The Pug of Onyx
Read the full text in our reader
Die Alte hatte auf diese Rede wenig Acht gegeben und nur ihre Hand betrachtet, die in der Gegenwart der schönen Lilie immer schwärzer und von Minute zu Minute kleiner zu werden schien. Sie wollte ihren Korb nehmen und eben forteilen, als sie fühlte, daß sie das Beste vergessen hatte. Sie hub sogleich den verwandelten Hund heraus und setzte ihn nicht weit von der Schönen in’s Gras. Mein Mann, sagte sie, schickt Euch dieses Andenken, Ihr wißt, daß Ihr diesen Edelstein durch Eure Berührung beleben könnt. Das artige treue Thier wird Euch gewiß viel Freude machen, und die Betrübniß, daß ich ihn verliere, kann nur durch den Gedanken aufgeheitert werden, daß Ihr ihn besitzt.
The old woman had paid little heed to this speech and only gazed at her hand, which in the fair Lily's presence seemed to grow ever blacker and smaller from minute to minute. She wanted to take her basket and hurry off at once, when she felt that she had forgotten the best thing. She promptly lifted out the transformed dog and set it in the grass not far from the fair one. My husband, she said, sends you this keepsake; you know that you can bring this jewel to life by your touch. The good, faithful creature will surely give you much joy, and my sorrow at losing him can be cheered only by the thought that you possess him.
The old woman, absorbed in her shrinking hand, nearly leaves before remembering the old man's gift: the transformed dog, which Lily's touch can bring to life.
<p>The old woman barely hears Lily's speech; her eyes stay fixed on the hand that seems blacker and smaller by the minute in Lily's presence. She is already hurrying off when she remembers das Beste, the best thing, and lifts the transformed pug from the basket. Her little presentation speech does the work Goethe wants: it states, in a housewife's fond words about a pet, the law on which the tale turns, that Lily's touch can bring this jewel to life.</p><p>The undercurrent is the symmetry of her power. The touch that kills the living quickens the stone, and the onyx pug, killed once already by the wisps' gold, is the first thing in the story that can safely come toward her. The old woman's sorrow at losing him is real and small, and it sits beside Lily's larger grief without competing, two losses of very different weight exchanged in a single gift.</p>
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily 58 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily 58 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/green-snake-and-the-beautiful-lily/58/