That after all mood …

… Short Talk on Kafka on Hölderlin | by Anne Carson | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)



Here is one of my favorite Hölderlin poems, in my own rough translation:



Half of Life



With yellow pears
And filled with wild roses
The land hangs into the lake,
You lovely swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip your heads
Into the holy sobering water.

Ah, me. Where will I find, when
Winter comes, the flowers,

And where the sunshine

And the shadows of Earth?

The walls stand speechless

And cold. The weathercocks
Rattle in the wind.