The Temple Sets Sail
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Man konnte deutlich fühlen, daß der ganze Tempel sich bewegte, wie ein Schiff das sich sanft aus dem Hafen entfernt, wenn die Anker gelichtet sind; die Tiefen der Erde schienen sich vor ihm aufzuthun als er hindurch zog. Er stieß nirgends an, kein Felsen stand ihm in dem Weg.
One could distinctly feel that the whole temple was moving, like a ship that gently leaves the harbour when the anchors are weighed; the depths of the earth seemed to open before it as it passed through. It struck against nothing; no rock stood in its way.
The whole temple moves through the earth like a ship leaving harbour, and nothing blocks its way.
<p>Goethe reaches for the most ordinary comparison he can find for the least ordinary event in the tale: the temple moves the way a ship does when the anchor comes up, that slow, almost unnoticed slide from stillness into motion. The German keeps the sense of touch in charge, man konnte deutlich fühlen, one could distinctly feel; the sentence is built to be felt in the body rather than seen.</p><p>What is striking is the absence of resistance. Er stieß nirgends an: it struck against nothing, and no rock stood in its way; the depths of the earth open for the temple as water opens for a hull. The undercurrent is that when the right time has come, the obstacles that seemed to be made of stone turn out to have been made of waiting. The whole tale has been a delay, and this sentence is what the end of a delay feels like.</p>
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