Three Poems from Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre

“D’you know that land where lemon blossoms blow …”

This fairytale, how strange to you!—

But poetry can make it true.

“D’you you that land where lemon blossoms blow,

Where in dark leaves the orange gold-fruit glow,

Where the mild wind wafts from the azure sky,

The myrtle’s still, the bayleaf shines on high—

Know you that land?”

    “Ah there, ah there,

I yearn to go with you, my heart’s desire.”

“Know you the house?—its pillared portico,

Its glittering halls, its shining studio

Where marble forms stand up and meet your gaze?

Poor child, what trouble has beset your days?

Know it at all?”

  “Ah there, ah there,

I yearn to go, under your loving care!”

“Know you that mountain with its cloud-choked ways

The mule seeks through the fog as in a maze,

Where the caves house the ancient dragon-brood

And the high cliffs thunder with the falling flood?

Know you that place?”

      “Away, away!

O Father, take me, take me all the way!”

1795–96

“Ah, none but those who yearn …”

Ah, none but those who yearn

My pain can measure,

Unfriended and alone,

Reft of all pleasure,

Beneath the Milky Way

I strain to see him—

My love is far away;

I, left behind him.

I swoon, my innards burn,

I’ve lost my treasure;

Ah, none but those who yearn

My pain can measure!

1795–96

“Who never ate his bread with tears …”

Who never ate his bread with tears,

In nights unsleeping, unforgiven,

Weeping with grief and racked with fears,

Has never known you, powers of Heaven!

You lead us into life’s domain,

You let the wretch transgress and injure;

And then you give him up to pain,

For all guilt is its own avenger.

1795–96