Dichtung is a German word that literally translates as "literature" or "poetry," but when it appears in the phrase "Dichtung und Wahrheit," "Dichtung" translates as "fact." The phrase means "fact and fiction."
"The Man with the Blue Guitar"[]
The phrase "Dichtung und Wahrheit" appears in Stevens' poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar":
A few final solutions, like a duet With the undertaker: a voice in the clouds, Another on earth, the one a voice Of ether, the other smelling of drink, The voice of ether prevailing, the swell Of the undertaker's song in the snow Apostrophizing wreaths, the voice In the clouds serene and final, next The grunted breath scene and final, The imagined and the real, thought And the truth, Dichtung und Wahrheit, all Confusion solved, as in a refrain One keeps on playing year by year, Concerning the nature of things as they are.[1]
References[]
1. http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/blueguitar.html