(Parallel texts in two languages)
Secret Flute
The cups stand empty, steady, calm.
The candle glows: a secret flute.
The rose releases dazzling balm.
The things are silent: but not mute.
Christina Egan © 2013
Flötenton
Die Tassen stehen leer und ganz gelassen.
Die Kerzenflamme ist ein Flötenton.
Die Rose schüttet Süße aus in Massen.
Die Dinge schweigen; doch sie sind nicht stumm.
Christina Egan © 2013
The usefulness of a pot lies in its emptiness.
Lao-tse
Photograph: Christina Egan © 2009
Promise (January Tanka)
Beach of coal-black sand,
turquoise lagoon, pink sunrise:
all this in one sky.
Layers of cloud, air, and fire
above the cold waiting earth.
*
Under the full moon
the denuded twigs rejoice
– look! – studded with buds.
Beneath the skin of the trees
– listen! – the sap is brewing.
Christina Egan ©2022
Verheißung (Januar-Tanka)
Schwarz, türkis, rosa:
Strand, See und Sonnenaufgang
im selben Himmel.
Wolken, Luft, Feuer über
kalter wartender Erde.
*
Entblößtes Gezweig
jubelt unterm Vollmond – schau! –
mit Knospen besetzt.
Unter der Haut der Bäume
– lausche nur! – brauen die Säfte.
Christina Egan ©2022
The colourful landscape was a mirage in the sky, or a promise, over the dull lands of winter. There are indeed deep-black beaches, on the Azores or the Canaruy Islands for instance, and they might be warm even in January…
O Land von Eis und Feuer
O Land von Eis und Feuer,
von Salz und Sturm und Schlacken,
wo in der Schwärze Schleier
aus bunter Seide flattern!
O Land von heißen Felsen
und unverhofften Wiesen,
wo Elemente schmelzen
und rauschend weiterfließen!
O Land am Rand der Meere,
am Rand von Raum und Zeit –
O ungeheure Leere
und Himmelsherrlichkeit!
Christina Egan ©2022
O Land of Ice and fire
O land of ice and fire,
of salt and storm and slag,
where in the black a layer
of light hangs like a flag!
O land of seething sands
and sudden dazzling green,
where melting elements
merge in a roaring stream!
O land beyond the seas,
where space and time disperse –
O awesome emptiness
and force of higher worlds!
Christina Egan ©2022
Vigil (V)
Du bist die Hand, die mein Gebetbuch hält
in aller Frühe, wenn die laute Welt
noch schlummert wie ein müdgetobtes Kind
und wir die Stimme ihrer Träume sind.
Wir sind der Psalm, der aus der Erde steigt,
wenn Nachtwind noch die Wiesenblumen neigt,
das erste Wechsellied im Weizenfeld…
Du bist die Hand, die mein Gebetbuch hält.
Christina Egan ©1990
Vigil (V)
At dawn, the noisy and unruly world,
just like a tired child, has not yet stirred.
We are the voice of all its dreams: we stand,
my hymnal lifted by your distant hand.
We are the psalm arising from the earth
while night wind is still bending blooming herbs.
We are the chant across the ripening land…
My hymnal lifted by your distant hand.
Christina Egan ©2018
These lines describe the early-morning prayer of Christian monks and nuns: standing up and bowing, chanting and responding to each other… They also imagine an invisible connection between two of them — good friends perhaps, close relatives, or former lovers — who feel that they are praying together across the distance between them.
Photograph: By ignis – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Die Spur des Mars
Unbeirrbar rollt die Straße,
über Hügel, über Flüsse
schnurgerade hingebreitet
wie ein Strahl vom flammendroten
goldstückgroßen Himmelsboten:
Mars hat Rom hierhergeleitet.
Christina Egan ©2020
The Trace of Mars
Resolutely, the road rolls
over rivers, over hills,
laid out strangely straight and clear,
issued like a flaming ray
from the gold coin in the sky:
It is Mars that led Rome here.
Christina Egan ©2020
As ever, the first poem of the year admires the roads of the Romans. At Cassel in the north of France, you can see them radiate from a hill and run entirely straight, regardless of the landscape. They served very well to transport people, goods, and ideas, but were first of all laid to occupy and exploit regions. Mars in the poem above stands for war and aggression but also for courage and strength.
glanztanzend
glitzerndbunte
einzigartige
grußkarten
glückwünsche
aufgereiht
auf rotem faden
über kerzen
glanztanzend
dennochlächelnd
zurückzwinkernd
blickweckend
herzwärmend
glitzerndbunte
einzigartige
käfergedichte
lindwurmwörter
dank tinte
oder tastatur
überseesegelnd
überschallfliegend
von geist zu geist
von aug zu ohr
lautspielerei
wortzauberei
Christina Egan ©2023
dazzle-dancing
sparkly-motley
one-of-a-kind
greeting cards
congratulations
lined up on
red thread
above candles
dazzle-dancing
smiling anyway
winking back
awakening gazes
warming hearts
sparkly-motley
one-of-a-kind
little beetle poems
dragon’s tail words
overseas sailing
supersonic flying
thanks to ink
or keyboard
from mind to mind
from eye to ear
sound-play
word-spell
Christina Egan ©2024
The poem does what it describes: inventing words, lining them up, and sending them to others to greet them and cheer them up!
