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Author: penwithlit
Freelance writer and radio presenter
Schöne!
Marktplatz mit Rathaus und Wohltäterbrunnen in Wernigerode, Foto:©Constanze
♥~ Auf Herzwegen ~♥
So gern bin ich mit dir in alten Städten,
durch stille Gassen, auf verwunschnen Wegen
gehn wir und gehen wie durch Ewigkeit
und atmen leis verlassne Orte,
du reichst mir deine Hand mit Zärtlichkeit –
Erinnerungen ohne Worte…
Dann möcht ich sacht mein Herz an deines legen,
als ob wir beide nur noch eines hätten,
das weit sich öffnet und uns innig schlägt
und einem Brunnen gleicht am Markt, der trägt
das Wellenspiel mit Liedern an das Leben –
in Liebe allem Schönen hingegeben…
©Constanze
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Vor dem Sommerregen-Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
Vor dem Sommerregen
Auf einmal ist aus allem Grün im Park
man weiß nicht was, ein Etwas fortgenommen;
man fühlt ihn näher an die Fenster kommen
und schweigsam sein. Inständig nur und stark
ertönt aus dem Gehölz der Regenpfeifer,
man denkt an einen Hieronymus:
so sehr steigt irgend Einsamkeit und Eifer
aus dieser einen Stimme, die der Guß
erhören wird. Des Saales Wände sind
mit ihren Bildern von uns fortgetreten,
als dürften sie nicht hören was wir sagen.
Es spiegeln die verblichenen Tapeten
das ungewisse Licht von Nachmittagen,
in denen man sich fürchtete als Kind.
Before the Summer Rain
Suddenly, from all the green around you,
something-you don’t know what-has disappeared;
you feel it creeping closer to the window,
in total silence. From the nearby wood
you hear the urgent whistling of a plover,
reminding you of someone’s Saint Jerome:
so much solitude and passion come
from that one voice, whose fierce request the downpour
will grant. The walls, with their ancient portraits, glide
away from us, cautiously, as though
they weren’t supposed to hear what we are saying.
And reflected on the faded tapestries now;
the chill, uncertain sunlight of those long
childhood hours when you were so afraid.
More analysis of this poem in German may be found at http://www.rilke.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=137
Roth is a great writer and strongly recommend -Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936 by Volker Weidermann too!
The Radetzky March is listed in 1001 Books so I pounced when I saw it at the library!
This is why the editors included it:
The Radetzky March ranks as one of the finest European historical novels of the twentieth century and is the outstanding literary work produced by the prolific journalist and novelist Joseph Roth.
Through three generations of the Trotta family, the story traces the decline of the Hapsburg Empire in its dying days, but this is not a family saga. From the hero of the battle of Solferino who saves the Emperor Franz Joseph’s life and is subsequently ennobled from plain Lieutenant Trotta to Baron von Trotta and Sipolje; to his son Herr Van Trotta who becomes the District Commissioner; to his grandson Carl-Joseph who has an indifferent peacetime career in the army, the book focusses just on these three men who are all, effectively, bachelors, and how they…
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I find this scene by Sir Cedric Morris interesting in so many ways. The setting and perspective are intriguing and the atmosphere from the time and dress also are fascinating. The bohemian atmosphere reminds me of the novel, “The Horse’s Mouth” the 1944 novel by Joyce Cary that curiously I have never managed to finish.
Here are three of my own sketches from coffee bars, restaurants and so on:-
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Lady Lever Gallery
These collections in or near cities are great. Just visited the Joseph Wright collection in Derby also fascinating.
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Last weekend we were stayed with our friends Steve and Anne who live in Waverton near Chester. We were expected in the evening so decided to have an afternoon in Port Sunlight on the Wirral, a “model” village built during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries to house workers at the Lever Brothers soap factory. The Lady Lever art gallery, opened in 1922, built as a memorial to Elizabeth, the wife of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Lever Brothers Empire, is in the middle of the village and we decided to go and have a look inside.
The gallery was originally built around Lord Lever’s collection of mainly British Victorian art, but also including examples of Chinese art, Roman sculpture and Greek vases. Today it’s part of Liverpool Museums group but Lever’s collection still forms the core of the collection. Consequently, the exhibits are dominated by…
View original post 444 more words
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England in Königsberg
As an Englishman, albeit one that has no interest in football, I would hope that some of the English football fans might give a moment’s thought to the old city of Königsberg as their team play there today. Destroyed by the RAF in 1944 and now occupied by the Russians.
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Blue Garden View
Like a kind of superposition of a Mondrain!
Framing a scene, like this view of Park Guell in Barcelona, really makes it pop. The blue wall doesn’t hurt either.
Click on the image to enlarge (it really does look better) or to Purchase a Print.
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“Si Tu Me Olvidas” -by Pablo Neruda
If You Forget Me – Poem by Pablo Neruda
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
penwithlit 