perfect as leaves stand in air; The bird who takes delight in sound Giving his young and watery call, That is each time as if a fall Flashed silver and were no more there. And knew at last, when day was through, That sky in which the boughs were dipped More thick with stars than fields with dew; And in December brought to mind The laughing child to whom they gave Among these slopes, upon this grass, The summer-hearted name of love. Still can you follow with your eyes, Where on the green and gilded ground The dancers will not break the round, The beechtrunks carved of moonlight rise; Still at their roots the violets burn Lamps whose flame is soft as breath. But turn not so, again, again, They clap me in their wintry chain; I know the land whereto you turn, And know it for a land of death. Note: The title is from Goethe's "Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn?" (Know you the land where the lemon-trees bloom?").
0
2.2k
Kennst Du Das Land
My Doppelganger holds secret negotiations with my Avatar. Slicing up the available territory by flipping a coin. Apparently, I can see a me for myself if I happen to be in Somalia next Monday. But that’s the Avator talking. Doppelganger is betting on Seattle. I am eavesdropping, sitting around in my underwear. They think I am unaware because I can’t see them, but they are impossible without me. Goethe, Shelley and John Donne are in the next apartment huddled over some broken poems each had written on the mirrors. No mistakes were made. No reflections. They get to see themselves out of the corner of one eye, for up to nine seconds which is like a lifetime to remember. Yet the acrid smell of Neitzsche emanates from dark corners. Sturm und Drang be ****** Neitzsche is convinced no one has ever looked like him, but he does suggest a parallel universe. Abe Lincoln, a latecomer and unlikely participant, picks up a few pointers. He knows full well that what he saw was not a reflection. And he rode that train all the way from Pittsburg. All those windows... And, yes, KA, the spirit double, the Egyptian Goddess, goes in **** as the Greek Princess and shows up as Helen to tease Paris of Troy. How can you not believe that? For Goddess sake, she helped end the Trojan War. I have a lot of time on my hands. I don’t get out much. Ava and Dopp came by just to let me know I’m still around.
0
Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 4:57 PM UTC
My Doppleganger
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne schimmer Vom Meere strahlt; Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer In Quellen malt. Ich sehe dich, wenn auf dem fernen Wege Der Staub sich hebt, In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege Der Wandrer bebt. Ich höre dich, wenn dort mit dumpfem Rauschen Die Welle steigt. Im stillen Haine geh' ich oft zu lauschen, Wenn alles schweigt. Ich bin bei dir, du seist auch noch so ferne, Du bist mir nah! Die Sonne sinkt, bald leuchten mir die Sterne. O wärst du da! ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe *English Translation: I Think of You I think of you, when I see the sun’s shimmer Gleaming from the sea. I think of you, when the moon’s glimmer Is reflected in the springs. I see you, when on the distant road The dust rises, In deep night, when on the narrow bridge The traveler trembles. I hear you, when with a dull roar The wave surges. In the quiet grove I often go to listen When all is silent. I am with you, however far away you may be, You are next to me! The sun is setting, soon the stars will shine upon me. ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
0
Sep 4, 2018
Sep 4, 2018 at 4:24 PM UTC
Ich Denke Dein
"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Ps I hadn't noticed?
