apparently April is national poetry month

[bedlamsbard]

I only brought one book of poetry to Tulane with me, so you get Rilke, both in the original German and the English translation. Some of you may remember this poem from my narniaexchange fic Not Calling to Eternity; I couldn't remember if I'd quoted the poem or not, but apparently not.



ABEND

Der Abend wechselt langsam die Gewänder,
die ihm ein Rand vonalten Bäumen hält;
du schaust: und von dir scheiden sich die Länder
ein himmelfahrendes und eins, das fällt;

und lassen dich, zu keinem ganz gehörend,
nicht ganz so dunkel wie das Haus, das schweigt,
nicht ganz so sicher Ewiges beschwörend
wie das, was Stern wird jede Nacht und steigt-

und lassen dir (unsäglich zu entwirrn)
dein Leben bang und riesenhaft und reifend,
so daβ es, bald begrenzt und bald begreifend,
abwechselnd Stein in dir wird und Gestirn.


EVENING

The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven, one that falls;

and leave you, not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion
of what becomes a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, no immeasurable,
it is alternately stone in you and star.



I don't read German -- I took two years of German in high school, just enough to recognize some words -- but I like having both the original and the translation side by side; it's soothing to read out the original, concentrate on something I don't understand.