The Works of Stefan George

Front matter

UNC STUDIES IN THE GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

The Works of Stefan George

Second Edition

Contents

Preface to the second edition of Odes, Pilgrimages, and Algabal

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Preface To The First Edition Of The Kingdom Come

GOETHES LAST NIGHT IN ITALY HYPBRION — iens vinxerised esee ee pe dur I Where, O my brothers, my people III I journeyed home: Such floods of flowers never .... I Once I revered you as my host — then shunned you .. II A land of bloom! The favour of immortals III Awaited guest who often at our door IV EcHO TUB WAR 5o acce Mex TP RERO EM TO A YOUNG LEADER IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR SIGNS PRAYERS « ovo et ote Sees aep pre ulpa ee Pe BuRG FALKENSTEIN SBCRET GERMANY

THE LORD AND THE CENTURION THE BURNING OF THE TEMPLE xxiv

S ... “Can summer not be spent more wisely," you objected . 393

I In streets where gods have walked through summer blaze 395

ODES

PILGRIMAGES

ALGABAL

Preface to the second edition of Odes, Pilgrimages, and Algabal

The author distributed the first printing of his poems which began to appear a decade ago, as a gift to his friends and patrons. This relieved him of all consideration for a public which, at that time, was particularly unwilling or unable to accept and enjoy poems as works of art. Now that painting and the decorative arts are on an upward trend and have awakened a new longing for beauty in many sections of our country, the author believes that, in response to increasing requests, he may abandon the shelter of his seclusion. ODES, PILGRIMAGES, AND ALGABAL introduce the series of his publications. Except for slight changes and additions and more punctuation marks, desirable at times though more often superfluous, they are given here in the form which orginally won them friends. And so is is to be hoped that a little of what was prophecied for these books may come true.

ODES

To

Carl August Klein

The Trusted and True since the Days of our Youth

Berlin MDCCCXC

INSCRIPTION

BEFORE THE SPRING THIS SONG WAS TUNED BETWEEN THE WHITE WALL AND THE RIVER EDGED WITH GREEN. THIS YEAR I BRING MY DREAM IN GOLD AND BLUE TO ALL MY PEOPLES SONS, THE YOUNG, THE NEW.

INITIATION

The river calls! Where stately reeds unfurl Their slender flags in gentle wind and hedge The tender throng of ripples in their swirl Of eagerness to bathe the mossy ledge,

Pause in your frantic vehemence, immersed In vigorous, primeval scent unscored

By thought, with every alien breath dispersed Fix your divining eyes upon award.

Do you discern the faint and rhythmic veer Of leaves? The glow of glassy waters lance The fragile wall of mist? And do you hear The song the elves are singing to their dance?

The branches proffer in their angled frames Star-cities in the regions of the blessed,

The flight of time erases wonted names And Here and Now are images at best.

This is the hour! Down the goddess gleams, Her gauzy veils the colour of the moon,

Her lids are lowered by the weight of dreams, She leans to you and offers you her boon.

Her mouth is trembling closer to your cheeks,

So pure you seem to her, so ripe for bliss,

That now she does not shun your hand which seeks To turn her lips to yours and to your kiss.

IN THE PARK The fountains rise as rubies, fall in pearls, Which every lavish jet bestows upon

A carpet knit of green and silken curls

Where they disperse as soon as they are sown. The poet, whom the birds serenely face, In wide and shadowed arches dreams alone.

Who saw the dawning of that day of grace Intensely knows — in strains of sweetness wound — How flesh to flesh is groping for embrace.

The poet also hears the lure of sound, And yet today he must not yield to spells, Because his speech with spirits, holds him bound.

His hand must goad the pen — though it rebels.

INVITATION

“Let us leave pavements and grime!” How dear your offer sounded!

“There, where more light and elate Thought and breath seem to chime We shall enjoy the flower

And resurrection féte.”

Gayly I fled from the rough Clatter and tortuous maze.

Though I knew: Only love, Newly from heaven blazed, Pledges salvation below And undying glow.

Feeling at ease as a child

You bear me with laughing glance, Who closely cling to your side.

Does not the vista entrance!

How dawn-shimmers glint and breathe Where shining villas wreathe!

Look! To the very peak,

Where through clefts in the stone Little pine-trees leap,

Orchards tower in ranks,

Flashing waters flow

Beneath on fragrant banks.

Uphill without stopping we go.

“Follow!” you mockingly call.

Here at the summit I pause.

Downward again to the shore, Swiftly! Branches of haws Lend us their wings of snow.

Now for a while let us rest.

Dew on the grass, in haste

On we go, side by side!

You drove my anguish away, Though feeling was never at tide In hours of jubilant play.

AFTERNOON

Smoulder of sunrays guttering downward, Down from the cloudless cupola of heaven, Smoulder of sunrays in flashing assault.

The limpid southern air in noonday silence,

Tumult of throngs has died before the palace,

Died on flagstones glutted with radiance.

The soundless rampart and desolate terrace,

The walls in long battalions blindly loom

Like ovens afire with fuel of victims.

In the square of the courtyard, flanked by pillars,

Agile fountains falter in their arts.

Above the beds where shrubs have drooped and shrivelled, Breath of blooms, half-withered, clings in layers.

Smoulder of sunrays guttering downward, Down from the cloudless cupola of heaven.

He is lonely. They fall on his shoulders and hair

Ceaselessly, and he feels them with boundless delight,

For he fled from the chamber’s fragrant coolness, Seeking counter-blaze for destroying blazes,

Until faintness reprieves him. He yields and sinks Down-sliding close to a column’s base.

Smoulder of sunrays guttering downward.

AN ENCOUNTER

The longer shadows summoned milder glows, The drooping body on which noon encroached Was urging to the lips of fresher flows — And then, between the pillars, you approached.

My glances drew me from the path I seek, But brief and shy they only dared to yearn On white, on velvet white of brow and cheek. Unanswered they were driven to return.

And crazed with magic, mad to clasp, they trailed The slender bow sweet limbs in walking curved, And wet with longing, then, they fell and failed Before into your own they boldly swerved.

Oh, that your whim restored you to my sight! Let not a newer form obliterate

The past! It was my task through endless night To conjure you devoutly, trait by trait.

In vain! A steady rain of bitter lye

Mists and obscures what painfully I scored.

It pales. How was your hair and how your eye? It pales and trembles in a dying chord.

LOVE FEASTS IN NEW TERRAINS I

The coals are glowing. Let the incense ooze! And when the resins hiss and are dispelled

We cling in clouds where vapours fall and fuse, And fervent wish and sweet desire weld.

Light up the sconces! Let the tapers shine! The fumes hang heavy as in sacred naves, And palm to palm, in silence we divine A host of melodies that join to waves.

No tender breath! In choruses like these Virginal down would mar the harmonies Like curls produced by artifice and lies.

Cast other grains into the brazier, so Our senses, caught in silver surge, may know The woman, weary, wonderful, and wise.