0
Jan 30, 2015
Jan 30, 2015 at 11:37 AM UTC
Stupidity
These are modern English translations of the "Xenia" epigrams written in collaboration by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. #2 - Verse versus Kiss She says an epigram’s too terse to reveal her tender heart in verse ... but really, darling, ain’t the thrill of a kiss much shorter still? ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #5 - Criticism Why don’t I openly criticize the man? Because he’s a friend; thus I reproach him in silence, as I do my own heart. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #11 - Highest Holiness What is holiest? This heart-felt love binding spirits together, now and forever. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #12 - Love versus Desire You love what you have, and desire what you lack because a rich nature expands, while a poor one contracts. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #19 - Nymph and Satyr As shy as the trembling doe your horn frightens from the woods, she flees the huntsman, fainting, uncertain of love. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #20 - Desire What stirs the virgin’s heaving ******* to sighs? What causes your bold gaze to brim with tears? ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #23 - The Apex I Everywhere women yield to men, but only at the apex do the manliest men surrender to femininity. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #24 - The Apex II What do we mean by the highest? The crystalline clarity of triumph as it shines from the brow of a woman, from the brow of a goddess. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #25 -Human Life Young sailors brave the sea beneath ten thousand sails while old men drift ashore on any bark that avails. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #35 - Dead Ahead What’s the hardest thing of all to do? To see clearly with your own eyes what’s ahead of you. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #36 - Unexpected Consequence Friends, before you utter the deepest, starkest truth, please pause, because straight away people will blame you for its cause. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #41 - Earth versus Heaven By doing good, you nurture humanity; but by creating beauty, you scatter the seeds of divinity. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Keyword/Tags: Goethe, Schiller, epitaph, epigram, German, Germany, translation, love, kiss, friendship, desire, holy, holiness, earth, heaven, beauty, divinity, nature, spirit
0
Feb 6, 2021
Feb 6, 2021 at 4:39 AM UTC
Translations of "Xenia" epigrams written in collaboration by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.
These are modern English translations of the "Xenia" epigrams written in collaboration by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. #2 - Verse versus Kiss She says an epigram’s too terse to reveal her tender heart in verse ... but really, darling, ain’t the thrill of a kiss much shorter still? ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #5 - Criticism Why don’t I openly criticize the man? Because he’s a friend; thus I reproach him in silence, as I do my own heart. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #11 - Highest Holiness What is holiest? This heart-felt love binding spirits together, now and forever. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #12 - Love versus Desire You love what you have, and desire what you lack because a rich nature expands, while a poor one contracts. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #19 - Nymph and Satyr As shy as the trembling doe your horn frightens from the woods, she flees the huntsman, fainting, uncertain of love. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #20 - Desire What stirs the virgin’s heaving ******* to sighs? What causes your bold gaze to brim with tears? ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #23 - The Apex I Everywhere women yield to men, but only at the apex do the manliest men surrender to femininity. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #24 - The Apex II What do we mean by the highest? The crystalline clarity of triumph as it shines from the brow of a woman, from the brow of a goddess. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #25 -Human Life Young sailors brave the sea beneath ten thousand sails while old men drift ashore on any bark that avails. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #35 - Dead Ahead What’s the hardest thing of all to do? To see clearly with your own eyes what’s ahead of you. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #36 - Unexpected Consequence Friends, before you utter the deepest, starkest truth, please pause, because straight away people will blame you for its cause. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch #41 - Earth versus Heaven By doing good, you nurture humanity; but by creating beauty, you scatter the seeds of divinity. ―from “Xenia” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Keyword/Tags: Goethe, Schiller, epitaph, epigram, German, Germany, translation, love, kiss, friendship, desire, holy, holiness, earth, heaven, beauty, divinity, nature, spirit
Continue reading...
52
*i find the crow more eloquent, more treacherously abiding a fulfilment of aesthetic investigations when walking, the crow more beautiful than in flight, unlike the sparrows' comic grounding, with its epileptic quick-step twitchy caoutchouc trot... poetically drawn as: huh?! huh?! chirp. huh?! huh?! chirp; really quickly.* the only way to transition back into the humanities from learning science, ******** p... chemistry and physics, from these two into the humanities: because you wrote a high standard sociology essay plagiarising trying to beat the anti-plagiarism logarithm imposed... and that camus' l'étranger also written to a 1st in the degree hierarchy... the only transition from the sciences to humanities is with philosophy, which is a qausi-humanism... mind you... edinburgh is the last gothic city, and scotland the only place where university can be like high school, diverse, equipping you with many choices, you can major chemistry, but understudy computing, french, history, sociology, etc. so in the background you have my favourite theorisation: friedel-craft's alkylation & acylation / effects of substitution on the beneze ring properties: ortho (β) / para (ν) directing goups... meta (π) directing groups... ipso (α) directed at dislodging the algebraic x already attached... i was never going to write cute poetry... lessons in inductive effects of σ-bonds orientation controlled by resonate (of) π-bonds... the faustian myth continues without cute goethe rhyme.
