Post photo: Enjoying coffee | © Pixabay
Now that even time seems to be falling asleep because most people are taking an involuntary break with the best of intentions and for the good of all, I would like to let two of my favorite poets have their say. Otherwise, I can only hope that not too many will bless themselves later when they make up for the time they have lost.
Des Wanderers Nachtlied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe should still be familiar to most. I know of two versions, 1776 and 1789, the latter of which you can find right here.
Wanderer's Nightsong
who art from heaven
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1789
calm all suffering and pain,
The one who is doubly miserable
fill twice with refreshment;
Oh, I'm tired of the hustle and bustle!
What is all the pain and pleasure?
sweet peace,
Come, oh come into my breast!
And 1780 lays Goethe another poem with a similar intention.
Ein gleiches
Above all peaks
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1780
is rest,
In all tree tops
Do you feel
Barely a whiff;
The birds are silent in the forest.
wait, soon
Are you resting too?
The three poems above are often given the title "Wandrer's Night Song".
Charles Bukowski is a poet and author, also from the last millennium, but still somewhat familiar to most of us; Which, by the way, led to a pub in Heilbronn even bearing his name. The Goethe Stuben, on the other hand, has probably disappeared from our cityscape for a while now.
So now?
the words have come and gone,
Charles Bukowski (2008: 537)
I'm sitting ill.
the phone rings, the cats sleep.
Linda vacuums.
I'm waiting to live
waiting to die.
I wish I could ring in some bravery.
it's a lousy fix
but the tree outside doesn't know:
I watch it move with the wind
in the late afternoon sun.
there's nothing to declare here,
just a wait.
each faces it alone.
Oh, I was once young
Oh, I was once unbelievable
young!
Charles Bukowskis books take some getting used to, a good start should probably be the Movie Barfly from 1987, for which Bukowski wrote the screenplay.
But I can recommend his poems to everyone, in my opinion they are just the right dose of Bukowski.
I personally like his poems "Confession", "Soirée", "Quiet clean girls in gingham dresses...", "Alone with everybody", "Roll the dice", "Beer", "The genius of the crowd" and "We ain 't got no money, honey, but we got rain' was particularly good.
And also his note:
"I think I need a drink. Almost everybody does only they don't know it."
Charles Bukowski, Women (2007 [1978]: 289)
If you're a little curious now Charles Bukowski have become, I am pleased.
And as soon as you can and are allowed to move around Heilbronn freely again, a visit to Bukowski is also very interesting, but please not before midnight.
"Death didn't mean much to me. It was the last joke in a series of bad jokes."
Charles Bukowski, The Ox Tour (1980)
