The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Life of Goethe By Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.d.
• Poems
• Dedication.
• Songs
• Sound, Sweet Song.
• To the Kind Reader.
• The New Amadis
• When the Fox Dies, His Skin Counts.
• The Heathrose.
• Blindman’s Buff.
• Christel.
• The Coy One.
• The Convert.
• Preservation.
• The Muses’ Son.
• Found.
• Like and Like.
• Reciprocal Invitation to the Dance.
• Self-deceit.
• Declaration of War.
• Lover In All Shapes.
• The Goldsmith’s Apprentice.
• Joy and Sorrow.
• March.
• Answers In a Game of Questions.
• Different Emotions On the Same Spot.
• Who’ll Buy Gods of Love?
• The Misanthrope.
• True Enjoyment.
• Happiness and Vision.
• The Farewell.
• The Beautiful Night.
• Apparent Death.
• Proximity.
• Living Remembrance.
• The Bliss of Absence.
• To Luna.
• The Wedding Night.
• Mischievous Joy.
• Farewell.
• The Exchange.
• November Song.
• To the Chosen One.
• First Loss.
• After-sensations.
• Proximity of the Beloved One.
• Presence.
• To the Distant One.
• By the River.
• Night Song.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Prosperous Voyage.
• Courage.
• Admonition.
• Welcome and Farewell.
• New Love, New Life.
• To Belinda.
• May Song.
• With a Painted Ribbon.
• With a Golden Necklace.
• To Charlotte.
• On the Lake.
• From the Mountain.
• Flower Salute.
• May Song.
• Premature Spring.
• Autumn Feelings
• Restless Love.
• The Shepherd’s Lament.
• Comfort In Tears.
• Longing.
• To Mignon.
• The Mountain Castle
• The Spirit’s Salute.
• To a Golden Heart That He Wore Round His Neck.
• The Bliss of Sorrow.
• The Wanderer’s Night-song.
• The Same.
• To the Moon.
• The Hunter’s Even-song.
• My Only Property.
• To Lina.
• Familiar Songs
• On the New Year.
• Anniversary Song.
• The Spring Oracle.
• The Happy Couple.
• Song of Fellowship.
• Constancy In Change.
• Table Song.
• Wont and Done.
• General Confession.
• Coptic Song.
• Another.
• Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!
• Swiss Song.
• Fortune of War.
• Open Table.
• The Reckoning.
• Ergo Bibamus!
• Epiphanias.
• Finnish Song.
• Gypsy Song.
• From Wilhelm Meister.
• Mignon.
• The Same.
• The Harper.
• Philine.
• Ballads
• Mignon.
• The Harper.
• Ballad of the Banished and Returning Count.
• The Violet.
• The Faithless Boy.
• The Erl-king.
• Johanna Sebus
• The Fisherman.
• The King of Thule.
• The Beauteous Flower. Song of the Imprisoned Count.
• Sir Curt’s Wedding-journey.
• Wedding Song.
• The Treasure-digger.
• The Rat-catcher.
• The Spinner.
• Before a Court of Justice.
• The Page and the Miller’s Daughter.
• The Youth and the Millstream.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Treachery.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Repentance.
• The Traveller and the Farm-maiden.
• Effects At a Distance.
• The Walking Bell.
• Faithful Eckart.
• The Pupil In Magic.
• The Dance of Death.
• The Bride of Corinth.
• The God and the Bayadere. an Indian Legend.
• The Pariah. the Pariah’s Prayer.
• Legend.
• The Pariah’s Thanks.
• The First Walpurgis-night.
• Death-lament of the Noble Wife of Asan Aga.
• Antiques
• Leopold, Duke of Brunswick. 1785.
• To the Husbandman.
• Anacreon’s Grave.
• The Brethren.
• Measure of Time.
• Warning.
• SakÓntala.
• Solitude.
• The Chosen Cliff.
