Im Herbst

by Georg Trakl

Die Sonnenblumen leuchten am Zaun, 

Still sitzen Kranke im Sonnenschein. 

Im Acker mühn sich singend die Frau’n, 

Die Klosterglocken läuten darein.  

Die Vögel sagen dir ferne Mär’, 

Die Klosterglocken läuten darein. 

Vom Hof tönt sanft die Geige her. 

Heut keltern sie den braunen Wein.  

Da zeigt der Mensch sich froh und lind. 

Heut keltern sie den braunen Wein. 

Weit offen die Totenkammern sind 

Und schön bemalt vom Sonnenschein.

In the Autumn

by Georg Trakl

The sunflowers shine by the fence.

The invalids sit quietly in the sunshine.

The singing women work in a field,

Into which are chiming cloister bells.

The birds tell you tales of far-off places

Into which are chiming cloister bells.

From the courtyard, a violin is heard.

Today, they press the brown wine.

In autumn, man is blithe and balmy.

Today they press the brown wine.

Wide open are the chambers of the dead

And full of the most beautiful sunshine.

translated from German by Jay Hopler

Georg Trakl was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1887. His first book, Gedichte (Poems), was published in 1913. He died a year later in a psychiatric hospital in Krakow where he was sent for observation after the human suffering occasioned by WWI, specifically the battle of Gródek, brought him near to a mental collapse. Whether his death was the result of suicide or was an accidental overdose of cocaine is still not known. His second book, Sebastian im Traum (Sebastian in Dream), was published posthumously.

Jay Hopler’s poetry, essays, and translations have appeared most recently, or are forthcoming, in The Literary Review, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Green Squall, his first book of poetry, won the 2005 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. His most recent book is Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry (edited with Kimberly Johnson, Yale University Press, 2013). McSweeney’s will publish his second book of poems, The Abridged History of Rainfall, in 2016.