evening poem

Featured Photo: Pondering Woman | © Pixabay

For the evening just a poem by Ludwig Uhland. Many still know the Uhlandslinde. Built more than 120 years ago by the former beautification association, the Uhlandslinde is still one of the most beautiful vantage points in Heilbronn. To this day I wonder why it wasn't an elm.

elm tree

To Hirsau in the ruins,
There weighs an elm tree
Freshly green his crown
High above the gable hem.

It is deeply rooted
From the old monastery building
He arches instead of the roof
Out in sky blue.

Because the walls are narrow
took air and sun from him,
So it drove him up and up
Until he came to light.

The four walls rise up
As if she only determines
to shield the bold growth,
That climbs to the clouds.

If there in the green valley
I was lonely
It was the elm, the noble one,
What my mind was hanging on

If in the dull, dumb
I listened
There you have lively treetops
Rushing in the wind.

I often saw him glow
In the first ray of dawn;
I saw him lit up
When shady round the valley.

At Wittenberg in the monastery
Such a bouquet also grew
And broke with giant branches
Out to the Klausendach.

O ray of light, you penetrate
Down into every tomb!
O spirit of the world, you struggle
Up in the light and air!

Ludwig Uhland, 1829

Richard Strauss set the poem to music in 1899. Incidentally, Uhland's elm tree in Hirsau was felled in 1989. And the beautification association founded in 1863, which some still know as the Heilbronn Tourist Association and which was initially responsible for the Uhlandslinde tree, will soon be planting trees again as the “Blooming Heilbronn” association, or at least flowers. The members of the Friends of the Federal Horticultural Show Heilbronn 2019, who will now merge with the tourist office, are already making sure of that.

A chance for future poets.