tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57795692297299044962024-03-13T08:54:47.799-07:00The (Un)free Verse of Lasker-SchülerEnglish translation by Rolf-Peter Wille of Else Lasker-Schüler's "Weltende" (~1904).
Essay on the verse in "Weltende" ("End of the World").
Comparison between Lasker-Schüler and van Hoddis.Rolf-Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10085340601531913579noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5779569229729904496.post-40127216646778448592014-08-15T09:47:00.000-07:002014-08-15T20:58:37.165-07:00English translation of Else Lasker-Schüler's "Weltende" <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYBIJnx_ymM/U-4yGmtwesI/AAAAAAAAAT4/Z3_qxPAQfyk/s1600/else-lasker-schueler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYBIJnx_ymM/U-4yGmtwesI/AAAAAAAAAT4/Z3_qxPAQfyk/s1600/else-lasker-schueler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYBIJnx_ymM/U-4yGmtwesI/AAAAAAAAAT4/Z3_qxPAQfyk/s1600/else-lasker-schueler.jpg" height="200" width="171" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Else_Lasker-Sch%C3%BCler" target="_blank">Else-Lasker-Schüler</a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> End of the World</b></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a weeping in the world<br />
As though the dearest God Himself were dead,<br />
And the plummeting shadow, it burdens down<br />
Like a grave of lead.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Come, let’s hide and loneliness softens …<br />
Life is locked in our hearts<br />
As in coffins. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You, let’s hug in a deep kiss —<br />
A longing throbs throughout the world,<br />
And we must die by this.</blockquote>
(tr. by <a href="http://www.wille.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Rolf-Peter Wille</a>)<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LAiPuUafGcI/U-4z0Hc0i_I/AAAAAAAAAUE/tzo5qrC7aGo/s1600/Rodin.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LAiPuUafGcI/U-4z0Hc0i_I/AAAAAAAAAUE/tzo5qrC7aGo/s1600/Rodin.JPG" height="400" width="237" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin" target="_blank">Auguste Rodin</a>: <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kiss_(Rodin_sculpture)" target="_blank">The Kiss</a></i>, 1889</blockquote>
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<b> The (Un)free Verse of Lasker-Schüler</b><br />
in <i>Weltende</i> ("End of the World")<br />
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by <a href="http://www.wille.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Rolf-Peter Wille</a><br />
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It is not difficult to find an English <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translation" target="_blank">prose translation</a> of Lasker-Schüler’s <i>Weltende</i>. Reading such a translation, and not knowing the German, I should believe the original poem to be in "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse" target="_blank">free verse</a>". An example of the first stanza:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a crying in the world,<br />
as if God himself was dead,<br />
and the shadow of lead<br />
is as heavy as a tomb. </blockquote>
If I remove the lines, the result reads like a prose sentence: "There is a crying in the world, as if God himself was dead, and the shadow of lead is as heavy as a tomb." This is perhaps a poetic sentence and it has its dignity. But did Lasker-Schüler write this in free verse?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Es ist ein Weinen in der <span style="background-color: cyan;">Welt</span>,<br />
Als ob der liebe Gott gestorben <span style="background-color: magenta;">wär</span>,<br />
Und der bleierne Schatten, der nieder<span style="background-color: cyan;">fällt</span>,<br />
Lastet grabes<span style="background-color: magenta;">schwer</span>.</blockquote>
There is rhyme, of course: ABAB. The lines are unequally long, but they are not without meter. The first two lines are in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamb_(poetry)" target="_blank">iamb</a>:<br />
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There <span style="background-color: yellow;">ís</span> a <span style="background-color: yellow;">wée</span>ping <span style="background-color: yellow;">ín</span> the <span style="background-color: yellow;">wórld</span><br />
As <span style="background-color: yellow;">thóugh</span> the <span style="background-color: yellow;">déa</span>rest <span style="background-color: yellow;">Gód</span> Him<span style="background-color: yellow;">sélf</span> were <span style="background-color: yellow;">déad</span>,<br />
