music

Kirchenkonzert / Church Concert

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

 

Joint 100th English and 100th German post!

Colourful ancient glass window, prophet in red hat, red shoes, green cloak.

 

Kirchenkonzert

Ein Dom mit hohen grauen Fensterscheiben
und berstend bunten um den Pfeilerreigen –
und alles, alles aus Musik!
Und unerreichbar fern, unsterblich stark
du stille dunkelblaue Gegenwart,
du mein Geheimnis, mein Geschick.

Christina Egan © 2008

 

 

Large astronomical clock with two blue and golden dials in wooden frame.Church Concert

A dance of pillars round the sacred site;
round them, tall windows, grey or burning bright –
and all is made of music, melody!
Unreachable, immortal and immense,
a tranquil deep-blue presence grows more dense:
it’s you, my secret, you, my destiny.

Christina Egan © 2017

Find more poems about the power of music at Quest / Suche  and Auf dem Purpurteppich / On the royal-purple rug.

 

There are fewer than 200 posts of poetry here, since some show parallel or similar poems in two languages (and some are in French), but almost 300 poems.

 

Prophet Hosea, window in Augsburg Cathedral, around 1100 (!). Photograph:  Hans Bernhard (Schnobby) (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons. — Astronomical clock with carillon playing hymns (20th c.). Marienkirche, Lübeck, Germany. Photograph: Christina Egan © 2014.

Toys / Baskets / Bowls

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Toys

I
scanned
the
scattered shapes
heaped around me and picked out
the flowers and fresh fruits and fleeting clouds filled
with sun and added some slanted squares of marble and slate and
trunks of birch-trees and fashioned my finds into this
spinning-top. Just don’t ask what
it means. It’s a toy
I made for
you !

***

Baskets

The most delicately plaited words
still awkward, thick like things.
Bent over pads of paper,
the poet labours, late,
dexterous, impotent
to convey music,
silence…
peace.

Christina Egan © 2012

Roman_bowl_01_MusLon

Bowls

Like bowls of ordinary wood,
robust, adept, like workers’ tools,
these hands seem empty. Yet they are
filled to the brim, invisibly:
with jewel-like ideas the one,
the other with tranquillity.

Christina Egan © 2012

Roman bowl. Photograph from the
website of the Museum of London.

Quest / Suche

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Quest

The market swirls
like ocean’s foam –
The harbour bursts
to roam the blue –

Yet nothing’s real
if not dream –
And music too –
and music too!

Christina Egan © 2015Fest_des_Lebens_1970

Suche

Der Marktplatz quirlt
wie Wellenschaum –
der Hafen quillt
hinaus ins Glück –

Doch nichts ist wirklich
als der Traum –
und die Musik –
und die Musik!

Christina Egan © 2015

Very bright painting of mainly blue and red shapes on yellow.

This poem in German and English versions is dedicated to the painter Curt Echtermeyer, who for some of his work took on the pseudonym Curt Bruckner out of reverence for the composer Anton Bruckner. I hope Curt would appreciate the thought that dreams are more real than life…

Images: Das Fest des Lebens (The Feast of Life) by Curt Echtermeyer. Pastel, 1970. With thanks to Archiv Klaus Spermann. — Max Ernst: Fish fight. Oil on canvas, 1917. – © Max Ernst. Distributed under FairUse at  WikiArt.

Die Perle im Acker

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Die Perle im Acker

Die eine runde Stunde
in deinem Zauberkreis —
Das Licht im Augengrunde,
von dem du selbst nicht weißt —
Musik aus deinem Munde,
die Seligkeit verheißt —
Die Perle ist gefunden,
ich zahle jeden Preis!

Christina Egan © 2016

—

Wiederum gleicht das Himmelreich einem Kaufmann,
der gute Perlen suchte, und als er eine kostbare Perle
fand, ging er hin und verkaufte alles, was er hatte, und
kaufte sie.

Mt 13, 45-46

—

These lines may work in a translation software…
although I would not claim to find ‘salvation’ in
a human being, only ‘bliss’ (but this indeed)!

A Faint Rainbow (Christmas Card)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

A Faint Rainbow
(Christmas Card)

A faint rainbow maybe,
draped across a frozen market,
a filigree tree in the foreground,Old Dutch painting: lively scene of skaters between barren trees, steep gables and a pink manor house
some leisurely loops of skaters,
cloaked figures arranged like mute music –
that’ll do for a Christmas poem.

Good that my second-hand thoughts
and my second-rate verse
are still better than any in town
and almost as good as mulled wine…
And good that my real-life love
turns every single day into Christmas!

Christina Egan © 2012

These lines were inspired by this round painting :
A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle, ca. 1608-09,
by Hendrick Avercamp. — © National Gallery, London

Spätherbst (Feuer der Erde)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Spätherbst

Feuer der Erde
trieft aus den Früchten,
fließt aus dem Efeu,
sprüht aus den Dahlien,
fächert in Blättern,
schießt in Raketen,
fällt in Gestirnen,
tropft in Laternen.

Dann wandert die Sonne
nach innen,
in kerzenverzauberte Kirchen,
in wundererwartende Mienen,
in goldbestickte Musik.

Christina Egan © 2010

—

These lines refer to German winter customs,
which actually go far beyond Christmas:
after the fiery glow of autumn leaves, berries,
and flowers has gone, at certain times between
November and February paper lanterns, real
candles, fireworks, and bonfires are summoned
to dispel the gloom and cold!

Real dreams

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Real dreams

The saxophone blows golden loops
of grief into the golden air…
Amongst the crowd, I am alone –
my life is cracked beyond repair.

The saxophone, the sinking sun
release a web of golden streams…
Not even memories are mine
but only memories of dreams.

The bus arrives and carries me
away from unrhymed elegies.
Not even real dreams are mine
but only dreams of memories.

Christina Egan © 2014