German help, please!

[Heather in WI]

We discovered an old letter lodged underneath the drawer inside a jewelry box handed down in the family. It appears to be written in German and looks dated 18__. Can anyone translate it for us?

 

 

 

[Annie G]

No translation help but boy is that beautiful penmanship!

[Catwoman]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's something about kilts and cupcakes.

 

OK, I made that up.

 

I don't speak or read a word of German, but at least I can bump your thread for someone who does. :)

 

I hope regentrude sees this.

[Mandylubug]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's something about kilts and cupcakes.

 

OK, I made that up.

 

I don't speak or read a word of German, but at least I can bump your thread for someone who does. :) I hope regentrude sees this.

 

I agree.

 

It definitely says to NEVER trust homemade cupcakes from yoga pant wearing moms. Also says that kilts are only suitable attire for men with washboard abs....  :gnorsi:

[maize]

Maybe send a PM to regentrude with a link to this thread?

[Heather in WI]

I will try that, Maize. Thank you!

 

ETA: I can't. Her inbox is full.

[Catwoman]

I will try that, Maize. Thank you!

 

ETA: I can't. Her inbox is full.

Oh well. I guess the rest of us will have to keep making stuff up until she finally shows up. :D

[Matryoshka]

Okay, that's in an old German script that was used pre-WW2.  It's pretty much unreadable to even most modern-day Germans.  I taught it to myself 'cause I'm a nerd (the alphabet was in the back of my math text in Germany - they use the letters as variables, like we do Greek).  Anyway, I usually have a super-hard time reading it 'for real', as real people's script varies so much from the 'ideal', but this is fairly clear, so maybe I can make some of it out for you...

 

It might be some kind of poem?  The top says "In memory of your friend, L. Weisser 18__"

 

It starts:

 

Beautiful world, where are you?  Come again, sweet blooming altar of Nature! Oh, your fabled traces live on only in the far-off land of Song.   Dying out (or extinct?), the Realm mourns; my gaze sees no deity.  Oh, from the warm pictures of life, only shadows remains.

 

All blossoms have fallen. From the North gruesome pains.  For One to rule over others, this pantheon had to pass away.  Sorrowfully I look to the starry heavens (literally arch/bow of stars)

 

 

 

I can try to keep going - it takes a while to decipher, and I'm not sure I can do it 100%.  Regentrude, can you read this old script?

I will keep adding to this post as I get more...

[Lawyer&Mom]

Wow. I can read German, but I can't read that handwriting to save my life!

[Heather in WI]

Okay, that's in an old German script that was used pre-WWI.  It's pretty much unreadable to even most modern-day Germans.  I taught it to myself 'cause I'm a nerd (the alphabet was in the back of my math text in Germany - they use the letters as variables, like we do Greek).  Anyway, I usually have a super-hard time reading it 'for real', as real people's script varies so much from the 'ideal', but this is fairly clear, so maybe I can make some of it out for you...

 

It might be some kind of poem?  The top says "In memory of your friend, L. Weisser 18__"

 

It starts:

 

Beautiful world, where are you?  Come again, sweet blossom of Nature!

 

I can try to keep going - it takes a while to decipher, and I'm not sure I can do it 100%.  Regentrude, can you read this old script?

 

Wow! Thank you for what you've done so far! Updating my parents! :-)

[Matryoshka]

Wow. I can read German, but I can't read that handwriting to save my life!

 

For those that read German well: my translating skills kind of stink.  I can read it and understand it fine, but I never had much practice translating, if that makes sense.  I can say what I've got, and maybe someone can do better at the translating bit?  Or help me where I can't quite decipher a word?  So far I've got in German (I can keep updating this as well.  It's slow going...):

 

Zur Erinnerung an Ihren Freund L. Weisser 18__

 

Schöne Welt, wo bist du?  Kehre wieder, holder Blüthenaltar der Natur. Ach, nur in dem Fernland der Lieder lebt noch dein fabelhafte Spur.  Ausgestorben trauert der Gefilde, keine Gottheit zeigt sich meinen Blick. 

Ach, von ....enem Leben warmen Bilder bleib der Schatten nur zurück.

 

[Lawyer&Mom]

I'd say your translation is pretty great.

[Matryoshka]

Well, this is definitely from the Romantic period in Germany! A bit overwrought!  ;)  Sounds like some kind of eulogy?

[Matryoshka]

Wait a minute, I just got to the bottom (deciphered about half of the middle in bits...) and I noticed it's signed (or attributed to) F. Schiller on the bottom.  Well, no wonder it's all flowery! 

 

I can probably find the original on the 'net somewhere...  Yep, it's a poem by Schiller.  Apparently about the Greek gods (I guess hence the passing pantheon...)

 

And apparently that was Feenland, not Fernland, so fairyland, not far-away land...  I'm actually rather happy with myself that I parsed as much of that as I did!  I have more of it in a Word doc, but it was fractured, as the handwriting was getting messier as it went on, and I was having a much harder time.  Apparently it's these three stanzas of a much longer poem:

 

Schöne Welt, wo bist du? – Kehre wieder,
Holdes Blüthenalter der Natur!
Ach, nur in dem Feenland der Lieder
Lebt noch deine fabelhafte Spur.
Ausgestorben trauert das Gefilde,
Keine Gottheit zeigt sich meinem Blick,
Ach, von jenem lebenwarmen Bilde
Blieb der Schatten nur zurück.