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When the third line shifts to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactyl_(poetry)" target="_blank">dactyl</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Ánd</span> <span style="color: #999999;">[hold]</span> the <span style="background-color: yellow;">plúm</span>meting <span style="background-color: yellow;">shá</span>dow, it <span style="background-color: yellow;">búr</span>-<span style="color: #999999;">[hold]</span>-dens <span style="background-color: yellow;">dówn</span></blockquote>
this is doubtlessly a shift in affect as the slowed tempo evokes the heaviness of the "leaden shadow". And the terse finality of the concluding line results not only from the image but also from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochee" target="_blank">trochee</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Líke</span> a <span style="background-color: yellow;">gráve</span> of <span style="background-color: yellow;">léad</span></blockquote>
The first lines of the following two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanza" target="_blank">stanzas</a> parody the iambic "shadow" line of the first one:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Ánd</span> <span style="color: #999999;">[hold]</span> the <span style="background-color: yellow;">plúm</span>-me--ting <span style="background-color: yellow;">shá</span>----dow, it <span style="background-color: yellow;">búr</span>-<span style="color: #999999;">[hold]</span>-dens <span style="background-color: yellow;">dówn</span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Cóme</span>, <span style="color: #999999;">[rest]</span> let’s <span style="background-color: yellow;">híde</span> <span style="color: #999999;">[rest]</span> and <span style="background-color: yellow;">lóne</span>---li-----ness <span style="background-color: yellow;">sóf</span>tens …<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Yóu</span>, <span style="color: #999999;">[hold]</span> let’s <span style="background-color: yellow;">húg</span> in a <span style="background-color: yellow;">déep</span> <span style="color: #999999;">[hold] </span><span style="color: #cccccc;">[hold]</span> <span style="background-color: yellow;">kíss</span> —</blockquote>
Obviously the hiding and kissing soothes the pain brought by the shadow. Likewise the three concluding lines<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Líke</span> a <span style="background-color: yellow;">gráve</span> of <span style="background-color: yellow;">léad</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Ás</span> in <span style="background-color: yellow;">cóf</span>--fins .<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And <span style="background-color: yellow;">wé</span> must <span style="background-color: yellow;">díe</span> by <span style="background-color: yellow;">thís</span>.</blockquote>
are not just related in death but metrically as well. Certainly no iamb is used here.<br />
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Lasker-Schüler does not compose without meter but she uses a specific meter for specific lines (images). Besides giving a "prose" translation in "free verse", a translator may also be tempted to "correct" the poem, remove the rhythmic shifts and render it all in iamb, for example:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a weeping in the world<br />
As if the dearest God was dead,<br />
The dismal shadow burdens down<br />
As heavy as a grave of lead.</blockquote>
Read it aloud, if you like and then read again the original translation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a weeping in the world<br />
As though the dearest God Himself were dead,<br />
And the plummeting shadow, it burdens down<br />
Like a grave of lead.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j026OgVrQM0/U-4_10nJiOI/AAAAAAAAAUM/3d6nhFGlen4/s1600/Klimt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j026OgVrQM0/U-4_10nJiOI/AAAAAAAAAUM/3d6nhFGlen4/s1600/Klimt.jpg" height="400" width="396" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt" target="_blank">Gustav Klimt</a>: <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kiss_(Klimt)" target="_blank">The Kiss</a></i>, 1909</blockquote>
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<b> </b><br />
<b> Two Different Ends of the World: van Hoddis and Lasker-Schüler</b><br />
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Ironically the more famous and truly "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism" target="_blank">expressionist</a>" <i>Weltende</i> ("<a href="http://hoddisend.blogspot.tw/" target="_blank">End of the World</a>") by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_van_Hoddis" target="_blank">Jakob van Hoddis</a>, written about six or seven years after Lasker-Schüler’s, is in rather regular iambic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatrain" target="_blank">quatrains</a> throughout:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
From pointed pates blows off the burgher’s hat,<br />