• The Consecrated Spot.
• The Instructors.
• The Unequal Marriage.
• Excuse.
• The Muse’s Mirror.
• PhŒbus and Hermes.
• The New Amor.
• The Garlands.
• The Swiss Alps.
• Elegies
• Roman Elegies.
• Alexis and Dora.
• Epigrams
• Venice, 1790.
• The Four Seasons.
• Spring.
• Summer.
• Autumn.
• Winter.
• Sonnets.
• The Friendly Meeting.
• In a Word.
• The Maiden Speaks.
• Growth.
• Food In Travel.
• Departure.
• The Loving One Writes.
• The Loving One Once More.
• She Cannot End.
• Nemesis.
• The Christmas-box.
• The Warning.
• The Doubters and the Lovers.
• The Epochs.
• Charade.
• Miscellaneous Poems.
• The German Parnassus.
• Mahomet’s Song.
• Spirit Song Over the Waters.
• My Goddess.
• Winter Journey Over the Hartz Mountains.
• To Father Kronos.
• The Wanderer’s Storm-song.
• The Sea-voyage.
• Prometheus.
• The Eagle and Dove.
• Ganymede.
• The Boundaries of Humanity.
• The Godlike.
• Royal Prayer.
• Human Feelings.
• Lily’s Menagerie.
• Love’s Distresses.
• To His Coy One.
• Petition.
• The Musagetes.
• Morning Lament.
• The Visit.
• The Magic Net.
• The Goblet.
• Night Thoughts.
• To Lida.
• Forever.
• From an Album of 1604.
• To the Rising Full Moon.
• Betrothed.
• At Midnight Hour.
• Lines On Seeing Schiller’s Skull.
• Trilogy of Passion.
• To Werther.
• Elegy.
• Atonement.
• April.
• May.
• June.
• Ever and Everywhere.
• Next Year’s Spring.
• Such, Such Is He Who Pleaseth Me.
• St. Nepomuk’s Eve. Carlsbad, May 15, 1820.
• The Freebooter.
• Reciprocal.
• Song of the Emigrants.
• Explanation of an Ancient Woodcut Representing Hans Sachs’ Poetical Mission.
• Thoughts On Jesus Christ’s Descent Into Hell.
• Art
• The Drops of Nectar.
• The Wanderer.
• Love As a Landscape-painter.
• Artist’s Evening Song.
• Parables
• Explanation of an Antique Gem.
• Cat-pie.
• Legend.
• The Critic.
• Authors.
• The Dilettante and the Critic.
• Celebrity.
• The Yelpers.
• The Wrangler.
• Joy.
• Playing At Priests.
• Songs.
• Poetry.
• A Parable.
• Cupid and Psyche.
• The Death of the Fly.
• By the River.
• The Fox and Crane.
• The Fox and Huntsman.
• The Stork’s Vocation.
• The Frogs.
• The Wedding.
• Burial.
• Threatening Signs.
• The Buyers.
• The Mountain Village.
• Symbols.
• Three Palinodias.
• Valediction.
• The Country Schoolmaster.
• The Legend of the Horseshoe.
• Epigrams.
• To Originals.
• The Soldier’s Consolation.
• Genial Impulse.
• Neither This Nor That.
• The Way to Behave.
• The Best.
• As Broad As It’s Long.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Rule of Life.
• The Same, Expanded.
• The Fair At Huehenefeld. July 25th, 1814.
• The Little Girl’s Wish.
• Epitaph.
• Admonition.
• My Only Property.
• Old Age.
• Courage.
• Rule For Monarchs.
• Memories.
• Paulo Post Futuri.
• The Fool’s Epilogue.
• On the Divan.
• God and World.
• Prooemion.
• The Metamorphosis of Plants.
• The Sages and the People.
• Rhymed Distichs.
• God, Soul and World.
• Distichs.
• West-eastern Divan.
• Moganni Nameh.
• Hafis Nameh.
• Uschk Nameh.
• Teskir Nameh.
• Rendsch Nameh.
• Hikmet Nameh.
• Timur Nameh.
• Suleika Nameh.
• Safi Nameh.
• Mathal Nameh.
• Parsi Nameh.
• Chuld Nameh.
• Hermann and Dorothea
• Fate and Sympathy.
• Hermann.
• The Burghers.
• Mother and Son.
• The Cosmopolite.
• The Age.
• Dorothea.
• Hermann and Dorothea.
• Conclusion.

