Saturday, January 3, 2009

A Beautiful Landscape.
Korneuberg.

    A beautiful landscape — —
must have a mountain, Kreuzenstein!
where the Nordbahn goes
and the street near Korneuburg
                        runs.
A beautiful city, and the Danube
                        flows.
Many boats float and the warm wind blows.
where the farmers go to the fields.
where the corn matures and this harvest
                    becomes.—
            "Korneuburg"!

Translated by Gary Sullivan.

* * *

Eine schöne Landschaft.
Korneuberg.

    Eine schöne Landschaft— —
muss eine Burg haben, Kreuzenstein!
wo die Nordbahn geht
und die Strasse nach Korneuburg
                        fährt.
Eine schöne Stadt, und die Donau
                        fließt.
Viele Boote fahren und der Föhn weht.
wo die Bauern auf die felder ziehn.
wo das Korn reift und diese Ernte
                    wird.—
              »Korneuburg«!

* * *

Notes

"Korn" means "grain," generally, but I translated it as "corn" so as to emphasize what's going on in the last few lines of the original. I'm not sure about the meaning of "ziehn," which I've seen used to describe the movement of both mist and a swarm of rats. I used "hover," but I suspect this is may be a stretch.

UPDATE: A comment from Ekkehard Knörer on this poem suggests that it was indeed a stretch, and I've made the appropriate adjustment.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"auf die felder ziehn" is pretty straightforward in the sense of "where the farmers go to the fields"

Gary said...

Aha. Okay, I'll make the change.