The Farsighted Poet
In his poem "Hirsau" the poet Ludwig Uhland takes a look
into the monastery:
In den Zellen und Gemachen
Sitzen fünfzig Klosterbrüder,
Schreiben Bücher mannigfalt,
Geistlich, weltlich, vieler Sprachen,
Predigten, Geschichten, Lieder,
Alles farbig ausgemalt.
The
Elm at Hirsau
Zu Hirsau in den Trümmern,
Da wiegt ein Ulmenbaum
Frischgrünend seine Krone
Hoch überm Giebelsaum.
Er wurzelt tief im Grunde
Vom alten Klosterbau,
Er wölbt sich statt des Daches
Hinaus in Himmelsblau.
Weil des Gemäuers Enge
Ihm Luft und Sonne nahm,
So trieb's ihn hoch und höher,
Bis er zum Lichte kam.
Es ragen die vier Wände,
Als ob sie nur bestimmt,
Den kühnen Wuchs zu schirmen,
Der zu den Wolken klimmt.
Wenn dort im grünen Tale
Ich einsam mich erging,
Die Ulme war's, die hehre,
Woran mein Sinnen hing.
Wenn in dem dumpfen, stummen
Getrümmer ich gelauscht,
Da hat ihr reger Wipfel
Im Windesflug gerauscht.
Ich sah ihn oft erglühen
Im ersten Morgenstrahl;
Ich sah ihn noch erleuchtet,
Wann schattig rings das Tal.
Zu Wittenberg im Kloster
Wuchs auch ein solcher Strauß
Und brach mit Riesenästen
Zum Klausendach hinaus.
O Strahl des Lichts! du dringest
Hinab in jede Gruft.
O Geist der Welt! du ringest
Hinauf in Licht und Luft.
Ludwig Uhland
The Saga of the Man in the Moon
In the Black Forest, in the area around Hirsau Monastery and Calw,
people say that the dark spots that can be seen in the full moon come
from a man, who was enchanted into the moon. This man stole a bundle of
brushwood on Sunday when he thought no hunter was in the woods and
carried it home. But he met a man in the woods; it was God. He
confronted him and said that He had to punish him, because he did not
observe the Sabbath. And He added that he could choose the punishment
himself. Would he rather be enchanted into the moon or into the sun? In
reply the man said, "If it must be, then I would rather freeze in the
moon than burn in the sun." It is in this way, then, that he came into
the moon with his bundle of brushwood on his back.
Hermann Hesse and His Home Town Calw
The poet Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in the little town on the
Nagold river and spent his childhood here until he went to Maulbronn as
a monastery pupil. His home town always remained a model for the poetry
of the Swabian, who at times had a reputation as a "vaterlandsloser
Gesell" (an unpatriotic fellow). "If I as a poet speak of the forest or
river, of a meadow valley, of the shadow of chestnut trees or the odor
of fir trees, then it is the forest around Calw, it is the Nagold river
of Calw, it is the fir woods and the chestnuts trees of Calw that are
meant, and the market square, bridge and chapel, Bischofstraße and
Ledergasse, Brühl and Hirsau Wiesenweg."