Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Stefan George
1 79
STEFAN GEORGE
1 80
NOTES TO LITERATURE IV
lSI
STEFAN GEORGE
that man left behind hardly a single unalloyed poem, thereby also raising
the question of what German poet had ever succeeded in doing so. Even
in the famous stanzas liEs lacht in dem steigenden Jahr dir" [liThe hours
of August still wind youn] ( 1 5 31 r 49), from "Traurige Tanze" ["Mourn
ful Dances"] in Das Jahr der Seele [The Year of the So,,/] , a song which
the young Lukacs aptly described as playing its own accompani ment, the
words at the end , "Geloben wir glUcklich zu sein" [literally, "Let us vow
to be happyn] , wreak havoc with what has come before , subjecting some
thing utterly spontaneous to the will.
There is no doubt that in various ways George made a habit of the
esoteric gesture, first the gesture of an aesthetic claim that excluded any
one who was not , in his words, willing or able to understand the poetic
work as a literary image ; later, that of a cultural-political league of re
newal loosely grouped around him and allegedly embodying a secret
Germany. Despite this, he spoke from the soul of groups of the pre
Hitlerian reactionary German bourgeoisie that were quantitatively insig
nificant. His esoteric tone and his narcissistically hermetic nature
which according to Freud's theory gives political FUhrer-figures their
mass-psychological i mpact-contributed to this. It is an embarrassingly
self-proclai med doctrine of aristocracy, born of a will to style and visibly
lacking in tradition , confidence, and taste. It is already manifest, crudely
and vulgarly, in the lines in his early book Algabal in which the late
Roman em peror, seeing on a marble stai rcase the corpse of someone
beheaded at his command, merely lifts his purple train a little (" 0 mut
ter meiner mutter und Erlauchte" ["0 mother of my mother, long re
veredn] , 50/50). Although the rough-and-ready indignation about
George's posing is ph ilistine , it registers the pretentiousness of a dignity
bestowed upon oneself like a fantasy uniform . English has the unsur
passable and untranslatable expression "self-styled" for it. In this regard ,
George's habit of doi ng without capital letters and punctuation marks,
once shocking, can be interpreted as a clever camouflage maneuver;
made remote by the small letters, his stubborn banality eludes one's
grasp. Theodor Haecker found that there are numerous lines in George
that if pri nted in the ordinary manner would bear a deadly resemblance
to verses in souvenir albums; even the highly charged final poem of Das
Neue Reich [The Kingdom Come] is of this type.
Du schlank und rein wie eine flamme
Du wie der morgen zart und licht
1 82
NOTES TO LlTERA.TURE IV
1 8J
STEFAN GEORGE
stance on the other, di verge from one another. Nothing could contrast
more sharply with that stance than that of Arnold Schonberg's music;
but Schonberg's compositions on texts from George-an important cycle
from the Bueh der Ha"gmdm Garte" [The Boole of Ihe Hanging Ga,.dens] ,
the "Litanei" ["Litany"] and the UEntriickung" ["Transport"] from Der
Siebente Ring (The Sewn/h Ring] , and a Dowson translation-are
kindred in spi rit. They would hardly have become so if they had not
fastened onto such extraordi nary lines as the descri ption of the beautiful
flowerbed or the subliminally delicate poem about transience with which
Schonberg created a whole musical genre, which extended to the serial
compositions of the 19505:
Sprich nicht i m mer
Von dem laub
Windes raub
Vom zerschellen
Rei fer quitten
Von den tritten
Der vernichter
Spat im jahr
Von dem z ittern
Der li bellen
In gewittern
Und der li chter
Deren Rimmer
Wandelbar. ( 1 09)
[Hush your tale
Of the leaves
Wind unweaves,
Qui nce that lies
Ripe and bled,
And the t read
Of the vandals,
Fal l of year,
Of the brightning
Dragonflies
In the lightn ing,
Of the candles
That in frail
Glimmers veer. ] ( 1 09 )
