2018 Mirror Image Edutainment, Alan John Mayer
No matter how many edits I do, this format will not allow line spacing. The program has been hijacked. The poster asks for understanding.
Gefunden, von Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Ich ging im Walde so fuer mich hin,
um nichts zu suchen, das war mein Sinn.
I went into the woods, so all to myself
in search of nothing, that was my purpose.
Im Schatten sah ich ein Bluemchen stehn,
wie Sterne leuchtend, wie Aeuglein schoen.
In the shade I saw a little flower stand,
stars lighting up, like little beautiful eyes.
Ich wollte es brechen,da sagt’ es fein:
‘Soll ich zum welken gebrochen sein?’
I wanted to cut it when it spoke to me:
‘Shall I be broken that I wilt for thee?’
Ich grub’s mit allen den Wurzlein aus.
Zum Garten trug ich’s, am huebschen Haus.
I dug it up with all its roots,
and carried it to the garden of my Home Sweet Home.
Und pflanzt’ es wieder am stillen Ort.
Nun zweigt es immer, und blueht so fort.
I replanted it in a quiet spot. It branches now always
and blooms every spring on the dot.
(Or ‘Every spring right away’.)
Rough translation by Alan John Mayer, for easier reading, without Umlauts. In most translations, the flavor changes. It loses its punch. This one is simple, yet hard to rhyme.
My question is: If Goethe has a Home Sweet Home, (literal translation ‘at the pretty house’) why did he dig the flowering plant up in the first place? Would he not already have a garden of plants? Perhaps not. Perhaps the point is, the flower was lonely in the woods, and Goethe, thinking he would play God, decided he would civilize the plant. Maybe he had just finished building the pretty house, and was only now getting to the landscaping.
That’s it.
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