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 PT 
 
 2447 
 
 S6 
 
 E53 
 
 1921 
 
 MAIN 
 
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MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 
 
 PLATEN 
 
 BY 
 
 REGINALD B. COOKE, Ph.D. 
 
 ANDRUS & CHURCH 
 ITHACA, NEW YORK 
 1921 
 
A 
 
 Entered in the Library of Congress 
 and copyright, 1921, by 
 
 V; R. B. Cooke 
 
 This edition Hmited to 75 copies. 
 Copy No.-/-?-- 
 
^pxtixsoxb 
 
 j^ ^ *- •/ -> 
 
 This, the fourth series of my translations from Platen, 
 contains all the sonnets which may be described as miscel- 
 laneous. The Aurora, the earliest of his sonnets, was 
 written when Platen was only sixteen, while with the 
 Epitaph he finally lay down his pen as sonneteer at the age 
 of thirty-three, with a reputation, so far as concerns this 
 form of verse, second to none in any age or any literature. 
 
 Of the four sonnets taken from the Jugenddramen, the 
 first is spoken by Prince Astolf in the fourth act of Der- 
 gldserne Pantoffel, and the other three may be found in Der 
 Schatz des Rhampsinit. 
 
 The mottoes are, of course, Platen's own, first appear- 
 ing with the sonnets in 1834 and 1828, respectively. 
 
 No English translation of these sonnets has hitherto 
 appeared, with the exception of the nineteenth, a rendering 
 of which by C. H. Genung may be found in Warner's 
 Library of the World's Best Literature. 
 
 The rhyme-schemes of these sonnets are again identi- 
 cal with those of the originals, and the division of each 
 sonnet into four parts is, with two or three exceptions, 
 scrupulously, if sometimes reluctantly', adhered to. 
 
 Orr's Island, Maine. R. B. C. 
 
 -r- 5 '2 Gill. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 
 
MOTTOES 
 I 
 
 What by its own confession 
 Hath ever youth unfeigned 
 
 Is, in restrained expression. 
 A spirit unrestrained. 
 
 II 
 
 If you feel quite unprovided, 
 Having naught to take or lend. 
 
 Be the last fragment divided 
 With your sole-beloved friend. 
 
AURORA 
 
 SHE comes the gray of orient to imbue 
 With radiant tints; her hght seems to appall 
 The stars, and from the spokes of Charles* Wain fall 
 Pearls which dissolve upon Earth's lap in dew. 
 The darkened skies assume an azure hue; 
 The birds break the long silence with their call, 
 Each bough voicing Aurora's praise; and all 
 The winds their soft and balmy breath renew. 
 
 She kisses the tree-tops with rosy light. 
 And w^hat is left unfinished by the night 
 She stamps, as now^ completed, with a seal. 
 The most abundant blessings still reveal 
 Her path; and though she vanish soon away 
 She leaves her brother here to cheer the day. 
 
 (1812) 
 
LOVE'S FAREWELL 
 
 THY presence have I lost for evermore. 
 My gentle love, with all thy merriment 
 And all thy charms with silent sorrows blent, 
 Whom once I chose all other loves before. 
 I trusted everything her lips then swore 
 So graciously to me, while Heaven lent 
 Love's candle-light; yet soon she faithless sent 
 Me forth deceived, and mocked the love I bore. 
 
 Thou dost behold me, my beloved, recline 
 Before thine altar on this marble stair. 
 Can naught recall again thy form divine ? 
 Can naught recall thy lineaments so fair. 
 Which wove perforce a new life about mine. 
 And now entangle others in their snare ? 
 
 (1813 or 1814) 
 
UNCERTAINTY 
 
 BY swift illusions all too long dismayed, 
 To inclination yielding thoughtlessly, 
 Glad when thy friendly glances smiled on me, 
 Mine sought but thee where throngs their revels made. 
 And yet, when now my feelings have been weighed, 
 I must regard thee in perplexity; 
 I love, but may I also reverence thee ? 
 Or, 'neath thy guidance, have my footsteps strayed ? 
 
 How so ? Or does thine outward form deceive ? 
 And can the fairest features e'er impart 
 A beauty which the soul does not achieve } 
 Grant thy disdain distresses not my heart. 
 And when in love our spirits interweave. 
 Thus speak: " Oh come, for thou my chosen art." 
 
