Schiller (Germany)
If you want to know yourself, look at other people's actions.
To understand others, look inside yourself first.
(translated by Qian Chunkun, from Selected Poems of Schiller)
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Johann Christophe Friedrich Schiller, a great German playwright and poet, was taciturn and thoughtful. His thoughts are mostly abstract concepts, and his poems are between poetry and philosophy. 1794, Schiller wrote to Goethe and said: "When I want to engage in philosophy, the poet urges me. When I want to write poetry, the spirit of philosophy keeps me busy. Imagination hindered my abstract thinking, and boring understanding hindered my poetry. It is still common today. " I realize that Schiller's lyric poems often lack lyrical flavor, but they have profound ideological significance and superb expression style. His poems occupy an important position in German thought poems (also known as philosophical poems).
The poem "Lock the Key" was written in 1796. Two years ago, Schiller and Goethe began to cooperate. Schiller resumed his literary creation and wrote some epigrams criticizing the society at that time. The poem "Lock the Key" has only two lines, which is quite concise, accurate and comprehensive. It seems to be written as a "key", but after reading it, people feel that it is not just a key, it is very philosophical and enlightening. This is very similar to China's micro-philosophical poems. There are only three or two sentences, which have strong generalization and imagination, but leave readers with endless thoughts.
(Jiang Weiyang)