Eichendorff Quotes

And the world suddenly appeared to me as such an awfully large place, with I so totally alone in it that I could have cried from the bottom of my heart.

Es schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen

Mir ist’s nirgends recht. Es ist, als wäre ich überall eben zu spät gekommen, als hätte die ganze Welt gar nicht auf mich gerechnet.

Everybody is so happy, and no one has a thought for you. And this is what happens to me everywhere and always. Everyone has marked out his own little spot on the Earth, his warm stove, his cup of coffee, his wife, his glass of wine in the evening, and is quite content with that;[...]I don't feel at ease anywhere. It is as if I always arrive a second too late, as if all the world had utterly failed to take me into account.

Ich wünscht', ich wäre ein Vöglein Und zöge über das Meer, Wohl über das Meer und weiter, Bis daß ich im Himmel wär!

Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem ‘The Soldier’, whose final lines promised:                                And when it is darkest                                [and] I am tired of the earth . . .                                We will storm heaven’s gate.

At last the gardener arrived, mumbling something about rascals and country bumpkins, and took me out into the park, giving me a lengthy lecture as he did so. I was instructed to be sober and industrious, and not to wander about aimlessly or waste my time in unproductive activities: if I heeded this counsel, he said, I might in time achieve something. He gave me much other useful and well-phrased advice too, but I have since forgotten almost all of it.

O weiter, stiller Friede! So tief im Abendrot, Wie sind wir wandermüde - Is dies etwa der Tod?

Es ist in unseren Tagen das größte Hindernis für das wahrhafte Verständnis aller Dichterwerke, daß jeder, statt sich recht und auf sein ganzes Leben davon durchdringen zu lassen, sogleich ein unruhiges, krankhaftes Jucken verspürt, selber zu dichten und etwas dergleichen zu liefern.

Das tut gar nichts... ich möchte gar nicht so reisen: Pferde und Kaffee und frischüberzogene Betten und Nachtmützen und Stiefelknecht vorausbestellt. Das ist just das Schönste, wenn wir frühmorgens heraustreten, und die Zugvögel hoch über uns fortziehn, dass wir gar nicht wissen, welcher Schornstein heut für uns raucht, und gar nicht voraussehen, was uns bis zum Abend noch für ein besonderes Glück begegnen kann.

Karl was the last to be with him. He found him calm and almost gay. After he had gone, Ludwig put his few things in order and wrote for some time. Then he drew a chair to the window and set a basin with warm water on the table beside him. He locked the door, sat himself on the settle and with his arm in the water, he cut the artery. The pain was slight. He saw the blood flowing, a scene he had often thought on—to let this hateful, poisoned blood pour out of his body. His room became very clear. He saw every hook, every nail, every glint of the quartzes, the iridescence, the colours; he absorbed it: his room. It gathered about him, it passed in with his breath and was one with his life. Then it receded, uncertain. His youth began, in pictures. Eichendorff, the woods, homesickness. Reconciled, without pain. Beyond the woods rose up barbed-wire entanglements, little white shrapnel clouds, the burst of heavier shells. But they alarmed him no longer. They were muffled, almost like bells. The bells became louder, but the woods were still there. The bells pealed in his head so loudly that he felt it must burst. Then it grew darker. The pealing sounded fainter, and the evening came in at the window, clouds floated up under his feet. He had wished once in his life to see flamingoes; now he knew; these were flamingoes, with broad, pinkish-grey wings, lots of them, a phalanx—Did wild ducks not once fly so toward the very red moon, red as poppies in Flanders? —The landscape receded farther and farther, the woods sank deeper, rivers rose up, gleaming, silver, and islands; the pinkish-grey wings flew ever higher and higher, and the horizon became ever brighter—Now, suddenly, a dark cry swelled in his throat, hot, insistent, a last thought spilled over out of the brain into the failing consciousness: fear, rescue, bind it up! —He tried to rise, staggering, to lift his hand; the body jerked, but already it was too weak. —It spun round and spun round, then it vanished; and the giant bird with dark pinions came very gently with slow sweeps and the wings closed noiselessly over him. A

Whoever has deeply and thirstily drunk, Is pulled down to the wondrous source, And melodically swims along as a wave, On which the world breaks into thousands of sparks. With yearning grows the holy well, crashes, Shines intoxicated, jubilant within, At times forging through the chasm to dazzling light, At times rushing cool then sunken in night. So let it eagerly roar and rush! For upon it floats the poet in golden bark, Himself a holy sacrifice in songs. The ancient rocks split with a crack, From yonder greet us kindred ballads, He guides us back to the eternal sea.

Sehnsucht? The German word is rich with emotional and imaginative associations, famously described by the poet Matthew Arnold as a “wistful, soft, tearful longing.” And what of the “Blue Flower”? Leading German Romantic writers, such as Novalis (1772–1801) and Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857), used the image of a “Blue Flower” as a symbol of the wanderings and yearnings of the human soul, especially as this sense of longing is evoked—though not satisfied—by the natural world.

Sehnsucht Es schienen so golden die Sterne, Am Fenster ich einsam stand Und hörte aus weiter Ferne Ein Posthorn im stillen Land. Das Herz mir im Leib entbrennte, Da hab ich mir heimlich gedacht: Ach, wer da mitreisen könnte In der prächtigen Sommernacht! Zwei junge Gesellen gingen Vorüber am Bergeshang, Ich hörte im Wandern sie singen Die stille Gegend entlang: Von schwindelnden Felsenschlüften, Wo die Wälder rauschen so sacht, Von Quellen, die von den Klüften Sich stürzen in die Waldesnacht. Sie sangen von Marmorbildern, Von Gärten, die überm Gestein In dämmernden Lauben verwildern, Palästen im Mondenschein, Wo die Mädchen am Fenster lauschen, Wann der Lauten Klang erwacht Und die Brunnen verschlafen rauschen In der prächtigen Sommernacht. –

Wie im Turm der Uhr Gewichte Rücket fort die Weltgeschichte, Und der Zeiger schweigend kreist, Keiner rät, wohin er weist.

Du aber hüte dich, das wilde Tier zu wecken in der Brust, dass es nicht plötzlich ausbricht und dich selbst zerreißt.

Noche de luna”, de Joseph von Eichendorff, se