In lieblicher Bläue/from In Lovely Blue

Friedrich Hölderlin

(Excerpt)

In lieblicher Bläue blühet mit dem metallenen Dache der Kirchturm.
Den umschwebet Geschrei von Schwalben, den umgibt rührendste Bläue.
Die Sonne gehet hoch darüber und färbet das Blech, im Winde
aber oben stille krähet die Fahne.

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Like the stamen inside a flower
The steeple stands in lovely blue
And the day unfolds around its needle;

The flock of swallows that circles the steeple
Flies there each day through the same blue air
That carries their cries from me to you;

We know how high the sun is now
As long as the roof of the steeple glows,
The roof that’s covered with sheets of tin;

Up there in the wind, where the wind is not
Turning the vane of the weathercock,
The weathercock silently crows in the wind.

Translated by George Kalogeris

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Source (German). Source (English). About the poet. Photo by Márcio Cabral de Moura (flickr).