Lakes

Samuel Lewis, Louisiana, 1804
Samuel Lewis, Louisiana, 1804

Lakes are sites of reflection. When Goethe joined friends on a boat to cross Lake Zurich in June 1775 his fascination with optical effects and the psychology of vision fused with his humanistic sensibilities and his astonishing ability to re-assess the significance of what he had experienced. As he looked down into the lake he was drawn to the surrounding mountains and the reflected sky. He saw a way of attaining the heights without abandoning the down-to-earth.

Und frische Nahrung, neues Blut 
Saug ich aus freier Welt; 
Wie ist Natur so hold und gut, 
Die mich am Busen hält! 
Die Welle wieget unsern Kahn 
Im Rudertakt hinauf, 
Und Berge, wolkig himmelan, 
Begegnen unserm Lauf.  

Aug, mein Aug, was sinkst du nieder? 
Goldne Träume, kommt ihr wieder? 
Weg, du Traum, so Gold du bist,
Hier auch Lieb und Leben ist.  

Auf der Welle blinken 
Tausend schwebende Sterne, 
Weiche Nebel trinken 
Rings die türmende Ferne; 
Morgenwind umflügelt 
Die beschattete Bucht, 
Und im See bespiegelt 
Sich die reifende Frucht.

And fresh nutrition, new blood,
I suck from this open world;
Nature is so beautiful and good,
Holding me to its breast!
The waves are rocking our boat
With the rhythm of the oars,
And mountains, in clouds reaching up to the sky,
Come to meet us as we make our way.

Eye, my eye, why are you sinking down?
Golden dreams, are you going to return?
Begone, dream! however golden you are;
Here too there is love and life.

Twinkling on the waves
Are a thousand hovering stars,
Gentle mists are drinking
Up the looming distance;
The morning wind is flying around
The shaded bay,
And mirrored in the lake
Is the ripening fruit.

Goethe, Auf dem See	D543

A generation later, around 1814, Johannes Mayrhofer sat by another Alpine lake and reflected:

Wie mir das Leben kräftig quillt
Und sich in raschen Strömen spielt.
Wie's bald in trüben Massen gärt
Und bald zum Spiegel sich verklärt.

Bewusstsein meiner tiefsten Kraft
Ein Wonnemeer in mir erschafft.
Ich stürze kühn in seine Flut
Und ringe um das höchste Gut!

O Leben, bist so himmlisch schön,
In deinen Tiefen, in deinen Höhn,
Dein freundlich Licht soll ich nicht sehn,
Den finstren Pfad des Orkus gehn?

How life wells up in me so strongly
And plays around in rapid currents.
How quickly it ferments in cloudy mixtures
And then quickly becomes as clear as a mirror.

Awareness of my deepest power
Creates a sea of joy in me.
I plunge boldly into its flooding waters
And I struggle to attain the highest good.

Oh life, you are so heavenly beautiful,
In your depths, in your heights!
Shall I not see your friendly light
Shall I go along the darker path of Orcus?

Mayrhofer, Am See	D 124

Here again the lake functions as a mirror (both a physical reflecting telescope and a means of inner reflection), allowing the poet to reach the heights by plunging into the depths.

Bruchmann’s Am See (By the lake) picks up on Goethe’s image of the stars reflected in the lake and also makes the link with the inner life of human beings explicit. If we imagine human beings as lakes then we too would be able to soak up starlight; we can open ourselves up to enlightenment.

In des Sees Wogenspiele
Fallen durch den Sonnenschein
Sterne, ach, gar viele, viele,
Flammend leuchtend stets hinein.

Wenn der Mensch zum See geworden,
In der Seele Wogenspiele
Fallen aus des Himmels Pforten
Sterne, ach, gar viele, viele.

Into the play of the waves on the lake
They are falling through the sunshine  - 
Stars, oh, so many, many of them,
Blazing, alight, endlessly falling.

If a human were to become a lake,
Into the play of the waves in the soul
Falling out of the gates of heaven there would be
Stars, oh, so many, many of them.

Bruchmann, Am See	D 746

In Des Fischers Liebesglück Leitner also uses the image of stars reflected in the water of a lake. Here the stars both look down on the fisherman and his beloved on their gliding boat and at the same time bathe beneath it. The lovers look down and find themselves hovering above the sky. Their ecstasy on the lake has lifted them into the heavens. This is the effect of what Mayrhofer called (in Abschied, D 475) a ‘Seenspiegel’, a lake-mirror.

Gelinde
Dann treiben
Die Winde
Uns wieder
Seeeinwärts
Vom Flieder
Des Ufers hindann.
 
Die blassen
Nachtnebel
Umfassen
Mit Hüllen
Vor Spähern
Den stillen,
Unschuldigen Scherz.
 
Und tauschen
Wir Küsse,
So rauschen
Die Wellen
Im Sinken
Und Schwellen,
Den Horchern zum Trotz.
 
Nur Sterne
Belauschen
Uns ferne
Und baden
Tief unter
Den Pfaden
Des gleitenden Kahns.
 
So schweben
Wir selig,
Umgeben
Vom Dunkel,
Hoch überm
Gefunkel
Der Sterne einher.
 
Und weinen
Und lächeln,
Und meinen,
Enthoben
Der Erde,
Schon oben,
Schon drüben zu sein.

Gently
We are then driven
By the winds
Back again
Onto the lake
Away from the lilacs
On the bank.

The pale
Night-time mist
Surrounds us
And protects us
From being observed
As we quietly
Play our innocent game.

And as we exchange
Kisses,
The sound
Of the waves
As they sink
And swell
Defies anyone who is eavesdropping.

Only the stars
Observe
Us from afar,
And they bathe
Deep underneath
The pathway
Of the floating boat.

Thus we hover
In bliss,
Surrounded 
By darkness,
High above
The sparkling
Of the stars.

And we cry
And smile
And imagine ourselves
Lifted up above
The earth,
Already high up,
Already in the beyond.

Leitner, Des Fischers Liebesglück	D 933

☙

Descendant of: 

WATER  


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