As translated by Jerome Rothenberg
“
Is it so big a mystery
what god and man and world are?
No! but nobody knows how to solve it
so the mystery hangs on.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Is it so big a mystery
what god and man and world are?
No! but nobody knows how to solve it
so the mystery hangs on." in the context of "As translated by Jerome Rothenberg" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" (Quotes, Venetian Epigrams (1790))
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,