Ubik poem

For Tony Boucher

ich sih die liehte heide
in gruner varwe stan
dar suln wir alle gehen,
die sumerzeit enphahen

I see the sunstruck forest
In green it stands complete.
There soon we all are going,
The summertime to meet.

I was interested in origin of the German (or at least, worn-down / archaic German) poem that leads Philip K Dick's SF nove Ubik. Tony Boucher was PK Dick's editor, friend and mentor, and The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick: 1938-1971 reveals the back-story to be quite complicated.

It appears in a number of modern works, such as:

Ich sih die liehte heide
in gruner varwe stan.
Dar süln wir alle gehen,
die sumerzeit enphahen
- Dies Irae (Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013)
...
'Ich sih die liehte heide
in gruner varwe stan.
Dar suln wir alle gehen,
die sumerzeit enphahen....'
- Doctor Mirabilis: After Such Knowledge (James Blish, Hachette UK, 31 May 2013).

... but it seems to go back to some obscure middle HochDeutscn lyric about an earthly Utopia. It turns up in the Carmina Burana:

139 a.
(fol. 70 b.)

Ich wil denj sumer grüzen,
so ih besten chan,
der winder hat mir hiure
leides vil getan,
des wil ich in rüfen
in der vrowen ban.
Ich sih die liehte heide
in grüner varwe stan,
dar süln wir alle gahen,
die sumerzit enphahen;
des tanzes ich beginnen sol,
wil ez iu niht versmahen.
- Carmina burana: Lateinische und deutsche Lieder und Gedichte, Volume 16, edited by Johann Andreas Schmeller, Stuttgart, 1847).

The word "varwe" probably means "layers" (going by geological analogue).


There's quite a nice upbeat version on YouTube, including this segment, by Helium Vola. See CD Review: Helium Vola - Wohin?.

See also PK Dick, Ubik and conceptual breakthrough for a fuller look at the book.

- Ray