The silent reason
The silent reason is a poem by the German poet and writer Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff . According to Hilda Schulhof , the poem was first written down by Eichendorff on June 19, 1835 in the now-lost “Sedlnitz Fund”. In 1837 it was published by Duncker & Humblot in the book Gedichte von Joseph Freiherrn von Eichendorff (p. 420 f.).
content
The silent reason is a poem by Eichendorff about a mermaid:
The moonlight confuses
The valleys far and wide,
The brooks, as if lost, Walking
through the loneliness
Over there I saw
the forest on a steep hill, Seeing the
dark fir trees
In a deep lake.
I saw a boat sticking out, but
no one to steer it,
the oar was smashed,
the little ship half sunk.
A mermaid on the stone
braided her golden hair there,
she said she was alone,
and sang so wonderfully.
She sang and sang, in the trees
And springs
rustle gently
And whispered as in dreams
The moonlit night.
But I stood frightened,
For the
morning bells rang across the forest and the gulf
Already far away through the air.
And if I hadn't heard
the sound at a good hour:
would never have come again
For this silent reason.
interpretation
Eichendorff assigned the silent reason to the romances . This poem is about the legend of the Loreley , which was considered by many to be an ancient legend. However, this poem differs from others in which a mermaid or a beautiful maiden plays an important role in connection with a boatman. In Heinrich Heine's I don't know what it should mean , the skipper is still alive, but here the skipper is already dead when the lyrical self grasps the process. In contrast to other versions, in Der stille Grund it is no longer the boatman who is the threatened victim, but the poet himself. The “morning bells” (v. 23) save the lyrical ego, tear it out of the apparent trance towards the mermaid, who is beautiful “Golden hair” (v. 14) braids and brings it back to reality. The lyric self has an alternative: it can follow the structured curriculum vitae in which the “morning bells” determine the course, or it can follow the life in song, which has become addicted to poetry. Surprisingly, the ego is not afraid of the mermaid, although it sees the ruins of her victim (“The oar was smashed / the little ship half sunk.” V. 11 and v. 12). On the contrary: In the “moonlit night” (v. 20) the ego would have been addicted to the song of the mermaid, rather the “morning bells” than the mermaid frighten it.
literature
- Duncker & Humblot p. 420 f. (Publisher): Poems by Joseph Freiherrn von Eichendorff. Berlin 1837. ( Online via dta )
- Gunter E. Grimm: 473 S. (editor): Poems and interpretations. German ballads
- Rüdiger Bernhardt (author): royal explanations special: Joseph von Eichendorff, Das lyrische Schaffen, Der stille Grund