TRANSLATION OF A PASSAGE IN OTTFRIED'S METRICAL PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL [This paraphrase, written about the time of Charlemagne, is by no means deficient in occasional passages of considerable poetic merit. There is a flow and a tender enthusiasm in the following lines which even in the translation will not, I flatter myself, fail to interest the reader. Ottfried is describing the circumstances immediately following the birth of our Lord. Most interesting is it to consider the effect when the feelings are wrought above the natural pitch by the belief of something mysterious, while all the images are purely natural. Then it is that religion and poetry strike deepest. Biog. Lit., 1817, i. 203-4.1] ? 1799. SHE gave with joy her virgin breast; Which the Saviour infant kiss'd; And blessed, blessed was the mother Who wrapp'd his limbs in swaddling clothes, Hung o'er him with her looks of love, And soothed him with a lulling motion. From the damp and chilling air; With such a babe in one blest bed, With her virgin lips she kiss'd, 1 First published as a footnote to Chapter X of the Biographia Literaria (ed. 1817, i. 203-4). First collected in 1863 (Appendix, pp. 401-2). The translation is from Olfridi Evang., lib. i, cap. xi, 11. 73-108 (included in Schilter's Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum, pp. 50-1, Biog. Lit., 1847, i. 213). Otfrid, 'a monk at Weissenburg in Elsass', composed his Evangelienbuch about 870 A.D. (Note by J. Shawcross, Biog. Lit., 1907, ii. 259). As Coleridge says that he read through Ottfried's metrical paraphrase of the Gospel' when he was at Göttingen, it may be assumed that the translation was made in 1799. 5 Saviour infant] infant Saviour 1863. CATULLIAN HENDECASYLLABLES1 HEAR, my belovéd, an old Milesian story!- Rose a fair island; the god of flocks had blest it. ? 1799. 5 ΤΟ 15 THE HOMERIC HEXAMETER 2 DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED STRONGLY it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows, Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean, ? 1799. 1 First published in 1834. These lines, which are not 'Hendecasyllables', are a translation of part of Friedrich von Matthisson's Milesisches Mährchen. For the original see Note to Poems, 1852. There is no evidence as to the date of composition. The emendations in lines 5 and 6 were first printed in P. W., 1893. 2 First published (together with the Ovidian Elegiac Metre', &c.) in Friendship's Offering, 1834: included in P. W., 1834. An acknowledgement that these experiments in metre' are translations from Schiller was first made in a Note to Poems, 1844, p. 371. The originals were given on p. 372. There is no evidence as to the date of composition. 5 blest] plac'd 1834, 1844, 1852. 1834, 1852. 6 bleat-resounding] bleak-resounding 16 nightly] mighty 1834, 1844. THE OVIDIAN ELEGIAC METRE DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED IN the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column; In the pentameter aye falling in melody back. 1799. ON A CATARACT 1 FROM A CAVERN NEAR THE SUMMIT OF A MOUNTAIN PRECIPICE UNPERISHING youth! Thou leapest from forth STROPHE The cell of thy hidden nativity; The cradle of the strong one; Never mortal heard The gathering of his voices; The deep-murmured charm of the son of the rock, It embosoms the roses of dawn, It entangles the shafts of the noon, 5 ΤΟ And into the bed of its stillness The moonshine sinks down as in slumber, 15 That the son of the rock, that the nursling of heaven First published in 1834. For the original (Unsterblicher Jüngling) by Count F. L. Stolberg see Note to Poems, 1844, pp. 371-2. On a Cataract-Title] Improved from Stolberg. 1852. 2-3 Thou streamest from forth On a Cataract, &c. 1844, The cleft of thy ceaseless Nativity MS. S. T. C. Between 7 and 13. The murmuring songs of the Son of the Rock, When he feeds evermore at the slumberless Fountain. At the Portal a Veil, At the shrine of thy self-renewing; It embodies the Visions of Dawn, It entangles, &c. MS. S. T. C. Here, first, an infant to her breast, 5 And kissed the babe, and blessed the day, III 'Vouchsafe him health, O God! and give The child thy servant still to live!' Through him, than through an arméd power. IV God gave him reverence of laws, Yet stirring blood in Freedom's cause A spirit to his rocks akin, The eye of the hawk, and the fire therein! First published in Sibylline Leaves, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. There is no evidence as to the date of composition. 20 Below thee the cliff inaccessible MS. S. T. C 22-3 Flockest in thy Joyance, Wheelest, shatter'st, start'st. MS. S. T. C. ? 1799. To Nature and to Holy Writ Where flashed and roared the torrent, oft VI The straining oar and chamois chase VII He knew not that his chosen hand, 20 25 THE VISIT OF THE GODS1 IMITATED FROM SCHILLER NEVER, believe me, Appear the Immortals, Scarce had I welcomed the Sorrow-beguiler, Iacchus but in came Boy Cupid the Smiler; Lo! Phoebus the Glorious descends from his throne ! They advance, they float in, the Olympians all! With Divinities fills my How shall I yield you Me rather, bright guests! with your wings of upbuoyance Bear aloft to your homes, to your banquets of joyance, 5 ΤΟ 1 First published in Sibylline Leaves, 1817: included in 1828, 1829 ('Vision of the Gods', Contents, vol. i, pp. 322-3 of both editions), and in 1834. 28 Slavery] Slavery, all editions to 1834. |