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“Mourning” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 18873 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German by James Wright & Robert Bly
The dark eagles, sleep and death,
Rustle all night around my head:
The golden statue of man
Is swallowed by the icy comber
Of eternity. On the frightening reef
The purple remains go to pieces,
And the dark voice mourns
Over the sea.
Sister in my wild despair
Look, a precarious skiff is sinking
Under the stars,
The face of night whose voice is fading.