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“Blood Guilt” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 18873 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German
Night threatens at the bed of our kisses.
Somewhere a whisper: who absolves your guilt?
Still trembling from the sweetness of nefarious lust
We pray: forgive us, Mary, in your mercy.
Out of flower vases greedy scents climb,
Wheedling our foreheads pale with guilt.
Exhausting under the waft of sultry air
We dream: forgive us, Mary, in your mercy.
But the well of the sirens rushes louder,
And the sphinx rises darker before our guilt,
So that our hearts sound again more sinfully,
We sob: forgive us, Mary, in your mercy.