Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3): Tales by Musæus, Tieck, RichterCarlyle, Thomas
General
Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3): Tales by Musæus, Tieck, Richter
Carlyle, Thomas
German fiction -- Translations into English
"O, as for vividness," said Timbertoe, "no man can dream more vividly
than I. There is one dream I had, which I shall never in my life forget.
I dreamed, who knows how many years ago, that my Guardian Angel stood
before my bed in the figure of a youth, with golden hair, and two silver
wings on his back, and said to me: 'Berthold, listen to the words of my
mouth, that none of them be lost from thy heart. There is a treasure
appointed thee, which thou shalt dig, to comfort thy heart withal for
the remaining days of thy life. Tomorrow, about evening, when the sun is
going down, take spade and shovel on thy shoulder; go forth from the
Mattenburg on the right, across the Tieber, by the Balkenbruecke, past
the Cloister of St. John's, and on to the Great Roland.[9] Then take thy
way over the Court of the Cathedral, through the Schusselkorb, till thou
arrive without the city at a garden, which has this mark, that a stair
of three stone steps leads down from the highway to its gate. Wait by a
side, in secret, till the sickle of the moon shall shine on thee, then
push with the strength of a man against the weak-barred gate, which will
resist thee little. Enter boldly into the garden, and turn thee to the
vine-trellises which overhang the covered-walk; behind this, on the
left, a tall apple-tree overtops the lowly shrubs. Go to the trunk of
this tree, thy face turned right against the moon: look three ells
before thee on the ground, thou shalt see two cinnamon-rose bushes;
there strike in, and dig three spans deep, till thou find a stone plate;
under this lies the treasure, buried in an iron chest, full of money and
money's worth. Though the chest be heavy and clumsy, avoid not the
labour of lifting it from its bed; it will reward thy trouble well, if
thou seek the key which lies hid beneath it.'"
[9] The rude figure of a man in armour, usually erected in the
public square or market-place of old German towns, is called the
_Rolandsaule_, or _Rutlandsaule_, from its supposed reference to
Roland the famous peer of Charlemagne. The proper and ancient name,
it seems, is _Ruegelandsaule_, or Pillar of Judgment; and the stone
indicated, of old, that the town possessed an independent
jurisdiction.--ED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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