Everything Blooming

Everything blooming comes to an end
as trees when they sway comprehend.

Trees feel themselves still in breezy air.
We humans never get what barely is there.

Flowers think flower, all creatures, creature.
Clods in a field should be our teacher.

***

Everything blooming
is destined to die.
Who sees it coming
knows what is nigh.

The tree feels still
in the breezy air.
We rarely conceive
who we actually are.

Flowers think flower.
Beasts, beast.
The soil in a field
knows more than we do.

Both after Jean Gebser

Alles Blühen
meint schon den Tod.
Nur die sich mühen,
sind wirklich bedroht.

Still fühlt der Baum
den zitternden Wind.
Wir denken kaum
was wir eigentlich sind.

Blume denkt Blume,
und Tier denkt Tier.
Des Ackers Krume
ist gewisser als wir. 

***

About translation 

Buttercup Yellow Field

O soft buttercup yellow field
tinged green with red sorrel leaf,
not even your copious yield
affords full-blown relief.

O swelling boughs whose song
blossoms like snow in the Spring,
our hearts, alas, are strung along
by dreams of you to which we cling.

After Christian Morgenstern

Butterblumengelbe Wiesen,
sauerampferrot getönt,
O du überreiches Sprießen,
wie das Aug dich nie gewöhnt! 

Wohlgesangdurchschwellte Bäume,
wunderblütenschneebereift —
ja, fürwahr, ihr zeigt uns Träume,
wie die Brust sie kaum begreift.

***
For a reading of the German, see Marcel Reich-Ranicki’s piece in the Frankfurter Anthologie. Cf  Gallowsong