.

The Merry Wanderer

When God wills man to know His favor,
He sends him where the wide world gleams
And makes him wonder at the splendor
Of mountains, forests, fields and streams.

The lazybones at home lies jaded;
Dawn never rouses him from bed.
He only knows poor children’s cradles,
Grief, burdens, and the need for bread.

The brooks from mountainsides are springing,
Larks whirl on high with lusty zest;
Why shouldn’t I be with them singing
In fuller tone, from fresher breast?

I let the loving God be master:
In field and forest, larks and streams,
In earth and heaven all the vaster,
His schemes are better than my dreams.

.

.

Heartache for Home

Who into foreign lands will wander
Must with his best beloved go,
For if his joys he will not alter,
There will be none for him to know.

How wise are you, O darkened treetops,
About good customs of old times?
Ah, homeland hid behind the features
Of steepest paths to stranger climes.

Above all things, I love stargazing:
Stars shone when I met her before;
The nightingale, its voice upraising,
Rejoiced at my beloved’s door.

The morning, though, is my delight,
When in a quiet hour apart
I greet you from a mountain height,
Deutschland, deepest in my heart.

.

.

At the Frontier

The faithful mountain stands on guard:
“Who mangles morning quietude
With alien din from heathland rude?”
But mountains I can disregard
And laugh aloud by joy possessed,
Pronouncing with a fresher breast,
Watchword and war-cry rightfully:
Long live Austria!

Here I’m acquainted all around;
Where little birds and brooklets smile
The woodland warbles local style,
The Danube flashes from its ground,
Saint Stephen’s steeple far above
Sees me acknowledging my love,
And welcomes me alike in glee:
Long live Austria!

.

Translator’s Note: Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857) wrote these hiking songs and gave them titles in the early 1820s. In 1826, he published a novella “Aus dem Leben eines Taugennichts” [From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing]. Twelve poems appear in the book as lyric interludes, but without titles. The first one here is the book’s opening poem; it has become a popular Romantic wanderlied (with the second stanza critique of homebodies often omitted in performance). The final four lines appear as a reprise poem about a third of the way through the novella. The second poem above appears almost in the middle of the book, while the last one is near the end.

.

German original

DER FROHE WANDERSMANN

Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen,
Den schickt er in die weite Welt,
Dem will er seine Wunder weisen
In Berg und Wald und Strom und Feld.

Die Trägen, die zu Hause liegen,
Erquicket nicht das Morgenrot,
Sie wissen nur vom Kinderwiegen,
Von Sorgen, Last und Not um Brot.

Die Bächlein von den Bergen springen,
Die Lerchen schwirren hoch vor Lust,
Was sollt ich nicht mit ihnen singen
Aus voller Kehl und frischer Brust?

Den lieben Gott lass ich nur walten;
Die Bächlein, Lerchen, Wald und Feld
Und Erd und Himmel will erhalten,
Hat auch mein Sach auss best bestellt!

HEIMWEH

Wer in die Fremde will wandern,
Der muss mit der Liebsten gehn,
Es jubeln und lassen die andern
Den Fremden alleine stehn.

Was wisset ihr, dunkele Wipfel,
Von der alten schönen Zeit?
Ach, die Heimat hinter den Gipfeln,
Wie liegt sie von hier so weit!

Am liebsten betracht ich die Sterne,
Die schienen, wenn ich ging zu ihr,
Die Nachtigall hör ich so gerne,
Sie sang vor der Liebsten Tür.

Der Morgen, das ist meine Freude!
Da steig ich in stiller Stund
Auf den höchsten Berg in die Weite,
Grüss dich, Deutschland, aus Herzensgrund!

AN DER GRENZE

Die treuen Berg stehn auf der Wacht:
«Wer streicht bei stiller Morgenzeit
Da aus der Fremde durch die Heid?»
Ich aber mir die Berg betracht
Und lach in mir vor grosser Lust,
Und ruse recht aus frischer Brust
Parol und Feldgeschrei sogleich:
Vivat Östreich!

