April: Alpine Crocuses

April: Alpine Crocuses
(click on photo to enlarge)

"...It is true, one could see the days
through the branches, how empty they were,—
but after long, rain-filled afternoons,
come the newer hours
overflowing with golden sunshine,
..."

from The Book of Images,
a book by Rainer Maria Rilke.

This week, an image of April crocuses
(Crocus alba) togerther with a translation
of a beautiful spring poem.

(click on photo to enlarge)
	"...It is true, one could see the days through the branches, how empty they were,— but after long, rain-filled afternoons, come the newer hours overflowing with golden sunshine, ..." from The Book of Images, a book by Rainer Maria Rilke. This week, an image of April crocuses (Crocus alba) togerther with a translation of a beautiful spring poem.

The guest poem for this week is a new translation from the work of the German language
poet, Rainer Maria Rilke , from The Book of Images:

Out of an April

Once again the forest is full of fragrance.
It lifts the soaring larks
up into the heavens, which laid so heavy upon our shoulders.
It is true, one could see the days through the branches, how empty they were,—
but after long, rain-filled afternoons,
come the newer hours
overflowing with golden sunshine,
before which, the sore windows of the distant
facades of houses
flee in reverence with beating wings.

Then it is quiet. Even the rain goes more softly
over the stones' peacefully darkening shine.
All sounds tuck themselves wholly away
under the glistening buds of the brushwood.

(tr. Cliff Crego)

Aus Einem April

Wieder duftet der Wald.
Es heben die schwebenden Lerchen
mit sich den Himmel empor, der unseren Schultern schwer war;
zwar sah man noch die Äste den Tag, wie er leer war,—
aber nach langen, regnenden Nachmittagen
kommen die goldübersonnten
neueren Stunden,
vor denen flüchtend an fernen Häuserfronten
alle die wunden
fenster furchtsam mit Flügeln schlagen.

Dann wird es still. Sogar der Regen geht leiser
über der Steine ruhig dunkelnded Glanz.
Alle Geräusche ducken sich ganz
in die glänzenden Knospen der Reiser.

Rainer Maria Rilke

| see also the Rilke Posters |

| listen to other recordings in English and German of twelve poems from
The Book of Images at The Rilke Download Page (# Includes instructions) |

See also a selection of recent Picture/Poem "Rilke in translation" features at the Rilke Archive.

See also another website
by Cliff Crego:
The Poetry of
Rainer Maria Rilke

a presentation of 80 of the
best poems of Rilke in
both German and
new English translations:
biography, links, posters