Original scientific paper
"THE TRAVELLER'S NIGHT-SONG" (II) BY J. W. GOETHE
Luko Paljetak
Abstract
The paper discusses "The Traveller's Night-Song" (II) by J. W. Goethe. Created in one day only (6th September 1780), and written on a wall of a mountain cabin above the small town of Ilmenau, it is an example of Goethe's "automatic writing", anticipatory of a new trend which was to appear much later, in the first half of the 20th century. The author of this short research, therefore, finds in this poem traces of Goethe's spontaneous zen-feeling of the world, a reflection of his unconsciuos longing for nirvana, and detects some similiarities between Goethe's poem and some verses written by the Japanese poet Ryokan. Special attention is given to the relationship between "The Traveller's Night-Song" (II) and Goethe's other poem
titled "Traveller". The biographical and phenomenological approaches here are combined and due consideration is given to Vladimir Nazor's analysis, who, in this poem, finds a reflection of Spinoza's philosophy and some elements of Goethe's pantheism. This paper is a tribute to Professor Nevenka Košutić-Brozović.
Keywords
J. W. Goethe; "The Traveller's Night-song" (II); Charlotte von Stein; "The Traveller"; Ryôkan; zen-buddhism; pantheism; Spinoza; Vladimir Nazor
Hrčak ID:
49808
URI
Publication date:
5.3.2010.
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