Poetry from all over the world

[doppelgaenger]

I just read a radio play in a German class that has some poetry in it. Here are a few of my favorite stanzas, but in English. I'll put the German below.

There are roadsigns,
and easily discernible river courses,
lookout points in elevated positions,
maps where lakes are in blue and forests in green-
it's easy to find one's way around in the world.

But you, companion at my side how hidden from me,
is the landscape of your heart!
Feeling my way in the fog, I am often overcome with fear
of the thickets and the hidden precipice.
I know you don't like your thoughts to be traced,
the echo of your words is intended to mislead-
roads going nowhere,
pathless terrain, lapsed signage.
Each century provides us with new things to conceal,
a territory that offers no purchase to the curious eye of affection,
overgrown with loneliness, it's ever denser leaves.

Es gibt Wegweiser an den Straßen,
leicht erkennbare Flussläufe,
Aussichtsgerüste an erhöhten Punkten,
Landkarten, auf denen die Seen blau eingezeichnet sind und die Wälder grün,
- es ist leicht, sich zurechtzufinden auf der Erde.

Aber du, der du neben mir gehst, wie verborgen
ist mir die Landschaft deines Herzens!
Tappend im Nebel überkommt mich oft Furcht
vorm Dickicht und vorm verborgenen Abrund.
Ich weiß, du willst nicht, dass man deine Gedanken durchwandre,
irreführen soll das Echo deiner Worte,
- Straßen, die kein Ziel haben,
ein Gebiet ohne Ausweg, verfallne Markierung.
Jedes Jahrhundert gibt uns neue Dinge zu verbergen,
ein Gelände, überwachsen dem neugierigen Auge der Liebe,
zugedeckt von Einsamkeit, dem immer dichteren Laub.

[vashti]

Not all of it. Just most of it. Poetry is bunk. And I say this as someone with a degree in English Lit. I hate it. Give me prose, give me epics, give me Shakesepeare. Keep the fluttery emotional crap where it belongs, the journals of depressed high schoolers.

But what about Shakespeare's sonnets?

[doppelgaenger]

Shakespeare's sonnets are my favorite of his works. Actually, Wyatt is one of my favorite English poets. His sonnets are simply amazing.

[boobaa]

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[NewStart]

Hokusai says Look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself
as long as it's interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.
He says keep praying.
He says every one of us is a child,

every one of us is ancient,
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive -
shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.
Wood is alive.
Water is alive.
Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn't matter if you draw,or write books.
It doesn't matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn't matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees
and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.
It matters that you feel.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
are life living through you.
Peace is life living through you.

He says don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.

- Roger Keyes