The newly coined terms had to be re-created in English – where they do of course not look as impressive. “lindwurmwörter”, for instance, really sounds and looks as long as a dragon, while “dragon’s tail words” looks like three words, even though I added the tail in to get a similar effect in meaning and length.
In England, many people hang Christmas cards up on golden strings. During the festive seasons of 2022/23 and 2023/24, I crafted many greeting cards myself, each of them unique.
Seasonal greeting cards. Artwork: Christina Egan ©2022/©2023/©2024. Photographs: Miriam Hornsby ©2024.
Visual poem developed from the text Von stählernen Waben (see below). Christina Egan ©2024.
For the English text version and links to similar poems, see When Webs of Steel / Von stählernen Waben.
For the English visual version and for a related word cloud, see the previous post, Webs of Steel (Visual Poetry).
Von stählernen Waben
Von stählernen Waben und gläsernen Wänden
beschränkt auf ein spärliches gräsernes Eck,
steh’ stille und spüre dein Blut in den Händen:
Du hast ein Gesicht; und du hast ein Geschick.
Will keiner dich kennen, verstehen und lieben,
gibt keiner verborgene Neigungen her,
hol’ Atem – hol’ Atem – und freu’ dich am Leben:
Ich weiß es ja, bin ja bei dir übers Meer!
Christina Egan © 2015
Visual poem developed from the text When webs of steel (see below). Christina Egan ©2024.
Word cloud Steel & Glass of twelve English poems about big cities on this website. Christina Egan ©2024.
Visual poem typed up on a Word document. Word cloud designed on Simple Word Cloud Generator.
For the German version and links to similar poems, see When Webs of Steel / Von stählernen Waben.
For the inspiration for the design of the word cloud, see Glass Mountain (Potsdamer Platz).
When Webs of Steel
When webs of steel and walls of glass
confine you to a square of grass –
stand still and feel your sap pulsate:
You have a face. You have a fate.
When no one listens, no one knows you,
when no one loves you or else shows you,
take a deep breath – take two – take cheer:
I know, across the seas. I’m here.
Christina Egan © 2009
Apfeltraum
Wohin die Liebe fällt
wie Apfelkerne oder so –
ins Irgend- oder Nirgendwo –
erblüht ein Apfeltraum
vom Garten Eden.
Das leuchtet und verwelkt…
Doch heimlich und gelegentlich,
vermeintlich gar versehentlich,
erwächst ein Apfelbaum
daraus im Leben.
Christina Egan ©2024
Apple-dream
Wherever love may fall
like apple-pips perhaps
– into a field or cracks –
new blossom will enthral,
an apple-dream of Eden.
It burns and fades, that glow…
Yet sometimes secretly,
– by chance or destiny? –
the apple-dream will grow
into an apple-tree.
Christina Egan ©2024
Image: Cover art for sheet music (1920).
Grün und gülden
Auf der weiten Erdenscheibe
kauert meine kleine Bleibe
still in pfauenblauer Nacht;
und aus ungeheurer Ferne
steigen unzählbare Sterne
wie von Zauberhand entfacht.
Auf den unsichtbaren Gleisen
durch den Weltraum aber kreisen
zwei Gestirne um mein Dach:
Glück muß mir das güldne schreiben,
doch das grüne bringt mir Leiden,–
zwei verflochten tausendfach.
Christina Egan ©2017
Green and Golden
On the vast orb of the earth
clings my cottage to the turf,
hushed in night of peacock-blue;
from unfathomably far
still emerges star on star,
magically lit anew.
See, on secret tracks in space
two celestial bodies trace
orbits round my own abode:
golden star and green must bring
happiness and suffering –
interwoven thousandfold.
Christina Egan ©2023
For more musings on destiny, see the previous post, Zugefallen. There are sparkling stars in Zugefallen and flickering candles in the poem Zugewogen. Destiny is written in the stars, or rather, in the Heavens.
Nebra sky disk (Himmelsscheibe von Nebra), ca. 4000 years old. Photograph: JoKaliauer via Wikimedia Commons. Copyright: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Callisto, moon of Jupiter. Photograph taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 2001. NASA/JPL/DLR(German Aerospace Center), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Christina Egan 
