Read more German poetry! XD
Sep. 15th, 2021 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellerWhat prompted this particular rant? Ah, there's elections in Germany this month, and while I'm not a political blogger or anything, I try to keep up with candidate interviews and stuff. Needless to say, there's a lot of bullshitting involved on all sides. But this particular piece of bullshit involves one of my personal interests/hobbies: German poetry.
German poetry is, well, German - so, a politician of a German right-wing party has to approve of it in principle, right? Anyway, it came as no surprise to anyone when Tino Chrupalla, AfD candidate (with, thankfully, no real chance of being actually elected), in an interview with a child reporter (is it a specifically German thing to have candidates interviewed by children? anyway, it's a popular format) demanded to teach more German culture in schools, and, in particular, more German poems.
Without going into any (entirely unnecessary) further detail about my opinions regarding that guy: this is probably the only point I could ever agree on with Mr. Chrupalla.
The thing is: I love German poetry! In a fanwork exchange I just signed up for, three of my seven requested fandoms involve German poetry! Reading this stuff at school would have made German class much more fun.
Unfortunately, this is also much more controversial than you'd think. Because of the typical neo-nazi obsession with "German-ness", surprisingly many people have concluded the (logically wrong) inverse: people who display a deeper-going interest in German culture (including, yes, German poetry) simply have to be neo-nazis. Yes, I have run into that one - even one of my teachers accused me of neo-nazism, based purely on my reading habits...
Back to Chrupalla and his educational suggestions. As an avid reader of German poetry, I don't believe in calling someone a neo-nazi just because he wants people to read more German poetry. The remarkable thing - that distinguishes Tino Chrupalla from an innocent poetry fan - only came up in the seemingly innocuous next question. The interviewer was a 13-year-old kid, and when faced with Chrupalla's statement, he asked the obvious follow-up: So, Mr. Chrupalla, what's your favorite German poem? And, also entirely unsurprisingly, Chrupalla couldn't come up with one. (The kid interviewer was surprised, but I'm chalking that up to lack of life experience.)
Yeah.
This would almost be funny: what a wonderful accidental way to unmask right-wing obsession with being "German"! (It's un-funny only because it discredits literature fans - and indirectly makes sure German poetry will continue to be kept away from German schoolchildren.)
So, here's a suggestion, not only to Chrupalla and his fans: read more German poetry! Here are some recommendations.
Here's a simple one to get you started:
Die Lore-Ley - Heinrich Heine
Maybe you know the Loreley "myth", about the lady sitting on a rock over the river Rhine, luring men to their watery doom with her beauty and her singing? Yeah. What many people don't know is that this plot is an artificial myth, originally created by Clemens Brentano and subsequently popularized by Heinrich Heine. This is 19th century German writers doing fanfic of each other's work. Before that, there was no such folk tale, although Heine does frame it as one!
"
Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
dass ich so traurig bin;
ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
"
(I don't know what it's supposed to mean
that I'm so sad;
there's a fairy tale from old days
I can't get out of my mind.)
Full text can be found here.
Good news for neo-nazis: the whole thing is as German as it gets. When the poem was written, there was no Loreley myth - but now, there is! For someone to create something that ties so perfectly into local folklore it becomes a part of it... Yeah, this is German as f*ck. (There's no way a cultural outsider could pull this off!) In mood, tone, and mentality, this poem may very well be the most German thing you'll ever read. Hooray!
Bad news for neo-nazis: Heinrich Heine was Jewish. Whoopsies. Yeah, this has always been a bit awkward for the Nazis who tried to define German Jews as "not German"... Usually, of course, they just burned the books by Jewish authors and culturally erased them that way - except, that approach doesn't work with what's probably the country's most famous poem. You don't get rid of something that's become an intrinsic part of local culture and folklore that easily! They tried to circumvent this "problem" by reprinting the poem in anthologies as "traditional" or "author unknown", but, yeah... Very awkward, that. (Also, a case of almost-funny, although of course there's nothing funny about the Holocaust. Just about the impressive levels of cognitive dissonance displayed here.)
All in all, it's a definite reading recommendation: great poem, and a great example of German culture. I'm all for reading it in schools!
Let's move on to another classic.
Faust - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Now this is going into actual folklore! While Goethe's Faust is arguably the most famous treatment of this material and what most people think of when they hear "Faust", the actual myth is much older - and is, in turn, closely related to the Sorbian Krabat myth and the Polish Pan Twardowski tales.