0
Feb 17, 2016
Feb 17, 2016 at 12:51 PM UTC
3rd year lecture notes
*i find the crow more eloquent, more treacherously abiding a fulfilment of aesthetic investigations when walking, the crow more beautiful than in flight, unlike the sparrows' comic grounding, with its epileptic quick-step twitchy caoutchouc trot... poetically drawn as: huh?! huh?! chirp. huh?! huh?! chirp; really quickly.* the only way to transition back into the humanities from learning science, ******** p... chemistry and physics, from these two into the humanities: because you wrote a high standard sociology essay plagiarising trying to beat the anti-plagiarism logarithm imposed... and that camus' l'étranger also written to a 1st in the degree hierarchy... the only transition from the sciences to humanities is with philosophy, which is a qausi-humanism... mind you... edinburgh is the last gothic city, and scotland the only place where university can be like high school, diverse, equipping you with many choices, you can major chemistry, but understudy computing, french, history, sociology, etc. so in the background you have my favourite theorisation: friedel-craft's alkylation & acylation / effects of substitution on the beneze ring properties: ortho (β) / para (ν) directing goups... meta (π) directing groups... ipso (α) directed at dislodging the algebraic x already attached... i was never going to write cute poetry... lessons in inductive effects of σ-bonds orientation controlled by resonate (of) π-bonds... the faustian myth continues without cute goethe rhyme.
Continue reading...
38
You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never Rises from the soul, and sways The heart of every single hearer, With deepest power, in simple ways. You’ll sit forever, gluing things together, Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps, Blowing on a miserable fire, Made from your heap of dying ash. Let apes and children praise your art, If their admiration’s to your taste, But you’ll never speak from heart to heart, Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.
0
May 18, 2016
May 18, 2016 at 10:58 PM UTC
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: First Part
you know you take words and some cement and glue and you make them all stick together into verse and poetry; and you gather love like a rolling stone and you blow wild seeds in the air and you’ve got fine diction and refined sentiments and it’s made into a poem and it all makes sense oh baby, it all makes too much sense you work like Vivaldi and make poems about seasons or you work like Goethe and pour roaring poetry to outdo Shakespeare and you frighten Edgar Allan Poe; and you have great insight like the Buddha or some Great Prophet or Only One Savior and you give us mighty fine inspired poetry pure, pure spirituality; or you just take Revelation like the countless mindless followers the Great Being has been plagued with since Inception and you make verse and oh, it all makes sense it all makes too much sense and you take my foibles, our foibles and your poems laugh at them or you put fine words together and string beads of harmony like a millions-dollar necklace Richard Burton might have offered Liz Taylor oh you know you make poems that come across time and cyberspace and they all maketh perfect sense but how about baby you and me make verse that knocks out sense and makes no sense? poetry that takes the mickey out of meaning? no, not for a change - but forever? no, not for entertainment but for nonsense? so that senses is knocked senseless and we escape you and me to North Caledonia to Paradise of rhythm and senseless-beauty and we have a beat and we have a pulse and the street gang says in awe: Oh, hey see these two babies move they’ve got the style they’ve got the swing Yeah, they’re a fine couple of babies! so we got no sense and sense-less is meaningless so we got no sense in nonsense either or senselessness for that matter we got nothing baby (well, nothing on as well) but plenty of rhythm and sway we drop all fine subjects that determine our lives so we are all freed of lies maybe (we don’t know what will happen) and we got the spirit of poetry beyond sense and line and word and form and intent and purpose and that gets all the universe rocking (no doubt, there’s enough rock already) baby in one baby-making sway how about that, baby? you and me abandon sense and dance naked between planets and stars?
