“You are aware of only one unrest;Oh, never learn to know the other!Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast,And one is striving to forsake its brother.Unto the world in grossly loving zest,With clinging tendrils, one adheres;The other rises forcibly in questOf rarefied ancestral spheres.If there be spirits in the airThat hold their sway between the earth and sky,Descend out of the golden vapors thereAnd sweep me into iridescent life.Oh, came a magic cloak into my handsTo carry me to distant lands,I should not trade it for the choicest gown,Nor for the cloak and garments of the crown.”

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Originally said in English.

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About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German polymath and writer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Goethe is best known for his novel *The Sorrows of Young Werther*, which became a defining work of Sturm und Drang. His later masterpiece, *Faust*, remains a cornerstone of world literature, exploring human ambition and the search for meaning.

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