Rilke Poetry in Pastels

Finally I'm back to the challenges at Inspiration Avenue, and this week's theme is "poetry". So beautiful. Reading poetry in another language than German is still difficult for me as I think too much gets lost and I am not able to understand the entire meaning, which is a real shame. However, I do love poetry in my native language, German. One poet I read over and over again is Rainer Maria Rilke. His poem "Herbsttag" (Autumn Day) is one of my favorites. You can find a translation at the bottom of this post; this one I like better than the one I found back in October and that I posted here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find out who did this translation, I found it here. If you're interested in how many translations exist of this one poem (and thus show how difficult it is to translate poetry into another language) you will have a ball at this site.

Today, this poem inspired me to play with my pastels.

I found the pastels at a yard sale one year ago and since then they have been sitting in a drawer because I didn't really know what to do with them. But now I took them out and just experimented with them. I love their brilliant colors and that it is so easy to blend them. The best part though is that I can smudge them and get my fingers dirty - that really is my favorite thing about them! In this painting I also used Prismacolor colored pencils for the tree trunks, and as a final touch added the first line of the poem.

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.

Lay your shadow on the sundials

and let loose the wind in the fields.

Bid the last fruits to be full;

give them another two more southerly days,

press them to ripeness, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now will not build one anymore.

Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long time,

will stay up, read, write long letters,

and wander the avenues, up and down,

restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday and Sneak Peek Friday - it would be great if you'd check out both sites.

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