[net.poems] Hesse poems.

swifty@fluke.UUCP (steve swift) (09/20/83)

Here are a couple of my favorite Hermann Hesse poems.  Both
of these poems were translated by Francis Allard back in 1974
while he was a professor of Germanics at the University of
Washington.  The last I heard about him was that he was going
to teach at Standford... does anyone know where he is?

		September

	The garden is in mourning;
	The rain falls cool among the flowers.
	Summer shivers quietly
	On its way towards its end.

	Golden leaf after leaf
	Falls from the tall acacia.
	Summer smiles, astonished, feeble,
	In this dying dream of a garden.

	For a long while, yet, in the roses,
	She will linger on, yearning for peace,
	And slowly
	Close her weary eyes.

______________________________________________________________

		Going to Sleep

	Now that day wearies me,
	My yearning desire
	Will receive more kindly,
	Like a tired child, the starry night.

	Hands, leave off your deeds,
	Mind, forget all thoughts;
	All of my forces
	Yearn only to sink into sleep.

	And my soul, unguarded,
	Would soar on widespread wings,
	To live in night's magical sphere
	More profoundly, more variously.



steve swift
(...decvax!microsof!fluke!swifty)