0
Sep 25, 2010
Sep 25, 2010 at 5:21 PM UTC
abandon sense, go senseless
you know you take words and some cement and glue and you make them all stick together into verse and poetry; and you gather love like a rolling stone and you blow wild seeds in the air and you’ve got fine diction and refined sentiments and it’s made into a poem and it all makes sense oh baby, it all makes too much sense you work like Vivaldi and make poems about seasons or you work like Goethe and pour roaring poetry to outdo Shakespeare and you frighten Edgar Allan Poe; and you have great insight like the Buddha or some Great Prophet or Only One Savior and you give us mighty fine inspired poetry pure, pure spirituality; or you just take Revelation like the countless mindless followers the Great Being has been plagued with since Inception and you make verse and oh, it all makes sense it all makes too much sense and you take my foibles, our foibles and your poems laugh at them or you put fine words together and string beads of harmony like a millions-dollar necklace Richard Burton might have offered Liz Taylor oh you know you make poems that come across time and cyberspace and they all maketh perfect sense but how about baby you and me make verse that knocks out sense and makes no sense? poetry that takes the mickey out of meaning? no, not for a change - but forever? no, not for entertainment but for nonsense? so that senses is knocked senseless and we escape you and me to North Caledonia to Paradise of rhythm and senseless-beauty and we have a beat and we have a pulse and the street gang says in awe: Oh, hey see these two babies move they’ve got the style they’ve got the swing Yeah, they’re a fine couple of babies! so we got no sense and sense-less is meaningless so we got no sense in nonsense either or senselessness for that matter we got nothing baby (well, nothing on as well) but plenty of rhythm and sway we drop all fine subjects that determine our lives so we are all freed of lies maybe (we don’t know what will happen) and we got the spirit of poetry beyond sense and line and word and form and intent and purpose and that gets all the universe rocking (no doubt, there’s enough rock already) baby in one baby-making sway how about that, baby? you and me abandon sense and dance naked between planets and stars?
Continue reading...
81
this earthly plane was one i wasn't too fond of i wanted to go to jupiter or somewhere like it big and full of orange like my favorite sunsets Europa is my favorite moon because it reminds me of europe it reminds me of anywhere but here it reminds me of away it reminds me of gone have you ever wanted to be so far away, so stretched thin to the point of no return? it's an earthly human feeling that i'm not too fond of i'd like to be an alien not the green or the gray ones with big heads and thin bodies but the ones who know things more things things that Plato knew and things that Sylvia Plath knew and Goethe, and Einstein, and Martin Luther King Jr., and every woman on the planet I want to know things things no one knows and i can't do that here! i need to be in jupiter or a heaven of sorts because the fire of this hell burns my not only my tears but my passion dry
0
Feb 13, 2017
Feb 13, 2017 at 5:36 PM UTC
a messy thing about going away
a city old in trades, in cultivation of the arts based on industrious commerce of its citizens who boast the world's oldest commercial fair the city in which Martin Luther and Melanchthon led fierce disputes with delegations of the Pope where J. S. Bach found stimulus and time to master harmony and rhythm close to perfection, (and that was shocked listening to Leibniz's monadologies), the city of which Goethe spoke with praise, that saw Napoleon defeated on the nearby battlefield (and built a monument of quite imposing ugliness one hundred years after the fact), this city suffered hard from two world wars followed by over forty years of dreams gone sour of a new society, until, most recently, this city once again became a catalyst of major change. Yet those who kept their meetings at St. Niklas' church and by their stubborn protest helped to reunite a country separated by walls for generations - those you don't see, walking the streets of Leipzig now. What strikes the eye (besides the crumbling blackened ruins of former glory, and strip-mined land just out of town) is Wall Street's new frontier, the bustling peddlers of new easy wealth as they appear on every street downtown, offering anything from oranges to shoes and South Pacific cruises. Ramshackled pre-fabs built on shabby parking lots already stake the claims of big banks, business and insurance companies that promise earnings, safety and security to eager though bewildered customers. "Pecunia non olet" says the poster of the postal savings bank, and shows a happy pig rooting in money. Old stores, in order to survive, have started selling new and shiny goods to happy new consumers, only a few resist and hesitate to walk a mile for the melange of fast food, cigarettes and ***** offered at makeshift stands that seem have come to symbolize the great new freedom of the new Wild East. * * *
