Book Of Parables - From Heaven There Fell Upon The Foaming Wave
From Heaven there fell upon the foaming wave
A timid drop; the flood with anger roared,--
But God, its modest boldness to reward,
Strength to the drop and firm endurance gave.
Its form the mussel captive took,
And to its lasting glory and renown,
The pearl now glistens in our monarch's crown,
With gentle gleam and loving look.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Ginkgo Biloba
To my garden here translated,
Foliage of this eastern tree
Nourishes the initiated
With it’s meaning’s mystery.
Is its leaf one self divided,
Forked into a shape of strife?
Or have two of them decided
On a symbiotic life?
This I answer without trouble
And am qualified to know:
I am single, I am double,
And my poems tell you so.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Minstrel's Book - Song And Structure
LET the Greek his plastic clay
Mould in human fashion,
While his own creation may
Wake his glowing passion;
But it is our joy to court
Great Euphrates' torrent,
Here and there at will to sport
In the Wat'ry current.
Quench'd I thus my spirit's flame,
Songs had soon resounded;
Water drawn by bards whose fame
Pure is, may be rounded.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Lose The Day Loitering
Lose the day loitering,'twill be the same story
To-morrow, and the next more dilatory,
For indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute!
What you can do, or think you can, begin it!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin it, and the work will be completed
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The Frogs
A POOL was once congeal'd with frost;
The frogs, in its deep waters lost,
No longer dared to croak or spring;
But promised, being half asleep,
If suffer'd to the air to creep,
As very nightingales to sing.
A thaw dissolved the ice so strong,--
They proudly steer'd themselves along,
When landed, squatted on the shore,
And croak'd as loudly as before.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Book Of Suleika - Hatem 01
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.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Self-Deceit
My neighbour's curtain, well I see,
Is moving to and fin.
No doubt she's list'ning eagerly,
If I'm at home or no.
And if the jealous grudge I bore
And openly confess'd,
Is nourish'd by me as before,
Within my inmost breast.
Alas! no fancies such as these
E'er cross'd the dear child's thoughts.
I see 'tis but the ev'ning breeze
That with the curtain sports.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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For Ever
THE happiness that man, whilst prison'd here,
Is wont with heavenly rapture to compare,--
The harmony of Truth, from wavering clear,--
Of Friendship that is free from doubting care,--
The light which in stray thoughts alone can cheer
The wise,--the bard alone in visions fair,--
In my best hours I found in her all this,
And made mine own, to mine exceeding bliss.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Leopold, Duke Of Brunswick
THOU wert forcibly seized by the hoary lord of the river,--
Holding thee, ever he shares with thee his streaming domain,
Calmly sleepest thou near his urn as it silently trickles,
Till thou to action art roused, waked by the swift-rolling flood.
Kindly be to the people, as when thou still wert a mortal,
Perfecting that as a god, which thou didst fail in, as man.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Solitude
OH ye kindly nymphs, who dwell 'mongst the rocks and the thickets,
Grant unto each whatsoe'er he may in silence desire!
Comfort impart to the mourner, and give to the doubter instruction,
And let the lover rejoice, finding the bliss that he craves.
For from the gods ye received what they ever denied unto mortals,
Power to comfort and aid all who in you may confide.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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