Johann Wofgang Goethe, from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticship

Volume E, pp. 252-53

The original German text

Read by Marshall Brown

Translation by Jane K. Brown.

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,
Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht,
Kennst du es wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn.

Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach,
Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,
Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:
Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?
Kennst du es wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn.

Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg?
Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg;
In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut;
Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut -
Kennst du ihn wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Geht unser Weg! o Vater, laß uns ziehn!

Know you the land where flowering lemon grows,
In leafy dark the golden orange glows,
A gentle wind breathes from the azure sky,
The myrtle stands so still, the laurel high,
You surely know?
'Tis there! 'tis there
With you, o my beloved, I would go.

Know you the house? Its roof on columns tall,
Its shimmering rooms, its heart a shining hall,
And marble statues stand and gaze at me:
¹⁰ What have they done, poor little child, to thee?
You surely know?
'Tis there! 'tis there
With you, o my protector, I would go.

Know you the heights with bridges made of cloud?
The mule-train seeks its way in misty shroud,
¹⁵ In caverns dwell the dragons' ancient brood,
The cliff falls sheer, and over it the flood;
You surely know?
'Tis there! 'tis there
That our way leads, o father, let us go!

As mysterious as I but much darker and more obscurely passionate, is the song of the young circus performer Mignon. The poem opens the third book of Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship; hence it seems to come from nowhere, an air traveling on the air. It combines poeticism (the glowing oranges come from James Thomson's landscape poem The Seasons, one of the most popular works of the eighteenth century), culture (the statues), and the primitive superstition of the dragons. Mignon's obscure recollections of the Italian villa where she was born as the child of an incestuous union fuse exoticism (as in the French nasal vowel of "Orangen" in the second line) with the folksong simplicity of the refrains, the direct self-expression of a romantic song with the dialogue character of a ballad (especially with the self-address in line 10). The verse can seem utterly simple; for instance, of the twelve lines in the three verses, five have only one word of more than one syllable (whereas the Doctor Marianus, for instance, has only one out of eight, even though his lines are much shorter). Yet it artfully balances myrtle and laurel, reception room ("Saal") and private chamber ("Gemach"), cliff and stream, as well as (going stanza by stanza) nature with its beloved, architecture with its protector, and the supernatural with its father. Sounds are artfully balanced as well: the l sounds of "Land" and "Laub" in the fourth syllable of their respective lines, "Säulen" and "Saal," "Fels" and "Flut." The stanza with the most primitive content has the most poetic verbal coinage, "Wolkensteg," cloud-bridge. And whereas the first two stanzas moderate the tone with gentle motion, vivid lights, and quiet attention, the third stanza has dark retreats where the dragons "dwell" poised against the natural violence of the geology: "stürzt" means tumbles or collapses, and "Flut" means both stream and flood. Goethe thus transforms the simple lyric into a richly poetic utterance.

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