To the boy Elis
by Georg Trakl
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Elis, when the blackbird cries from the black forest,
it announces your downfall.
Your lips sip the rock-spring's blue coolness.

Your brow sweats blood
recalling ancient myths
and dark interpretations of birds' flight.

Yet you enter the night with soft footfalls;
the ripe purple grapes hang suspended
as you wave your arms more beautifully in the blueness.

A thornbush crackles;
where now are your moonlike eyes?
How long, oh Elis, have you been dead?

A monk dips waxed fingers
into your body's hyacinth;
Our silence is a black abyss

from which sometimes a docile animal emerges
slowly lowering its heavy lids.
A black dew drips from your temples:

the lost gold of vanished stars.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: I believe that in the second stanza the blood on Elis's forehead may be a reference to the apprehensive ****** sweat of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. If my interpretation is correct, Elis hears the blackbird's cries, anticipates the danger represented by a harbinger of death, but elects to continue rather than turn back. From what I have been able to gather, the color blue had a special significance for Georg Trakl: it symbolized longing and perhaps a longing for death. The colors blue, purple and black may represent a progression toward death in the poem. Keywords/Tags: Georg Trakl, translation, German, Elis, blackbird, black forest, birds, brow, blood, grapes, monk, body, dew, stars

Muddy footprints, and the howling moon,
This forest welcomed me,
With the mist cuddling around
and the silence drumming noises

Seeking my way, reached that log,
deforested! Missing it's fruit!

This log, I sat on,
and brushed my bruises and wounds
While I was covering
unknown routes

This log, broken and sad
proved it to me
that heartbroken ones,
missing their fruits,
once the parts of them,
are the most helpful
and the only who wipe our tears
in this evil, unknown world

Within the hollow,
pines a bird, in the forest,
longing to be heard.

To the boy Elis
by Georg Trakl
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Elis, when the blackbird cries from the black forest,
it announces your downfall.
Your lips sip the rock-spring's blue coolness.

Your brow sweats blood
recalling ancient myths
and dark interpretations of birds' flight.

Yet you enter the night with soft footfalls;
the ripe purple grapes hang suspended
as you wave your arms more beautifully in the blueness.

A thornbush crackles;
where now are your moonlike eyes?
How long, oh Elis, have you been dead?

A monk dips waxed fingers
into your body's hyacinth;
Our silence is a black abyss

from which sometimes a docile animal emerges
slowly lowering its heavy lids.
A black dew drips from your temples:

the lost gold of vanished stars.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: I believe that in the second stanza the blood on Elis's forehead may be a reference to the apprehensive ****** sweat of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. If my interpretation is correct, Elis hears the blackbird's cries, anticipates the danger represented by a harbinger of death, but elects to continue rather than turn back. From what I have been able to gather, the color blue had a special significance for Georg Trakl: it symbolized longing and perhaps a longing for death. The colors blue, purple and black may represent a progression toward death in the poem. Keywords/Tags: Georg Trakl, translation, German, Elis, blackbird, black forest, birds, brow, blood, grapes, monk, body, dew, stars

Have you heard the story,
the story of how the Sun loved the Moon?
Of course you have.
He loved her so much he died every night,
just so she could breathe.
Everyone knows that story.

What about the story,
the story of the girl who lived with the stars?
No?
She looked down at the Earth and dreamed.
She dreamed of trees and water and life,
of finding a freedom she had yet to know.

What about the story,
the story of the girl who lived in the forest?
How strange.
She looked up at the skies for guidance and light,
and found solace when she saw the stars
winking at her in the sky.

You don't know this story?
The story of the girl whose laughter was the sound of
rain on the river; and the girl who loved her more than
life itself.
It's beautiful. Why?
Because, most of all, it's a story of love,
a story of when green eyes met blue.

Why tell this story?
Because it's a story as old as time itself, perhaps even older
It is, in fact, timeless.
A story of desire, passion and two souls becoming one
The girl with hair like stardust,
and the girl with the spirit of the forest in her eyes.

They can be found in lovers and soulmates alike,
for they live in each and every one of us.
This way the story never dies for it cannot;
there is no force that could separate such a love shared.
It will outlast even time.