Replying to LO24987 --
Dear Leo,
Yes, according to the Reclam edition I've used, George indeed did not use
capitals as in ordinary written German language. He seems to use in all
his poems a capital only for the first letter of a line. Don't ask me why.
May be it is in order to emphazise the verse structure and not single
words, let alone the substantives. But I don't know.
>> Und harrte bis die graue norn
>> Den namen fand in ihrem born -
snip
>And I couldn't found in my dictionary the word 'norn'. I got a sense of
>the meaning, but is it an invented word by the writer?
Norn comes from Norne, I think they are an ancient greek mythological
group of female helpers of humans, but again, I am not sure. The 'graue' -
grey - indicates, that 'graue norn' refers to the brain as form, while her
'born' - the womb of the norn - would be the brain as content. Again, it
is my interpretation.
I find it interesting, that the real space for the 'I' is seen outside,
the far abroad dream worlds, where the miracles (wonder?) come from. And
that what happens inside 'me' is not accessible to 'me', 'I' am dependent
on helping 'norns' doing the searching for 'me' - enzymes, catalysts may
be - in the material world. Yet the miracles I may find cannot flourish,
actualize, when this inside searching fails, something that makes 'me'
sad. May be an early poem on requisite complexity.
I have found a translation in <http://www.kaiarste.freeuk.com/sebast.htm>,
but the 'graue norn' and her 'born' has been lost in just mysterious
'depths of fate' - well that's the fate of translations of poems.
The Word
Wonders from dreams and from abroad
I carried to my country's port,
But for the names I had to wait
Which in her depths were searched by Fate.
Then I could hold them in my hand
And now they blossom in this land ...
Once I returned from such a tour
With a small treasure rich and pure;
She searched for long but had to tell
That no such thing slept in her well;
At once it vanished from my hand
And ne'er this wealth entered the land ...
So, sadly, I became aware
That things are not if words aren't there.
Stefan George, 1919
Liebe Gruesse,
Winfried
--"Winfried Dressler" <winfried.dressler@voith.de>
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