Sonnet (09.12.07)
Ni Honor Blanco Cabie
kehre wider, holde nacht!
holde traume, kehret wider!*
— mattahus von collin**
most anxious, so it seems, the whiff that blows
reluctantly through structures stripped of might –
the shielding sheets and walls destroyed by claws
that now have swept the prime lot caused a blight.
its pace and manner through the structures here
suggest, most strongly, there’s a certain grief
that chokes the dimly lighted lot, a tear,
protesting, aching for some quick relief.
here, as i sense the evening’s whisp’ring whiff,
return, i ask the nights of old times, those
that checked my feet and held me off a cliff,
the nights that always gave me a pleasant dose.
i thank them, all the nights that gave me gold
and dreams here — luggage mine i’ll always hold.
*(english translation by siegbert prawer, born in cologne
in 1925, editor of the penguin book of lieder; c. 1964)
’return, sweet night!/ return, o you sweet dreams!’
(hbc’s loose iluko translation from prawer’s english
translation) ‘agsublika, makapabang-ar a rabii!/
agsublikayo, dakayo arapaap a nasudi!’
**born in vienna on march 3, 1779 and died there on nov
23, 1824 at the age of 45. trained as a lawyer, he obtained
a university chair of aesthetics and philosophy at vienna
in 1812. an industrious journalist, he acted as private
tutor to the son of the austrian emperor and the duke of reichstadt.
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