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“Evening Muse” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 1887 – 3 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German by Jim Doss & Werner Schmitt
Again at the blooming window the church tower’s shadow
And golden shape return. The hot forehead burns down in rest and silence.
A fountain falls in the darkness of chestnut branches—
There you feel: it is good! in painful exhaustion.
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The market is empty of summer fruits and garlands.
Harmoniously the gates’ blackish pageantry attunes.
In a garden the tones of soft play sound
Where friends find each other after the meal.
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The soul likes to listen to the white magician’s fairy tales.
Roundly the corn swishes, cut by mowers in the afternoon.
The hard life is patiently silent in the huts;
A stable lamp shines upon the dulcet slumber of the cows.
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Eyelids soon sink inward drunk with air
And quietly open to foreign constellations.
Endymion rises from the darkness of ancient oaks
And bends down over mournful waters.