0
Mar 27, 2015
Mar 27, 2015 at 4:05 PM UTC
Leipzig 1990
a city old in trades, in cultivation of the arts based on industrious commerce of its citizens who boast the world's oldest commercial fair the city in which Martin Luther and Melanchthon led fierce disputes with delegations of the Pope where J. S. Bach found stimulus and time to master harmony and rhythm close to perfection, (and that was shocked listening to Leibniz's monadologies), the city of which Goethe spoke with praise, that saw Napoleon defeated on the nearby battlefield (and built a monument of quite imposing ugliness one hundred years after the fact), this city suffered hard from two world wars followed by over forty years of dreams gone sour of a new society, until, most recently, this city once again became a catalyst of major change. Yet those who kept their meetings at St. Niklas' church and by their stubborn protest helped to reunite a country separated by walls for generations - those you don't see, walking the streets of Leipzig now. What strikes the eye (besides the crumbling blackened ruins of former glory, and strip-mined land just out of town) is Wall Street's new frontier, the bustling peddlers of new easy wealth as they appear on every street downtown, offering anything from oranges to shoes and South Pacific cruises. Ramshackled pre-fabs built on shabby parking lots already stake the claims of big banks, business and insurance companies that promise earnings, safety and security to eager though bewildered customers. "Pecunia non olet" says the poster of the postal savings bank, and shows a happy pig rooting in money. Old stores, in order to survive, have started selling new and shiny goods to happy new consumers, only a few resist and hesitate to walk a mile for the melange of fast food, cigarettes and ***** offered at makeshift stands that seem have come to symbolize the great new freedom of the new Wild East. * * *
Continue reading...
68
Sonnet: The Ruins of Balaclava by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Oh, barren Crimean land, these dreary shades of castles―once your indisputable pride― are now where ghostly owls and lizards hide as blackguards arm themselves for nightly raids. Carved into marble, regal boasts were made! Brave words on burnished armor, gilt-applied! Now shattered splendors long since cast aside beside the dead here also brokenly laid. The ancient Greeks set shimmering marble here. The Romans drove wild Mongol hordes to flight. The Mussulman prayed eastward, day and night. Now owls and dark-winged vultures watch and leer as strange black banners, flapping overhead, mark where the past piles high its nameless dead. Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (1798-1855) is widely regarded as Poland’s greatest poet and as the national poet of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He was also a dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor and political activist. As a principal figure in Polish Romanticism, Mickiewicz has been compared to Byron and Goethe. Keywords/Tags: Mickiewicz, Poland, Polish, Balaclava, Crimea, war, warfare, castle, castles, knight, knights, armor, Greeks, Rome, Romans, Mongols, Mussulman, Muslims, death, destruction, ruin, ruins, romantic, romanticism, sonnet, depression, sorrow, grave, violence, mrbtr
0
Jun 13, 2020
Jun 13, 2020 at 8:56 PM UTC
Adam Mickiewicz "The Ruins of Balaclava" translation
vibrations resonate from the keys and a rhythmic heart beats all eighty-eight. those who cannot glean her pleasantries, adorn snapshots of   SOHO  shopping sprees. a gleam of light seems dull amongst the coral reefs, sending shivers up the spine of apathy. shaping narrow minds and corrupting the weak, is this vial, verbose and anxious society. a butter knife has taken the place of my edge, not sure how to sharpen its fight. a flutter of  broken wings i've pledged this blur has delayed my flight. so i steady my fingers over both blacks and whites, and ready libations, like Goethe's pursuant might, vibrations do linger with no end in sight, until my art escapes me, only fluent at night. we coral reefs need to be saved _TRF
0
Oct 18, 2017
Oct 18, 2017 at 1:32 AM UTC
coral reefs & the 88