 (1816) 
 
IV 
 
 DENSE foliage already spans the crest 
 Of verdant palaces, and clear and bright 
 The waves portray the heavens and the flight 
 Of birds returning to their summer nest. 
 The very flov/ers, rising from the breast 
 Of Earth, where droop the darlings of the night, 
 Smile on thy birthday, by the radiant light 
 Allured to brave the breezes of the w^est. 
 
 Sweet perfumes truly but no words dispense 
 Th* untutored flow^ers in saluting thee. 
 And to their sisters wise for these they pray — 
 Their sisters who, less charming to the sense. 
 More constant sprout, and so perpetually 
 To-morrow bloom as they bloomed yesterday. 
 
 (1819) 
 
V 
 
 FROM all these chains oh set thy spirit free, 
 Which in the past so bravely thou didst bear, 
 And be thou not in puerile despair 
 Content with servile mediocrity. 
 Though malice clench her fists, yet shall there be 
 Living and breathing hearts v^hich boldly dare 
 To beat as quick as thine; so let the air 
 Resound with none but blithesome melody. 
 
 Begrudge the paltry critics not their say, 
 Seeking in turn to praise and to deride, 
 To inconsistency of soul a prey. 
 Slowly their brief resentment will subside; 
 But you shake off the coarseness of the day 
 Whenever godly rhythms upward guide. 
 
 (1820?) 
 
VI 
 
 IMPERIOUS in his ardor, one who bore 
 Full willingly Love's bonds has idolized 
 In sonnet-songs his Laura, dearly prized 
 Both in her life and after life was o'er. 
 And of adventurous deeds in goodly store 
 Sonnets of melting music once devised 
 A hero, who o'er th* angry waves emprised 
 A passage, song his only guiding oar. 
 
 And as the third a German next appears, 
 To join the Florentine and Portuguese, 
 And sings full armed for doughty cavaliers. 
 These, who have proved their great abilities, 
 I follow as a reaper one who shears, 
 For I dare count myself no fourth with these. 
 
 (1820) 
 
THE ROMANTIC DRAMA 
 
 SHAKESPEARE, I see thy sprites in many a role, 
 See Puck and Ariel on mischief bent. 
 A fertile glance into life's depths has lent 
 To thee, O Calderon, guidance to thy goal. 
 Thou, Gozzi, ever whimsical and droll, 
 Hast given us the art of merriment; 
 And thou, O Tieck, guidest with kind intent 
 To ever youthful sport the earnest soul. 
 
 You never sink to unimpassioned prose. 
 
 With endless prodigality you strew 
 
 Bright sparks midst which your golden flame still glows. 
 
 A great and holy mission yours; with you 
 
 Poesy's intoxicating stream arose; 
 
 And now the splendors of success accrue. 
 
 (1821) 
 
MY VOCATION 
 
 ON every shore the haughty billows surge, 
 Which, by a poet's impetuosity 
 To pour from out my very veins set free, 
 At first but streams, now to a sea converge. 
 That so its little song no longer scourge. 
 Let the swift waves engulf false repartee; 
 And with a soft voluptuous melody 
 Faith's threshold shall the flowery foam submerge. 
 
 Do not the w^aves of ocean, which refresh 
 The realms of nature, all that lives conceive ? 
 Has not Urania even sprung from them ? 
 Oh, might I only likewise pearls enmesh 
 From depths still inexhaustible, and -weave 
 From them Germania's godly diadem ! 
 
 (1821) 
 
FROM THE JUGENDDRAMEN-1 
 
 BY the green net these lofty boughs afford 
 As I, thine image in my heart, have lain 
 O'erarched, how fair the forest seems again, 
 How sweet to w^hisper soft complaints abroad. 
 Solitude brings to me delights restored 
 Which I have sought these bygone days in vain. 
 *Tis he w^ho feels not love's tormenting pain 
 Who lives all heedless midst the human horde. 
 
 Weary am I of hastening to and fro. 
 For truly are such gentle dreams as these 
 Dearer than traffic v/ith the crow^d; but Oh, 
 Rather than stray w^ith thoughts of thee at ease 
 In shady groves, might I the fortune know 
 Here to recline with thee beneath the trees. 
 
 (1823) 
 
FROM THE JUGENDDRAMEN-2 
 
 O'ER worldly goods how fretfully we spend 
 Our days, and yet the truest joys unsought 
 Befall, even as I, though seeking naught, 
 Found the fresh beauty youth to thee doth lend. 
 And now be Fate our love's protecting friend, 
 Whether she lead thy swift- pursuing thought 
 In many a way ward- wandering path distraught. 
 Or with a kindly grace thy steps attend. 
 
