First Snow
There appears from silver grey grounds
a slim deer
in winter woods
and tests with care, toe by toe,
the pure, cool, freshly fallen snow.
And I think of you, most delicate formation.
C. Morgenstern/ Translated by N. Williams
November Day
Fog hangs smoke like round the home
forcing introspection
Few go out and no-one roams:
all fall in reflection.
Hand and mouth shall calmer be,
gestures gentler seeming
and, like deep down in the sea,
Man and Earth are dreaming.
C. Morgenstern/ Translated by Walter A. Aue
October Storm
Wild-swaying oak tree
midst evening's red-
Lifestorm's dreams cloak thee
with crimson dead-
Leaves, whirling hither,
gossip, malign
nightcold the shiver
runs up the spine.
C. Morgenster/ Translated by Walter A. Aue
September Day
This is the autumn's sorrow-sweetened clearness,
that liberates as well as it harangues;
when crystal truth its spirit o'er the nearness
of woods and mountains as a garment hangs.
This is the autumn's sorrow-sweetened clearness...
Christian Morgenstern/ Translated by Walter A. Aue
Temptation
I stood upon the cliff's edge, still,
and looked below and spoke alone.
"Off and away, immortal one!
it costs a single word, 'I will'.
A God sleeps here, a God wakes there -
Off then and sleep!" your spirit bade.
"it is but form you give in trade,
no moment do you lose your core..."
- My day work is not done. It waits.
Whoever tears the husk aside
before the seed is ripe inside -
he goes to sleep too soon - and wakes-
too late.
C. Morgenstern/ Translated by Theodore Van Vliet
Eve of Spring
The leafless poplars stand as slender things,
so slim and fine as twilight's dun unfurls.
Blackbirds trill joyous, pure as mountain springs,
and wond'rous-waiting, breathless rests the world.
The wraithlike cloud, all heaviness and wet,
draws shade across the still unstarlit scene,
greys over in the fading west's rosette,
the peaks and vales - a crumpled, drunken dream.
C. Morgenstern/ Translated by Theodore Van Vliet