In Hölty’s Die Knabenzeit and Köpken’s Freuden der Kinderjahre chasing butterflies is a simple, childish activity. The boys (never the girls) share the insects’ exuberance and inability to settle down and pay attention.
Schlegel, as part of his Abendröte project, which attempts to capture different perspectives on a single evening landscape, wants to evoke the appeal of so many different flowers and to get inside the butterfly’s seeming promiscuity:
Wie soll ich nicht tanzen,
Es macht keine Mühe,
Und reizende Farben
Schimmern hier im Grünen.
Immer schöner glänzen
Meine bunten Flügel,
Immer süßer hauchen
Alle kleinen Blüten.
Ich nasche die Blüten,
Ihr könnt sie nicht hüten.
How can I not dance?
It does not cause any trouble
And there are attractive colours
Shimmering here in the greenery.
The more beautiful the glow
Of my bright wings,
The sweeter the breath
Of all the little blossoms.
I nibble at those blossoms;
You cannot protect them.
Friedrich von Schlegel, Der Schmetterling D 633
It is as if they just cannot be pinned down. Perhaps the poets were able to capture something that escaped contemporary entomologists (such as Esper) with their pins and catalogues.
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Descendant of:
AnimalsTexts with this theme:
- Die Knabenzeit, D 400 (Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty)
- Freude der Kinderjahre, D 455 (Friedrich von Köpken)
- Schweizerlied, D 559 (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
- Der Schmetterling, D 633 (Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel)
- Der Jüngling auf dem Hügel, D 702 (Heinrich Hüttenbrenner)