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“Rest and Silence” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 18873 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German by Jim Doss & Werner Schmitt
Shepherds buried the sun in the bleak forest.
A fisherman drew
The moon from the freezing pond in a hairy net.
In blue crystal
The pale man dwells, the cheek leaned on his stars;
Or he inclines the head in purple sleep.
But always the black flight of birds touches
The beholder, the sanctity of blue flowers,
The nearby stillness ponders forgotten things, extinct angels.
Again the forehead nightfalls into moony stone.
A radiant youth,
The sister appears in autumn and black putrefaction.