Sometimes I feel I lead a very dull, uninteresting and boring life, but now and then something occurs unexpectedly that cheers me up no end. I have told you, for example, how I once met a chap in an English pub in Switzerland who could recite long sections of Macbeth in French; to hear him pour forth "Demain, demain, encore demain" over a glass of best Geneva brown was a pleasure rare indeed.
Recently, however, I had lunch with an economist in Darmstadt - which you might think would simply aggravate the symptoms just complained of, but not so! The conversation turned to Goethe, and I discovered to my joy that this economist could quote verbatim Howard's Ehrengedachtn is by Goethe in the original German. And so he did, between the main course and dessert.
It was an Englishman, Luke Howard, who classified the clouds, and gave them the names by which they are still known to meteorologists. Before he died in 1864, Howard had the satisfaction of seeing his suggestions widely accepted throughout the meteorological community. But he also received another unexpected accolade.
The German poet Goethe was a keen observer of the atmosphere, and in 1822, hearing of Howard's work, he wrote to him for details. The information he received, said Goethe, unlocked for him the mysteries of the skies, and Howard's Ehrengedachtnis - Howard's Eulogy - as it were, was his gesture of gratitude for this enlightenment. Thus quoth my economic friend:
Er aber, Howard, gibt mit reinem Sinn
Uns neuer Lehre herrlichsten Gewinn:
Was sich nicht halten, nicht erreichen lasst,
Er fasst es an, er halt zuerst es fest;
Wie Striefe steigt, sich ballt, zerflattert, fallt,
Erinnere dankbar seiner sich die Welt.
Of course I have known the English translation of this verse for many years, and some of you may even remember it from Weather Eye:
But Howard gives us with his clear mind
The gain of lessons new to all mankind;
That which no hand can reach, no hand can clasp
He first has gained, first held with mental grasp.
As clouds ascend, are folded, scatter, fall,
Let the world think but of him, who taught it all.
This, however, was the first time I had come across the poem in the vernacular. And when, the following day, I received a post-prandial photocopy of the text, I found that Goethe had not just stopped at praising Howard: he went on to give a lyrical description of cirrus, nimbus, cumulus and stratus, all in German verse. But more of that, as they say, upon another day.