Suleika Nameh.

BOOK OF SULEIKA.

• THAT Suleika’s love was so strong
• For Jussuf, need cause no surprise;
• He was young, youth pleaseth the eyes,—
• He was fair, they say, beyond measure
• Fair was she, and so great was their pleasure.
• But that thou, who awaitedst me long,
• Youthful glances of fire dost throw me,
• Soon wilt bless me, thy love now dost show me,
• This shall my joyous numbers proclaim,
• Thee I forever Suleika shall name.

HATEM.

• • NOT occasion makes the thief;
  • She’s the greatest of the whole;
  • For Love’s relics, to my grief,
  • From my aching heart she stole.
• • She hath given it to thee,—
  • All the joy my life had known,
  • So that, in my poverty,
  • Life I seek from thee alone.
• • Yet compassion greets me straight
  • In the lustre of thine eye,
  • And I bless my newborn fate,
  • As within thine arms I lie.

SULEIKA.

• THE sun appears! A glorious sight!
• The crescent moon clings round him now.
• What could this wondrous pair unite?
• How to explain this riddle? How?

• • Hatem.
  • May this our joy’s foreboder prove!
  • In it I view myself and thee;
  • Thou callest me thy sun, my love,—
  • Come, my sweet moon, cling thou round me!
• • Love for love, and moments sweet,
  • Lips returning kiss for kiss,
  • Word for word, and eyes that meet;
  • Breath for breath, and bliss for bliss.
  • Thus at eve, and thus the morrow!
  • Yet thou feelest, at my lay,
  • Ever some half-hidden sorrow;
  • Could I Jussuf’s graces borrow,
  • All thy beauty I’d repay!

HATEM.

• OH, say, ’neath what celestial sign
• The day doth lie,
• When ne’er again this heart of mine
• Away will fly?
• And e’en though fled (what thought divine!)
• Would near me lie?—
• On the soft couch, on whose sweet shrine
• My heart near hers will lie!

HATEM.

• • HOLD me, locks, securely caught
  • In the circle of her face!
  • Dear brown serpents, I have naught
  • To repay this act of grace,
• • Save a heart whose love ne’er dies,
  • Throbbing with aye-youthful glow;
  • For a raging Etna lies
  • ’Neath its veil of mist and snow.
• • Yonder mountain’s stately brow
  • Thou, like morning beams, dost shame;
  • Once again feels Hatem now
  • Spring’s soft breath and summer’s flame.
• • One more bumper! Fill the glass;
  • This last cup I pledge to thee!—
  • By mine ashes if she pass,
  • “He consum’d,” she’ll say, “for me.”

THE LOVING ONE SPEAKS.

• • AND wherefore sends not
  • The horseman-captain
  • His heralds hither
  • Each day, unfailing?
  • Yet hath he horses,
  • He writeth well.
• • He writeth Talik,
  • And Neski knows he
  • To write with beauty
  • On silken tablets.
  • I’d deem him present,
  • Had I his words.
• • The sick One will not,
  • Will not recover,
  • From her sweet sorrow;
  • She, when she heareth
  • That her true lover
  • Grows well, falls sick.

THE LOVING ONE AGAIN.

• • WRITES he in Neski,
  • Faithfully speaks he;
  • Writes he in Talik,
  • Joy to give, seeks he:
  • Writes he in either,
  • Good!—for he loves!
• • These tufted branches fair
  • Observe, my lov’d one, well!
  • And see the fruits they bear
  • In green and prickly shell!
• • They’ve hung roll’d up, till now,
  • Unconsciously and still;
  • A loosely-waving bough
  • Doth rock them at its will.
• • Yet, ripening from within,
  • The kernel brown swells fast;
  • It seeks the air to win,
  • It seeks the sun at last.
• • With joy it bursts its thrall,
  • The shell must needs give way:
  • ’Tis thus my numbers fall
  • Before thy feet, each day.

SULEIKA.

• • WHAT is by this stir reveal’d?
  • Doth the East glad tidings bring?
  • For my heart’s deep wounds are heal’d
  • By his mild and cooling wing.
• • He the dust with sports doth meet,
  • And in gentle cloudlets chase;
  • To the vineleaf’s safe retreat
  • Drives the insect's happy race;
• • Cools these burning cheeks of mine,
  • Checks the sun's fierce glow amain;
  • Kisses, as he flies, the vine,
  • Flaunting over hill and plain.
• • And his whispers soft convey
  • Thousand greetings from my friend;
  • Ere these hills own night’s dark sway,
  • Kisses greet me, without end.
• • Thus canst thou still onward go,
  • Serving friend and mourner too!
  • There, where lofty ramparts glow,
  • Soon the lov’d one shall I view.
• • Ah, what makes the heart’s truth known,—
  • Love’s sweet breath,—a newborn life,—
  • Learn I from his mouth alone,
  • In his breath alone is rife!

THE SUBLIME TYPE.

• • THE sun, whom Grecians Helios call,
  • His heavenly path with pride doth tread,
  • And, to subdue the world’s wide all,
  • Looks round, beneath him, high o’er head.
• • He sees the fairest goddess pine,
  • Heaven’s child, the daughter of the clouds,—
  • For her alone he seems to shine;
  • In trembling grief his form he shrouds,
• • Careless for all the realms of bliss,—
  • Her streaming tears more swiftly flow:
  • For every pearl he gives a kiss,
  • And changeth into joy her woe.
• • She gazeth upward fixedly,
  • And deeply feels his glance of might,
  • While, stamp’d with his own effigy,
  • Each pearl would range itself aright.
• • Thus wreath’d with bows, with hues thus grac’d,
  • With gladness beams her face so fair,
  • While he, to meet her, maketh haste,
  • And yet, alas! can reach her ne’er.
• • So, by the harsh decree of Fate,
  • Thou movest from me, dearest one;
  • And were I Helios e’en, the Great,
  • What would avail his chariot-throne?