We're following the frustrated scholar Heinrich Faust
"
Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,
Juristerey und Medicin,
Und leider auch Theologie!
Durchaus studirt, mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh’ ich nun, ich armer Thor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor
"
(I have now, ah!, philosophy,
Law and medicine,
And unfortunately also theology!
Thoroughly studied, with hot endeavor.
Here I stand now, poor fool me!
And am just as wise as before)
(yes, since there is quite a bit of author self-insert going on - Goethe himself was the kind of scholar who studied a bit of everything - you can draw your own conclusions regarding Goethe's opinion of theology) and Faust's misadventures under the influence of the devil, embodied by malevolent spirit / demon / whatever Mephistopheles.
"
Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint!
Und das mit Recht; denn alles was entsteht
Ist werth daß es zu Grunde geht;
Drum besser wär’s daß nichts entstünde.
So ist denn alles was ihr Sünde,
Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt,
Mein eigentliches Element.
"
(I am the spirit that always negates!
And rightly so; for everything that comes into being
Is worth that it goes to ruin;
Therefore it would be better if nothing came into being.
So is then all that you call sin,
Destruction, in short: evil,
My true element.)
Good news for neo-nazis: This is generally considered the greatest work of German literature, and with some justification, too. If you're so proud of being German, of speaking German, of being a part of German culture... Well, this is basically one of the reasons why, right? Any and all claims of cultural superiority fall flat without citing Goethe at least once. You could at least make an effort to, you know, actually read him.
Bad news for neo-nazis: Oh, where to start? The whole thing isn't so much German as a cultural mix involving quite different mythologies... If you consider other cultures inferior to your own, you may experience a few uncomfortable reading moments. Goethe wasn't a cultural purist. (Understatement. Going by his reading and translating foreign literature from ridiculously many languages into German, the guy had quite the international mindset. This also, inevitably, influenced his writing.) He also wasn't a big fan of ideology-over-common-sense. But, hey, you should consider reading his "Faust" anyway: maybe it will broaden your world view, which would be a win for everyone.
Seriously: this one should be read in schools. Actually, it used to be, but was removed from most curricula for being "too difficult". Yeah, easy reading this is not. It is, however, fun. Also, edgy (not only for its time!), heavily sarcastic, and thorougly entertaining. Clear recommendation.
Let's go further back in time!
The Nibelungenlied - Unknown Author
(Yes, this time, the author really is unknown.)
I don't think I need to give another introduction to this one: I've written about it before.
Here is a short introduction.
Here is my own translation (and commentary) of Kriemhild's character intro.
Here is my commentary on the TVTropes Nibelungenlied commentary. (Very meta. XD)
It's about... a noble lady getting angry at her brothers, people being all around medieval, and everyone dying in horrible ways. In short: yes, it's very German, too. XD
Good news for neo-nazis: Hey, you'll recognize at least some of the characters' names and some basic plot points from your propaganda material! Might as well read the whole thing, right?
Bad news for neo-nazis: Of course, first, you'll have to learn Middle High German. (Interestingly, for all the professed love for anything German-ish, hardly anyone from that scene ever goes so far...) And then, after all that effort, you'll have to realize that a) the setting is a time in which "Germany" didn't even exist as a concept, and no-one identifies as "German", and b) no, this was never intended as a political how-to manual... Oh, the horror!
Definite reading recommendation! It has wonderful antihero / villain protagonists (none of the characters are actually nice), adventure, magic, surprisingly kinky sex, a lot of violence, and musical instruments used as weapons, too! Entertainment value: extremely high. Unfortunately, all the reasons that make it entertaining also make it very unlikely to be read at any school, ever. (I can imagine the ensuing parental complaints!)
Ahhh, you know what? I could just have saved myself a lot of typing by simply saying, I f*cking hate neo-nazis...
German poetry is, well, German - so, a politician of a German right-wing party has to approve of it in principle, right? Anyway, it came as no surprise to anyone when Tino Chrupalla, AfD candidate (with, thankfully, no real chance of being actually elected), in an interview with a child reporter (is it a specifically German thing to have candidates interviewed by children? anyway, it's a popular format) demanded to teach more German culture in schools, and, in particular, more German poems.
Without going into any (entirely unnecessary) further detail about my opinions regarding that guy: this is probably the only point I could ever agree on with Mr. Chrupalla.
The thing is: I love German poetry! In a fanwork exchange I just signed up for, three of my seven requested fandoms involve German poetry! Reading this stuff at school would have made German class much more fun.
