Versunken, D 715

Engrossed

(Poet's title: Versunken)

Part of  Goethe: West-Östlicher Divan 

All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.

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The poetry of Hafez of Shiraz (c. 1350 – 1390) which inspired Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan was predominantly concerned with human appetites and the pleasure of indulgence in wine and sex. Goethe’s response in ‘Versunken’ (literally ‘drowned’, but it is probably better to translate the title as ‘Engrossed’ or ‘Fully Immersed’) invites us to consider the unassaugeable nature of erotic desire. The lover has a sense of being healed as he moves his hand back and forth through the beloved’s rich hair, but as he kisses her elsewhere his wounds re-open. He wonders if there is any limit to where his hand (‘this five-pronged comb’!) can go, but the fact is it always goes back to the hair, it travels up and down through the curls ‘for ever’.

The elderly Goethe who wrote these erotic lines (his youthful verse was much more restrained when it came to these matters) seems to have been fascinated by the endless drive of desire. It is not just the remarkable discovery that men in their 60s (as Goethe now was) still experience it, but also the realisation that there was no essential difference between the lives of Germans in the 19th century and Persians 500 years before.

Hafez, Ghazal 316

Don’t let your hair with the wind blow,
Else to the wind, caution I’ll throw.
Don’t let foundations elegantly grow,
Else my foundation will dissolve and go.

Choose where you bestow thy grace,
Else I’ll wallow in disgrace.
When you are present in every place,
Every place, my protests will face.

The locks of your hair are curled like a chain,
Enslaved to those locks, in chain I remain.
When with your curls you entertain,
Your curls will only drive me insane.

Strangers do not befriend,
Else I might be lost in the trend.
Let not my rivals on you depend,
This makes me sad, and will offend.

Let your face color, your cheeks blush,
Your beauty, the rose bud, aside brush;
Let your stature rise up tall and lush,
And the tallest cedars simply crush.

Don’t become every room’s candle flame,
Else my flames of jealousy can’t tame.
Don’t treat every people the same,
So that you may not forget my name.

Don’t become known to all in this town,
Else I’ll find the ocean, myself drown.
Don’t keep me distant with your frown,
Else I’ll tear to threads my shirt and gown.

Have mercy upon me and compassion,
Else hear the infamy of my passion.
Hafiz will embrace your oppression,
Was freed since enslaved in this fashion.

Hafiz by © Shahriar Shahriari, Los Angeles

https://www.sattor.com/english/ghazaliatofhafiz.htm

Hafez, Ghazal 59

I long for a kind sentiment from the Friend
I’ve sinned and hope for Her pardon in the end.
I know She will overlook my crimes, though she is
Beautiful-faced, on her angelic nature I can depend.
I cried such that whomever passed me by
Was in awe of the stream of my tears descend.
Naught is that mouth there, of it I see no sign
And there is that fair hair, yet knowing transcends.
I see her image in my mind and can’t wash out
In spite of all the tears that my eyes spend.
With no talk of your hair, my heart is just dead.
With your enchanting hair, which talk can I defend?
A life time has passed since I smelled your hair
That aroma, in the nose of my heart has since remained.
Hafiz your perturbed state is bad, yet
Perturbation over Beloved’s hair is a good trend.

© Shahriar Shahriari
Los Angeles, Ca
March 18, 2004

http://www.hafizonlove.com/divan/02/059.htm

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Original Spelling and note on the text

Versunken

Voll Locken kraus ein Haupt so rund! -
Und darf ich dann in solchen reichen Haaren
Mit vollen Händen hin und wieder fahren,
Da fühl' ich mich von Herzensgrund gesund.
Und küß ich Stirne, Bogen, Augen, Mund,
Dann bin ich frisch und immer wieder wund.
Der fünfgezackte Kamm wo soll1 er stocken?
Er kehrt schon wieder zu den Locken.
Das Ohr versagt sich nicht dem Spiel,
Hier ist nicht Fleisch, hier ist nicht Haut,
So zart zum Scherz, so liebeviel!
Doch wie man auf dem Köpfchen kraut,
Man wird in solchen reichen Haaren
Für ewig auf und nieder fahren.
So hast du, Hafis, auch gethan,
Wir fangen es von vornen an.


1  Schubert changed Goethe's 'sollt'' to 'soll' (speculating about the future rather than the past)

Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Goethe’s Werke. Ein und zwanzigster Band. Original-Ausgabe. Wien, 1820. In Carl Armbruster’s Buchhandlung. Stuttgart. In der J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung. Gedruckt bey Anton Strauß  page 52; with Goethe’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand. Fünfter Band. Unter des durchlauchtigsten deutschen Bundes schützenden Privilegien. Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung. 1827, page 52; and with West-oestlicher Divan von Goethe. Stuttgard, in der Cottaischen Buchhandlung 1819, page 52.

Note: “hin und wieder” in line 3 is Goethe’s spelling of “hin und wider”. In modern spelling “hin und wieder” means “once in a while”, while “hin und wider” means “to and fro”.

To see an early edition of the text, go to page 52 [62 von 500] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ22342380X