Classic Poem

Tannhäuser

A Legend.

1.

Good Christians all, avoid the snare
When Satan's guile entices!
I'll sing you the Tannhäuser song,
To warn from his devices.

Tannhäuser was a warrior bold,
Who, loves delight pursuing,
Dwelt seven years in the Venusberg,
Seven years to his undoing.

— O Venus, mistress fond and fair,
My love, my life, farewell now!
For, with your leave, I fain would go —
No longer here would dwell now. —

— Tannhäuser, noble knight, this day
You have withheld your kisses.
O kiss me quick, and tell me true,
If aught in me amiss is.

— The wine that day by day I pour:
Say, sweet have you not found it?
And day by day, with roses red,
Your head, have I not crowned it? —

— O Venus, mistress fond and fair,
Of your wine so sweet in flavour,
Of your kisses warm, my soul is sick —
Some sourness I would savour.

— Jested and laughed too long have we:
I yearn for weeping bitter;
I want no roses for my head —
A crown of thorns were fitter. —

— Tannhäuser, good and noble knight,
With cruel words you grieve me;
You have promised me a thousand times
That you would never leave me.

— Come, let us to our chamber go,
And taste again love's gladness;
My lovely body, lily-white,
Will chase away your sadness. —

— O Venus, mistress fond and fair,
Your charm will never perish;
As men have loved you in the past,
They still will love and cherish.

— Yea, when I think upon the Gods
And Heroes who have lusted
After your body lily-white,
My soul recoils disgusted.

— Your lovely body lily-fair
Well-nigh my soul affright will,
If I but think how many more
Your beauty yet delight will. —

— Tannhäuser, noble knight and good,
You shall not thus accuse me;
O liefer were I beaten sore,
As you were wont to use me.

— Yea, liefer were I beaten sore,
Than that such words were spoken,
Or that by you, a Christian cold,
My pride of heart were broken.

— Because I have too fondly loved,
I hearken while you chide now;
Farewell, I give you leave to go:
Myself the door throw wide now. —

2.

In Rome, in Rome, in the holy town,
They are tolling from every steeple;
The procession with ringing and singing goes:
The Pope in the midst of his people.

'Tis the pious Urban who passes along,
The triple crown he's wearing; —
He is clad in his purple robe of state,
The barons his train upbearing.

— O holy Father, Urban, hear!
A sinful tale to tell is;
Thou shalt not move another step,
Till saved my soul from hell is. —

The folk, they fall in a circle back,
Hushed are the anthems holy;
— Who is the pilgrim wan and wild,
That kneels to the Pope so lowly? —

— O holy Father, Urban, thou
Canst bind and loose from evil;
Deliver me now from the pains of hell,
And the power of the Devil.

— I am Tannhäuser, the noble knight,
Who, love's delight pursuing,
Dwelt seven years in the Venusberg,
Seven years to his undoing.

— A lovely woman Venus is,
With many a grace to charm one;
Like sunshine and the scent of flowers,
Her voice can soothe and warm one.

— As the butterfly, fluttering, sips from the cup
Of the fragrant flower posies,
So flutters my soul for ever round
Her lips as red as roses.

— Her blooming curls flow dark and free,
Her noble face enwreathing;
Her great eyes, when they gaze on you,
Will almost stop your breathing.

— Ah, if her eyes but gaze on you,
A captive fond you languish!
To win away from the mount at last
Has cost me bitter anguish.

— Yea, though I now am won away,
Still shine her eyes and yearn there;
The eyes of the woman follow me,
And beckon to return there.

— By day I am a sorry ghost;
My life awakens nightly;
For by night I dream of my mistress fair:
She sits by me laughing lightly.

— So whole of heart she laughs, and gay,
Her teeth like pearls peeping!
If on her laughter I but think,
I straight must fall a-weeping.

— I love her with a boundless love,
Nothing will stay its urging;
'Tis like a swirling cataract,
You cannot stem its surging.

