Das Schlaue Buch - Geschichte - Historische Persönlichkeiten

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

(1772 - 1834)

Coleridge, ein englischer Dichter und Romantiker, schrieb 1798 ein Gedicht mit dem Titel Kublai Khan, in dem er von Xanadu, dem tibetanischen Rückzugsort des titelgebenden Mongolenherrschers berichtet:

Kublai Khan
(Übersetzung: B. Redsam, Träger der Ehrenmedaille für Poesie)

Die Mauern über Xanadu,
dem Feind zum Trotz, dem Freund zur Ruh.
Dort, beim sonnlosen See, dem heiligen Ort,
schuf sich Kublai Khan seinen heimlichen Hort.
Zwei Mal fünf Meilen von fruchtbarem Grund,
Mauern und Türme umschützen das Rund.

Hier fanden sich Gärten voll blühender Pracht,
Weihrauch tragende Bäume zwischen Bächlein sacht.
Und Wälder, alt wie das Felsgestein,
schweigend und mächtig unter der Sonne Schein.

[...]

Durch Wälder und Täler drang der Fluss mit Macht,
um endlich zu stürzen in ewige Nacht.

[...]

Es ist ein Wunder, von dem ich weiß,
ein sonnlichter Ort, umschlossen von Eis.

[...]

(Wiedersehen mit Tralla La)

Nun folgt das vollständige Gedicht im Original:

Kubla Khan
(Quelle: www.online-literature.com)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

(av)

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