 

Alle jene Blüthen sind gefallen
Von des Nordes schauerlichem Wehn;
Einen zu bereichern unter Allen,
Mußte diese Götterwelt vergehn.
Traurig such' ich an dem Sternenbogen,
Dich, Selene, find' ich dort nicht mehr;
Durch die Wälder ruf' ich, durch die Wogen,
Ach! sie wiederhallen leer!

 

(two stanzas left out, then the text finishes with)

 

Ja, sie kehrten heim, und alles Schöne,
Alles Hohe nahmen sie mit fort,
Alle Farben, alle Lebenstöne,
Und uns blieb nur das entseelte Wort.
Aus der Zeitfluth weggerissen, schweben
Sie gerettet auf des Pindus Höhn;
Was unsterblich im Gesang soll leben,
Muß im Leben untergehn.

 

I could keep translating, but I'm guessing you can find a more professional translation online, now that we know what it is... ;)

[Liz CA]

Too late for tonight. But if Regentrude does not have it translated sometime tomorrow, you can PM me and I will translate it and send it back to you. Thank God, someone found the poem so we don't have to decipher the old style of penmanship.

[Loesje22000]

Www.schillerinstitute.org might be an option?

[regentrude]

Sorry, just saw this now. I don't have time to translate, getting ready for work. As others said, it is a poem by Friedrich Schiller. Schoene Welt wo bist du (The Gods of Greece).

Maybe google for a translation. I quickly only found the first stanza.

[lynn]

Google German English translation. I have had to do that with letters from German relatives.

[Matryoshka]

Okay, I thought since I found the poem, we could just look up a translation, but the only translation I can find online doesn't even include the first two stanzas on that paper (ie doesn't translate the whole, much longer, poem and leaves them out), and also seems to be a "translation" from the 1800's, when German poetry doesn't seem to have been so much translated as rewritten (I think partly to maintain meter, verse, and rhyme, but it seems they even add stuff in to do this).  One of my dds was listening to a song a school chorus was singing at a recital at her school, and they had the German in the program and the English 'translation' projected behind - she thought 'that's not what it says!'   The translation was nonsensical.  I'm not sure the guy spoke German much at all, and certainly didn't use a dictionary!  It was an 'official' translation, attributed to someone in the 1800's, and apparently no one's caught it yet?

 

For those that speak some German, here's a line from that poem (original and "translation")

 

von den Fingern den Künstlerin      =/=     Like as fingers when skillfully

 

It actually means "from the fingers of the artist"!  The English line doesn't even make any sense in English!  WTH??

 

I can translate the actual meaning of the Schiller poem if you all are still curious since Regentrude's at work - may not have proper meter, but I can tell you what it says.  Much easier now that it's readable. :)

[regentrude]

The stanzas seem to be from the end of the poem

http://www.pinselpark.org/literatur/s/schiller/poem/daihrnoch.html

 

A translation of the poem is here

http://allpoetry.com/The-Gods-Of-Greece

[Matryoshka]

Here's a translation that won't win me any poetry contests, but is much closer what the German actually says.  The translation linked does add stuff (and rewrites some parts) and makes it if anything even more flowery.  I think that English "translation" is harder to decipher than the German!  It's hard to translate poetry and keep it poetry - that's why I do like to read it in the original if I can. :)

 

Beautiful world, where are you?  Come again,

sweet blooming altar of Nature!

Oh, your fabled traces live on only in the fairyland of Song.  

Dying out (or extinct?), the Realm mourns; my gaze sees no deity. 

Oh, from those warm pictures of life, only shadows remained.

 

All those blossoms have fallen from the North’s spine-chilling gusts (of wind);
For One to rule over all others,

this pantheon (literally: world of gods) had to pass away. 

Sorrowfully I look to the starry heavens (literally: arch/bow of stars),
You, Selene, I no longer find there;
Through the forests I call, through the Waves,

Oh, they echo forsakenly (literally: emptily)

 

Yes, they returned home, and everything, beautiful,

everything High (exalted?) they took with them,

all colors, all tones of life,

and to us remained only the lifeless (literally: de-souled) Word. 

Torn from the flow of time, they hover (or float, are poised),

saved (or rescued) on the heights of Pindus;

what should live on immortal in Song,

must in Life perish.

[Matryoshka]

Google German English translation. I have had to do that with letters from German relatives.

 

Oh, for all that's holy, don't do that - especially with something as poetic as this! Google translate comes up with some doozies just from plain ol' regular sentences, I shudder to think what it would do with Schiller!  :svengo: 

 

Wait, but now I have to know...   here's the first stanza courtesy of Google:

 

Beautiful world, where are you? - Return,

Holdes Blüthenalter nature!

Oh, just in the magic land of song

Still alive your fabulous track.

Extinct mourns the plains,

No deity seen my view,

Ah, life warm from that picture

Remained the shadow back only.

 

:lol: :lol:   You know, I think it may be doing a better job than the pompous 1800's guy, though....

[alisoncooks]

Well, what a beautiful thing to uncover!  Much more exciting than, say, a hand-written request for a spouse to purchase more underwear or socks or something...

[MEmama]

What a terrific find!

 

My grandfather knew only old German until my mother and her siblings went to school; then he taught himself the modern language. He was a musician, I guess notes were more important to him, or perhaps that was not uncommon before 1940.

 

Glad people are able to help you figure it out! :)

[Carol in Cal.]

When I saw the first translation in this thread, I thought 'Goethe' but Schiller makes much more sense. 

My great-grandmother wrote in this script, and I had a very hard time finding someone to translate a letter of hers that we found.

[Heather in WI]

Matryoshka, you are a gem! I *knew* our board was the place to bring this. Thank you very much!