Unfortunately, this is also much more controversial than you'd think. Because of the typical neo-nazi obsession with "German-ness", surprisingly many people have concluded the (logically wrong) inverse: people who display a deeper-going interest in German culture (including, yes, German poetry) simply have to be neo-nazis. Yes, I have run into that one - even one of my teachers accused me of neo-nazism, based purely on my reading habits...
Back to Chrupalla and his educational suggestions. As an avid reader of German poetry, I don't believe in calling someone a neo-nazi just because he wants people to read more German poetry. The remarkable thing - that distinguishes Tino Chrupalla from an innocent poetry fan - only came up in the seemingly innocuous next question. The interviewer was a 13-year-old kid, and when faced with Chrupalla's statement, he asked the obvious follow-up: So, Mr. Chrupalla, what's your favorite German poem? And, also entirely unsurprisingly, Chrupalla couldn't come up with one. (The kid interviewer was surprised, but I'm chalking that up to lack of life experience.)
Yeah.
This would almost be funny: what a wonderful accidental way to unmask right-wing obsession with being "German"! (It's un-funny only because it discredits literature fans - and indirectly makes sure German poetry will continue to be kept away from German schoolchildren.)
So, here's a suggestion, not only to Chrupalla and his fans: read more German poetry! Here are some recommendations.
Here's a simple one to get you started:
Die Lore-Ley - Heinrich Heine
Maybe you know the Loreley "myth", about the lady sitting on a rock over the river Rhine, luring men to their watery doom with her beauty and her singing? Yeah. What many people don't know is that this plot is an artificial myth, originally created by Clemens Brentano and subsequently popularized by Heinrich Heine. This is 19th century German writers doing fanfic of each other's work. Before that, there was no such folk tale, although Heine does frame it as one!
"
Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
dass ich so traurig bin;
ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
"
(I don't know what it's supposed to mean
that I'm so sad;
there's a fairy tale from old days
I can't get out of my mind.)
Full text can be found here.
Good news for neo-nazis: the whole thing is as German as it gets. When the poem was written, there was no Loreley myth - but now, there is! For someone to create something that ties so perfectly into local folklore it becomes a part of it... Yeah, this is German as f*ck. (There's no way a cultural outsider could pull this off!) In mood, tone, and mentality, this poem may very well be the most German thing you'll ever read. Hooray!
Bad news for neo-nazis: Heinrich Heine was Jewish. Whoopsies. Yeah, this has always been a bit awkward for the Nazis who tried to define German Jews as "not German"... Usually, of course, they just burned the books by Jewish authors and culturally erased them that way - except, that approach doesn't work with what's probably the country's most famous poem. You don't get rid of something that's become an intrinsic part of local culture and folklore that easily! They tried to circumvent this "problem" by reprinting the poem in anthologies as "traditional" or "author unknown", but, yeah... Very awkward, that. (Also, a case of almost-funny, although of course there's nothing funny about the Holocaust. Just about the impressive levels of cognitive dissonance displayed here.)
All in all, it's a definite reading recommendation: great poem, and a great example of German culture. I'm all for reading it in schools!
Let's move on to another classic.
Faust - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Now this is going into actual folklore! While Goethe's Faust is arguably the most famous treatment of this material and what most people think of when they hear "Faust", the actual myth is much older - and is, in turn, closely related to the Sorbian Krabat myth and the Polish Pan Twardowski tales.
We're following the frustrated scholar Heinrich Faust
"
Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,
Juristerey und Medicin,
Und leider auch Theologie!
Durchaus studirt, mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh’ ich nun, ich armer Thor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor
"
(I have now, ah!, philosophy,
Law and medicine,
And unfortunately also theology!
Thoroughly studied, with hot endeavor.
Here I stand now, poor fool me!
And am just as wise as before)
(yes, since there is quite a bit of author self-insert going on - Goethe himself was the kind of scholar who studied a bit of everything - you can draw your own conclusions regarding Goethe's opinion of theology) and Faust's misadventures under the influence of the devil, embodied by malevolent spirit / demon / whatever Mephistopheles.
"
Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint!
Und das mit Recht; denn alles was entsteht
Ist werth daß es zu Grunde geht;
Drum besser wär’s daß nichts entstünde.
So ist denn alles was ihr Sünde,
Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt,
Mein eigentliches Element.
"
(I am the spirit that always negates!
And rightly so; for everything that comes into being
Is worth that it goes to ruin;
Therefore it would be better if nothing came into being.
So is then all that you call sin,
Destruction, in short: evil,
My true element.)
