Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Translate the Passage Below from German to English--If You Know German, Skip Today

Den Gott des Ganges und der weiten Botschaft,
die Reisehaube uber hellen Augen,
den schlanken Stab hertragend vor dem Leibe
und flugelschlagend an den Fußgelenken;
und seiner linken Hand gegeben: sie.

From Rilke’s “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes”

The Glenmary Gardens had broken soft,
like effort ever taken from the resourceful,
onto a valley veiled from the calls that men
once forgotten make in their feeling through all;
once opened for all they sought to save all: woe.

Note: This exercise was adapted from one of my favorites in creative writing class that I took with Mark Rudman senior year of college.

3 comments:

  1. Just a quick note that I also took a class w/ Mark Rudman at NYU (grad school), "The Little Magazine." Loved him.

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  2. Yeah I really liked that class. His poetry has been asking to be read by my lazy butt for the last 6 years...plus there were a few majorly talented poets in there, which was fun.

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  3. Do this in other languages!

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