The Brooklet.

The brooklet flows downward,
It flows always downhill.
The notches have teeth and
and the shoes a sepulcher.

The brooklet has humor,
they cultivate hares, does and stags,
The brook is it swollen,
thereby quenching them of thirst.

Translated by Gary Sullivan and Ekkehard Knörer.

* * *

Das Bächlein.

Das Bächlein fließt herunter,
Es fließt immer Bergab.
Die Nuten haben Zacken und
und die Schuhe ein Grab.

Das Bächlein hat Humor,
sie üben Hasen, Reh und Hirsch,
Der Bach ist er geschwollen,
Dort löschen sie ihren Durst.

* * *

Notes

The alert reader will note that I have translated "Das Bächlein" here as "Brooklet," but in the poem two posts beneath this one as "Streamlet." Extensive notes explain the reason for the latter. The reason for "Brooklet" will be clear tomorrow. (E.g., in the poem just above this.)

UPDATE: Not long after I posted this poem, Ekkehard Knörer wrote in to alert me to two places where I'd normalized Herbeck's writing--and made a very convincing case as to why it is a mistake to do that here:

the "sie" - "they" - in "sie üben Hasen, Reh und Hirsch" does not refer to anything with grammatical plausibility (it would be "they cultivate hares, does and stags"); as this seems to be very typical for herbeck - pronouns coming out of left field - i think you should somehow retain this. it almost seems as if these pronouns in a sense actually bring forth what they do not refer to (yet). they are active and generative in a very peculiar sense, it seems

"der bach ist er geschwollen"

literally - and ungrammatically - is

"the brook is it swollen"

In the first instance I had had "it cultivates hares, does and stags." In the second "the brook itself is swollen." I am almost positive I've run up against that syntactical construction before ("ist er") and have tended to think of it (mistakenly) as "is itself."