v17

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1897) holds the most wide-ranging influence of the French Symbolist poets. A respected reviewer and critic whose translations of Edgar Allan Poe were much admired in his time, he died young, at only forty-six, but left behind a legacy of work at the center of which stands his masterpiece, the poems of Les Fleurs du mal, first published in 1857 to shock and acclaim.

 

Ned Balbo

Ned Balbo’s latest book, The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, was awarded the 2010 Donald Justice Prize and the 2012 Poets’ Prize. Lives of the Sleepers received the Ernest Sandeen Prize and a ForeWord Book of the Year Gold Medal; Galileo’s Banquet shared the Towson University Prize.

 

Happiness

english translation

Happiness

original German poem

VI

Nicht lange täuschte mich das Glück,
Das du mir zugelogen,
Dein Bild ist wie ein falscher Traum
Mir durch das Herz gezogen. 

Der Morgen kam, die Sonne schien,
Der Nebel ist zerronnen;
Geendigt hatten wir schon längst,
Eh wir noch kaum begonnen.

 

Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf in either 1797 or 1799. He has been called the last of the Romantics, no doubt because he clearly skirted Romanticism through irony and satire. His university career progressed from Bonn in 1819 to Göttingen in 1820 to the more intellectual climate of the University of Berlin; by 1823 he had fled Berlin as well. When Prussia legislated against Jews taking university posts, Heine converted to Protestantism (1825), saying this was “the ticket of admission into European culture,” and changed his name from Harry to Heinrich.

 

Terese Coe

Terese Coe’s poems and translations have appeared in Poetry, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, New American Writing, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Smartish Pace, Tar River Poetry and The Huffington Post; in the UK, The TLS, Poetry Review, Agenda, New Walk Magazine, Orbis, and Warwick Review; in Ireland, The Stinging Fly; and in many other publications, including anthologies.

 

Of the Drowned Girl

english translation

Of the Drowned Girl

original German poem

Vom ertrunkenen Mädchen

1.
Als sie ertrunken war und hinunter schwamm
Von den Bächen in die größeren Flüsse
Schien der Opal des Himmels sehr wundersam
Als ob er die Leiche begütigen müsse.

2.
Tang und Algen hielten sich an ihr ein
So dass sie langsam viel schwerer ward.
Kühl die Fische schwammen an ihrem Bein
Pflanzen und Tiere beschwerten noch ihre letzte Fahrt.

3.
Und der Himmel ward abends dunkel wie Rauch
Und hielt nachts mit den Sternen das Licht in Schwebe.
Aber früh ward er hell, dass es auch
Noch für sie Morgen und Abend gebe.

4.
Als ihr bleicher Leib im Wasser verfaulet war
Geschah es (sehr langsam), dass Gott sie allmählich vergaß.
Erst ihr Gesicht, dann die Hände und ganz zuletzt erst ihr Haar.
Dann ward sie Aas in Flüssen mit vielem Aas.

 

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956) was a German playwright and poet. A dedicated Marxist, Brecht is perhaps best known for helping to develop the theatrical movement known as epic theater, which considered the stage a medium for exploring political ideas and dialectical materialism. Over his lifetime, Brecht wrote two books of fiction, multiple theoretical works on theatre, over fifty plays, and hundreds of poems. He composed “Vom ertrunkenen Mädchen” [Of the Drowned Girl] after the brutal murder of revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg during the Spartacist Uprising of 1919.

 

R.C. Neighbors

R.C. Neighbors is a sixth-generation Oklahoman and current resident of the strange land of Texas. He has studied literature at the University of Arkansas and screenwriting at Hollins University, and he currently serves as a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University with emphases in creative writing and the Native American South. He hopes to leave Texas very, very soon. His work has appeared in Tampa Review, Barely South Review, Red Earth Review, Parody, and elsewhere.

 

 

Rime 31

english translation

Rime 31

original Italian poem

Rime 31

Chi non sa come dolce il cor si fura,
come dolce s'oblia ogni martíre,
come dolce s'acqueta ogni desire,
sí che di nulla piú l'alma si cura,
    venga, per sua rarissima ventura,
una sol volta voi, conte, ad udire,
quando solete cantando addolcire
la terra e 'l cielo e ciò che fe' natura.

    Al suon vedrá degli amorosi accenti
farsi l'aere sereno ed arrestare
l'orgoglio l'acque, le tempeste e i venti.
    E, visto poi quel che potete fare,
crederá ben che tigri, orsi e serpenti
arrestasse anche Orfeo col suo cantare.

 

Rime 21

english translation

Rime 21

original Italian poem

Rime 21

S'io, che son dio, ed ho meco tant'armi,
non posso star col tuo signor a prova,
ed è la sua bellezza unica e nova
pronta mai sempre a tante ingiurie farmi,
     come a tuo pro poss'ora io consigliarmi,
e darti il modo, con che tu rimova
quel saldo ghiaccio, che nel cor si trova,
per via di preghi, di consiglio o carmi?

     Ti bisogna aspettar tempo o fortuna,
che ti guidino a questo; ed altra via
non ti posso mostrar, se non quest'una.
     Cosí mi dice, e poi si vola via;
ed io mi resto, al sole ed a la luna,
piangendo sempre la sventura mia.

 

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