Living

Charade

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832

Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Sonnets

Living

Two words there 'are, both short, of beauty rare,
Whose sounds our lips so often love to frame,

But which with clearness never can proclaim
The things whose own peculiar stamp they bear.
'Tis well in days of age and youth so fair,
One on the other boldly to inflame;

And if those words together link'd we name,
A blissful rapture we discover there.
But now to give them pleasure do I seek,
And in myself my happiness would find;
I hope in silence, but I hope for this:
Gently, as loved one's names, those words to speak
To see them both within one image shrin'd,
Both in one being to embrace with bliss.

MLA

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Charade.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/196/.

Chicago

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Charade.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/196/.

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