Celebrating translation

[ptyx]

Dedicated to all my LJ friends, but especially to anagpotter, elinor103, ira66, merry1978, patt_aguero, piwi_chan, sioban_parker and 4itaem, my translators. And also to joanwilder, who's a great fic translator, and zazaone, who's... the One ;-). And to tekalynn, of course.

Poem 80 of Goethe, the Lyrist: 100 Poems
"Ein Gleichnis" (Parable):
Jüngst pflückt' ich einen Wiesenstrauss,
Trug ihn gedankenvoll nach Haus;
Da hatten, von der warmen Hand,
Die Kronen sich alle zur Erde gewandt.
Ich setzte sie in frisches Glas,
Und welch ein Wunder war mir das!
Die Köpfchen hoben sich empor,
Die Blätterstengel im grünen Flor,
Und allzusammen so gesund,
Als ständen sie noch auf Muttergrund.

So war mir's, als ich wundersam
Mein Lied in fremder Sprache vernahm.
I picked wild flowers recently
And took a bunch home thoughtfully;
The warmth that by my hand was shed
Make every flower droop its head.
I gave them water in a glass,
And what a miracle came to pass!
The little heads perked up once more,
The stems were greening as before,
And all in all they looked so well
As when they grew in their native dell.

I felt that way when I heard my song
Wondrously in a foreign tongue.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), "Ein Gleichnis"
Goethe, the Lyrist: 100 Poems, (translated by Edwin H. Zeydel
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1955, pp. 158-159)