Monday, February 18, 2008

Notes From The Black Forest

I found these notes tacked to several trees on my walk the other day. They are all writings from Goethe.
Separated about 200 yards apart, I let them guide me through the woods. Luckily,
my neighbor is well versed in Goethe and speaks English. He helped me with the translation, since parts are written in old German.
Reading from left to right, the first one says, "My inheritance, how gorgeous far and wide!
Time is my possssion, my land is time."
The second says, "Tell him, but say it greedily
his love is my life
Joyful feelings from both of us will give me his nearness."
The third says, "Don't sing in sad tones of the loneliness of the night
no, it is, oh pure beauty
made for togetherness"
The last one is my favorite and had the best translation, especially pertaining to all the previous ones.
It says, "Some we cannot understand.
Just live on,
it will all work out."
The air was tense when Michel finished translating the last tree note. His wife just left him for another man. I couldn't help but think this message was written for him to find in the Black Forest.
Yet, I delivered it to him, all the same.
Things usually do work out and as Goethe says, we must just live on.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Germans can be odd sometimes, can't they? Lurking...

J. Thorngren said...

Hello Thorngren.
I was suprised to se your name.
My name is thorngren as well. It´s only about 20-30 people in sweden who is called like that. So I´m wondering if you are swedish?
By the way. Nice paintings.
J.t

Thorngren said...

Hello Thorngren,
My father's name is John Thorngren-that is so funny! His father was Bertil from Motala. I wonder if we are related?

J. Thorngren said...

Thats funny, I wonder that too, and more funny is that my aunt is a painter just like you and her homepage is( in swedish) http://www.svenskakonstnarer.se/start/plus_artist.php?chr=20&aid=1541
I will talk with my mum about Bertil from Motala, and see what I can found. My grandpa was Erik Thorngren from Uppsala not very far from Motala