Da kennt mich erst die ganze Rund,
Nun grüssen Bach und vöglein zart
Und Wälder rings nach Landesart,
Die Donau blitzt aus tiefem Grund,
Der Stephansturm auch ganz von fern
Guckt übern Berg und säh mich gern,
Und ist ers nicht, so kommt er doch gleich:
Vivat Östreich!

.

.

Margaret Coats lives in California.  She holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University.  She has retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others. 

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


Trending now:

38 Responses

  1. Julian D. Woodruff

    I think you’ve caught the spontaneity and enthusiasm of E’s voice pretty closely, Margaret.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks very much, Julian. Spontaneity is a difficult characteristic to capture!

      Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    As one who had to pass himself off on occasion as a native German using my language training while in the military, I can see how beautifully you sometimes had to change the order of words from German to English. You are an adept translator who managed to maintain close proximity to the original thoughts line-by-line. I was instantly transported back to the good old song, “The Happy Wanderer.” I participated in a great many Volksmarches in both Bavaria and Austria. I was one of those happy wanderers. Your translations transported me back in time to those wonderful years spent there.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Having just been to Bavaria in May, I am happy to write you a return ticket, Roy! Shaping the rhymes in English and maintaining Eichendorff’s musical qualities did require care with the word order, but I learn as he wanders–with joy.

      Reply
  3. Russel Winick

    Margaret – This is wonderful! Your knowledge and skill continuously blow me away!

    Reply
  4. Leland James

    Thanks, these are lovely. Not a word I would usually associate with Germany. So, a double value in your translations, reminding us against stereotypes.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Yes, thank you, Leland, there is some lovely German poetry. Glad I was able to present these works well, and help dispell any unhappy stereotypes.

      Reply
      • Leland James

        Yes. It occurred to me after my comment, that my response was not just to the Reich…. It was, forgetting in the moment of my comment, Mozart, another sound, who by modern criteria was Austrian, counted himself a German composer…. More to the point, the sound of the German language to the Western ear, at least mine, did not fit with the sound of your translation, but obviously that was my problem. This is an insight for me. I’ve touched on this with Japanese, the Haiku, syllable count being silly, and the importance of pitch in Japanese essential. I’d love to hear your reading of your translations in English and German. Bet it would, like the translation, open a door to understanding. And all this, I’m guessing, supports Frost, in his assertion that poety is, in the end, a thing of the ear. I’m thinking, these thoughts if they are worthy, puts a spotlight on how difficult, treacherous in terms of truth, the translation business is. I marvel at it.

      • Margaret Coats

        Leland, thanks for these further thoughts. I’d like to respond with more space, so please see below after Yael’s comment.

  5. Paul A. Freeman

    Joseph von Eichendorff’s poetry reminds me very much of Wordsworth, and I note they were contemporaries.

    The nationalistic vibe I found a bit unusual at the end of the latter two poems, whereas The Merry Wanderer goes down the more usual route of referencing God or a greater power in relation to the natural wonders.

    You’ve done a great job with these poems, Margaret. The meter and rhyme are masterful.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Patriotism and nationalism are two different things. Patriotism is love of one’s own country, and nationalism is contempt for all countries but one’s own. Not all patriots are nationalists.

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks for your comments, Paul. I appreciate especially the compliment on meter and rhyme, because I tried to stay very close to Eichendorff’s exuberant music and his word choices. Sometimes I couldn’t use his words to rhyme in English, but the words themselves may appear within the line instead of at the end.

      Out of twelve poems I could have chosen, these seemed the most beautiful, and they just happen to include the two speaking of Deutschland and Austria. When Eichendorff was living, neither was technically a nation. Austria was the more important portion of the empire of Austria-Hungary, which I think came into being in 1806, when the sovereign gave up the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

      I have to go aside here for a joke by Prince Otto, the heir who would have been emperor had the empire continued after World War II. He was told about an Austria-Hungary football match, and expressed great enthusiasm, asking with a little smile, “Who are we playing?”

