Über die Felder
Über den Himmel Wolken ziehn
Über die Felder geht der Wind,
Über die Felder wandert
Meiner Mutter verlorenes Kind.
Über die Strasse Blätter wehn,
Über den Bäumen Vögel schrein—
Irgendwo über den Bergen
Muss meine ferne Heimat sein.
Translator’s Glossary
|
WORD
|
DEFINITION
|
POSSIBLE SYNONYMS
|
|---|---|---|
| Bäumen (n.) | woody, perennial plants, typically having a single stem or trunk growing to a considerable height and bearing lateral branches at some distance from the ground | trees |
| Bergen (n.) | large, natural elevation of the earth’s surface rising abruptly from the surrounding level; large, steep hills | mountains, sierra, alps |
| Blätter (n.) | flattened structure of a plant or many plants that is attached to a stem directly or via a stalk, typically green and bladelike | leaves, foliage |
| den, der, die (art.) | denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge | the |
| Felder (n.) | areas of open land or pastures that are often planted with crops and typically bounded by hedges or fences | fields, meadows, pastures, grasslands |
| ferne (adj.) | distant in space or time | faraway, distant, remote, outlying, far off, off the beaten track |
| geht (v.) | moves from one place to another; travels | goes, moves, makes its way, advances |
| Heimat (n.) | a person’s or a people’s native land; the place a person feels connected to and identifies with as their family or childhood home | homeland, home, native country, native land, birthplace |
| Himmel (n.) | the region of the atmosphere and outer space seen from the earth | sky, heavens |
| irgendwo (adv.) | in an unspecified place | somewhere, someplace, anywhere |
| Kind (n.) | a young human, son or daughter of human parents | child, kid, offspring, progeny, descendant |
| meine (adj.) | belonging to or associated with the speaker | my |
| meiner Mutter (adj. + n.) | belonging to my mother | my mother’s, of my mother |
| muss (aux. v.) | be obliged to; should (expressing necessity) | must, should, ought to, have got to |
| schrein (v.) | make a high-pitched sound | call, cry, shriek, wail |
| sein (v.) | be located, be in existence | be, exist |
| Strasse (n.) | a public road in a city or town, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides | street, road, boulevard, lane |
| über (prep.) | from one side to the other of something | across, over |
| verlorenes (adj.) | unable to find one’s way; not knowing one’s whereabouts | lost, missing, gone missing, disappeared, nowhere to be found |
| Vögel (n.) | warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates distinguished by the possession of feathers, wings, a beak, and (typically) by being able to fly | birds |
| wandert (v.) | moves from place to place without purpose or destination | wanders, travels, roams, walks, migrates |
| wehn (v.) | move with an air current | blow, waft, gust |
| Wind (n.) | moving air | wind, breeze |
| Wolken (n.) | a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground | clouds |
| ziehn (v.) | go in a specified direction or manner; change position | move, advance, proceed, progress |
Artistic Elements
I. About Quatrains
A quatrain is a four-line stanza, rhyming with various forms for example:
- ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide
And I am next of kin
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.
- AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young.”
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by.
And home we brought you shoulder-high
Today the road all runner come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Bio
Hermann Hesse knew from a young age that he wanted to be a writer. Born in a town within Germany’s ancient Black Forest, he went on to travel and live in faraway places, including Burma and Indonesia. Perhaps because of this, Hesse once described himself as a “man composed of different nationalities.”* Many of his poems and novels are reflections on homesickness and on the search for a home. In one of his most famous books, Steppenwolf, he writes, “We have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness.”