"O von dem Felsen des Hügels, von dem Gipfel des stürmenden Berges, redet, Geister der Toten! Redet! Mir soll es nicht grausen!" (December 20)
"Oh, from the rock on the hill, from the top of the windy steep, speak ye ghosts of the dead! Speak! I will not be afraid!" (Trans. Bayard Taylor)
Shortly before his suicide, Werther recites to his beloved Charlotte a portion of his own translation of some of the songs of Ossian. Both realize that the passage he has chosen foreshadows their own impending misfortune.
This masterful drawing (here digitally colorized) of a mountain landscape by Goethe was executed in 1810 during a visit to the Borschen region near Teplitz. Its distinctive contours seem to be reflected in the jagged descent of the melodic line at the beginning of the rondo finale.