The Garden of Discordia

So one of the classes I found myself greatly enjoying - to my almost even greater surprise - was the one about modern German poetry. It helps that the teacher is very good and methodical, but we've also been workind with a (so far) quite nice selection of poetry.

One of my favorite poems that we've looked at, is Himbeerranken (Raspberry Tendrils) by Günter Eich. Can't find a good English translation online, alas, and I'm not really feeling up to translating poetry at this time of night...

Himbeerranken

Der Wald hinter den Gedanken,
die Regentropfen an ihnen
und der Herbst, der sie vergilben läßt –

ach, Himbeerranken aussprechen,
dir Beeren ins Ohr flüstern,
die roten, die ins Moos fielen.

Dein Ohr versteht sie nicht,
mein Mund spricht sie nicht aus,
Worte halten ihren Verfall nicht auf.

Hand in Hand zwischen undenkbaren Gedanken.
Im Dickicht verliert sich die Spur.
Der Mond schlägt sein Auge auf,
gelb und für immer.

Unfortunately, to next week we're reading another set of poems for the "Photography and Literature" class which I had a look at yesterday. And, alas, my newly sharpened skill at poetry interpretation fell apart more or less the moment I looked at the lines. Oh well, maybe once someone else has said something smart in class, I'll get an idea or two myself