from stones to stars

One of the genres we're covering is poetry in another language: I'm covering German, French and Italian and my students will bring in Asian language poems.  Today posting is Rilke's Abend.

Der Abend wechselt langsam die Gewӓnder,

die ihm Rand von alten Bӓumen halt;

du schaust: und von dir sceiden sich die Lӓnder,

ein himmelfahrendes und eins, das fӓllt;

und lassen dich, zu keinemm ganz gehӧrend,

nicht ganz so dunkel wie das Haus, das schweigt,

hicht ganz so sicher Ewiges beschwӧrend

wie das, was Stern wird jede Nacht und steigt—

und lassen dir (unsӓglich zu entwirrn)

dein Leben bang und riesenhaft und reifend,

so dass es, bald begrenzt und begreifend,

abwechselnd Stein in dir wird un Gestirn.

(Or, as you would probably like to read.....)

Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors

which it passes to a row of ancient trees.

You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you,

one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth,

leaving you, not really belonging to either,

not so hopelessly dark as that house that is silent,

not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing

that turns to a star each night and climbs--

leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads)

your own life, timid and standing high and growing,

so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching out,

one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next, a star.