      Eichendorff clearly had much feeling for Austria, and as well for Deutschland, which I have not translated as Germany, because united Germany came into existence only after the poet passed away. I believe he considers Deutschland every place where he would be comfortable because German is spoken. He has much to say about hearing the sounds of the landscape, and I think they include his native tongue.

      Reply
  6. Joshua C. Frank

    Margaret, these are absolutely beautiful! I don’t speak German, I just recognize a few words from English, but the English versions are magnificent!

    The themes of home and love of country remind me of the French poem “Heureux Qui Comme Ulysse” by Joachim du Bellay.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Right, Joshua, Du Bellay’s poem is a Renaissance piece with classical allusion, and I have translated a medieval one by Eustache Deschamps that I call “Chant Royal of Love for France.” The author goes over reasons to love his country, and when he imagines others, the refrain says, “Think daily of your home and cherish France.”

      Eichendorff as a Romantic poet admires all natural beauty but considers that of his homeland (and German-speaking lands) the most desirable. I’m just amazed how he can see Saint Stephen’s cathedral in Vienna from whatever border station he happens to be at!

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      You might consider Deschamps a patriot and a nationalist. But–he never mentions any other nation by name while listing all the other ills to be found in the world outside France.

      Reply
  7. Carey Jobe

    Margaret, as others remarked, these are delightful translations. I can read the German, and your translations manage to convey Eichendorff’s youthful, spontaneous, breezy optimism–and patriotism. Such an accessible, charming poet! No wonder Schubert and Schumann could set him to music so beautifully. When we English speakers think of early 19th century romanticism, the Lake Poets of course come to mind, but your translations remind us that there was a whole school of fine nature poets in Germany at the same time. Excellent!

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thank you, Carey. My translations are often intended as reminders. In addition to the German nature poets of the Romantic period, there was the American William Cullen Bryant. It must have been the zeitgeist!

      Reply
  8. Sally Cook

    Once again, Margaret, you have used your multiple skills and fulsome knowledge to bring us that which we might otherwise not have known.
    Many thanks.

    Reply
  9. Brian A. Yapko

    Margaret, I thoroughly enjoyed these hiking poems which, like Roy, had me immediately humming “Valderi, valdera…” (even though it’s a different “Happy Wanderer.”) I know enough German to admire your fidelity to both text and intent. Since they are, in fact, songs it would be fun to actually hear them sung.

    All three poems bespeak the importance of travel — to actually see and experience new things and, in particular, to be surrounded by nature of which God is the acknowledged master. The second and third poems are quite interesting as they temper that love of travel with the joys of returning home and experiencing national pride. In fact, your “On the Frontier” journeys from a bucolic Danube directly to the cathedral at the center of Vienna. But the overall effect of the three leaves me basking in sunny, Alpine edelweiss-scattered vistas with some Strauss playing in the distant background.

    I am tickled by your cheeky Otto von Habsburg anecdote in your comment to Paul. He was a crown prince, divested of his realm, who yet became an interesting politician with a most fabled name. He had a fascinating life, some of which was controversial but generally monumental. I mourned when he died in 2011. I always thought it was a catastrophic mistake for the victors in World War I to force Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire to dissolve their monarchies.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Brian, thanks for your attention. Your most striking point, to me, is the importance of travel. It involves the potential for finding natural happiness in creation. Eichendorff seems to say that a person who could travel (at least to the park or local nature trail), but will not devote the energy needed to do so, is bypassing many blessings from God. Love of other persons and love of country are intertwined with the willingness to move–and these loves bring further blessings. Another consideration is the need to alter one’s joys in order to receive the benefits of traveling. And that anticipates the joy of returning home to find joys necessarily left behind.

