Goethe: “Reunion”

REUNION

 

Can it be, O star transcendent,

That I fold thee to my breast?

Now I know, what depths of anguish

May in parting be expressed.

Yes, ’tis thou, of all my blisses

Lovely, loving partner–thou!

Mindful of my bygone sorrows,

E’en the present awes me now.

 

When the world in first conception

Lay in God’s eternal mind,

In creative power delighting

He the primal hour designed.

When he gave command for being,

Then was heard a mighty sigh

Full of pain, as all creation

Broke into reality.

 

Up then sprang the light; and darkness

Doubtful stood apart to gaze;

All the elements, dividing

Swiftly, took their several ways.

In confused, disordered dreaming

Strove they all for freedom’s range–

Each for self, no fellow-feeling;

Single each, and cold and strange.

 

Lo, a marvel–God was lonely!

All was still and cold and dumb.

So he framed dawn’s rosy blushes

Whence should consolation come–

To refresh the troubled spirit

Harmonies of color sweet:

What had erst been forced asunder

Now at last could love and meet.

 

Then, ah then, of life unbounded

Sight and feeling passed the gates;

Then, ah then, with eager striving

Kindred atoms sought their mates.

Gently, roughly they may seize them,

So they catch and hold them fast:

“We,” they cry, “are now creators–

Allah now may rest at last!”

 

So with rosy wings of morning

Towards thy lips my being moves;

Sets the starry night a thousand

Glowing seals upon our loves.

We are as we should be–parted

Ne’er on earth in joy or pain;

And no second word creative

E’er can sunder us again!

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