Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Autumn Day

Herbsttag. This is my favorite poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, describing autumn in incredible beautiful and rich language. In our public library I found a translation of this poem - unfortunately it doesn't reflect Rilke's amazing lyrical language, but I think you can grab some of the atmosphere.


Autumn Day

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander on the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

Autumn day on the Neckarinsel in Tübingen, Germany

7 comments:

Sonya McCllough Lockridge said...

captured.

La Vie Quotidienne said...

Rilker is such a wonderful poet...I have never read the poems in German, but this is lovely indeed. Beautiful photo.

soraya nulliah said...

oh-I just love this poem and of course I ADORE Rilke!! I am also going to check out the blog from the post below...and Carola-I LOVE these pics! So stunning! And great for listening to that inner voice, believing in yourself and doing things even though they are scary!
Yes...it was pretty bad with Tara having such a high fever last week...I stripped her down, applied cold washcloths to her face and back, turned on the fan and gave her tons of Pedialite...thankfully it really helped. I am sick now...but Tara is better. xxx

soraya nulliah said...

Carola-just popped over to the blog...great stuff going on there! I especially loved the most recent post by Kelly! Isn't blogland so awesome...and to think we were missing out on all of this??!!

Cindy Adkins said...

Oh wow, this is breathtaking, Carola...I hope you're doing great!!!
XO

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Ein schönes Foto, welches den Herbst so richtig herrlich rüberbringt und es passt wunderbar zu Rilkes Gedicht. Hier kommt endlich die Sonne raus, nachdem es den ganzen Vormittag geregnet hat, da werde ich heute Nachmittag bestimmt eine Runde durch den Wald drehen und die Laubfärbung sowie den typischen Herbstgeruch genießen.

Jodene Shaw said...

Carola ~ I love this post ~ the richness and warmth-seeking of fall. Beautiful words and photos!
love,
jodi