"Zigeunerlid" (A Poem)

Published in 1771, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Zigeunerlid” recounts a fictional tale of one man's interaction with the supernatural. The concept is not unique to the author (read his "Der Erlkönig" here). In fact, as John Cooper highlights, several of Goethe’s works – including “Türkisches Schenkenlied,” “Suleika,” and Die erste Walpurgisnacht – explore humanity’s confrontation with the other side.[1] In the case of “Zigeunerlid,” the altercation occurs after the narrator kills a witch’s black cat and is tormented by seven female werewolves.

In the drizzling mist, with the snow high-piled, 
In the winter night, in the forest wild, 
I heard the wolves with their ravenous howl, 
I heard the screaming not of the owl: 
Wille wau wau wau! 
Wille wow o wo! 
Wito hu! 

I shot, one day, a cat in the ditch – 
The dear black cat of Anna the witch; 
Upon me, at night, seven were-wolves came down,
Seven women they were, from out of the town.
Wille wau wau wau!
Wille wow o wo!
Wito hu! 

I knew them all; ay, I knew them straight; 
First, Anna, then Ursula, Eve, and Kate, 
And Barbara, Lizzy, and Bet as well;
And forming a ring, they began to yell: 
Wille wau wau wau! 
Wille wow o wo! 
Wito hu! 

Then called I their names with angry threat: 
“What wouldst thou, Anna? What wouldst thou, Bet?” 
At hearing my voice, themselves they shook, 
And howling and yelling, to flight they took. 
Wille wau wau wau! 
Wille wow o wo! 
Wito hu!

Works Referenced 

Cooper, John Michael. Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgis Night: The Heathen Muse on European Culture, 1700-1850. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007. 

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. “Zigeunerlid.” 1771. The Poems of Goethe. New York: Lovell Coryell and Company, 1882. 67-68.
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[1] Cooper, 37-38.