Two Poems by Goethe

1st Edition of Goethe's West-Östlicher Diwan

On a sunny Monday morning, here are two sudden translations from Goethe’s West-Östlicher Diwan:

Goethe to Hafiz:

And if the whole world disappeared

Hafiz, with you and only you

I would compete . Pleasure & pain

As twins we’d share!

To love & to drink like you

That shall be my pride, my life.

BLESSING-PLEDGES

Talisman on Carneol

Is luck & well-being for the believer,

If on Onyx all the more

Kiss it with hallowed lips!

It chases away all evil,

Protects you & where you are:

When the engraved word

Purely heralds Allah’s name,

It inflames love & deed in you.

It is women most of all

Who are edified by talismans.

Amulets are similar

Signs written on paper;

But one is not as narrowly pressed

As on the noble stone’s tight edge,

Thus pious souls are granted

Here to choose much longer verse.

Men wear these papers

Faithfully as scapularios.

The Inscription has nothing to back it up

However: It is itself & has to tell you all

That in your turn, with honest pleasure,

You wish to say: I say it, I!

But Abraxas I rarely bring!

Here supposedly the grotesque

Created by stark madness

Has to stand in for the highest.

If I tell you absurdities,

Just think that I’m bringing Abraxases.

A Signet Ring’s difficult to draw,

It’s highest sense in densest space;

Though here you know how to acquire

a thing authentic,

Dug in or raised, the word stands,

you hardly think it.

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