Delphi Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \(Illustrated\) pdfdrive com

OCTOBER 10.

Only  to  gaze  upon  her  dark  eyes  is  to  me  a  source  of  happiness!  And  what

grieves me, is, that Albert does not seem so happy as he — hoped to be — as I

should have been — if — I am no friend to these pauses, but here I cannot

express it otherwise; and probably I am explicit enough.

OCTOBER 12.

Ossian  has  superseded  Homer  in  my  heart.  To  what  a  world  does  the

illustrious  bard  carry  me!  To  wander  over  pathless  wilds,  surrounded  by

impetuous whirlwinds, where, by the feeble light of the moon, we see the spirits

of our ancestors; to hear from the mountain-tops, mid the roar of torrents, their

plaintive sounds issuing from deep caverns, and the sorrowful lamentations of a

maiden  who  sighs  and  expires  on  the  mossy  tomb  of  the  warrior  by  whom  she

was adored. I meet this bard with silver hair; he wanders in the valley; he seeks

the  footsteps  of  his  fathers,  and,  alas!  he  finds  only  their  tombs.  Then,

contemplating the pale moon, as she sinks beneath the waves of the rolling sea,

the memory of bygone days strikes the mind of the hero, days when approaching

danger  invigorated  the  brave,  and  the  moon  shone  upon  his  bark  laden  with

spoils,  and  returning  in  triumph.  When  I  read  in  his  countenance  deep  sorrow,

when I see his dying glory sink exhausted into the grave, as he inhales new and

heart-thrilling delight from his approaching union with his beloved, and he casts

a  look  on  the  cold  earth  and  the  tall  grass  which  is  so  soon  to  cover  him,  and

then  exclaims,  “The  traveller  will  come,    —    he  will  come  who  has  seen  my

beauty,  and  he  will  ask,  ‘Where  is  the  bard,  where  is  the  illustrious  son  of

Fingal?’  He  will  walk  over  my  tomb,  and  will  seek  me  in  vain!”  Then,  O  my

friend,  I  could  instantly,  like  a  true  and  noble  knight,  draw  my  sword,  and

deliver  my  prince  from  the  long  and  painful  languor  of  a  living  death,  and

dismiss my own soul to follow the demigod whom my hand had set free!