[size=-1]I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
A[size=-1]PRIL is the cruellest month, breeding | [size=-2] |
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing | [size=-2] |
Memory and desire, stirring | [size=-2] |
Dull roots with spring rain. | [size=-2] |
Winter kept us warm, covering | [size=-2] 5 |
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding | [size=-2] |
A little life with dried tubers. | [size=-2] |
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee | [size=-2] |
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, | [size=-2] |
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, | [size=-2] 10 |
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. | [size=-2] |
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. | [size=-2] |
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, | [size=-2] |
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, | [size=-2] |
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, | [size=-2] 15 |
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. | [size=-2] |
In the mountains, there you feel free. | [size=-2] |
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. | [size=-2] |
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What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow | [size=-2] |
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, | [size=-2] 20 |
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only | [size=-2] |
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, | [size=-2] |
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, | [size=-2] |
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only | [size=-2] |
There is shadow under this red rock, | [size=-2] 25 |
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock), | [size=-2] |
And I will show you something different from either | [size=-2] |
Your shadow at morning striding behind you | [size=-2] |
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; | [size=-2] |
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. | [size=-2] 30 |
Frisch weht der Wind | [size=-2] |
Der Heimat zu, | [size=-2] |
Mein Irisch Kind, | [size=-2] |
Wo weilest du? | [size=-2] |
“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; | [size=-2] 35 |
They called me the hyacinth girl.” | [size=-2] |
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, | [size=-2] |
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not | [size=-2] |
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither | [size=-2] |
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, | [size=-2] 40 |
Looking into the heart of light, the silence. | [size=-2] |
Öd’ und leer das Meer. |