1 84
NO TES TO LITERATURE IV
1 86
NOTES TO LITERATURE IV
nacht die leeren hande" ["And now I lift my empty eyes again , I And
empty hands into the empty night"] ("Die blume die ich mir am fenster
hege" [liThe flower in its pot of sallow clay"] [ 29h 30) . Then again his
range contains tonal colorations found only in the Western music of the
same years, as for instance Ravel's ]eux d'eau: "Die wespen mit den
goldengrunen schuppen I Sind von verschlossnen kelchen fortgeflogen '
I Wi r fahren mit dem kahn in weitem bogen I U rn bronzebraunen
laubes inselgruppen" ["The wasps with scales of golden-golden-green
are gone I From blooms that close their chalices. We row l Our boat
around an archi pelago I Of matted leaves in shades of bronze and fawn"]
("Nun saume nicht die gaben zu erhaschen" ["Now do not lag in reach
ing for the boon"] , [ 241 [ 2 5 ) . France endowed George with a Romance
verve, a slender grace which of itself, through its mere existence, swept
away the petit-bourgeois homegrown quality of the so-called German
Erlelmislyr;k [lyric of experience] of the later ni neteenth century. This
new linguistic level remained canonical even for generations who no
longer remember its prototypes in George's work. "Denn wird das gluck
sich je uns offenbaren I Wenn jetzt die nacht die lockende besternte 1 In
griiner garten-au es nicht erspaht I Wen n es die bunte volle blumen
ernte I Wenn es der glutwind nicht verrat?" ["For can delight- I ask
be manifest I To us, if such a night of stars and spells, I In gardens fresh
with green, does not betray it, I If hosts of blooms with di vers-coloured
bells I If burning winds do not convey it?"] ("Der lufte schaukeln wie
von neuen dingen" ["The air, astir as though with coming thi ngs"] 1 3 1 1
[ 3 1 ) . With this soaring music-like erotic lan, George won for German
poetry a utopian strain that goes beyond his retrospective mentality; to
day it is no more:
Saget mir auf welchem pfade
Heute sie voruberschreite
Dass ich aus der reichsten lade
Zarte seidenweben hole'
Rose pflucke und viole'
Das ich meine wange breite'
Schemel unter ihrer sohle. ( 1 06 )
[Tell m e o n what path today
She will come and wander by,
So that from my chest I may
Take the sheerest silks and choose
Sprigs of violet and rose,
187
STEFAN GEORGE
1 88
NOTES TO LITERATURE IV
li mited self-denial , aki n to the erotic. Verlaine writes "C 'est bien la pire
peine I De ne savoi r pourquoi , I Sans amour et sans hai ne, I Mon coeur
a tant de pei ne!" George translates, "Das sind die argsten peinen : I Nicht
zu wissen warum . . ? I Liebe keine-hass keinen-Mein Herz hat
soIche peinen" (Werke, vol . 2 , p. 4 1 1 ) . ["Certai nly the worst pain is /
To not know why I Without love and without hate I My heart has so
much pain !"] That is truly no longer an imitation . By using the loan
word peinen for peine George has, as Benjamin demanded that the trans
lator do, extended his own language through the other. A self-respecting
anthology of George's work would have to i nclude such translations; they
have never been equaled . That can be shown in stanzas from Baudelai re's
poem about the petites v;ei/le.r, from the Tableaux Pari.siens: "Sie tri ppeln
ahnlich wie die Polichinellen I Sie schleppen sich wie verwundete tiere
fort l Und ohne zu wollen tanzen sie-arme schellen I Daran sich stan
dig ein damon hangt! so verdorrt I Sie auch sind: ihre stechenden augen
bestricken I Das aHes bestaunt und zu aHem erglanzenden lacht" (rke,
vol . 2 , p. )06). [The French reads: "lis trottent, tout pareils a des
marionnettes; I Se trainent, comme font les animaux blesses, I Ou
dansent , sans vouloir danser, pauvre sonnettes I Ou se pend un Demon
sans pitie ! Tout casses I Qu'ils sont, ils ont des yeux perants comme une
vrille, I Luisants comme ces trous OU l'eau dort dans la nuit; I lis ont les
yeux divins de la petite fiHe I Qui s'etonne et qui rit a tout ce qui reluit."]
