Thursday, February 22, 2007

A nice way to start the day

Reading Immortality by Milan Kundera. Found a lovely poem by Goethe in it.

Über allen Gipfeln
ist Ruh,
in allen Wipfeln
spürest du
Kaum einen Hauch.
Die Vögel schweigen in Walde.
Warte nur, balde
ruhest du auch.

Beautiful. Makes me wish I'd taken my German classes seriously. Here's the translation, though nowhere as lovely as the original German.

On all the hilltops
There is peace,
In all the treetops
You will hear
Hardly a breath.
Birds in the woods are silent.
Just wait, soon
You too will rest.

In other news, Frances E. Allen becomes the first woman to win the Turing award.

1 comment:

AF said...

I adore this poem. Click here to see my own attempt at a poetic translation.