And all the booming air rocks like a scream.<br />
Roof tilers break and tumble from the beam<br />
And on the coasts—we read—the tide is fat.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(tr. by Rolf-Peter Wille)</blockquote>
We can hardly imagine two more different poems. Both make biblical allusions, a "weeping in the world" here ("we wept, when we remembered Zion", <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_137" target="_blank">psalm 137</a>) and a "screaming in the air" there (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation" target="_blank">Revelation</a>?). Indeed the poems differ as weeping and screaming do. Van Hoddis <i>Weltende</i> feels like a scream on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_column" target="_blank">Litfaßsäule</a> (advertising column).<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yzctx1MjUCs/U-5CtPi4nAI/AAAAAAAAAUY/32P87ZnEE8Q/s1600/Litfass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yzctx1MjUCs/U-5CtPi4nAI/AAAAAAAAAUY/32P87ZnEE8Q/s1600/Litfass.jpg" height="297" width="320" /></a><br />
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Litfaßsäule, 1932</blockquote>
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Lasker-Schüler’s Weltende, in spite of the coffins, uses intimacy to ward off the "dead" outside world. Her world is still a solid one, a very heavy one in fact, and her "kiss" resembles the Rodin sculpture. It does <i>not</i> resemble the weightless <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau" target="_blank">Art Nouveau</a> painting of Klimt (see above). Irony is found in van Hoddis—not in Lasker Schüler.<br />
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Ironically though Lasker-Schüler put her <i>Weltende</i> into an ironic context in 1941, when she "recycled" it in a highly ironic play <i>IchundIch</i> ("IandI"). In a dispute between Faust and Mephisto she lets Faust recite her <i>Weltende</i> and Mephisto replies:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He [God] hears you not ….<br />
as ev’n the Hell, in which you now are living,<br />
q u i t e m o d e r n i z e d, is God’s place not.<br />
The purgatory was conceived<br />
by monks as the poor sinners judgment spot.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(tr. by Rolf-Peter Wille)</blockquote>
Following are Lasker Schüler’s two rather ironic descriptions of van Hoddis from 1910 and 1911:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Suddenly a raven flutters up, a black shimmering head scowls over the parapet of the lectern. Jakob van? He speaks his short verses bristling and brazen [trotzig und strotzend], these [verses] are so sharply minted, one could steal them from him. Quatrains—inscriptions; all of them should be inscribed on Thalers—in a welfare-poet state [Sozialdichterstaat]."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Jakob van Hoddis, the raven, has run off with a doll [dame]. Always he’d been sitting already, during the summer, on the ledge of the front window at Friedländer's in Potsdamerstraße 21, languishing, among the towering hats and rose bonnets, for that sweet little Marquise in her little peacock slippers. A soul, which could be bought for 60 Marks.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(tr. by Rolf-Peter Wille)</blockquote>
(Jakob van Hoddis fell in love with the "doll artist" <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Pritzel" target="_blank">Lotte Pritzel</a> and even dressed up as a Pritzel doll.)<br />
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Here is the original German poem:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> Weltende</b></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Es ist ein Weinen in der Welt,<br />
Als ob der liebe Gott gestorben wär,<br />
Und der bleierne Schatten, der niederfällt,<br />
Lastet grabesschwer.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Komm, wir wollen uns näher verbergen ...<br />
Das Leben liegt in aller Herzen<br />
Wie in Särgen.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Du, wir wollen uns tief küssen -<br />
Es pocht eine Sehnsucht an die Welt,<br />
An der wir sterben müssen.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nFHQ16h6YWo/U-5HkTUE_yI/AAAAAAAAAUg/74JgbWXqnGo/s1600/lasker-schueler%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nFHQ16h6YWo/U-5HkTUE_yI/AAAAAAAAAUg/74JgbWXqnGo/s1600/lasker-schueler%2B2.jpg" height="175" width="200" /></a><br />
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Else Lasker-Schüler</blockquote>
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back to <a href="http://www.wille.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">home</a><br />
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<br /></div>Rolf-Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10085340601531913579noreply@blogger.com0