 For oft it happens that a wish at birth 
 Will banish even the most anxious care, 
 And oft that it bestows a moment's worth; 
 Perchance that we desire to alter ne'er 
 A word; that of the fairest joys on earth 
 The fairest portion soon shall be our share. 
 
 (1824) 
 
FROM THE JUGENDDRAMEN— 3 
 
 AND so farewell, ye gloomy prison walls. 
 Ye who have been a prince's residence I 
 No more I pass the irksome hours hence 
 Reading my Seneca crouched in these stalls. 
 You were designed only for knaves and thralls. 
 Birches and stocks their proper recompense. 
 You saw them here their savage lives dispense, 
 And echoed back their vulgar gutter-calls. 
 
 You are transformed into a Paradize 
 
 Or Blessed Isles, since I with master-hand 
 
 Have scrawled upon thee. With enraptured eyes 
 
 The future world staring at thee shall stand, 
 
 For every place my Muse whimpers and sighs 
 
 Save only this lies in the sluggard's land. 
 
 (1824) 
 
FROM THE JUGENDDRAMEN— 4 
 
 FATE rushes fiercely on me, and appears 
 To me like a wild boar whetting his fangs; 
 And every minute passes big with pangs, 
 Each second pregnant with some outrage nears. 
 Of thievish trade I have suspicious fears, 
 And even she 1 love most dearly hangs 
 Me in a pillory, where my heart gangs 
 Round like a mill-wheel undershot by tears. 
 
 Yet gladly for her fault I suffer all, 
 As through no fault of mine 1 do the task 
 Set by the lovely Author of the Fall. 
 She strews me where the alligators bask, 
 She strikes at me as at a volley-ball, 
 She mashes me to butter in a cask ! 
 
 (1824) 
 
XIII 
 
 To gain himself a coronal who should 
 Bestir himself, when, like a venal jade, 
 For each flat brow our times zealously brade 
 A wreath from blooms which have no hardihood ? 
 Who should still emulate the greatest good, 
 When he who has the emptiest brain is made 
 Most welcome, who ascend the starry glade 
 Of heaven, when sparks arise from rotten wood ? 
 
 Rubbish in rhymes that all may understand 
 
 Goes forth in peace for all to eulogize. 
 
 And ranks you as if I were not at hand ! 
 
 Alas ! no newspapers memorialize 
 
 In bronze; and though proclaimed in every land. 
 
 Yet one thing still you lack — praise from the wise. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XIV 
 
 I DARED to strike an unaccustomed tone, 
 Devoting all my heart to magnify 
 The arts through all my life; and when I die. 
 So shall I die for beauty's sake alone. 
 Truly I wish that mankind should enthrone 
 The Better, but should let me, nurtured nigh 
 The Highest, learn to seek all that is high. 
 Yea, that my native land her son disown ! 
 
 Since to her cause my strength I still devote, 
 I love her not the less, though satisfied 
 Of all her children to be most remote. 
 Though I be long departed, yet abide 
 My gifts, to swell her treasure and denote 
 A sure possession of our German pride. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XV 
 
 WHATE'RE in me critics may criticize. 
 The courage of my soul I ne'er shall tame, 
 For if vsre shun even a moment's fame. 
 Who then are we to battle with the skies ? 
 Shall I conceal my true capacities. 
 And shall I hesitate even to name 
 My feelings? My own thoughts put me to shame, 
 Fearing, like swallows, from the earth to rise. 
 
 For here 'tis futile to be timorous; 
 
 Boldly to speak the truth becometh each 
 
 Who soon shall rest in his sarcophagus. 
 
 In after times men w^ill my soul beseech 
 
 In Paradise, and justify me thus: 
 
 In thought so great, how were he mean in speech ? 
 
 (1826) 
 
XVI 
 
 THIS land of toil I leave without a sigh; 
 From harsh subjection there is no release 
 Where man, oppressed by troubles, knows no peace, 
 Though destined to oblivion by and by. 
 We have indeed advantages. Here lie 
 Before us honor, w^ealth, and the increase 
 Of knov/Iedge; and we Germans never cease 
 To wear ourselves out, so, worn out, to die. 
 
