Light & Dragonflies: Nature Poems/Love Poems - 9. I’m a dreaming town

So many words that echo with imagery and possibilities here! The sun blooms on your forehead was striking, but so was You’re a torrent able to strangle all my bridges. But then  pray psalms through the untamed temple of my mouth focuses me on a more intimate landscape. Thank you for this translation. 

This trlanslation was astounding to my sensibilities in so many different ways: the strength of emotions evoked by the choice of similes!

I felt truly blessed as the beautiful imagery of the text soaked into my consciousness..

Thankyou for finding such gems and sharing them with us, ACBenus 🌹🌹🌹

Absolutely beautiful.  A section which especially spoke to me:

where the corral of stars
thrown from your eyes goes up to
the high gables
your hands pitch for me to pray psalms

through the untamed temple
of my mouth
The sun blooms on your forehead while the Alps
have never lain so bliss-filled

For some reason, those phrases meant much to me, even more than the rest of this wonderful translation.  Oh, and I liked it a lot, in case you had not guessed.

On 9/19/2023 at 5:45 PM, Parker Owens said:

So many words that echo with imagery and possibilities here! The sun blooms on your forehead was striking, but so was You’re a torrent able to strangle all my bridges. But then  pray psalms through the untamed temple of my mouth focuses me on a more intimate landscape. Thank you for this translation. 

Thank you, Parker. I suppose if I were asked to show a single example of what Runge's poetry is like, I'd chose this one. At the heart of German Expressionist thought is this desire to convey dream-like images. Runge uniquely brings this around to nature poetry, and love poetry, where not a single seam shows. His are more like waking dreams, and radiant ones at that. 

For me, this poem is incredible for how emotional it makes me feel. There is almost no rationale for being close to the point of tears by the time I read the ultimate word of May, and yet I am. How skillfully our poets lays out his magic carpet ride of images and feelings. His diesem uferlosen Mai is like a million others days of May experienced by a million people before, but to date, only one has been able to capture this feeling in words

On 9/19/2023 at 9:04 PM, Saavikam17 said:

This trlanslation was astounding to my sensibilities in so many different ways: the strength of emotions evoked by the choice of similes!

I felt truly blessed as the beautiful imagery of the text soaked into my consciousness..

Thankyou for finding such gems and sharing them with us, ACBenus 🌹🌹🌹

Thank you, Saavikam17. It's good I only began digging into Runge's work recently. Having worked with August Stramm's meticulous line-shaping immediately before tackling Runge helped me a great deal. Both poets made this essential to their means of expression, but, as you hint, Runge strove to be beautiful -- breathtaking, really. 

Thank you for reading and commenting 

On 9/20/2023 at 12:36 AM, ReaderPaul said:

Absolutely beautiful.  A section which especially spoke to me:

where the corral of stars
thrown from your eyes goes up to
the high gables
your hands pitch for me to pray psalms

through the untamed temple
of my mouth
The sun blooms on your forehead while the Alps
have never lain so bliss-filled

For some reason, those phrases meant much to me, even more than the rest of this wonderful translation.  Oh, and I liked it a lot, in case you had not guessed.

Thank you, ReaderPaul. There is some trickiness of syntax in Runge's original concerning the corral and the gables and the pitched hands, but I still remember distinctly being blown away the moment they all fell into place for me. This is poetry of the most exquisite kind, and the richness of it makes me feel like Howard Carter holding his candle to get a first look into Tutankhamen's tomb. "There's gold. Gold everywhere!" 

Thanks for reading this, and all of the Runge collection