Friday 29 March 2019
zkv83
Monday 25 March 2019
Joachim du Bellay: 'Les Regrets' in English translation
Saturday 23 March 2019
Thor Sørheim: 'Tapt terreng' in English translation
Thor Sørheim: 'Komposthaugen' in English translation
Friday 22 March 2019
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's poem 'Die Biene' in English translation
Die Biene
Als Amor in den goldnen Zeiten
Verliebt in Schäferlustbarkeiten
Auf bunten Blumenfeldern lief,
Da stach den kleinsten von den Göttern,
Ein Bienchen, das in Rosenblättern,
Wo es sonst Honig holte, schlief.
Durch diesen Stich ward Amor klüger.
Der unerschöpfliche Betrüger
Sann einer neuen Kriegslist nach:
Er lauscht’ in Rosen und Violen;
Und kam ein Mädchen sie zu holen,
Flog er als Bien’ heraus, und stach.
The Bee
When Cupid back in ages Thracian
Love-struck with pastoral elation
Through meadows bright with flowers leapt,
The smallest of the gods did sting him,
A bee which, to rose-petals clinging,
And now not seeking honey, slept.
This painful sting made Cupid shrewder.
The inexhaustible deluder
His ruse of war now took to wing:
In violets and roses hidden,
Should a young maid pass by, unbidden
He would as bee fly out, and sting.
Tuesday 19 March 2019
Jacobus Revius: 'Antichrist' (1630)
Monday 18 March 2019
Sunday 17 March 2019
Marjoleine de Vos: 'Wer jetzt kein Haus hat' in English translation
Saturday 16 March 2019
Inger Hagerup: 'Vi holder livet' in English translation
M. Nijhoff: 'Con sordino' in English translation
Friday 15 March 2019
M. Nijhoff: 'Impasse' in English translation
Friday 8 March 2019
Baudelaire: 'Harmonie du soir' (2024)
Harmonie du soir
Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige
Chaque fleur s’évapore ainsi qu’un encensoir;
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir;
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige!
Chaque fleur s’évapore ainsi qu’un encensoir;
Le violon frémit comme un cœur qu’on afflige;
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige !
Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir.
Le violon frémit comme un cœur qu’on afflige,
Un cœur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir!
Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir;
Le soleil s’est noyé dans son sang qui se fige.
Un cœur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir,
Du passé lumineux recueille tout vestige!
Le soleil s’est noyé dans son sang qui se fige…
Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir !
Evening harmony
Now comes the time of day on trembling stem below
Each censer-seeming flower starts to evaporate;
In evening air the sounds and perfumes all gyrate;
A melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
Each censer-seeming flower starts to evaporate;
The fiddle shudders like a heart that’s dealt some blow;
A melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
The lovely, sad sky’s altar of repose awaits.
The fiddle shudders like a heart that’s dealt some blow,
A tender heart which hates the great void’s pitch-black state;
The lovely, sad sky’s altar of repose awaits;
In its own clotting blood the sun has drowned its glow.
A tender heart, which hates the great void’s pitch-black state,
Places each vestige of its radiant past on show;
In its own clotting blood the sun has drowned its glow...
Your memory within me monstrance-like dilates!