is a familiar phrase we like to flaunt especially when we would like to utter a complaint about contemporary grievances god and the world & cetera in doing so we keep good company from Socrates to Livius to Shakespeare, Goethe, Emerson, Whitman, Fitzgerald, Hurston, Vonnegut, Morrison, Angelou, Nabokov, etc. I guess this is because the times like these are always those in which we live
0
May 25, 2017
May 25, 2017 at 6:44 PM UTC
in times like these
ON LOOKING AT SCHILLER’S SKULL by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Here in this charnel-house full of bleaching bones, like yesteryear’s fading souvenirs, I see the skulls arranged in strange ordered rows. Who knows whose owners might have beheaded peers, packed tightly here despite once repellent hate? Here weaponless, they stand, in this gentled state. These arms and hands, they once were so delicate! How articulately they moved! Ah me! What athletes once paced about on these padded feet? Still there’s no hope of rest for you, lost souls! Deprived of graves, forced here like slaves to occupy this overworld, unlamented ghouls! Now who’s to know who loved one orb here detained? Except for me; reader, hear my plea: I know the grandeur of the mind it contained! Yes, and I know the impulse true love would stir here, where I stand in this alien land surrounded by these husks, like a treasurer! Even in this cold, in this dust and mould I am startled by an a strange, ancient reverie, … as if this shrine to death could quicken me! One shape out of the past keeps calling me with its mystery! Still retaining its former angelic grace! And at that ecstatic sight, I am back at sea ... Swept by that current to where immortals race. O secret vessel, you gave Life its truth. It falls on me now to recall your expressive face. I turn away, abashed here by what I see: this mould was worth more than all the earth. Let me breathe fresh air and let my wild thoughts run free! What is there better in this dark Life than he who gives us a sense of man’s divinity, of his place in the universe? A man who’s both flesh and spirit—living verse! Keywords/Tags: Goethe, Schiller, skull, bones, charnel, house, grave, souls, ghosts, spirit, flesh, death, shrine, divinity, universe
0
Sep 25, 2020
Sep 25, 2020 at 4:02 AM UTC
On Looking at Schiller's Skull translation
ON LOOKING AT SCHILLER’S SKULL by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Here in this charnel-house full of bleaching bones, like yesteryear’s fading souvenirs, I see the skulls arranged in strange ordered rows. Who knows whose owners might have beheaded peers, packed tightly here despite once repellent hate? Here weaponless, they stand, in this gentled state. These arms and hands, they once were so delicate! How articulately they moved! Ah me! What athletes once paced about on these padded feet? Still there’s no hope of rest for you, lost souls! Deprived of graves, forced here like slaves to occupy this overworld, unlamented ghouls! Now who’s to know who loved one orb here detained? Except for me; reader, hear my plea: I know the grandeur of the mind it contained! Yes, and I know the impulse true love would stir here, where I stand in this alien land surrounded by these husks, like a treasurer! Even in this cold, in this dust and mould I am startled by an a strange, ancient reverie, … as if this shrine to death could quicken me! One shape out of the past keeps calling me with its mystery! Still retaining its former angelic grace! And at that ecstatic sight, I am back at sea ... Swept by that current to where immortals race. O secret vessel, you gave Life its truth. It falls on me now to recall your expressive face. I turn away, abashed here by what I see: this mould was worth more than all the earth. Let me breathe fresh air and let my wild thoughts run free! What is there better in this dark Life than he who gives us a sense of man’s divinity, of his place in the universe? A man who’s both flesh and spirit—living verse! Keywords/Tags: Goethe, Schiller, skull, bones, charnel, house, grave, souls, ghosts, spirit, flesh, death, shrine, divinity, universe
Continue reading...
48
The hunter's moon, its reddish glow Replaced the golden gleam of the forgiving sun. The hunted sits on his rocking chair, Pensive, dreaming, remembering. The darkness of his study is disturbed When a ray of the scarlet moon, Playfully enters through the battered window And rests, mockingly, upon his collection of Goethe's. The smell of incense from a spectral source Fills the room with dreams and nightmares. He sees the image of someone he has long known. Her visage dim but fair; his face, scared and pale. Her shadow slides along the walls until it stands behind him. She leans forward and whispers into his ear. The playful ray of crimson glow passes by, Leaving the room again in apathetic darkness.
