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Translations from Goethe

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

I     Over every hill     All is still;     In no leaf of any tree     Can you see     The motion of a breath.     Every bird has ceased its song,     Wait; and thou too, ere long,     Shall be quiet in death. II     Who neer his bread with tears hath ate,     Who never through the sad night hours     Weeping upon his bed hath sate,     He knows not you, you heavenly powers.     Forth into life you bid us go,     And into guilt you let us fall,     Then leave us to endure the woe     It brings unfailingly to all. III     You complain of the woman for roving from one to another:     Where is the constant man whom she is trying to find? IV     Slumber and Sleep, two brothers appointed to serve the immortals,     By Prometheus were brought hither to comfort mankind;     But what in heaven was light, to human creatures was heavy:     Slumber became our Sleep, Sleep unto mortals was Death. V     Oh, the beautiful child! and oh, the most happy mother!     She in her infant blessed, and in its mother the babe     What sweet longing within me this picture might not occasion,     Were I not, Joseph, like you, calmly condemned to standby! VI     Diogenes by his tub, contenting himself with the sunshine,     And Calanus with joy mounting his funeral pyre:     Great examples were these for the eager approving of Philip,     But for the Conqueror of Earth were, as the earth was, too small.

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Arthur Hugh Clough

About Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was an English poet whose work explores Victorian doubt and moral uncertainty. His poems "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" and "The Latest Decalogue" are sharp, thoughtful, and still widely anthologized.

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