Parallel Poems

(Parallel texts in two languages)

When Webs of Steel (Visual poetry)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment
Visual poem of: https://eganpoet.net/2015/12/11/when-webs-of-steel/. The worda are tped up into two squares, with some in the middle, like a person walking about in the yard of a building.
Word cloud on black, most words pale, some words glaring. In the middle, "glass", "steel", "doors", "sun".


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 / Apple-dream

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

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

Pink book cover with romantic painting of couple under large apple tree in blossom.om.

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 / Green and Golden

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment
Ancient metal disk, deep green, showing golden celestial bodies.

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

Moon with many craters, brownish and brightly lit.

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.

A New Poem is Being Born

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment


A New Poem is Being Born

There is an empty space on greyish paper:
to fill with fire from a rocky scar
and with fresh ashes on a ghostly glacier,
to fix a brilliant moon and matching star.

Christina Egan ©2024

Ein neues Gedicht wird geboren

Die graue Leere des Papiers erfüllt
das Feuer, das aus Felsennarbe quilt,
der Aschenfall auf geisterhaftem Firn,
der Mond mit funkelndem Begleitgestirn.

Christina Egan ©2024

Snow, Slow / Schnee, langsam

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Patio with some plants at far end covered in thick fresh snow.Snow, Slow
(Christmas Haiku)

Snow, slow, abundant,
covering the sleek black soil
like icing-sugar.

*

Flames of real candles
in the darkened room, like stars
visiting the earth.

*

Tinsel billowing
on the fir-twigs, as if stirred
by an angel’s wing.

***

Schnee, langsam
(Weihnachtshaiku)

Schnee, langsam, reichlich,
fällt auf blanke schwarze Erde…
wie Zuckerstaub.

*

Wachskerzenflammen
im Dämmer… wie Sterne,
herniedergestiegen.

*

Lametta flattert
an Zweigen… wie angerührt
von Engelsflügeln.

 Christina Egan © 2017

 

Real candles, even made of beeswax, are still common on Christmas trees in Germany, and lametta is used more sparingly and usually silver, reminiscent of snow.

Thick snow is nowadays a rare phenomenon in England… Note the tiny Christmas tree taken out after the festive days (and later planted into the soil!). – Photograph: Christina Egan © 2018.

Orange and Turquoise (Crete)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Orange and Turquoise
(Crete)

Fresco of red crocuses on orange ground near blue water.orange and amber
the southern soil
like fresh fruit
like lush flesh

turquoise and azure
the sun-steeped sea
like human eyes
like human souls

Christina Egan © 2012

orangerot und türkis
(Kreta)

Flourishes on a mural, turquoise on luminous red and yelloorangerot
und ocker loht
die stille bucht
wie fleisch und frucht

türkis azur
der wellentanz
wie augenglanz
und aurenspur

Christina Egan © 2016

 

Decorative paper, light-blue with ripples in yellow, red, white, green.A reddish orange and a greenish blue are complementary colours and will therefore be more striking in combination. 

In the Mediterranean, strong light and heat prevail even in late September.

I found this beach at the edge of the five-thousand-year-old town of Chania on Crete.

You can read more about the bright blue and green sea in Kretische Küste and about the reddish soil in The Dittany of Crete.

Murals in the royal palace at Knossos, Crete.
Watercolour of crocuses by Arthur J. Evans: Photograph provided by Digital Bodleian Library under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Photograph of spirals: Harrieta171 via Wikimedia.

Decorative paper. Photograph provided by British Library through Flickr .

Waiting for the Frog

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Warten auf den Frosch

Warme nasse Nacht:
Ich will sehn, wie der alte Frosch
in den Teich springt!
Hockt er da drüben, glänzend?
Ach, bloß ein Bündel Blätter…

Muddy pond with waterlilies amongst greenery.

Waiting for the Frog

In the warm wet night
I want to watch the old frog
leap into the pond!
Is he crouching there, shiny?
Oh, just a bundle of leaves…

Christina Egan © 2016

Muddy pond with tadpole amongst aquatic plants.

For another tanka about frogs in honour of Basho, see In Starless Night.

Frog pond. Note the tiny tadpole! Photographs: Christina Egan © 2014.

In Starless Night

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

In sternloser Nacht

In sternloser Nacht
ein Silberfleck auf dem Moos:
verirrtes Fröschlein…
In den Garten, ins Gedicht
und hinaus hüpfen Frösche!

Muddy pond with tadpole amongst aquatic plants.

In the starless night
a silver speck on the moss:
a little lost frog…
In and out of my garden,
of my poems, those frogs hop!

Christina Egan © 2017

Muddy pond with waterlilies amongst greenery.

For another tanka about frogs in honour of Basho, see Waiting for the Frog.

Frog pond. Note the tiny tadpole! Photographs: Christina Egan © 2014.

Hidden Rivers / Verborgne Flüsse

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Hidden Rivers

Meadow with white and yellow blossom in bright lightThis is the time to walk along
the hidden rivers hand in hand;
this is the time to write a song
out of a strangely quiet land.

This is the time to breathe again,
to stand and stare, to skip and run…
The water rippled by the rain,
the water dappled by the sun.

This is the time to dance across
the sea of sorrel and of yarrow,
to sink into the gilded grass
without a worry of tomorrow.

This is the time to hear the heart
of the neglected earth rejoice,
to find the long-forgotten lark
in your beloved’s humming voice.

Christina Egan © 2020

Verborgne Flüsse

Dies ist die Zeit, das Tal zu sichten
verborgner Flüsse, Hand in Hand;
dies ist die Zeit, ein Lied zu dichten
aus einem seltsam stillen Land.

Dies ist die Zeit, die Brust zu heben,
zu springen, stillzustehn, zu spürn…
Gewellt das Wasser unterm Regen,
beglänzt das Wasser vom Gestirn.

Durch Wogen weißer Blütenschäume
und roter Rispen laß uns schreiten,
um sorglos in der späten Wärme
ins sonnengoldne Gras zu gleiten.

Das Herz der unbetretnen Erde
scheint jubelnd dir ins Ohr zu dringen,
das Lied der fastvergeßnen Lerche
aus dem geliebten Mund zu klingen.

Christina Egan © 2020

A happy impression from the coronavirus crisis…

Photograph: Lea Valley. Christina Egan © 2020.

Brown Butterfly / Brauner Schmetterling

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Brown Butterfly

 

Found, found on sandy ground:
bronze brooch from an unknown age,
bright map of an unknown land,
O quivering flower,
brown butterfly!
Where have you flown…?
Little butterfly,
your mirroring wings
are dust lifted up from the earth
and assembled to beauty of heaven.
Grace, grace beyond a name.

Bright admiral butterfly, maroon with 'eyes', on purple cone of flowers.

 Brauner Schmetterling

 

Gefunden auf sandigem Grund:
Bronzebrosche verlorener Zeiten,
bunte Karte ferner Gefilde.
Du erbebende Blume,
du bräunliche!
Wo flogst du hin…?
Schmetterling,
deine Spiegelbildflügel
sind Staub, der Erde enthoben,
gesammelt zu Himmelsschimmer.
Anmut, namenlose Anmut.

Huge tropical flower, orange and wide open, with human hand for comparison.

The shape of the poems — and their
colour — emulate those of a  butterfly.

English poem: Christina Egan © 2005. 
German poem: Christina Egan © 2017.
Photographs: Christina Egan © 2013.