Autunm eats its leaf out of my hand: we are friends.
From the nuts we shell time and we teach it to walk:
then time returns to the shell.
In the mirror it’s Sunday,
in dream there is room for sleeping,
our mouths speak the truth.
My eye moves down to the sex of my loved one:
we look at each other,
we exchange dark words,
we love each other like poppy and recollection,
we sleep like wine in the conches,
like the sea in the moon’s blood ray.
We stand by the window embracing, and people look up from
the street:
it is time they knew!
It is time the stone made an effort to flower,
time unrest had a beating heart.
It is time it were time.
It is time.
Translated by Michael Hamburger
Anyone I would love to see the German and any other translation–please send me links here in the comments! I will be delighted!
Harro I would like to see your whole translation. Of any Rilke or Celan. I like your choices here too. Especially “we speak dark.” That is so much richer. Thanks for playing!
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I’d rather say:
(5) In dream we sleep
(9) We speak dark
(13) We stand by the window embracing, they look at us from the street
Nice one, didn’t know it before …
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