Monday, April 26, 2010

"A woman's form, in beauty shining"











What do I see? What heavenly form revealed
Shows through the glass from Magic's fair dominions!
O lend me, Love, the swiftest of thy pinions,
And bear me to her beauteous field!
Ah, if I leave this spot with fond designing,
If I attempt to venture near,
Dim, as through gathering mist, her charms appear!--
A woman's form, in beauty shining!
Can woman, then, so lovely be?
And must I find her body, there reclining,
Of all the heavens the bright epitome?
Can Earth with such a thing be mated?

From Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Bayard Taylor

Faust's vision, Franciszek Żmurko, 1890

1 comment:

Stephen J said...

Well.... such exquisite taste. A beautiful find.