[n such lines, as in those about the seruante au grand coeur-George
translates the invocation simply as "die treue Magd" [the faithful servant
girl] -a social element which George would have experienced as con
taminating in his own production is admitted through the stylistic pri n
ci ple of the French. This gives his work a humanity that his ethical
proclamations deny.
The quality of George's translations is in many respects superior to
his most ambi tious production . One cannot help thinking that what will
survive in George's work is not the part that arrogantly presupposed that
it would last but the part that presents itself as ephemeral; not the part
George thought was the core but the part that lies on the periphery and
that visibily discomfited his followers. This should be understood in
temporal terms as well, as a defense of George's early work , which is in
many respects still awkward and suffers from the excessive demands it
makes of itself. Here the imperial pretentions are exposed , vulnerable
and unprotected , as the pale daydreams of a person suffering from
Weltscnmen: this permits a reconcil iation with them. Benjamin was prob-
1 89
STEFAN GEORGE
ably the first to class George's work with the Jugmds/ii that is so evident
in Melchior Lechter's book design. George's later works, whether they
be the artful simplifications of Das Jail,. de,. Seele or the pre
Expressionist pathos of De,. Siebenle Ring. tried to cover up thi s ]ugend
slif element. but it makes its presence felt in every line. The new yearn
ing for beauty celebrated in the preface to the hymns was none other
than that of the Jugends/il. the yearning for a beauty that struck roots in
the air, so to speak , freely posited by the subject and giving artistic form
to its own impotence . Strangely i ndeterminate i n nature, that beauty re
tains a moment of bli ndness. George's poetry was the poetry of i nvented
ornamentation , of an impossibility, but the compulsion to invent that
ornamentation made it more than merely ornamental; it was the expres
sion of a need as critical as it was hopeless. Where, i n accord with
]ugendslif. George surrenders without reservation and without posing to
the transience of his own and the historical moment, luck is with him.
It would be easy to inventory the stock of neoromantic props in this
poem from the Pilgeifah"len [Pilgrimages] :
Kein tritt kei n laut belebt den i nselgarten
Er liegt wie der palast i m zauberschlaf
Kein wachter hisst die ehrenden standarten
Es floh der furst der priester und der graf.
Denn aus dem flusse blasen fieberdUnste
Ein feuer fallt ein feuer steigt empor
Vnd um der ziergewachse welke kunste
Um aile farben spinnt ein grauer flor.
Jedoch der Fremde bangt erwartungsvoller
Er geht den pfad am taxushag hinan . .
Kein schein von einem blauen sammetkoller
Von einem kinderschuh aus saffian ? (39)
[The island-garden sleeps. No step, no sound.
And magic holds the palace dim and mute.
No priest , nor prince, or marquis can be found ,
No guard displays the banner i n salute.
A breath of fever from the ri ver fumes,
A fire falls, a fire mounts and flows,
On every colour greyish vapour glooms
And wi lts the shrubs and flowers in formal rows.
1 90
NOTES TO LITERATURE IV
With almost painful intimacy, the last lines of the poem cite the feeling
this sphere of i mages arouses. This is the way one remembers blushing
as a fifteen-year-old when the name of the girl one was infatuated with
was mentioned . A line has even crept into Das Jah,. de,. Seele that tries
to reveal the name, a pretentious and rechercht name which at the same
time has the semblance of the utmost collective necessity: "Die tranen
fern von Lilia dem kindd" [literally, "the tears, far from Lilia the
child"] ( J 5 21 I 48). The most fragi le as the strongest: there could be
worse formulations for the Jugmtislil. George's power of lyrical conden
sation was akin to it; even today there emanates from his work the un
satisfied yearning that the Jugmtislil intended and which it presented as
incapable of satisfaction. lIn this spirit, George inserted an image of the
technology otherwise taboo to him, an i mage of the rai road , into the
third and last poem of the Ve,.jiih ,.u Fahrte" [Journeys of Lr:mg Ago] ,
across the second of which flash the phantasma of the blue velvet coat
and the saffian shoe: "Wir jagen tiber weisse steppen 1 Der trennung weh
verschwand i m nu 1 Die raschen rider die uns schleppen 1 Fuhren ja
dem frtihling zu" ["Across a plain of snow we sped, 1 And parting
swiftly lost its sti ng, 1 The whirl of wheels that chugged ahead 1 Hurried
straight into spring"] (3 9/3 9). The speedi ng train and the "wundersame
pflanzenwelt" ["flora of a wonder-world"] with which the poem closes
are the cryptogram of the urge to wrest something completely vegetal
from what is completely artificial, to wrest nature from what is abso
lutely artifactual and distant from it.
