Carl Sandburg y Rainer Maria Rilke: poemas otoñales
Posted: October 9, 2015 Filed under: Carl Sandburg, English, Rainer Maria Rilke, Spanish, ZP Translator: Alexander Best Comments Off on Carl Sandburg y Rainer Maria Rilke: poemas otoñales
Carl Sandburg
Autumn Movement
.
I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.
.
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.
.
The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.
. . .
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Movimiento Otoñal
.
Yo lloraba sobre bellas cosas, sabiendo que nada dura que es bella.
.
El campo de aciano amarillo es un paliacate
en el cuello de la mujer de piel cobriza y quemada por el sol;
ella es la madre del año y la tomadora de semillas.
.
El viento noroeste llega, y el amarillo está rasgado y lleno de rotos;
nuevas cosas bellas viene con el primer escupitajo de nieve en ese viento noroeste;
y las viejas cosas se van – ninguna dura.
. . .
Rainer Maria Rilke
Autumn
.
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
as if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.”
.
And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.
.
We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It’s in them all.
.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands
infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
. . .
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Otoño
.
Caen las hojas, caen desde alto – o parece,
casi como huertos murieron muy alto en el cielo.
Cada hoja cae como hacer gestos de “No”.
.
Y esta noche la tierra pesada está cayendo
lejos de las otras estrellas en la soledad.
.
Nosotros todos, estamos cayendo; aun cae mi mano.
Y mira a la otra; está dentro de todos – ello.
.
Pero todavía hay Alguien…y sus manos son
infinitamente calmadas, sosteniendo todo este “cayendo“.
. . . . .
Rainer Maria Rilke: translations from “Neue Gedichte” (1907) by Albert Ernest Flemming
Posted: May 27, 2015 Filed under: English, German, Rainer Maria Rilke Comments Off on Rainer Maria Rilke: translations from “Neue Gedichte” (1907) by Albert Ernest Flemming
Rainer Maria Rilke (Bohemia/Austria, German-language existential/mystical poet, 1875-1926)
Portrait of My Father as a Young Man
.
In the eyes: dream. The brow as if it could feel
something far off. Around the lips, a great
freshness – seductive, though there is no smile.
Under the rows of ornamental braid
on the slim Imperial officer’s uniform:
the saber’s basket-hilt. Both hands stay
folded upon it, going nowhere, calm
and now almost invisible, as if they
were the first to grasp the distance and dissolve.
And all the rest so curtained within itself,
so cloudy, that I cannot understand
this figure as it fades into the background –
.
Oh quickly disappearing photograph
in my more slowly disappearing hand.
. . .
Self-Portrait (from the year 1906)
.
The steadfastness of generations of nobility
shows in the curving lines that form the eyebrows.
And the blue eyes still show traces of childhood fears
and of humility here and there, not of a servant’s,
yet of one who serves obediantly, and of a woman.
The mouth formed as a mouth, large and accurate,
not given to long phrases, but to express
persuasively what is right. The forehead without guile
and favouring the shadows of quiet downward gazing.
.
This, as a coherent whole, only casually observed;
never as yet tried in suffering or succeeding,
held together for an enduring fulfillment,
yet so as if for times to come, out of these scattered things,
something serious and lasting were being planned.
In the original German:
Jugend-Bildnis meines Vaters
.
Im Auge Traum. Die Stirn wie in Berührung
mit etwas Fernem. Um den Mund enorm
viel Jugend, ungelächelte Verführung,
und vor der vollen schmückenden Verschnürung
der schlanken adeligen Uniform
der Säbelkorb und beide Hände -, die
abwarten, ruhig, zu nichts hingedrängt.
Und nun fast nicht mehr sichtbar: als ob sie
zuerst, die Fernes greifenden, verschwänden.
Und alles andre mit sich selbst verhängt
und ausgelöscht als ob wirs nicht verständen
und tief aus seiner eignen Tiefe trüb -.
.
Du schnell vergehendes Daguerreotyp
in meinen langsamer vergehenden Händen.
. . .
Selbstbildnis aus dem Jahre 1906
.
Des alten lange adligen Geschlechtes
Feststehendes im Augenbogenbau.
Im Blicke noch der Kindheit Angst und Blau
und Demut da und dort, nicht eines Knechtes
doch eines Dienenden und einer Frau.
Der Mund als Mund gemacht, groß und genau,
nicht überredend, aber ein Gerechtes
Aussagendes. Die Stirne ohne Schlechtes
und gern im Schatten stiller Niederschau.
.
