by Wolfgang Goethe
Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
Because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive, What longs to be burned to death.
In the calm water of love nights,
Where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
A strange feeling comes over you When you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught In the obsession with darkness,
And a desire for higher lovemaking
Sweeps you upward.
Distance cannot make you falter Now, arriving in magic, flying And finally insane for the light,
You are the butterfly, and you are gone.
And so long as you haven’t experienced this:
To die, and so to grow,
You are only a troubled guest
On the dark earth.
–Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832) was a German polymath, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. Wikipedia