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Going to Sleep -- Hermann Hesse

Guest poem sent in by Vaibhav Puranik
(Poem #1357) Going to Sleep
 Now that the day wearies me,
 My yearning desire,
 will receive more kindly,
 like a tired child, the starry night

 Hence, leave off your deeds
 mind, forget all thoughts;
 All of my forces
 yearn only to sink into sleep.

 And my soul, unguarded,
 would soar on widespread wings,
 to live in a night's magical sphere
 More profoundly, more variously.
-- Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha is what made Mr. Hesse famous, but this poem is what endears him
to me!! I believe the original was in "Deutsch" and this is a translated
version, so there might be slightly different versions floating around.

Hesse's depiction of the drained condition (in the 1st two stanzas) is very
vivid. I usually work late, & going home at late hours; my only desire is to
get into my bed & continue the glorious things I do in my dreams...

Biography links:
1. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hhesse.htm
2. http://www.levity.com/corduroy/hesse.htm
3. http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1946/hesse-autobio.html

Best Regards,

Vaibhav Puranik

10 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Erik Barnes said...

In its original German, this poem is titled "Beim Schlafengehen". It's
a great poem in its own right, but set to orchestral song by the late
Romantic composer Richard Strauss (the third of his "Four Last Songs"),
it becomes a masterpiece. If you should ever want to hear a perfect
example of how music can augment and illuminate the meaning of a poem,
listen to this song! I first heard it many years ago in the film, "The
Year of Living Dangerously." I waited through interminable credits to
find out what it was, then I went right out and bought it. You should
too. You won't regret it, I promise you. I particularly recommend the
version with Klaus Tennstedt and Lucia Popp. By the way, this is not a
great translation: for one thing, it's "HANDS, leave off your deeds,"
not "hence." The poem is really about death, not sleep, which makes
it's inclusion in Strauss' last work of a long lifetime all the more
poignant and personal.

kamagra said...

To me, it is a masterpiece of a poem. Herman Hesse will never free from that shade of enlightened he had, and this poem as his work is immersed in the world of profoundity. if69

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