      As for singing these pieces, I found several versions of “Der Frohe Wandersmann” on YouTube. If you mean singing my translations, I did use regular meter, which means that each might fit an existing tune. I’m not a melody composer, but as choir leader I have experience putting words to music easier for my singers. It takes metrical index searching and trials at the piano. And each stanza has to fit the tune by meaning as well as meter. Ah, a mid- to long term project! I appreciate the compliment of your suggestion, and even more, the picture of the poems’ overall effect on you. Did you say you wanted Strauss?

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Concerning Otto von Habsburg, you probably know that he (age 25 or so) advised Austria to resist the Anschluss and offered his services as a symbolic leader–whereupon Hitler and Hess ordered him shot on sight. I had heard that he was in Berlin as a university student after Hitler came to power, and Hitler at first had the idea of using him to add genuine imperial grandeur to the Third Reich. His university degree is said to come from Louvain (Belgium) and, curiously, the Foundation by his name, with control of his papers, says absolutely nothing about the probable university years. I wonder where he was wandering!

      Reply
  10. Mia

    Dear Margaret I found the second poem Heartache for Home quite poignant. But I was surprised to find that it is the first poem Merry Wanderer that I found the most moving as on reading this poem I felt transported to that splendid world of nature it describes. I do love and appreciate nature but this poem enhances that feeling of childlike awe that we sometimes lose when we get older. I think this happened on another occasion on reading one of your poems. This one also made me see the connection between wondering and wandering! Thank you.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Yes, Mia, the person who sees nature in the poem is childlike because he doesn’t rely on himself to explore. In the first stanza, the German poet says God shows him wonders, and I translate that God makes him wonder. Then at the end, he is so delighted that he says God will always plan best for him. It is explicitly an open-hearted, trusting attitude that makes the speaker very appealing to many readers. I think that happens because we wish we could be fully receptive to beauty around us. There is a charming performance in German on YouTube by Tolzer Knabenchor, a children’s chorus. You would like it.

      Reply
  11. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Margaret, these are truly beautiful translations. I thoroughly appreciate your gift for bringing these works to a wider audience. As a photographer and poet who seeks, sees, and marvels at the wonder of our Creator in His creation, these poems appeal to me. I also understand the love we have for our homeland… and it saddens me to see our culture and what defines us here in the Western world stamped out by tyrants. Margaret, thank you!

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thank you, Susan! It does seem that totalitarians have always wanted to interfere with popular enjoyment of the wonders of Creation. And they keep finding devious new means of unhappiness. Joseph von Eichendorff had a simpler life than you and I–but he had to put up with being called a good-for-nothing. I know that has happened to you–but you have found ways to respond to the hurt without letting it diminish your spirit. I am happy if my little efforts help a little bit.

      Reply
  12. Yael

    Great translations of some beautiful and fun poems, thank you Margaret for brightening my day with these. I love the Romantics and their Wanderlust.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks, Yael. I’m glad you find them bright, and I appreciate your opinion especially because you know the language. Keep smiling!

      Reply
  13. Margaret Coats

    For Leland James, in response to his second comment above.

    I agree with you that distancing from things German is not due to the Nazi Reich alone. The First World War occasioned much anti-German feeling; one odd instance is German hymn-tune names being Anglicized in English-speaking countries. Almost none of the composers had anything at all to do with the war. And I agree with you that the sound of the spoken German language is generally less attractive to the ears of English speakers than are the sounds of Romance languages. English itself, a Germanic language with immense borrowing from French and Latin, sounds sweeter to us.

    Therefore I understand why my English translations do not seem to match the sound of the original. But then, neither do my translations from French, Latin, Scots, or Japanese! They are all English poems, and even though they would not exist without the originals, I consider each one a new work in English. I try to render their music as well as their meaning, but that depends on rendering the form chosen by the original poet, and sometimes rendering words by an English derivative. The poem is English nonetheless, and cannot sound otherwise. In the case of these translations from Eichendorff, they are English songs, using line-length and line-end sound features chosen by the German poet. His are German songs. If I had turned them into odes or sonnets that would be adaptation, not true translation. I can use the form, but not often will the sounds of German words suit an English poem.

