trees

Le vent de la mer se lève

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Le vent de la mer se lève
(Alyscamps, Arles)

Tout doux, le vent de la mer se lève
parmi les colonnes à l’aube de l’an,
dans mon esprit réjouissant
ressuscitant mon ancien rêve,
un rêve de tuiles couleurs du couchant,
un rêve de murs couleurs océan.

Le vent se renforce et lève la sève
des hauts platanes le long de la rue,
ces forts piliers du ciel du Midi…
Mais quel tombeau révèle le rêve,
lieu lumineux et réapparu ?
Ô vent de la mer, Ô vent de ma vie !

Christina Egan © 2015

Wide avenue with sarcophagi to the left and right,leading to a mediaeval portal. Winter scene in fair weather, light-brown and light-blue.

Alyscamps, Arles. Photograph:  Christina Egan © 2010

 

The Wind from the Sea is rising
(Alyscamps, Arles)

The Wind from the Sea is rising, all mild,
between the columns and graves at the dawn
of the year, stirring up in my jubilant mind
my resplendent dream of antiquity,
a dream of tiles resembling the sun,
a dream of walls resembling the sea.

The wind is now swelling and ready to rouse
the sap in the plane-trees along the wide road,
those pillars supporting the sky of the South…
Which tomb may hold my mystery of old,
the luminous place that has just reappeared?
O Wind from the Sea, O wind of my soul!

Christina Egan © 2016

Painting by van Gogh: Avenue with very high trees, with path and foliage in bright orange, sarcophagi and sky in blue.

The Roman cemetery known as the Alyscamps has been immortalised by Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh: L’Allée des Alyscamps (1888). Photograph: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

You can read an English and German poem about a Roman road in France at Where Road and River Meet / Überm Fluß . 

The Pattern of a Yesterday / Golden Dell

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

The Pattern of a Yesterday
(Knossos, Crete)

Knossos: woman in very colourful blouse sitting in a reconstructed window of the palace, in front of the same very colourful mural shown in the other photo.

the colossal columns
of the proud pine-trees
that lofty canopy offering shelter
from the flood of sun

the black and white and blood-red pillars
in the serene maze of the palace
those patches in the pattern of a yesterday
which is millennia past

Christina Egan © 2012

Flourishes on a mural, turquoise on luminous red and yello

 

The same mural in the palace
at Knossos, Crete. Photograph:
Harrieta171 via Wikimedia.

For German poems about Crete,
go to the cycle Kretische Küste.
For more about Crete, see below!

Golden Dell
(Chania, Crete)

You sip your coffee in the market-square
lapped by a sky and sea which both are blue;
you notice other folk from everywhere
and read this was the Roman forum, too.

You pass a corner with a golden dell:
stairs down and down, a hundred ages’ span…
The layers blur, solidify and swell,
and history unfolds, a dazzling fan.

Christina Egan © 2015

 

The Minoan civilisation is the oldest urban civilisation in Europe. The royal palace at Knossos, dating back almost 3,500 years, has the first stone street of Europe. Chania on Crete, a city of stone even 5,000 years ago, is one of the oldest continously inhabited European settlements. You look back on 100 and more generations…

My German translation of the first poem is called gesternmuster.

Zest

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Zest

In splashes of fresh golden-green
the leaves cascade down the tree,
a banner of zest!
However warm, though, it grows,
however late the light flows,
still gilding the west,
the promise of lemon and lime
will never turn green in good time,
green true to a tree.
From nascent glow through the length
of summer and on to the strength
of ripe revelry,
the waves of the leaves will pour
not-yet or not-any-more
convincingly green:
The graceful acacia-tree
has the dubious destiny
of virginal sheen.

Christina Egan © 2015

Little tree with apple-green leaves in a park in average summerly green

Photograph: Christina Egan © 2015

It was a poem by Hermann Hesse that drew my attention to the acacia tree:
September (Der Garten trauert)  is online with my rhymed English translation.

Meine blaue Mauer

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Meine blaue Mauer

Oranges hanging from branches against blue sky

Ich tränke die Terrassenwand
mit Mittelmeeresblau,
denn auch im Goldorangenland
regiert zuweilen Grau.

Ich pflanze einen Ölbaumzweig
in einen irdnen Topf,
als säße ich im Römerreich
mit meinem prallen Pfropf. Fragment of a plate; fine red pottery impressed with two doves

Ich krümele den Thymian,
kaum samengroßes Laub:
Sein wilder Duft steigt himmelan –
Mein südlich süßes Kraut!

Ich leg’ ein rotes Scherbenrund
in meine Marmorhand,
als hielte der gemeine Fund
Jahrtausende gebannt…

Roof terrace with pots of little palm-trees and fence all painted in striking bright blue.Auf meiner Gartenmauer schau’
ich Städte bunt erblühn
und wachsen in das satte Blau
und wanken und verglühn.

Ich ritze meinen Namen stolz
dem Putz ein auf Latein;
ich warte aufs Olivenholz
und schlürfe Purpurwein…

Christina Egan © 2014

Photographs: Morocco
Christina Egan © 2012

Photo of Late Roman shard from Egypt used
with kind permission of the British Museum.

Green Blood

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

The plant on the window-sill

Lush Christmas cactus on window sill, appearing to reach out to the viewer, with little cacti around.

It is shining, it is glowing,
while the sun is rising high!
It is stretching, it is growing,
so am I, oh, so am I!

It is breathing, it is throbbing,
full of blossom, full of birth!
It is floating, it is bobbing
on the bubble of the earth!

Christina Egan © 2015

Fist-sized cactus with large star-like flower on long firm stalk. Palm-tree shaped red plant in background mirroring the flower's shape; white rose petals on ground mirroring its colour.Die Macht der Königin der Nacht

In der Mittsommermitternacht
ist ein schneeweißer Stern mir erwacht,
eine bebende Blütenblattüte:
Mit heimlicher Königsmacht
hat ein Kaktus den Funken entfacht,
eine klare Trompetenblüte!

Christina Egan © 2013

 

The Tree at the Corner

Shiny reddish bark, paper-thin and frayed, on a straight round tree-trunk.I gather air and light,
I filter drop on drop,
till there is liquid life:
my waving hands’ green blood.

I give you air and shade
with my bright canopy,
till there is solid gold
through age-old alchemy!

Christina Egan © 2015

 

Was der Baum im Winter tut

Bare branches against sunset in mauve and apricot; high mountains along horizon.Mit tausend nackten Zweigen hält der Baum
gleich einem gläsernen gewölbten Kelch
die Gänserufe und den Amselsang,
das gleißend hingegossne letzte Gold
und dann das Pfauenblau der frühen Nacht…
Und jene Stille wie ein Geigenklang.

Christina Egan © 2013

Photographs: Christina Egan © 2013/2014/2016

These lines portray plants as living creatures and active participants in this universe.

The non-descript pot-plant stays in its place, yet it gives and takes, grows and procreates — and presumably enjoys life, particularly in spring.

Around summer solstice, the humble cactus suddenly pushes out an unlikely flower, shaped like a trumpet and dazzling like a star: it has revealed itself as a Queen of the Night!

The everyday tree turns the inanimate elements into living matter; and it brings forth beauty even while that life turns towards death again in autumn.

Around winter solstice, the bare tree perceives the beauty of this earth — sunset and dusk, birdsong and silence — or at least, it forms part of this array for us.