SOME TRIBUTES TO GOETHE
Goethe was a German poet and prose writer.
His full name was Johann Wolfgang von GOethe. He was born on 28 August 1749 and
died on 1832. He was also a great orientalist. When he received in 1791 a copy of the first German translation
of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala published by Georg Forster, he expressed
his appreciation in the following poetic lines which are the English
translation of the original in Germany:
Shall I embrace the blossoms of spring, the
fruits of the autumn,
All
that enchants and that charms, all that nurtures and fills,
Shall
I embrace in a name all heaven and whole of the earth:
Call
I, Sakontala, thee --- all is comprised in one name.
Goethe’s most famous book is two-part tragic
play Faust, and an other German book Translated as West-Eastern Divan is
a collection of lyrical poems published in 1819 and expanded in 1827.
Now
what follows are a few tributes to Goethe who is famous all over the world for
his vast wisdom on many subjects.
1.
We
consider Goethe to be a richly educated Poet, no less than a richly educated
Man; a master both of Humanity and of Poetry; one to whom Experience has given
true wisdom, and the “Melodies Eternal’ a perfect utterance for his wisdom.---Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).
2.
In
the width, depth and richness of his criticism of life, Goethe is by far our
greatest modern man.----Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).
3.
Whenever
a Virgil, a Dante, a Shakespeare, a Goethe is born, the whole future of European
poetry is altered. ---T. S. Eliot (1888-1965).
4. Never was there a
time when it seemed more necessary that Goethe’s spirit should be kept alive
among us now when international relations between the leading powers of the
world are severely strained and when ideological fanaticism are darkening all
wise counsels and extinguishing human sympathies.----Dr. S. Radhakrishnan . (1888-1975).
5.
Goethe
goes much deeper than Shakespeare; he had an incomparably greater intellect than
the English poet and sounded problems of problems of life and thought
Shakespeare had no means of approaching even, ----Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950).
*******
G.R.Kanwal
17 April 2026
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