Poems...
...about cities and light
HE WISHES FOR THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
BUDAPEST
A poem by Billy Collins, animated by Julian Grey of Headgear (with translations into Hungarian):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgnec1r9YuU
FRAGMENT
Frühlingswind streift über die Dächer der Stadt,
die Tauben sind verliebt und gurren beseelt,
die Mädchen und die Frauen tragen wieder Röcke,
alles erwacht zu neuem Leben, nur die Donau
plätschert in gewohnter Trägheit lau an die Ufer.
Leben erwacht morgens, Leben erstirbt abends,
beliebig entfacht die Liebe und löscht der Tod,
von berauschenden Höhen in unselige Tiefen stürzend,
wundern wir uns über den Kreislauf des Lebens,
bevor wir endgültig aufhören zu sein - und dann zerfallen.
L.M.
SPACE TRAVELLER
If I was born to be a rose
i would have proudly unfold my blossom clothes
into the morning sunlight,
feeling a tickling dew drop
rolling down on my back.
It would have been okay to burn in your garden at summertime,
if you had forgotten to water me,
it would have been okay to be killed by frost in pale moonlight
if you had forgotten to cover me,
and if you crushed me - nevertheless I would have loved you.
I was not born to be a rose,
I was born to be a human,
born to be a space traveller,
I'm travelling lonesome in the space,
my ship lost me and left me
in the wide cool darkness.
Weightless floating in the expanse
as if I was nothing,
I'm reaching out my gloved hands
to you and to the blue planet
I'm running out of air,
I'm drifting away.
Wandering around in the infinite black depth,
around me millions of glittering and twinkling stars,
I'm watching how the earth turns into a new day's brightness.
from a far distance I see you awakening as a wonderful rose,
proudly unfold your white blossom clothes into the streaming light.
...On your back is rolling down a sparkling dew drop,
a sparkling dew drop is rolling down on your back...
L.M.
Go on to Poetry II.
