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“To the Boy, Elis” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 18873 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.
Cease, when your forehead bleeds quietly
Ancient legends
And dark interpretations of the flight of birds.
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.
A thorn bush tinges,
Where your moon-like eyes are.
O, how long, Elis, have you been dead.
Your body is a hyacinth,
Into which a monk dips his waxy fingers.
Our silence is a black cavern,
From which a soft animal steps at times
And slowly lowers heavy eyelids.
On your temples black dew drips,
The last gold of expired stars.