GOETHE SAID

 

                GOETHE SAID

Five things there are which cannot breed five more

Hear thou this lesson, con it o’er and o’er.

From a proud heart friendship can never grow,

Nor courtesy from pleasures of the low,

Greatness is never won by villainy,

No envious heart can pity poverty,

The liar looks for faith and trust in vain.

Let no one rob thee of this truth again.

 

            Johan Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet and philosopher. He was born August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt and died March 22, 1832. He was also a playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic and amateur artist. In India he is compared to Urdu poet Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869).

The lines quoted above occur in Goethe’s The Divan of East and West. They are realistic and rightly say :’From a proud heart friendship can never grow’ and ‘Nor courtesy from pleasures of the low.’

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G.R.Kanwal

2^nd January 2024