Goethe and Islam

A Song to Mahomet - Mahomets Gesang

See the mountain spring
Flash gladdening
Like a glance of stars;
Higher than the clouds
Kindly spirits
Fuelled his youth
In thickets twixt the crags.

Brisk as a young blade
Out of cloud he dances
Down to marble rocks
And leaps again
Skyward exultant.

Down passages that hang from peaks
He chases pebbles many-coloured,
Early like a leader striding
Snatches up and carries onward
Brother torrents.

Flowers are born beneath his footprint
In the valley down below,
From his breathing
Pastures live.

Yet no valley of the shadows
Can contain him
And no flowers that clasp his knees,
Blandishing with looks of love;
To the lowland bursts his way,
A snake uncoiling.

Freshets nestle
Flocking to his side. He comes
Into the lowland, silver sparkling,
And with him the lowland sparkles,
And the lowland rivers call,
Mountain freshets call exultant:
Brother, take your brothers with you.
With you to your ancient father,
To the everlasting ocean,
Who with open arms awaits us,
Arms which, ah, open in vain
To clasp us who are craving for him,
Avid sand consumes us
In the desert, sun overhead
Will suck our blood, blocked by a hill
To pools we shrink! Brother, take us.
Take your lowland brothers with you,
Take your brothers of the mountains.
To your father take us all!

Join me then!
And now he swells
More lordly still; one single kin,
They loft the prince and bear him high
Onward as he rolls triumphant,
Naming countries, in his track
Towns and cities come to be.

On he rushes, unrelenting,
Leaves the turrets tipped with flames,
Marble palaces, creation
Of his plenitude, behind him.

Cedar houses he like Atlas
Carries on his giant shoulders;
Flags a thousand rustling flutter
In the air above his head,
Testifying to his glory.

So he bears his brothers, bears
His treasures and his children surging
In a wave of joy tumultuous
To their waiting father's heart.


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Selected poems. Edited by Christopher Middleton. Boston: Suhrkamp/Insel Publishers. 1983