Three poems by Friedrich Schiller

Abstract

A decisive figure in the history of German literature, Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller bequeathed a multifaceted oeuvre as a playwright, short story writer, poet, philosopher and researcher into the nature of the work of art and aesthetic feelings. This work also accompanies the transition from the “Storm and Impetus” (Sturm und Drang) movement in the 1770s to the so-called Weimar classicism. The three poems that are presented here in a new Portuguese translation belong to this second period: “The Dance” (Der Tanz) and “The Image Under the Veil in Saïs” (Das verschleierte Bild zu Saïs), published in 1795, and “The Diver” (Der Taucher), in 1797. Whether explicit or veiled, philosophical questions run through all these poems. The existence and risks of absolute knowledge are at the heart of the poem about the image in the Egyptian city of Saïs. The poem precedes Novalis' fragment “The Apprentices in Saïs” (Die Lehrlinge zu Saïs), which would be written two years later. The ballad “The Diver” associates the force and violence of nature with the cruel and despotic use of power, while “The Dance” intertwines ideal and sensible elements by linking the conception of the absolute to continuous change and the denial of stability. The singular and surprising form of their expression is directly related to the poet's ambitions and aesthetic aims.