Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart Poems

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart Biography

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (March 24, 1739 – October 10, 1791), German poet, was born at Obersontheim in Swabia. He entered the university of Erlangen in 1758 as a student of theology. He led a dissolute life, and after two years' stay was summoned home by his parents. After attempting to earn a livelihood as private tutor and as assistant preacher, his musical talents gained him the appointment of organist in Geislingen, and subsequently in Ludwigsburg; but as a consequence of his wild life and blasphemy, found expressed in a parody of the litany, he was expelled from the country. He then visited in turn Heilbronn, Mannheim, Munich and Augsburg. In the last-named town he made a considerable stay, began his Deutsche Chronik (1774-1778) and eked out a subsistence by reciting from the latest works of prominent poets. Owing to a bitter attack upon the Jesuits, he was expelled from Augsburg and fled to Ulm, where he was arrested in 1777 and confined in the fortress of Hohenasperg. Here he met with lenient treatment, and he beguiled the time by a study of mystical works and in composing poetry. His Sümtliche Gedichte appeared in two volumes at Stuttgart in 1785-1786 (new edition by G Hauff, Leipzig, 1884, in Reclams Universal-Bibliothek); in this collection most of the pieces are characterized by the bombast of the "Sturm und Drang" period. He was set free in 1787, by Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, and expressed his gratitude in Hymnus auf Friedrich den Grossen. Schubart was now appointed musical director and manager of the theatre at Stuttgart, where he continued his Deutsche Chronik and began his autobiography, Schubarts Leben und Gesinnungen (2 vols, 1791-1793), but he died before its completion at Stuttgart. His Gesammelte Schriften und Schicksale appeared in 8 vols (Stuttgart, 1839-1840). See D. F. Strauss, Schubarts Leben in seinen Briefen (2 vols, 1849; 2nd ed., 1878); G. Hauff, Christian Daniel Schubart (1885); and E. Nagele, Aus Schubarts Leben und Wirken (1888).)

The Best Poem Of Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart

The Trout

In a clear brooklet in happy haste
The impulsive trout dashed past like an arrow.
I stood on the bank and watch in sweet repose
The bath of the lively small fish in the clear brooklet.
The bath of the lively small fish in the clear brooklet.

A fisherman with his rod stood on the bank
And saw cold-bloodedly how the fish was turning around
So long as the water stays clear, I thought,
He won’t catch the trout with his fishing rod.
He won’t catch the trout with his fishing rod.

At last the thief became impatient.
He made the stream muddy maliciously
And I thought, his rod quivered
The fish, the fish was wriggling on it,
And I, with my blood boiling, looked at the duped,
And I, with my blood boiling, looked at the duped.

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart Comments