0
Feb 14, 2010
Feb 14, 2010 at 5:06 PM UTC
Memories in the Dark
about 250 years ago young Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s tale of Werther’s passionate unfulfilled love and ensuing suicide triggered a wave of suicides across all Europe the author was more than embarrassed it is reported he was actually quite shocked by this effect of his romantic writ from then on he avoided the portrayal of hypersensitive romantic youths with their emotional entanglements and often fatal ends and preferred dramas of the simpler sort like the eternal fight of good and evil the striving for almightiness and universal knowledge dilemmas of obedience and command et cetera today, like then, young people go through the stifling pains of unrequited love and feel they hover at the brink of the abyss ready to jump then, as today, young Werther’s suicide is nothing but a waste of youthful life that could have brought him many happy moments had he allowed himself to stay alive
0
Jan 24, 2016
Jan 24, 2016 at 3:22 PM UTC
the Werther syndrome
IV Dear Frank, My father, who was the wisest man I ever knew, thought it the duty of every man, young & old, to keep an account of his money; & I very unwillingly obeyed him; for I was not always so bothersome an old fellow as I daresay I appear to you. . . . My dear Father, I have sent cheque to a repeated bill from Griffin. A thermometer has come from Kew, For which I have also paid. I go on maundering about the pulvinus, & from what I have seen roughly in the petioles of the Cotyledons of oxalis, I conclude that a pulvinus must be developed from ordinary cells. I have tried watering Porliera out of doors, I gave four small cans full in the day & next morning it was wide open though for several days before it had been shut. The pot-plant is very unhealthy I am afraid As its leaves are dropping off at the stalk. I was very glad to find that Sachs is dead against all the people that find the Descendenz theory in Ray, Lamarck, Goethe &c.; Sachs says that he believes some ferns of the family Marratiaceae sleep . . . Dear F, I have finished the long chapter on Sleeping Plants & sent it to Mr Norman to copy & diagrams to Mr Cooper. I am now looking over piles of notes on Heliotropism. I am more perplexed than ever about life of Dr. D: Hen thinks it very dull, & wants it much shortened & otherwise arranged. Erasmus likes it. Your mother wants parts shortened. I shall take it on Aug. 1st to the Lakes & finish it there. I am tired— Ever yours C. Darwin
0
Apr 9, 2014
Apr 9, 2014 at 12:54 PM UTC
The Language of Leaves 4:5
Goethe's ballad - spooky and weird, About a dad and his feverish kid. They’re riding through forests, boy pretty scared Of a ghost king who won’t stay hid. The boy sees the Erlking, all creepy and such, Dad: “It’s fog, you ***** just sleep!” But the spirit keeps talking, a bit too much, Oh, what a sly little creep. “Come play!” says the ghost, “I’ve got cool stuff!” The kid’s like, “Dad, he’s being weird!” Dad’s still in denial, acting all tough, While his son’s getting more and more scared. The Erlking’s persistence is quite absurd, Lures the boy with his daughters and more. The dad keeps on riding, not hearing a word, Kid is shaken right to the core. Dad blames the nature, keeps talking crap, For him - the story needs proof. Eventually, they make it home, but oh snap! The kid’s kicked the bucket, gone **** So what did we learn from this creepy tale Besides, "don’t ride sick through the night?" That Goethe loved drama on an epic scale, And making dads look not so bright. In short: It’s a story of fever and fails, Denial, and a ride through the night. The forest plays tricks, the creepy prevails, And a kid giving up the fight.
0
Aug 20, 2025
Aug 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM UTC
A Poem about "The Erlking" By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
In an Irish pub last night I met a man, Ryan Patrick Sheehan. His eyes were brown, his lips were soft, his heart was heavy with reason. To me, he quoted an early Yeats as if he were Yeats himself. "The Cold Heaven" danced from his tongue to rest on my heart's bookshelf. He spoke of Goethe and Marcel Proust; two hundred pages that described Combrayan eye for detail that bordered insane. he proceeded then to quote Swann's Way. Of mystery and shadows his silence spoke. His words, like kisses quite unplanned. God speed and hope be in your heart My brief, Ryan Patrick Sheehan.
0
Jul 11, 2011
Jul 11, 2011 at 4:56 PM UTC
An Irish Kiss
*Es ist in der Selbstbeschränkung, die ein Meister zunächst selbst zeigt.* - Goethe We are, by definition, our limitations, especially those we choose. They trace the borders of our being, create our distinctive, singular humanity. Lines we cross at great peril.
0
Aug 21, 2016
Aug 21, 2016 at 10:02 AM UTC
The Lines We Draw