Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Curious

I have been thinking the last few days about a poem I had to memorize in junior high school German class. I couldn't quite remember all of the words, and I never have read a real English translation, just the translation I had to do in class.

So I turned to Google, and coincidentally, the site where I found the poem and the translation belongs to a DC poet, and the day he posted the poem was...today.

I actually don't find huge deep significance to this...it's a poem about fall. Wind is blowing, leaves are dead, I wouldn't be surprised if the same things that made the poem go through my mind inspired the other guy's post.

Anyway, the poem was Herbsttag, by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.

Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gieb ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.

Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.

I'm not sure how I feel about it in English...the German sounds more like a cold wind to me.

Posted by Nic at November 25, 2007 09:43 PM | TrackBack