A visitor to this blog has asked the following: 'I am looking for the Novalis poem that contains the quote, "Water is a moist flame." Does anyone know?'
Someone must, though I haven't been able to find anything myself.
Here is something the ever-intrepid Dave Lull has come upon.
Hi Frank,
ReplyDeleteThis is tricky, because we are daling in translations.
You may have found these already, but they are the complete set of Novalis on one page, linked by translator:
George MacDonald
Michael Smith
This interests me, and I wonder if someone will find it. In these translations, those specific words are not there, but there may be one in print somewhere.
Here in #5 we have: From eternal ages stood its mysterious structure. Beyond the red hills of the morning, in the sacred bosom of the sea, dwelt the sun, the all-enkindling, living Light.
So the sun is in the sea, and is aflame.
Earlier, in #1, we have: In the chords of the bosom blows a deep sadness. I am ready to sink away in drops of dew, and mingle with the ashes.-- The distances of memory, the wishes of youth, the dreams of childhood, the brief joys and vain hopes of a whole long life, arise in gray garments, like an evening vapor after the sunset.
So the ashes are sunken, and dew is the vehicle to get to them. The rising of the vapor takes the place of the setting sun. But as if a moist flame?
Yours,
Rus