Autumn

As solitary signals in the woods
was a cuckoo calls.
the wind whistles the branches and
see there, autumn was there.
joke a bigger cockadoodledoo
a hare was a dear boo.
the elder lets the lashes lower
where also in autumn the leaves sower.

Translated by Gary Sullivan and Oya Ataman.

* * *

Herbst

Als einsamer Melder im Walde
war ein Kuckuck ruft.
der Wind saust die Äste und
siehe da, der Herbst war da.
scherz ein großer Hanengruß
ein Hase war ein lieber Kuß.
der Alte ließ die Wimpern fallen
wo auch im Herbst die Blätter sallen.

* * *

Notes

There is no German word "sallen," but the orthographically similar "sollen" means "should" or "to be." Herbeck may have changed "sollen" to "sallen" so as to create a perfect rhyme for "fallen," which ends the line just above it.

Oya and I decided to rhyme "lower" with "sower," which is a noun in English, but not a verb, as we're using it. The idea of using sower as a verb seemed like it both captured the strangeness of "sallen" and echoes "to be" and "should" from the original. (Think "Parable of the Sower.")