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“To the Boy, Elis” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 1887 – 3 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German by Jim Doss & Werner Schmitt
Elis, when the blackbird calls in the black woods,
This is your decline.
Your lips drink the coolness of the blue rock-spring.
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Cease, when your forehead bleeds quietly
Ancient legends
And dark interpretations of the flight of birds.
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But with gentle steps you walk into the night,
That hangs full of purple grapes,
And you move the arms more beautifully in the blueness.
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A thorn bush tinges,
Where your moon-like eyes are.
O, how long, Elis, have you been dead.
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Your body is a hyacinth,
Into which a monk dips his waxy fingers.
Our silence is a black cavern,
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From which a soft animal steps at times
And slowly lowers heavy eyelids.
On your temples black dew drips,
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The last gold of expired stars.