Hölderlin: 'Hälfte des Lebens' (New Translation 2019)

For a decade or more, I have been wrestling with a translation of Hölderlin's 'Hälfte des Lebens'. If you go to this entry, you can see the workshop describing the process. One of the thorny issues is the German construction hängen + in + accusative, which implies both statis (the intransitive use of the verb) and movement (the use of the accusative). This has been analysed in various ways: Das Land hängt in den See (hinein)//Das Land hängt nur teilweise im See, etc.

I have tried 'Poised land becomes lake'. But cannot face looking at it. It feels wrong. Often the most obvious is right under one's nose. So I have taken that instead. What can never be captured is to let the word for 'hänget' hang at the end of the first line. That is sheer brilliance.

HÄLFTE DES LEBENS

Mit gelben Birnen hänget

Und voll mit wilden Rosen

Das Land in den See,

Ihr holden Schwäne,

Und trunken von Küssen

Tunkt ihr das Haupt

Ins heilignüchterne Wasser.

Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn

Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo

Den Sonnenschein,

Und Schatten der Erde?

Die Mauern stehn

Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde

Klirren die Fahnen.

HALF OF LIFE

With yellow pears full-laden

And covered with wild roses

Land hangs into lake,

You swans alluring,

And drunken with kisses

Dipping your heads

In sacredly sober water.

Ah me, where will I, when

The winter’s come, find flowers, and where

The sunshine and

The shadows of the earth?

The walls all stand

Speechless and cold, the wind-caught

Weather-vanes clatter.