Arguably, the greatest poet and writer of his age and most definitely the greatest writer in the German language; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe shows his masterful talent of the classical Imperial poetic style in the Erotica Romana (alternately titled Roman elegies), decently translated by Sir Theodore Martin and produced by Anodos Books.
Through a series of 21 poems written as elegies, Goethe illustrates with exotic and erotic colouring all the relationships he had in Rome with an intensity of his sincere Romanticism; that may surprise those familiar with Goethe, but within all his romantic musings of the women he's with he also ponders about trying to find deeper meaning within the city of Rome saying:
"tell me ye stones and give me O glorious palaces answer.
Speak O the streets but one word. Genius, Art thou alive?
Yes, here within thy sanctified walls there's a soul in each object,
ROMA eternal. For me, only, are all things yet mute."
In the stanzas Goethe, in my interpretation trying is to connect with the magical genius that Rome Once upon a time had, managed to engulfed the world with inspiration in art, architecture and scientific innovation but unfortunately, he cannot find what he is looking, for all the genius is in the walls and is mute to all.
Within these poems as well as the title suggests are some wonderfully over sanctimonious lewdness; when explaining the wonders of the flesh, is one of the most amusing lines showing Goethe's brand of lewdness:
"we are content with Cupid's delights, authentic and naked-
and with the exquisite creak/crack of the bed as it rocks."
It is pretty clear for those of us who are old enough to know what is meant by "crack of the bed as it rocks", because of how politely Goethe writes about such a moment it gives off a fair bit of humour.
As well one theme that comes up within these poems is that of seizing opportunity (Carpe Diem) which is something that occurs in many of Goethe's writings and comes up in the funniest and possibly most cliché by our modern standards way possible when he says:
"Sweet Opportunity, that is her name. You should meet her.
Often will she turn up, ever in a new form."
For Goethe this is truly sage advice, as he is the antithesis of take opportunities because throughout his whole life, he took risks, did new things, wrote constantly and travelled; like going to Italy for a two year holiday because of that decision we have this wonderful collection of entertainingly witty and profoundly interesting poems which although the translational never do true justice to the original language that these poems were written in, the ideas and vast amounts of the emotion still do pour out of these poems even if there are in the wrong language; so I would strongly recommend reading Goethe's Erotica Romana for those looking for a good poetic read.
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