The North Sea by Heinrich Heine

"For you, your charming image,
Haunting me everywhere,
Everywhere calling me,
Everywhere, everywhere
In the dirge of the wind, in the surge of the sea,
And in the sigh of my own breast!

"My scarcely healed heart;-
To me it seems its wounds were being
kissed open by dear lips
And started again to bleed-
Hot, red drops,
That long and slowly fall
On and old house, down there
In the deep-sunk sea-town,
On an old high-gabled house
That is drearily empty of people,
Only that there at the lower window
A girl sits
With her head at rest on her arm,
Like a poor, forgotten child-
And I know you poor, forgotten child!

So deep, ocean-deep, then,
You hid yourself from me
Out of childish fancy,
And could not come up anymore,
And sat staring among strange people
Centuries long,
While I, my soul full of sorrow,
Over the whole Earth sought you,
And constantly sought you,
You constantly loved one,
You long, long-lost one,
You finally-found one-
I, I have found you and see again,
Your dear, sweet face
The wise, faithful eyes,
The tender smile-
And never, never again will I leave you,
And I come down to you,
And with my arms stretched out wide
I dive, down, down to your heart-"

My first German classic/poet.He clearly justifies the idea of German Romanticism... beautiful example. I love the way he transitioned from blood drops to a house. Shows the vagueness and softness of his soul... And beautiful ending.

Time is not an object here "centuries long" as if their love is immortal...as if he looked for her through time. How he dives into her heart...how she is trapped in the ocean. To me, this symbolizes society "among strange people"- how it is an obstacle to their love, and yet he overcomes it and "dives" down to her. To reach not only through the water, but through the heart. He wants to reach the source.

Marvelous! Such softness of the soul!

---

Pub by New Directions, 1951