Goethe

Goethe plays a role in a book I'm reading: Immortality by the genius Milan Kundera. The cover of the book promises: 'It will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover. Not many novels can do that.' Indeed, and I feel it's working already (or am I imagining?).

Anyways, never knew much about Goethe, but suddenly, while reading this book, he's standing in front of me. The immortal Goethe, with his toothless mouth.

Kundera cites one of Goethe's poems, 'the most famous German poem ever written, one which all German childeren must learn by heart'. I'm not a German kid, I don't know it by heart. I even didn't know the poem existed. But it's quite beautiful:

On all hilltops
There is peace,
In all treetops
You will hear
Hardly a breath.
Birds in the woods are silent.
Just wait, soon
You too will rest.

Über allen Gipfeln
ist Ruh,
in allen Wipfeln spürest du
kaum einen Hauch.
Die Vögel schweigen im Walde
Warte nur, balde
ruhest du auch.

The teacher Kundera continues: 'The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia.' Of course later, he connects the poem to Goethe's death: 'you too will rest'.

Milan Kundera (1991), Immortality. London.
Andy Warhol, Goethe, Green and Yellow