Poetry

[foudebassan]

Because I feel like it. Do you know Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945)? Well, she's a great poetess, and one of her poems is called "Autumn" - and this is the right season :)




HERBST

Ich pflücke mir am Weg das letzte Tausendschön ...
Es kam ein Engel mir mein Totenkleid zu nähen -
Denn ich muß andere Welten weiter tragen.

Das ewige Leben dem, der viel von Liebe weiß zu sagen.
Ein Mensch der Liebe kann nur auferstehen!
Haß schachtelt ein! wie hoch die Fackel auch mag schlagen.

Ich will dir viel viel Liebe sagen -
Wenn auch schon kühle Winde wehen,
In Wirbeln sich um Bäume drehen,
Um Herzen, die in ihren Wiegen lagen.

Mir ist auf Erden weh geschehen .....
Der Mond gibt Antwort dir auf deine Fragen.
Er sah verhängt mich auch an Tagen,
Die zaghaft ich beging auf Zehen.

http://www.deutsche-liebeslyrik.de/laske124.htm






Automne

Je cueille sur mon chemin la dernière pâquerette…
Un ange vint coudre mon linceul ;
Car je dois continuer à soutenir d’autres mondes.

La vie éternelle à celui qui sait abondamment parler d’amour.
Un Homme d’amour ne peut que ressusciter !
La haine nous enfouit ! aussi haut que la torche puisse s’abattre.

Je veux te parler d’amour encore et encore ;
Même si déjà la bise souffle,
Se dressant en tourbillons contre les arbres,
Contre les cœurs qui reposent en leurs berceaux.

Il m’est arrivé de souffrir sur terre…
La lune donne des réponses à tes questions.
Elle m’observait, masquée, les jours
Que je parcourais sur la pointe des pieds.






…Et sans doute ai-je eu tort.

Automne

Cueillant sur le chemin la fin des pâquerettes,
Je vis l’ange qui vint me coudre mon linceul ;
Car j’ai moi d’autres mondes à porter toute seule.

A celui qui toujours parle d’amour, la vie
Eternelle ! Car lui, il ressuscitera.
La haine nous enfouit ! Haut, la torche s’abat.

Je voudrais te parler d’amour toujours, toujours ;
Même si la bise souffle déjà dehors,
Se dresse et tourbillonne, emportant tous les arbres,
Et emportant les cœurs qui dorment en berceaux.

Il m’arriva souvent de souffrir sur la terre…
La lune répondra à toutes tes questions
Car elle m’observait aussi ces jours, masquée
Jours que je parcourais sur la pointe des pieds.


Bof bof pour avoir une versification potable (ce qui n’est pas forcément ce qu’il y a de plus fidèle, l’original n’a pas une scansion régulière), faut faire sauter les rimes ; or en français on perd la tonalité poétique dès qu’on abandonne la versification (poème en prose mon c***, enfin, mon prose, quoi ; faudrait des accents toniques pour se le permettre). Bref, traduttore tradittore.

Comments

[mrs-muggle.livejournal.com]

I love sad German poetry. (And why does everyone else have better words for 'daisy'? English is so boring sometimes.)

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't say that! you have tons of lovely words as well.

I'm not so sure the poem is sad. It's the end of something, and there's lots of nostalgia for what has been and soon will be no more. Yet I find some sort of confidence in the future amid all that (to carry other worlds / a man of love can only come to life again / the moon, hovering over all that and answering questions / the 'you' - a lover? a daughter? a friend? the other side of yourself, the part that lives on when a part of you ceases to exist?).

And the structure is itself a question, it looks like an inverted sonnet. The answer to a sonnet normally is in the last two lines (so here, the two first); what should have been the last word is "Tausendschön" ("daisy", but the literal translation would be "a thousand times lovely" - so even if it's the last, there's still something to admire...). But as the structure is inverted, it sounds like a flashback afterwards, and the end of the flashback - what brings the present situation to what it is - is 'the days I met with hesitation, on tiptoes'. She doesn't know for sure where she's going to, there's shyness and restraint towards 'the days' that will come, but she's still 'going to' them - the German werb 'begehen' cannot be translated here. It means, literally, to meet, but there's the idea of movement in it as well - elle vient à sa rencontre en même temps.

/ rant.

[mrs-muggle.livejournal.com]

A lot of German poetry does seem to me to be ... melancholy, I suppose. Not exactly sad, but somewhere around there. And complicated - although that probably goes for most poetry, regardless of language. I think I need re-read and spend longer over it. My German's even rustier than my French. It was my best subject at school but I had to give it up because it wouldn't fit in with the ones I had to take.

If you have a German filter, I'd like to be added, just for the practice. Apart from listening to Lieder, I don't seem to be exposed to much German these days.

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

A lot of poetry is melancholy, regardless what language.

Deutsch kannst Du also auch? My opinion of British people's language skills just went up a level :)

I don't have a German filter, but I should. I'm losing it all at a horrendous speed now that I'm not in Switzerland any more.

[mrs-muggle.livejournal.com]

Deutsch kannst Du also auch?

Ich glaube, daß ich meistens vergessen habe. (And I bet that was rubbish.)

Where's the double s on a keyboard, anyway? I ended up copying and pasting yours.

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

I don't have one either, I copy-paste mine on the Internet when I need them (which is not often, the Swiss don't have any and the Germans reformed their spelling to have less - it's correct to write "dass" now).

[mrs-muggle.livejournal.com]

I'd heard that, but I like the ß!

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

But you still have it, it's just less common. You put ß after a long vowel or a diphtongue (Soße, Scheiße, Maße) and a -ss- after a short vowel (dass, Masse). It makes pronunciation easier in a way.

[mrs-muggle.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. I'd heard somewhere that it had gone altogether. I'm glad it's still around.

[atlantel.livejournal.com]

Where's the double s on a keyboard, anyway? I ended up copying and pasting yours.
Well, if I'm not wrong this letter should not be used anymore but old habits die hard :)

Und mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut auch, aber ich versuche, der Spiegel zu reden.

[foudebassan.livejournal.com]

Zu reden oder zu lesen?

The ß is still used, but it's less common. You put ß after a long vowel or a diphtongue (Soße, Scheiße, Maße) and a -ss- after a short vowel (dass, Masse). It makes pronunciation easier in a way.