 And such a man should never know defeat, 
 
 But let him thrive where pov/er and luck are wed, 
 
 Faw^ning on each new^ vogue as seems discreet. 
 
 For me, merely a w^andering bard, instead 
 
 A friend, a bowl of v/ine, a cool retreat 
 
 Suffice, and honor after I am dead. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XVII 
 
 WHOEVER thought Hfe to anticipate 
 But lost the half of it in dreams, distraught 
 With pangs of love, in speech with fools, or fraught 
 With fever, or in some such hapless state ? 
 Yea, even he, calm and deliberate, 
 Who, born ^vith consciousness of wrhat he ought. 
 From early youth a single path has sought 
 Through life, must pale before the blovv^s of fate. 
 
 Each hopes Fortune may smile in his behoof, 
 But to bear fortune w^hen it does arrive 
 Were of the agency of God a proof. 
 Nor comes it merely since y/e v/ish and strive; 
 It falls not on the sleeper from the roof. 
 Nor shall the huntsman run it down alive. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XVIII 
 
 AMID these glittering snow-peaks I am fain 
 In peace to ponder past adversities. 
 Scarce back to Germany I turn my eyes, 
 Yet scarcely forward t'ward th' Italian plain. 
 Crowns I have dreamed of I pursue in vain, 
 Which might refresh my burning brow, and sighs. 
 But seldom stifled, in my breast arise, 
 As though mere sighs could soothe my spirit's pain ! 
 
 Where is the heart that sorrows do not rend ? 
 The plantasms of life forever stole 
 Upon one, though he fled to the world's end. 
 One solace yet remains, that with the whole 
 Of these my burdens I may still contend 
 Perchance, through strength and dignity of soul. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XIX 
 
 FURTHER and ever further yet to toil 
 T ward distant lands my spirit still doth yearn; 
 Though Paradise surround where're 1 turn, 
 Ne'er could I long cling to my native soil. 
 While inner conflicts still her peace embroil, 
 In this short life my soul has come to learn 
 How easy *t is th* ancestral home to spurn. 
 To find a new — what difficulties foil ! 
 
 Yet if one loathes whole-hearted what is base, 
 It will pursue him from his heritage, 
 If there t is honored by the populace. 
 To flee one's fatherland is far more sage 
 Than still to bear among a childish race 
 The yoke of the unthinking rabble's rage. 
 
 (1826) 
 
XX 
 
 WHAT have you by your Rhine and Ister here 
 That may enthrone you with the ancient Greek ? 
 The newspaper, the journal, the critique, 
 Ministers of poHce — tobacco — beer ! 
 You who have never known those sisters dear, 
 Freedom and Art, who, girdled, there would seek 
 To place upon their heads crowns which bespeak 
 Perfection — would you pedants Greeks appear ? 
 
 Nay, all your efforts are but mockeries. 
 
 For Greece knew how to spread th' eternal sheen 
 
 Of beauty over everything. What is 
 
 The art of which your boasts have ever been ? 
 
 In a great ocean of absurdities 
 
 A few ingenious swimmers may be seen ! 
 
 (1826) 
 
XXI 
 
 OYOU whose malice stirs afresh the plaster, 
 That folly and bad taste may be cemented, 
 With the canaille's good will alone contented. 
 Who grow yet bold and bolder fast and faster. 
 When once these lying spirits bring disaster. 
 All bounds of moderation circumvented, 
 Then you will call on me, too late repented. 
 Then you w^ill nominate me your good master: 
 
 " Oh would that all his words might be repeated, 
 Who strove to us the pathway to betoken 
 To truth, though nov/ his spirit has retreated. 
 Ne'er by his steps shall Alpine snows be broken 
 Again; his w^ork among us is completed I" 
 Yea, all my vengeance this, that naught be spoken 
 
 (1829) 
 
EPITAPH 
 
 I WAS a poet born but blows to earn 
 Of the ill times in which my lot was cast; 
 But drank of fame ere yet my youth was past, 
 And left my impress on the speech in turn. 
 Ne'er in the school of art slothful to learn, 
 It therefore fell to me new paths to blast, 
 And to pour forth my soul in rhymes, to last 
 To distant times, if rightly I discern. 
 
 I fashioned songs from various themes, as well 
 As comedies and legends of the brave. 
 All in a style which no one could excel. 
 The second prize for odes to me they gave, 
 Life's hopes and sorrowings my sonnets tell, 
 And I have sung these verses for my grave. 
 
 (1829) 
 
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