SULEIKA.

• • ZEPHYR, for thy humid wing,
  • Oh, how much I envy thee!
  • Thou to him canst tidings bring
  • How our parting saddens me!
• • In my breast, a yearning still
  • As thy pinions wave, appears;
  • Flowers and eyes, and wood, and hill
  • At thy breath are steep’d in tears.
• • Yet thy mild wing gives relief,
  • Soothes the aching eyelid’s pain;
  • Ah, I else had died for grief,
  • Him ne’er hop’d to see again.
• • To my love, then, quick repair,
  • Whisper softly to his heart;
  • Yet, to give him pain, beware,
  • Nor my bosom’s pangs impart.
• • Tell him, but in accents coy,
  • That his love must be my life;
  • Both, with feelings fraught with joy,
  • In his presence will be rife.

THE REUNION.

• • CAN it be! of stars the star,
  • Do I press thee to my heart?
  • In the night of distance far,
  • What deep gulf, what bitter smart!
  • Yes, ’tis thou, indeed, at last,
  • Of my joys the partner dear!
  • Mindful, though, of sorrows past,
  • I the present needs must fear.
• • When the still-unfashion’d earth
  • Lay on God’s eternal breast,
  • He ordain’d its hour of birth,
  • With creative joy possess’d.
  • Then a heavy sigh arose,
  • When He spake the sentence:—“Be!”
  • And the All, with mighty throes,
  • Burst into reality.
• • And when thus was born the light,
  • Darkness near it fear’d to stay,
  • And the elements with might
  • Fled on every side away;
  • Each on some far-distant trace,
  • Each with visions wild employ’d,
  • Numb, in boundless realms of space,
  • Harmony and feeling-void.
• • Dumb was all, all still and dead,
  • For the first time, God alone!
  • Then He form’d the morning-red,
  • Which soon made its kindness known:
  • It unravell’d from the waste
  • Bright and glowing harmony,
  • And once more with love was grac’d
  • What contended formerly.
• • And with earnest, noble strife,
  • Each its own Peculiar sought;
  • Back to full, unbounded life
  • Sight and feeling soon were brought.
  • Wherefore, if ’tis done, explore
  • How? why give the manner, name?
  • Allah need create no more,
  • We his world ourselves can frame.
• • So, with morning pinions bright,
  • To thy mouth was I impell’d;
  • Stamp’d with thousand seals by night,
  • Star-clear is the bond fast held.
  • Paragons on earth are we
  • Both of grief and joy sublime,
  • And a second sentence:—“Be!”
  • Parts us not a second time.

SULEIKA.

• • WITH what inward joy, sweet lay,
  • I thy meaning have descried!
  • Lovingly thou seem’st to say
  • That I’m ever by his side;
• • That he ever thinks of me,
  • That he to the absent gives
  • All his love’s sweet ecstasy,
  • While for him alone she lives.
• • Yes, the mirror which reveals
  • Thee, my lov’d one, is my breast;
  • This the bosom where thy seals
  • Endless kisses have impress’d.
• • Numbers sweet, unsullied truth,
  • Chain me down in sympathy!
  • Love’s embodied radiant youth,
  • In the garb of poesy!
• • In thousand forms may’st thou attempt surprise,
  • Yet, all-beloved-one, straight know I thee;
  • Thou may’st with magic veils thy face disguise,
  • And yet, all-present-one, straight know I thee.
• • Upon the cypress’ purest, youthful bud,
  • All-beauteous-growing-one, straight know I thee;
  • In the canal’s unsullied, living flood,
  • All-captivating-one, well know I thee.
• • When spreads the water-column, rising proud,
  • All-sportive-one, how gladly know I thee;
  • When, e’en in forming, is transform’d the cloud,
  • All-figure-changing-one, there know I thee.
• • Veil’d in the meadow-carpet’s flow’ry charms,
  • All-chequer’d-starry-fair-one, know I thee;
  • And if a plant extend its thousand arms,
  • O all-embracing-one, there know I thee.
• • When on the mount is kindled morn’s sweet light,
  • Straightway, all-gladd’ning-one, salute I thee;
  • The arch of heaven o’erhead grows pure and bright,—
  • All-heart-expanding-one, then breathe I thee.
• • That which my inward, outward sense proclaims,
  • Thou all-instructing-one, I know through thee;
  • And if I utter Allah’s hundred names,
  • A name with each one echoes, meant for thee.