The
cavalry uniform credit reflects
On the man of taste who designed it;
The helmet struck me as specially good,
With the steel peak rising behind it.
dt
text .
•
uniform, man of taste: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV
(1840-61) of Prussia, the so-called Romantic on the
royal throne.
•
helmet, steel peak: the famous "Pickelhaube,"
or spiked helmet, which remained in use through the
early years of World War I.
11
It
recalls, with its air of chivalry,
Mediaeval lays romantic,
Mistress Joanna of Montfaucon,
Baron Fouqué, Uhland, Tieck.
dt
text .
Heine
here (as elsewhere in the poem and on so many other occasions)
takes aim at the nineteenth-century craze for things medieval,
even though he himself was on occasion not immune to it.[
--> more on this topic]
• Joanna of Montfaucon: a play by the prolific
August von Kotzebue, whose assassination by Carl Sand
in 1819 led to the Carlsbad Decrees and increased repression.
• Baron Fouqué, Uhland, Tieck: Romantic
poets (the second of them a Swabian), Friedrich de la
Motte Fouqué (1777-1843), Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862),
and Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853).
12
It
recalls the mediaeval squires
Whom poetry harps so much on;
Who carried undying faith in their hearts.
And on their backs a scutcheon.
dt
text .
•
scutcheon: shield bearing coat of arms.
13
It
reminds one of tourneys and crusades,
Of love and service lowly;
Of an age when newspapers were not yet—
An age unprinted, holy.
dt
text .
•
14
Yes,
yes, the helmet is all I could ask—
'Tis a fancy exceedingly pretty;
A kingly conception in every way—
Full of point with its peak—quite witty!
dt
text .
•
[another exceedingly complex play on words, difficult
to translate]
15
I
am only afraid when the thunder rolls,
And the sky is ablaze with levin,
Your romantic heads will be apt to attract
The up-to-date lightning of heaven.
dt
text .
•
levin: archaic word for lightning (from Middle
English leverne)
