“Prometheus” is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in which the character of the mythic Prometheus addresses God (as Zeus) in misotheist accusation and defiance. The poem was written between 1772 and 1774 and first published in 1789 after an anonymous and unauthorised publication in 1785 by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. It is an important work of the Sturm und Drang movement.”
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Cover Your heavens, Zeus,
With cloud vapor
And try Your strike, as a boy
Beheading thistles,
Against oaken tree and mountain height;
You still must leave me
My Earth standing
And my hut which You did not build,
And my hearth, home’s glowing
Fire which You begrudge me.
I know of nothing poorer
Under the sun than You gods!
Indigently You feed
Your majesty
On proffered sacrifice
And breathfuls of prayer.
You would starve to naught
If children and beggars
Were not such fools full of hope.
When I was a child
That knew not its way in the world
I would lift my deluded eyes
To the sun as though out beyond it
There were an ear to hear my complaints
A heart like mine
That would take pity on my oppression.
Who came to my aid
Against the Titans’ and their insolent rage?
Who delivered me from death,
From slavery?
Was it not you, sacred heart ablaze,
Who achieved it all?
And, swindled in your youth and good will,
Did you not glow, with thanks fit for a Savior,
For that mere Sleeper on high?
I should honor You? For what?
Did You ever gentle
The ache of my burden?
Did You ever dry
The tears of tribulation?
Was I not forged to manhood
By Time Almighty
And Eternal Destiny,
My masters and Yours?
Perhaps You believed
I should find life hateful,
And flee to the wilderness
Because not all my blossom-dreams
Reached ripeness?
Behold
Here I sit, fashioning men
In my own image,
A race after my likeness,
A race that will suffer and weep,
And rejoice and delight with heads held high
And heed Your will no more
Than I!
The poem was set to music by J. F. Reichardt, Franz Schubert (see “Prometheus”, 1819), Hugo Wolf (1889) and F.M. Einheit (1993).
Jupiter-Uranus Conjunctions in History, with Richard Tarnas
April 21, 2024