Sorrento. From noon to twilight

By Philipp Mainländer  

Translated and adapted into English by Vladislav Luchianov. 

Source: Diario de un Poeta by Carlos Javier González Serrano and Manuel Pérez Cornejo. 

 On the blue sea waves they dance, 

the spirits of light, joyful of its silver; 

long-lived plants, clear and bright, 

shinning with glittering sparks.

At Virgil’s tomb - a poem by Philipp Mainländer

Virgil's tomb, painting by Joseph Wright

By Philipp Mainländer

Shall I praise you on your ashes?

What one deserves who joyful life ignoring,

All people’s misfortunes clashes

And even at the grave, is glorifying them?

No doubt, your fame is still assured,

Stands firm like stone vault, attained.

And even after thousands of years,

It’s now, like before, maintained.

It’s true that driven by the golden Musa,

Despite the clouds of the past,

I’m running to the bay

Where the greatest men of epochs last

The altar built eternal.

Towards absolute nothingness of Philipp Mainländer

By Vladislav Luchianov

When Diogenes Laertius walked through the streets of the ancient Greek city and was asked why he went about with a lamp in a broad daylight, the philosopher confessed, “I am looking for an honest man.” With the same success, we can try to find translated into English works of the 19th-century German philosopher Philipp Mainländer, whose philosophical and poetic writings are distinguished by such a rare thing nowadays as intellectual honesty and uncompromising ideas. There is absolute nothing about this thinker translated into English.