The Rhine near Cape Lorelei greatly narrows its course. At this point, it is very dangerous for shipping. Moreover, it is here that he is very deep. The wind howls near the cape, and on the opposite side you can hear the sounds of a waterfall.
The name once translated as "rocks that whisper." Under the water there were reefs that created dangerous turbulence of the current. All taken together gave rise to many shipwrecks. The young romantic poet in the “Book of Songs” in 1823 placed the ballad “Lorelei”. Heinrich Heine was not the first to address this topic. He romanticized it, as the era demanded and his personal experiences.
Heine translations
More than once and at different times the best Russian poets turned to Heine’s poem “Lorelei”. In each of them you can find differences. The best translation of Heine "Lorelei" is considered the work of S. Marshak. But this choice is a subjective preference. The author of this article prefers the translation of Heine's ballad “Lorelei”, which was created by Wilhelm Levick. It is also interesting to compare the substring with the translation. In German poetry, this work is so touching and musical that it has become a folk song.
Theme of the poem
Briefly tell what Heine is talking about. Lorelei - a beautiful golden-haired girl - sits on a high rock and sings so that everyone who swims past her unwittingly throws oars or a sail and begins to listen to her singing and watch her comb her golden hair with a golden comb. At this time, the air is cool, getting dark ... The Rhine flows quietly. The picture is so beautiful that both the reader and the swimmer forget about the treachery of the Rhine. It is not surprising that the shipbuilder takes a look at the sparkling at the top of the rock and listens to mysterious melodic rhymes. He ceases to notice the rocks, and before him is only a beautiful vision, whose divine sounds completely make him lose his mind. The end is always the same - the swimmer dies. This, as Heine said in the first stanzas, is a fairy tale of the old days.
Poetic trails
In Russian, Wilhelm Levik chose amphibrach. He used a rhyme cross, as in the original. The translator has 24 lines and 24 lines in a German poem. We started looking at Heine’s Lorelei poem. Our poet did not deviate from Heine at all. The lyrical hero is on the shore, and his soul is embarrassed by sadness. He is haunted by an old tale that he will now tell. The poet feels the coolness coming from the water. The Rhine has already fallen asleep in the darkness. The lyrical hero passes into another world and sees the last ray of a flaming sunset and the girl illuminated by him on a cliff.
Lorelei
There is no action in the poem. It is all devoted to the description of the fatal beauty. It was she, all in the radiance of gold (this word is used three times, placed side by side, as Heine repeats it three times), the lyrical hero admires without taking his eyes off. Her smooth actions - the girl calmly combes her hair (this phrase is repeated twice by Heine - Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar, Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme) - fascinate with peace.
And the magic song pours from her lips, completely bewitches and captivates him. And not only him, but also a rower who forgot about the waves. Now a tragedy will happen: the waters will swallow the swimmer. Heine speaks of this as an event that cannot be prevented (Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen). The power of Lorelei's singing crushes everything. The German poet emphasizes this sadly with the last two stanzas: Und das hat mit ihrem Singen, Die Loreley getan.
Dangerous bend
A song full of unknown power captures the rower so much that he does not see a huge rock in front of him.
He looks only above, at the beautiful golden maiden Lorelei. The lyrical hero foresees the end: the waves will close forever over the rower. The whole reason is the singing of Lorelei.
Why does the author care about an old fairy tale
Perhaps because not so long ago he survived the collapse of his hopes. Rereading Brentano, Heine met the image of the fatal, in addition to his will, bearing grief, beauty, who excited him. The poet was in love with cousin Amalia when he lived in Hamburg, but she did not answer him. His experiences spilled over into lines of ballad. In Nazi times, Heine's books burned at the stake. Only Lorelei was allowed, which was perceived as popular.