Das, als Zusammenhang, erst nur geahnt;
noch nie im Leiden oder im Gelingen
zusammgefasst zu dauerndem Durchdringen,
doch so, als wäre mit zerstreuten Dingen
von fern ein Ernstes, Wirkliches geplant.
RMR poems: from his Neue Gedichte (published in 1907)
Translations from German into English by Albert Ernest Flemming (1983)
. . .
Images:
Portrait drawings of 16th-century noblemen: by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), and by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586). First drawn by The Elder, and the second and third by The Younger.
. . . . .
Two “Autumn” Poems: translations by A.Z. Foreman
Posted: October 15, 2014 Filed under: Dino Campana, English, German, Italian, Rainer Maria Rilke Comments Off on Two “Autumn” Poems: translations by A.Z. Foreman
Dino Campana (1885-1932, Italy)
Autumn Garden
.
Unto the ghostly garden, unto the laurels mute
Of the green garlands,
Unto the autumn land
– one last salute!
Out to the dried hillsides
Reddened hard in the terminal sun,
Confounded into grumbles,
Gruff life afar is crying:
Crying to the dying sun that sheds
A blood that dyes the flowerbeds.
A brass band plays
Ear-piercingly away; the river fades
Out amidst the gilded sands. In the quiet
The great white statues stand at the bridgehead
Turned; and what was once is now no more.
And from the depths of quiet, as if it were a chorus
Soft and splendorous
Yearns its way to the heights of my terrace.
And in an air of laurel,
In an air of laurel, languorous and blade-bare,
Among the statues immortal under sundown,
She appears to me – is there.
. . .
Dino Campana
Giardino Autunnale
.
Al giardino spettrale al lauro muto
De le verdi ghirlande
A la terra autunnale
Un ultimo saluto!
A l’aride pendici
Aspre arrossate nell’estremo sole
Confusa di rumori
Rauchi grida la lontana vita:
Grida al morente sole
Che insanguina le aiole.
S’intende una fanfara
Che straziante sale: il fiume spare
Ne le arene dorate: nel silenzio
Stanno le bianche statue a capo i ponti
Volte: e le cose già non sono più.
E dal fondo silenzio come un coro
Tenero e grandioso
Sorge ed anela in alto al mio balcone:
E in aroma d’alloro,
In aroma d’alloro acre languente,
Tra le statue immortali nel tramonto
Ella m’appar, presente.
. . .
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926, Bohemia-Austria-Germany)
Autumn Day
.
Lord: it is time. The summer days were grand.
Now set Thy shadows out across the sun-dials
And set the winds loose on the meadowland.
Bid the last fruits grow full upon the vine,
do them the good of two more southern days
then thrust them on to their fulfillment, chase
the final sweetness into bodied wine.
Whoever has no house yet will build none,
Whoever is alone will stay alone
And stay up, write long letters out, and go
Through avenues to wander on his own
Uneasily when leaves begin to blow.
. . .
Rainer Maria Rilke
Herbsttag
.
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 Aleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.
. . .
Translations from the Italian and the German:
A. Z. Foreman
. . . . .
Rainer Maria Rilke: “Upon Seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, Milan, 1904”
Posted: April 5, 2012 Filed under: English, German, Rainer Maria Rilke Comments Off on Rainer Maria Rilke: “Upon Seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, Milan, 1904”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“Upon Seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, Milan, 1904”
They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,
leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.
*
To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.
Translation from German into English: Albert Ernest Flemming
_____
Rainer Maria Rilke
“Das Abendmahl”
Sie sind versammelt, staunende Verstörte,
um ihn, der wie ein Weiser sich beschließt,
und der sich fortnimmt denen er gehörte
und der an ihnen fremd vorüberfließt.
*
Die alte Einsamkeit kommt über ihn,
die ihn erzog zu seinem tiefen Handeln;
nun wird er wieder durch den Oelwald wandeln,
und die ihn lieben, werden vor ihm fliehn.
*
Er hat sie zu dem letzten Tisch entboten
und (wie ein Schuß die Vögel aus den Schoten
scheucht) scheucht er ihre Hände aus den Broten
mit seinem Wort: sie fliegen zu ihm her;
*
sie flattern bange durch die Tafelrunde
und suchen einen Ausgang. Aber er
ist überall wie eine Dämmerstunde.
_____
Editor’s note:
In Leonardo da Vinci’s 1498 mural – as in Gianpietrino’s 1520 “copy” –
the painter has chosen from biblical scripture the moment
immediately after Jesus says:
Amen, I say to you
that one from among
you is going to
deliver me up [“betray me”],
one of you who is eating with me.
The painting depicts the disciples’ reactions to Jesus’ words.
Zócalo Poets 