Der Jäger Abschied
Who has built you, you beautiful forest,
Up there, so high above?
I truly want to praise your Master,
As long as my voice shall sound.
Farewell, farewell, you beautiful forest!
The world below sends tangled sounds,
Lonely deer are grazing above.
And we go off and blow our horns,
And it echoes a thousandfold:
Farewell, farewell, you beautiful forest!
Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem about a group of volunteer soldiers leaving German forests to fight against Napoleon’s army, illustrated with drawings and objects found at flea markets – an uncomfortable confrontation with German nostalgia in sixteen pages.
