foudebassan (foudebassan) wrote in gedichte, @ 2008-04-05 23:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | barrocco, harsdoerffer |
Georg-Philipp Harsdörffer
(1607-1658)
Today’s entry is somewhat fantasy-ridden so you might prefer to ignore it.
Harsdörffer (isn’t that a mouthful) founded the oldest poetical society still in existence in Germany, the Order of the Pegnitz flowers, in 1645. “Order” like in “Order of the Phoenix”, Pegnitz, after the river that flows through Nürnberg, his home town, and flowers because flowers, shepherds, green nature and anything bucolic by essence were all very fashionable at the time. This isn’t a German thing, more of a general trend in literature at the time – the last chapter of L'Astrée (loooooong novel detailing the love of a nice shepherd for a nice shepherdess on the green, green grass, with nice white, white sheep frolicking in the background) were published in 1627, for instance.
ETA: apisa_b found this link (thank you!!!)
This is what it looks like in Gothic script:
Look here for the Roman transliteration.
And the translation would be:
Coloured
tightly bound
you bright glow of flowers
you gaudy round crown,
artfully woven / and tenderly bound
a thanks / and gift of heaven
a quarrel / of the senses
your adornment / has now shrivelled
but in exchange / a beautiful Order now flourishes
a deep tear / will yet begin
a strong band / will certainly develop
and your hosting flowers / grow in fame
as the flower crowns / the Pegnik shepherds.
Voiced rumours / Shoots of our poems
Make our connecting alliance
Known in the broad circle
With endowments
Through writing.
(be careful to read it following the numbers show on the first picture if you read it on the second picture; the translation follows the reading order, not the visual order)
So you’ll have noticed that the poem itself is shaped like a crown, making it a calligram several centuries before Apollinaire. I think it looks more like a vulva than like a crown of flowers, but that’s personal opinion more than fact. There are a lot of plays upon the words – first of course, the shape of the poem being a crown while the content addresses an actual crown of flowers in second person, while comparing the actual crown (that will, eventually, wilt and die) with the crown this really is about, ie the virtual, immaterial laurels of glory that will crown the poets of the order.
Then if you don’t read the poem and just look at the words and at where they are, you have a lot of tautological expressions in the beginning and ending (as if you’d tie up each end with identical strings), while the middle, when the text is separated in two, you have antonyms facing each other, while sounding and looking alike (Dank / Zank = thanks / quarrel; tiefer Riss / festes Band), as if bringing different but matching flowers onto the same crown. It’s all very clever.
Harsdörffer thought of himself as someone who paints with words, I think the image makes a lot of sense. There’s definitely more to this than just shepherds making platonic love in idealised country settings :)