Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 46. Experience (after Hugo Von Hofmannsthal)

EXPERIENCE

Hugo Von Hofmannsthal was an Austrian writer born in 1847 in Vienna. Almost all his lyric poetry was written before the age of 24. Later he abandoned it in favour of dramatic poetry and wrote the words for several operas with music by Richard Strauss. However, his strange and original lyric poetry, influenced by French symbolism, has remained a permanent part of late romantic literature.

This poem "Erlebnis", with its emotive evocative imagery and famous final lines, is one of these. Translating and trying to re-create a poem like this in English is quite an interesting "experience" in itself.

                  EXPERIENCE

The valley was all filled with silver-grey,
Soft fragrance of the dusk, as if the moonlight,
Through clouds, were trickling. Yet it was not night.
With silver-grey scent of the dusk-dark valley,
My dusky-dimming thoughts began dissolving,
And quietly I sank down into the weaving,
Translucent ocean and let go of living.
What wonderful, rare flowers there were there,
Their chalices so darkly-glowing! Thickets,
Through which a gold-red light as that from topaz,
In warm streams flowed and gleamed. And there the whole
Was filled within with such a deeply-swelling,
Melancholy music. And this I knew,
Although I did not grasp it, yet I knew it;
That this is death. Which is transformed to music:
Such powerful yearning, sweet and darkly-glowing,
Akin to deepest sadness.                       

                          But, how strange!
A nameless, strong homesickness soundless-wept
For life within my soul; wept as one weeps
If faring on a great, sea-riding ship,
With giant, yellow sails against the evening,
He passes by his town of birth upon
The dark-blue, moving waters. There he sees
The alleyways, hears fountains rushing, smells
The scent of elder bushes, sees himself,
A child still standing on the shore with child's eyes,
Eyes which are anxious and would weep; he sees
Through open window light into his room-
But the great, sea-faring ship bears him away,
On dark-blue waters gliding soundlessly
With yellow, strangely-shaped and giant sails.

After the German of Hugo Von Hofmansthal