Dear sylk,
Your quotation derives from one of Friedrich Hebbel's poems, the
largely unknown "Tändelei" ("Flirtation"): 'So dir im Auge, wundersam
/ Sah ich mich selbst entstehn'. Here is the full original German
text:
Tändelei, by Christian Friedrich Hebbel
Ich schaute dir ins Auge schnell,
Du blicktest gar zu mild,
Und lieblich sah ich, klar und hell,
Darin mein eignes Bild.
In eine wunderbare Flut
Von Farben war's getaucht,
Von Licht und Glanz die Zauberglut
Darüber hingehaucht.
Da wurde dir das Auge feucht,
Und perlenklar und rein
Trat eine Träne, schnell erzeugt,
Licht in das Licht hinein.
Mein Bild, als wär's mit Flut und Wind,
Es kämpfte frei und frank
Mit deiner Träne, bis es lind
In ihrem Schoß versank.
So dir im Auge, wundersam
Sah ich mich selbst entstehn,
Und, als die stille Träne kam,
Noch schöner mich vergehn.
Additionally, here is the English translation you requested:
Flirtation, by Christian Friedrich Hebbel
(Translation by myself, since I could not locate any English version
of this particular poem)
In your eye I swiftly looked,
You glanced so clemently.
And I saw lovely, clear and bright,
My own likeness in it.
By a wondrous surge
Of colours it was dyed.
From light and glint a magic glow
Was dispersed over it.
Then your eye got moist,
And clear like a pearl and pure
A tear came, quickly produced,
Brightly into the light.
My likeness, as if it were with tide and wind,
It struggled frankly
With your tear, until it softly
Sunk in your tear's bosom.
Thus wondrously within your eye,
I saw myself unfold,
And when the quiet tear came,
Even more wonderful myself pass by.
As for this poem's source: I have just called a friend who is very
familiar with German literature and poetry. He was quite sure that
Händel wrote "Tändelei" in 1840 or 1842, and that it was first
published in his collection of poems, "Gedichte", published in 1842 by
Hoffmann & Campe. But I am not completely satisfied with this
information. Tomorrow, I will go to the library and make sure that I
get comfirmed information on when Hebbel wrote the poem and when it
was originally published. I will then post the result of my additional
library research as a Clarification here.
As source for the German text, I used this entry at the German
"Projekt Gutenberg" literature database:
http://www.gutenberg2000.de/hebbel/gedichte/taendel.htm
Search terms used:
hebbel "sah ich mich selbst"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=hebbel+%22sah+ich+mich+selbst%22&meta=
"So dir im Auge, wundersam"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22So+dir+im+Auge%2C+wundersam%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google+Suche&meta=
Tändelei hebbel
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=T%C3%A4ndelei+hebbel&sa=N&tab=gw
Very best regards,
Scriptor |
Clarification of Answer by
scriptor-ga
on
19 Aug 2003 09:12 PDT
Dear Sylvia,
You are right, I am the same Scriptor who had already two times the
honor of assisting you.
This new question, however, proved to be an extremely tough nut to
crack, metaphorically speaking. I spent several hours in the library,
department of German Literature. I used every book on Hebbel and his
work I could find.
The main problem is that "Tändelei" belongs to Friedrich Hebbel's
least-known, most obscure poems. It was published in the 1857
collection of his poems, "Gedichte. Gesamtausgabe" (in the chapter
"Ballads and similar works"), Cotta publishing house, Stuttgart. And
that is already everything we know for sure. It is not known when
Hebbel wrote it, since it is undated, nor where he wrote it. Hebbel
himself mentions "Tändelei" nowhere in his extensive diaries or in his
letters and other notes or correspondence.
One might speculate that "Tändelei" belongs to the poems Hebbel wrote
during his time in Copenhagen (1842-1843), together with works like
"Ich und Du" (1843), which are remarkably similar in style, choice of
words, and attitude. However, there is no definitive proof for it.
How relatively unknown and unappreciated the poem "Tändelei" is, shows
the fact that most collections of Hebbel's oeuvre don't even include
it.
It is, nevertheless, included in this book:
- Friedrich Hebbel: Sämtliche Werke, Band II. Emil Vollmer Verlag,
Essen (no year). [p. 74, background information on p. 1121-1128]
I found the following books about Hebbel's work most useful during my
research:
- Günter Häntzschel: Gefühl und Reflexion - Studien zu Friedrich
Hebbels Lyrik. ars una, 1998. ISBN 3-89891-307-6
- Heinz Stolle: Im Wirbel des Seins - Erkundungen über Hebbel. Boyens
& Co., 1991. ISBN 3-8042-0544-5 [p. 267-290]
Unfortunately, but not to my surprise, I could not locate any English
source mentioning "Tändelei".
Though I did really extensive research, the results remained rather
limited, due to the subject itself. Despite this, I hope that I was
able to provide you information that will prove useful fo you.
Very best regards,
Scriptor
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