Monday, June 26, 2017

Eduard Mörike: "Gesang Weylas" (a poem)


Eduard Mörike zwanzigjährig als Student in Tübingen, Bleistiftzeichnung von 1824. Original uploader: Darldarl at bg.wikipedia. Gemeinfrei

Du bist Orplid, mein Land!
Das ferne leuchtet;
Vom Meere dampfet dein besonnter Strand
Den Nebel, so der Götter Wange feuchtet.

Uralte Wasser steigen
Verjüngt um deine Hüften, Kind!
Vor deiner Gottheit beugen
Sich Könige, die deine Wärter sind.

Eduard Mörike (1831). Hugo Wolf composed a famous song to this poem in 1888.

Remarks on Mörike by Claude David: "Like Brentano who had invented the kingdom of Vaduz, Mörike in his imagination lived in Orplid. But this self-made childhood paradise, this dreamed Atlantis is threatened by a mysterious danger – the sea will one day inexorably swallow up the island. An escape from reality is no longer possible." (My translation from F. J. Billeskov Jansen, Hakon Stangerup, Poul Henning Traustedt (ed.): Verdens litteraturhistorie 1–12, Copenhagen 1971–1974. Read in the Finnish edition, chief editor Lauri Viljanen: Kansojen kirjallisuus 1–12. Porvoo–Helsinki: WSOY 1974–1978).

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