— From rock to rock it leaps and foams:
The thunder-voices roar on;
If it broke its neck a thousand times,
The mighty flood would pour on.

— To Venus I would gladly give,
Were it mine, the whole of heaven;
I would give her sun, I would give her the moon,
And all the stars of even.

— I love her with a mighty love,
With flames that burn and consume me —
Are these already the quenchless fires
To which I feared to doom me?

— O holy Father, Urban, thou
Canst bind and loose from evil;
Deliver me from the pains of hell,
And the power of the Devil. —

In sorrow the Pope has raised his hands,
In sorrow he has spoken:
— Tannhäuser, thou unhappy man,
The spell may not be broken.

— The Devil that is Venus named,
Of all the fiends the worst is;
The man she holds in her lovely claws
For evermore accurst is.

— For the lust of the flesh thy soul must pay,
Must pay the bitter cost now;
Thou art damned to hell's eternal woe:
Thou art for ever lost now. —

3.

Tannhäuser, the knight, he walked so fast,
That his wounded feet were bleeding;
'Twas midnight when, at the Venusberg,
He stayed at last his speeding.

Venus awakened from out her sleep,
And blithe from her couch upspringing,
Round her lover she threw her milk-white arms,
And held him, closely clinging.

Down from her nose the red blood ran,
Her eyes with tears gushed over;
The tears and blood besmeared the face,
And wet the cheek of her lover.

The knight awearied sank on the bed,
Ere a single word was spoken;
To cook in the kitchen Venus went,
That his fast might straight be broken.

She gave him soup and she gave him bread;
Herself his wounds washed featly;
His matted hair she brushed and combed,
And laughed the while full sweetly.

— Tannhäuser, noble knight, 'tis long
Since you left me, and wandered forth, now;
O where have you been this weary while —
In what land of the south or the north, now? —

— 'Twas in Italy, my Venus fair,
That business made me tarry;
From Rome I have returned as fast
As hasting feet would carry.

— O Rome is built on seven hills,
Beside the Tiber River.
I saw the Pope, who mentioned you,
And said, — My greetings give her. —

— Through Florence I passed on my homeward way,
And Milan. Then I started
To climb the heights of Switzerland,
Light-footed, eager-hearted.

— Over the Alps I toiled apace,
And there the snow was falling;
The lakes of azure laughed to me,
The eagles hoarse were calling.

— 'Neath the care of six-and-thirty kings
Lay Germany, like a dotard,
Snoring in happy peace below
Where I stood, on the Mount Saint Gothard.

— I saw the Swabian poet-school —
That set of darling ninnies;
They sat in a row with guards on their heads,
So careful each of his skin is.

— At Frankfort I stopped a while at Schwabb's
And the famous dumplings ate there;
For religion the folk are far renowned,
And the giblets are first-rate there.

— A dog, who was once of the better sort,
I saw at Dresden, sadly; —
Too aged now to bark at all,
His teeth he misses badly.

— At Weimar, the widowed muses' seat,
A voice to sorrow giving,
They wept because Goethe, alas! was dead,
And Eckermann was living.

— At Potsdam I heard a deafening din,
And asked them what the cause was.
For Gans, who read them at Berlin
Last century's tale, the applause was.

— At Göttingen learning blooms apace,
Though scanty fruit 'tis bearing;
No light I spied as I passed it through,
In the murky midnight faring.

— The bridewell I saw at Zell was used
For Hanoverians purely.
O Germans, a national gaol and whip,
Were meet for Germany surely!

— At Hamburg I asked — I was fain to know —
Why the streets so vilely stank there.
And Jews and Christians answered, both,
'Twas the river was to thank there.

— In Hamburg, in the city good,
O many a rascal strange was!
I thought I was back in the gaol at Zell,
When it merely the Exchange was.

— From Hamburg I went to Altona:
The neighbourhood is pleasant;
You shall hear of that another time;
Let this suffice for the present. — EnglishHeinrich Heine