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Goethe and Islam
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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
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