Stay Awhile, Beautiful Moment

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, this is Nick from Chalk Mountain, Texas.

Chalk Mountain, Texas. Welcome to the show.

How are you doing?

Well, thank you. I love your show.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

What’s on your mind?

About 35 years ago, a long time ago, I was involved in a business transaction.

I was in Dallas at the time, and there was a woman, she was German, and her name was Gunilla.

And I remember my wife and I invited her to go out to dinner, and it was a business dinner, and it was near Christmas.

And it was one of those evenings where absolute total strangers just had a great time over a bottle of wine.

And it was just a perfect, comfortable, beautiful evening.

And at the end, she uttered something in German.

I don’t remember exactly if it was a word or a phrase, but in any case, I asked her to translate,

And she said it translates as, oh, beautiful moment, please linger.

I always thought that was a great thing, and I would love to know what that word or phrase is in German.

What a beautiful story.

That’s great.

I think I know what you’re talking about.

I think I’ve had a few of those in my life where absolutely everyone and everything was perfect for a little while,

And there were no complaints, and there’s still a glow many years later.

Interesting.

Did you have the impression that Ganillo was a lover of literature?

Well, I can’t remember much of any specifics about the conversation,

But I know when she came up with that, that word or phrase or whatever it was,

That she was very, I guess, proud of her language

And proud that it could express things like that kind of a sentiment.

I was impressed as well.

Yeah.

I wish we had a word in English for it.

Exactly.

The Germans often outdo us there, don’t they?

Well, you wouldn’t think the Germans.

You would think Italians or French or something, but it was German this time.

Yeah.

Well, actually, what she was quoting, I’m betting, is one of the most famous phrases in German literature.

And it comes from the tragic play Faust by Goethe.

Oh.

You know, like a Faustian bargain is a bargain where you sell your soul to the devil.

And that was the plot in this play where Faust is depressed and the devil comes to him and says, you know, I’ll do anything for you, give you anything you want, as long as you’ll agree to serve me in hell after you die.

And so the deal that the two of them made was that Faust agreed that if he ever had a joyful moment,

Pretty much like the kind of moment that you’re describing, that he just wanted to linger forever and ever,

This moment of perfect bliss, if Faust ever got to that point in his life,

Then according to their agreement, he would die and go to hell.

Now you’re scaring me.

Well, you didn’t. That’s the good news.

That’s right. That’s right. I certainly did not.

But yeah, and that passage translates as Faust telling the devil, you know, when they’re negotiating this agreement,

He says something to the effect of, oh, beautiful moment, please linger.

And then that will be the cue for me to die and go serve you in hell.

And that beautiful German phrase is, für viele doch du bist so schön.

Well, I’m not sure I’ll remember that.

It’s probably the most famous phrase in German literature.

Verweile doch du bist so schön.

Wow.

Starts with a V.

Well, thank you for sharing this evening with us.

Well, thank you for your show.

We enjoy it.

And thank you for having me on.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Take care now.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We are going to put that full German phrase on the website so you can find it for yourself.

But the English version that they use is really quite beautiful, isn’t it?

Yeah, I think I’m going to adopt that one.

Beautiful moment.

Please linger.

That’s nice.

Yeah.

What more do you need?

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