The distancing gesture which i ntervenes even in what are intended to
be the most i ntimate of these poems seems to separate the poet George
categorically from prose. The George School's ban on the novel is well
known. But no one reflecting on the margi nal phenomena in George's
work will neglect the prose volume he published under the Hesiodian
title Tage u"d Tate" [Days and Deeds] . The volume includes a series of
dreams-dream protocols given artistic form , one m ight say-that
should not be omitted from an edition whose legitimacy is based on
rescuing the i mage of George from the official view of him. They are
dreams of a most sinister nature, i ncommensurable with the self
contained Apollonian figure who later glorified the dogma of the poet:
191
STEFAN GEORGE
The most significant, however, is the final one, "Der Redende Kopf"
["The Talking Head"] :
Man hatte mir cine thonerne maske gegeben und an meiner zimmerwand
aufgehangt. Ich Iud meine freunde ein damit sic siihe n wie ich den kopf
zum reden brachte. Vernehmlich h iess ich ihn den namen desse n zu sagen
auf den ich deutete und als er schwieg versuchte ich mit dem finger seine
l i ppen zu spalten. Darauf verzog er sein gesicht und biss in meinen
1 92
NOTES TO liTERA.TURE IV
finger. Laut und mit ausserster anspannung wiederholte ich den befehl
indem ich auf einen anderen deutete. Da nannt er den namen. Wir ver
liessen aile entsezt das zimmer und ich wusste class ich es nie mehr betre
ten wurde. (490-9 1 )
[I had been given a clay mask and hung it on the wall of my room. 1
invited my friends to see how I had gotten the head to speak. I com
manded it audibly to say the name of the person I pointed to and when it
was silent 1 tried to force its lips open with my finger. It made a face and
bit my finger. I repeated the command loudly and with the utmost inten
sity, pointing to a different person . Then it said the name . We all left the
room horrified and I knew 1 would never enter it agai n . ]
The force that compels the mask to speak again, its victory, and the
immeasurable horror this victory, as a self-destructive one , arouses
that is the enigmatic figure of George. No one will be able to make a
definitive statement about George until this enigma is resolved. The
mask , however, comes from the same Mexico to which the young poet
wanted to flee when his life had become hopelessly complicated.
34 1
NOTES
47 . C f. Walter Benjamin, "On the Program of the Coming Philosophy," i n
Bntjami1l: Philosophy, A eSlheliCJ , Hi.rlory, edi ted b y Gary Smith (Chicago: Univer
sity of C hi cago Press, ( 9 8 9 ) , p. d r.
4 8 . Benjam i n ,
Schrifte1l, vol . 2, p. 3 7 8 .
CrilifjfU 0/ Pure ReasoPl, translated by Norman Kemp Smith
G . W. F. Hegel ,
Nelson , 1 9 26), p . 1 2 8 . Page numbers in parentheses in the text hereon refer to this
edition.
STEFAN GEOR GE
I . Stefan George, Wertt'o Ausgak in %wei Biindt1l, 2d ed . , edited by Robert Boeh
ri nger (Dusseldorf and M unich: Helmut KUpper, formerly Georg Bond i , 1 96 8 ) ,
vol . I , p. 1 96. English translation from
lated by Olga Marx and Ernst Morwitz (Chapel H i l l : Uni versity of North Caro
l i na Press, ( 974), p. 1 90 . Further citations will be to these editions, with the page
number in the German edition first , fol lowed by the page number in the English i f
the text i n question has been included in the English selection. Where no source is
given for the translation it is this volume's translator's.
0"
I . Rudolf Borchardt, Danlt deu/seh ( M unich and Berl i n : Verlag der Bremer
Presse , 1 930), p. 5 0 r f.
2 . Rudolf Borchardt,