O soft yellow buttercup 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.
*
Morgenstern was a beloved albeit eccentric poet influenced by English nonsense verse, which facilitates the task of the translator into English, where his oddities may find an affinity.
In this case the red-green motif also fits well into the sequence of my own poems which allude to this old psychedelic imprint on my mind.