Michelangelo
Language: German (Deutsch)
Available translation(s): ENG
Was ist ein Stein? Was ist ein Marmorquader,
Daß Menschenhand ihn greifet an, den kalten,
Will aus dem toten schälen, aus ihm spalten
Des Menschenleibes warme Lebensader?
Sind doch nach ewgem Bilde wir geschaffen,
Daß wir uns selber suchen so zur Dauer
Heraus aus zeitenhafter Urfelsmauer,
Wo der Titanenkriege Schrunden klaffen?
Dein Meißel traf die Deutung tiefster Frage.
Du sahst den HERREN bei der Formung Stunde,
Sein Kronwerk haltend in des Blickes Wage:
Die Lehmfigur im letzten Rohbefunde,
Schon atmend . . . ER doch wurde zärtlich zage,
Gab dem Geschöpf noch streichelnd mildre Runde.
Confirmed with Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Gesicht und Antlitz: Neue Gedichte, Gotha: Leopold Klotz Verlag, 1928, page 61.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Michel Angelo ", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2022-09-19
Line count: 14
Word count: 95
Michel Angelo
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch)
What is stone? What is a marble block
That a human hand may attack it, the cold one,
[That it] wishes, from out of the dead thing, to peel, to extract
The warm life-blood of a human body?
For we are created in an eternal image,
That we thus seek to immortalize ourselves
Out of the time-bound primordial rock wall,
Where the cracks from the wars of the Titans gape?
Your mallet struck the deepest question of interpretation.
You saw the LORD in the hour of Creation,
Holding his crowning work in the balance of [his] gaze.
The clay figure in its final, raw stage,
Already breathing . . . yet HE became tenderly hesitant,
While yet caressing it, gave the creation a milder roundness.
Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2022 by Sharon Krebs, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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This text was added to the website: 2022-10-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 125