Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nähe des Geliebten
[Source] (date)
Whether the "nearness of the beloved" or her distance is portrayed in this poem is one of the first questions the reader will want to consider after reading it. First the poem:
Ich denke dein,
I think of youwenn mir der Sonne Schimmer
when to me the shimmer of the sunvom Meere strahlt
beams off the sea,Ich denke dein,
I think of youwenn sich des Mondes Flimmer
when the flickering of the moonin Quellen malt'
is reflected in the streams.
wenn auf dem fernen Wege
when on the distant roadder Staub sich hebt
the dust arises,In tiefster Nacht,
In deepest night,wenn auf dem schmalen Stege
when on the narrow footbridgeder Wandrer bebt.
the wanderer trembles
wenn dort mit dumpten Rauschen
when there, with their dull roaring,die Welle steigt,
the waves rise high,Im stillen Hain,
in silent forestda geh' ich oft zu lauschen
there go I oft to hearkenwenn alles schweigt
when all is still
Ich bin bei dir
I am with you;du seist auch noch so ferne
however far you be,du bist mir nah.
you are nearby.Die Sonne sinkt,
The sun sinks low,bald leuchten mir die Sterne,
soon stars will shine on me,O wärst du da!
O, were you nigh!
The poem comes apart at the end, rather as the Wanderers Nachtlied threatens to come together at the end. Fulfilled passion is not Goethe's main theme; rather, the inevitability of death. All this is mapped out at huge length in Goethe's youthful autobiographical novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (date). The poems do it more gracefully, with more attention to the theme of wandering, and to the beauty of nature as encountered in wandering, than the novel.
This piece was set to music by Schubert in 1815, so unobtrusively that the music tends to inhabit the poem, for all later readers. To hear Schubert's setting sung by a soprano (we recommend Kathleen Battle) is one of the eerie experiences available to a poetically inclined person. In that realization, who is it exactly that is near to whom, or far from whom? The two lovers, or anyway the lover and his beloved, tend to merge into each other. That too is a "reading" of the poem. The beauty of the poem, merely as it sits there on the page, is also a reading of the poem.
23 Sept 2008 / Contact The Project / Exit to Reference Page
