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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
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  • 01/27/2024
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Ultimate Vehicle of Earthly Bliss - 1. Life in us is strong

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I. Verbindung aus dem Nächten

 

Antwort

 

Das Leben ist stark, das Leben ist rein.

Seine Täler blißen in Purpur und Grün

Und tausend stählerne Schatten ziehn

In tausend sehnende Herzen hinein.

 

Das Leben ist stark, das Leben ist rein,

Und deine Spur verweht der Wind.

Tausend wie du gegangen sind

Und wollten um seine Schönheit frein.

 

Das Leben ist stark, das Leben ist rein,

Du wolltest, daß es dir Kränze flicht?

Erinnerung gibt es den Keuschen nicht –

Sie willen unberührt vom Schicksal sein.

 

Das Leben ist stark, das Leben ist rein.

Ein ander Tor hat sich dir aufgetan

Zypresse und Immergrün wächst daran –

Seh dort hinein! [i]

 

 --------------------------------- 

 

I. Connection through the Nights

 

Response

 

That life in us is strong, that much is true.

Though crimson and green blaze its vale,

Still a thousand steel shadows impale

A thousand hearts with longing all through.

 

That life in us is strong, that much is true,

And although its trail is swept by air,

A thousand like you have thought it fair

And sought its beauty to free anew.

 

That life in us is strong, that much is true,

You wanted it to weave laurel boughs?

Yet fame does not exist through such vows –

Not for those wishing fate not to strike the view.

 

That life in us is strong, that much is true.

Yet, another gate may open wide

Where cypress and evergreen abide –

So have a look, do!

 

 

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[i] “Antwort” Toni Schwabe Komm kühle Nacht: Verse [“Come, Cool Night: Verse”] (Munich 1908), p. 60

https://archive.org/details/3476447/page/60/mode/2up

Toni Schwabe’s remarkably out work is mentioned – albeit sadly in a Freudian frame-up – by Dr. Jeannette Foster in her Sex Variant Women in Literature: A Historical and Quantitative Survey (New York 1956), ps. 176-177. As Dr. Foster was Lesbian, and out as of at least the early 1970s, her survey is still amongst the most impressive and best cited ever done concerning same-sex love.

https://archive.org/details/sexvariantwomeni00fost/page/n3/mode/2up

 

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Copyright © 2024 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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ReaderPaul

Fascinating.  The laurel boughs have a special meaning to me.  All of the poem speaks to me, seeming to have several meanings.  It has a rich and intriguing texture, as well.  I agree with @Parker Owens -- the poem commands attention.

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12 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

Thank you for this new voice. This poem commands attention. 

Thank you, Parker, for starting this new journey with me. Schwabe lived into the 1950s, but after about 1912, she stopped writing poetry. She was busy with prose, and served as editor in chief of a literary journal. It's possible she continued to write verse, but these manuscripts have yet to be published

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10 hours ago, ReaderPaul said:

Fascinating.  The laurel boughs have a special meaning to me.  All of the poem speaks to me, seeming to have several meanings.  It has a rich and intriguing texture, as well.  I agree with @Parker Owens -- the poem commands attention.

Thank you, ReaderPaul! Textured is a great way to describe Schwabe's poetry. For this collection, I've grouped the poems I've translated into several themes. The first is Connections in the Night, and many of these poems are extremely sensual. She did not publish many that were rhymed, but for those that are, I maintained her rhyme structure. These mostly fall at the very start and end of the entire Schwabe collection  

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9 hours ago, chris191070 said:

Awesome 

That's a powerful word, Chris, and I thank you for it :)

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