Good news for neo-nazis: This is generally considered the greatest work of German literature, and with some justification, too. If you're so proud of being German, of speaking German, of being a part of German culture... Well, this is basically one of the reasons why, right? Any and all claims of cultural superiority fall flat without citing Goethe at least once. You could at least make an effort to, you know, actually read him.
Bad news for neo-nazis: Oh, where to start? The whole thing isn't so much German as a cultural mix involving quite different mythologies... If you consider other cultures inferior to your own, you may experience a few uncomfortable reading moments. Goethe wasn't a cultural purist. (Understatement. Going by his reading and translating foreign literature from ridiculously many languages into German, the guy had quite the international mindset. This also, inevitably, influenced his writing.) He also wasn't a big fan of ideology-over-common-sense. But, hey, you should consider reading his "Faust" anyway: maybe it will broaden your world view, which would be a win for everyone.
Seriously: this one should be read in schools. Actually, it used to be, but was removed from most curricula for being "too difficult". Yeah, easy reading this is not. It is, however, fun. Also, edgy (not only for its time!), heavily sarcastic, and thorougly entertaining. Clear recommendation.
Let's go further back in time!
The Nibelungenlied - Unknown Author
(Yes, this time, the author really is unknown.)
I don't think I need to give another introduction to this one: I've written about it before.
Here is a short introduction.
Here is my own translation (and commentary) of Kriemhild's character intro.
Here is my commentary on the TVTropes Nibelungenlied commentary. (Very meta. XD)
It's about... a noble lady getting angry at her brothers, people being all around medieval, and everyone dying in horrible ways. In short: yes, it's very German, too. XD
Good news for neo-nazis: Hey, you'll recognize at least some of the characters' names and some basic plot points from your propaganda material! Might as well read the whole thing, right?
Bad news for neo-nazis: Of course, first, you'll have to learn Middle High German. (Interestingly, for all the professed love for anything German-ish, hardly anyone from that scene ever goes so far...) And then, after all that effort, you'll have to realize that a) the setting is a time in which "Germany" didn't even exist as a concept, and no-one identifies as "German", and b) no, this was never intended as a political how-to manual... Oh, the horror!
Definite reading recommendation! It has wonderful antihero / villain protagonists (none of the characters are actually nice), adventure, magic, surprisingly kinky sex, a lot of violence, and musical instruments used as weapons, too! Entertainment value: extremely high. Unfortunately, all the reasons that make it entertaining also make it very unlikely to be read at any school, ever. (I can imagine the ensuing parental complaints!)
Ahhh, you know what? I could just have saved myself a lot of typing by simply saying, I f*cking hate neo-nazis...
no subject
Date: 2021-09-16 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-16 03:05 am (UTC)It's an extremely "catchy" poem: very easy to memorize because the words just flow together that well! I learned it when I was, like, three years old (and my dad just read random nice stuff to me because no one had ever explained the concept of "children's literature" to him), and I didn't even know the meaning of everything, but it sounded good anyway! XD Some poems are just like that. (And, I mean, I'm usually bad at memorizing stuff. Just, Loreley? No problem at all.)
no subject
Date: 2021-09-17 06:07 am (UTC)Cool post re German poetry!
I'm replying because two pieces of German poetry (or, one poem and one song, or possibly two songs) have stuck in my memory through all the time since I took two years of German class in high school (roughly ages 16 and 17, for me, a long time ago):
Die Gedanken sind frei (though I don't think teenage me saw the last two verses at the link!)
and
Meeresstrand (Ans Haff nun fliegt die Möwe) by Theodor Storm.
I think I learned about these because it was a German class exercise to try to translate them. I retained the general meaning from Die Gedanken sind frei, and I wonder what the politician you mentioned thinks of that song!
In contrast, I don't think I got very far with translating Meeresstrand, because I retained only a pretty mental picture of "Abendschein" like a sunset reflecting off water, whereas the online translation I can get, today, is a lot more like the usually gray and foggy Northern California coast I grew up with.
I am curious about whether these two works are well-loved in Germany, or not so much. Care to say?
no subject
Date: 2021-09-17 06:34 am (UTC)Huh. Difficult to say.
"Die Gedanken sind frei" is still well-known as a folk song, and I grew up with it. (My dad can play it on the piano.) I think most people have encountered it at some point in their lives.
The Meeresstrand poem? That one is less famous - I've seen it before, but I think it's one of those poems you only know if you're already specifically interested in old poetry or, generally, literature. It's not something you'd encounter in popular culture.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-18 09:49 pm (UTC)