    I’ll disagree with you about Japanese syllable-counting poetry. My own spoken Japanese is Kyoto style, where most syllables are pronounced, in contrast to standard clipped Tokyo speech. But when Tokyo speakers write haiku, they write it the way Kyoto people pronounce it (for example, the word pronounced dess or de-su can only be written de-su in Japanese syllabary, and it counts as two syllables in haiku). I find great artistic potential in both English and Japanese using traditional syllable counting. Others prefer free verse haiku and tanka, but this results in different aesthetic values and aims. Tradition is to my taste; others can write and read as they like.

    When you speak about pitch, I think you mean the tones in Chinese. Pitch or tone never changes the meaning of a word in Japanese, as it can in Chinese. It is interesting, though, that higher-pitched women’s voices are often preferred in Japanese recorded announcements given over loudspeakers in public places.

    About reading my poems above along with the German originals, I’ll have to decline for now, because my knowledge of German is almost entirely reading knowledge. I know what sounds the letters make, I can apply that to pronounce words, and I’ve learned to sing a few German songs in choir, but I haven’t had enough time around German-speakers to develop the sense for the language that I have in languages I’ve studied more extensively and lived with longer. A work in progress!

    Reply
  14. Nathan McKee

    Margaret, these are beautiful poems – easy to read, flowing, musical. I especially appreciated the strong-weak-strong-weak ending pattern common to the first two pieces. The weak ending followed by the strong gives a beckoning sense, which fits well with the topics of awe-inspiring natural beauty or yearning for home. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Nathan, I’m delighted you recognized that technique. I only follow Eichendorff in using it. It demonstrates what I do when I try to translate the music as well as the meaning of a poem from another language. Thanks for your appreciation!

      Reply
  15. Adam Sedia

    I very much enjoyed these. Eichendorff is perhaps my favorite German poet, but unfortunately he’s not as read as his contemporaries like Heine, Holderlin, and Uhland (at least in my experience). Eichendorff has a sense of genuineness and a religious sensibility that many of his philosophically-obsessed contemporaries lack.

    These translations do a wonderful job of both preserving the musicality of the original (essential to Eichendorff’s style, I think), as well as the mystical, almost naive quality of his poetic voice. Wonderful work!

    (I’ve been meaning to try my own hand at translating Eichendorff, and this has finally motivated me to get off my tush and start with it. Thank you for that.)

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks for your appreciation, Adam. You give a perceptive view of Eichendorff’s voice as musical, mystical, and yet naive. This kind of verse has to charm many readers!

      I had considered doing Holderlin’s poem on the river Neckar, which has a similar charm, and seems to have captivated Mark Twain. I had no idea Twain knew German, though he has his own manner of dealing with young men on the Mississippi. And while I was considering rivers, I came up with plenty to say in my own rather more complex style about the Moselle. These songs by Eichendorff, therefore, have been good in helping me move between lyric kinds. Looking forward to some Eichendorff poems Englished by you!

      Reply
  16. Laura Deagon

    Margaret, these poems were enjoyable to read. I’m amazed at how the translations maintain an easy flow.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Laura, I thank you for your appreciation. Easy-reading flow is important in all kinds of poetry, but essential in songs.

      Reply
  17. Monika Cooper

    These songs are carefree as kites and light as paper boats. “Heartache for Home” though has a deeper cooler tone, more recollected, as if spoken from the shade of the “darkened treetops.”

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thanks, Monika! The title literally means “Home-Woe” and is usually translated “Homesickness,” but I felt that wasn’t enough to express the love in the poem, so I put a heart there. Very much appreciate your coming by to comment at any time!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.