IN the 1920s, Rudolf Steiner created a sort of liturgy of the natural and spiritual year in the form of fifty-two short verses. Experience—my own and others—testifies to the powerful effect that a short meditation on the relevant verse throughout the course of the year can have in respect to awakening and sensitizing the soul to each season’s unique quality and gesture.
Below is Dr. Steiner’s original Seelenkalender, or “Calendar of the Soul” verse for this week followed by my translation into English. I have opted to follow, whenever a conflict arose, the spirit over the letter in my translation efforts, attempting to convey the “mood” before the propositional content.
THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 34. Geheimnisvoll das Alt-Bewahrte Mit neu erstandnem Eigensein Im Innern sich belebend fühlen: Es soll erweckend Weltenkräfte In meines Lebens Außenwerk ergießen Und werdend mich ins Dasein prägen. ∇∆ SCARCE-known yet long-preserved of old now a flood of newly-fangled presence rises inwardly as feeling tide: bestirring forces from the world wide pour withal into my life’s mould where I shall set my seal upon existence
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Hello Max! I really enjoy your bold and direct translation. I'm old enough to sense that you are reviving if not redeeming the best of American beatnik poetry. I know German and I translated my CoS verses in the 80s. I still call it a "new American translation." I realized that it is impossible to translate these verses into American English except by smashing the "rocks" of the German words and sifting through the rubble.
I offer you my set of 52 on the RS Archive
https://rsarchive.org/Articles/GA040/English/TM2023/index.html
I especially like this one 34 because it's the only one I can sing! How? Because in the 80s all my verses were set to choral music by the modern composer William Jay Sydeman (1928-2021). We performed them in 1992 in SF & Sacramento. 34 is the only one I remember.
It's so wonderful to discover you and your work with Steiner. Let's get in touch. (I discovered you this morning on Matt Segal's Zoom for Steiner's Astronomy course.)
Best regards,
Tom Mellett
Van Nuys, CA