It’s You, Spring

Below is a German poem I used to love as a teenager, with a professional translation and my own very loose one.

∼ Er ist’s ∼

Frühling läßt sein blaues Band
Wieder flattern durch die Lüfte;
Süße, wohlbekannte Düfte
Streifen ahnungsvoll das Land.
Veilchen träumen schon,
Wollen balde kommen.
– Horch, von fern ein leiser Harfenton!
Frühling, ja du bist’s!
Dich hab ich vernommen!

Eduard Mörike (1804 – 1875)

Spring is here 

Spring is floating its blue banner
On the breezes again;
Sweet, well-remembered scents
Drift portentously across the land.
Violets, already dreaming,
Will soon begin to bloom.
Listen, the sound of a harp!
Spring, that must be you!
It’s you I’ve heard!    

Translations by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)

It’s you

Spring lets his blue aura float
again through the breeze.
Sweet well-known scents
roam the land foreshadowing you.
Violets are already dreaming,
eager to emerge soon.
Listen, to the sound of the harp.
Spring, yes it’s you.
It is you that I heard!

Loosely translated by Felicia Graber in 2023, author of Amazing Journey Metamorphosis of a Hidden Child (2010).

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Read more by Felicia Graber.