Mild Christmas Eve
My heavy gate to heaven
has got a secret crack,
and sometimes sunlike flashes
steal through the sudden gap.
There are no stars this Christmas
but those in your sweet face,
no snow and sparkling crystals
but those in your embrace.
You are my splendid banquet,
you are the birth of mirth,
you’ll be my earth in heaven –
my heaven here on earth.
Christina Egan © 2004
Photograph by Gabriel Pollard [CC BY-SA 2.5].
Featured picture on Wikimedia Commons.
Die letzte Stunde dieses Jahres
Die letzte Stunde dieses Jahres ,
ein runder Spiegel, wendet sich.
Der volle Mond, ein endlich klares
Signal, ganz hoch, verschwendet sich.
Ein glitzerndes, unabsehbares
Feuerwerkstanzen blendet dich,–
und etwas Wahres, Wunderbares
aus alter Zeit vollendet sich.
Christina Egan © 2017
Some Prayers are Like Lightning
Some prayers are like lightning
and others are like dawn,
some prayers are like sunset
and some perhaps like noon.
And saints and angels lift them
across the heavens’ dome
and lay them on the carpet
below the flaming throne.
And God will weigh and sift them
and send his answers down –
some veiled and some diverted,
some sooner, though, than soon.
Christina Egan © 2017
Photograph by Gabriel Pollard
[CC BY-SA 2.5]. Featured picture
on Wikimedia Commons.
Do Diamonds Die?
Even diamonds die.
Empires erode,
battlements decay,
skyscrapers melt.
Not so what locks
your look into my look,
my heart into your heart.
Love will live.
With or without a night
or even a day,
a confession, a vow.
Love is born love.
Diamonds have grown for us,
as rare in the vast dark soil
as stars in the fathomless void.
Heaven does happen.
Christina Egan © 2004
Illustration from a children’s book of 1896.
Image provided by British Library through Flickr.
P.S.: Reader, he married me! ;o)
Im Stand der Sehnsucht
Ob ich einst im Stand der Gnade sterbe,
ob im Stand der Sünde, steht dahin.
Eins nur ist gewiß: Als Kind der Erde
suche ich in Stein und Blume Sinn,
setze meine Hoffnung auf die Wogen,
werfe meine Sehnsucht in den Wind,
baue meinen eignen Regenbogen –
eines ungestümen Strebens Kind!
Leben will ich, leben, eh‘ ich sterbe,
Träume kneten in den Teig der Zeit,
denn ich bin ein Kind der reichen Erde
und der reinen fernen Ewigkeit.
Christina Egan © 2011
Please note the video Inside the Rainbow by Francis Logan which was inspired by my verse on this internet site!
Im Inneren des Regenbogens describes a mesmerising encounter inside the rainbow of stained-glass windows — with a person or with God… The composer interpretes it as an encounter with Jesus, who is both a person and God himself; but you need not share this faith to be stirred by these sounds of celestial harmony.
You will find the entire text in English below. Please pass on Francis Logan’s beautiful music: tranquil and transcendent… 
Image: Still from Inside the Rainbow on YouTube. Music and video: Francis Logan © 2018. Also available on SoundCloud.
Inside the Rainbow
Inside the rainbow
In the glimmer of the glass windows
In the waterfall of grace
In the antechamber of the sky
I saw you
I felt you
I held you
I recognized you
In a luminous joy
In a sparkling silence
In a durable moment
In a house of light
Christina Egan © 2018
Der Lebensbaum
Du bist für mich der Liebestraum,
dessen Glanz die Seele nährt,
du bist für mich der Lebensbaum,
dessen Frucht der Leib begehrt.
Bleibt mir auch die Himmelstür
durch den Diebstahl einst verwehrt,
hab’ auf Erden ich dafür
noch vom Paradies gezehrt!
Christina Egan © 2011
The beloved one is seen as the tree of life which bears the fruit of paradise. Between Paradise at the beginning of our journey and Heaven at the end, earthly love offers us a taste of both…
Illustration: 12th century depiction of the world, illustrating a work by 11th century author Hildegard of Bingen (who is shown in the corner).
Golden Flower
O let the golden flower of my flesh
live on, live on, untouched by age and death
within the space I’ve out of all preferred:
your eyes, your eyes, my paradise on earth!
Christina Egan © 2012
Friday in Lent
Friday morning.
The city is busy and tired
under the closely curtained sky.
The headlines shout out:
Things fall apart,
trains, towns,
countries, couples.
Life hurts.
The day is a prison, a lenient one,
with gardens and books as windows
and magical messages beamed onto screens,
with the freedom of speech
and the purple pursuit of the heavens.
Christina Egan © 2001
Purple is the colour of Lent, representing suffering; you will find churches decorated —and their statues covered up — with purple fabrics. Purple (violet, lilac, mauve) is a slightly melancholy colour, but it also has dreamlike and spiritual qualities. My ‘purple pursuit’ has all these shades of meaning; ‘the heavens’ could refer to religious faith or simply to a decent and fulfilled life on earth, as in ‘Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’.
Friday is the time when Christians remember Jesus’ passion and keep some fasting, a miniature Lent within each week… or at least the time when they do remember their faith during Lent. The positive messages on your screen could come from a friend — or from God, if you believe in Scriptures!
For a German and English poem about Lent, go to Fastenzeit / Lent.
Le tesson
En février givré, je fouille
les feuilles mortes pour des fleurs
modestes et fortes et courageuses :
soldats contre la froideur
ou des pierres précieuses
éparpillées en bas, fragments
pâlis de la Cité Céleste
que quelques éblouis attestent.
Parfois, une sphère lumineuse
me frappe, vive mais tranquille :
plutôt que le premier bouton
ton œil est le tesson qui brille.
Christina Egan © 2017
The Shard
In frosty February, I scour
decaying leaves for the first flower:
some modest soldiers, strong and bold
against the kingdom of the cold,
or precious stones on muddy ground,
some faded fragments of the round
of Heavenly Jerusalem,
that dazzling more-than-real realm.
At times a circle full of light,
as calm as lively, strikes my sight:
but rather than spring’s early guard
your eye is the resplendent shard.
Christina Egan © 2017
For a German and English parallel poem about the first spring flowers, go to my previous post, King Spring / König Frühjahr.
Photograph: Christina Egan © 2017.
Crocusses with honey-bee, captured in London in mid-February!
Im Inneren des Regenbogens
Im Inneren des Regenbogens
im Schimmer der Glasfenster
im Wasserfall der Gnade
im Vorzimmer des Himmels
habe ich dich gesehen
habe ich dich gespürt
habe ich dich gehalten
habe ich dich erkannt
in einer leuchtenden Freude
in einer sprühenden Stille
in einem haltbaren Augenblick
in einem Haus aus Licht
Christina Egan © 2016
On the Inside of the Rainbow was written at Pentecost, my favourite religious holiday. It may be about an encounter with a beloved person or with God himself.
The description ‘Haus aus Licht’ (‘house [made] of light’) also figures in the last line of the poem Auferstehung (Resurrection) by Marie Luise Kaschnitz.
The English translation is available as Inside the Rainbow.
P.S.:
This poem inspired Francis Logan to the composition Inside the Rainbow (2018), which you can hear on SoundCloud. Francis’ piece is very tranquil and spiritual: let yourself be carried away for nine minutes of your life…
Francis also produced a video on YouTube, in which he combines his electronic music with stunning photographs of stained glass and some of my lines in English in a beautiful script.
Image: Still from Inside the Rainbow on YouTube. Music and video: Francis Logan © 2018.
Christina Egan 