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Death German Poems

These Death German poems are examples of German poems about Death. These are the best examples of German Death poems written by international poets.

Hermann Hesse Translation of 'Stages' from 'The Glass Bead Game'

This is my modern English translation of the poem "Stages" by the great German poet Hermann Hesse from his novel "The Glass Bead Game."


"Stages" or...

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Categories: german, courage, death, flower, life,

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - English translations by Michael R Burch III

Prometheus
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

obscure Your heavens, Zeus, with a nebulous haze!
and, like boys beheading thistles, decapitate oaks and alps.

yet...

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Categories: german, boy, children, death, earth,

German Poetry translations into English II

These are modern English translations of poems by the German poets  Ingeborg Bachmann, H. Distler and Johann Georg Jacobi.



“Song”
by Johann Georg Jacobi
translation by Michael...

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Categories: german, books, dance, dark, death,

German Poetry translations into English I

These are modern English translations of poems by the German poets Hannah Arendt, Ingeborg Bachmann, Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim and Heinrich Heine.



Heinrich Heine

The Seas Have Their...

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Categories: german, death, heart, heaven, love,

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock translations of German poems

“To Edward Young”
by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
translation by Michael R. Burch

Die, aged prophet: your crowning work your fulcrum;
now tears of joy
tremble on angel-lids
as heaven extends its...

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Categories: german, angel, death, dream, heaven,

A German Soldier Death Card

The shot and shell falls down
And the soldiers hugs the ground
They call to one another clear
Are you safe now the battle’s near

But one lies on...

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Categories: german, death, war,

On Looking At Schiller's Skull Translation Goethe

ON LOOKING AT SCHILLER’S SKULL
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Here in this charnel-house full of bleaching bones,
like yesteryear’s
fading souvenirs,
I see the...

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Categories: german, best friend, body, death,

Sonnets X-Xvi

Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions....

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Categories: german, art, body, god, life,

Georg Trakl Translation: To the Boy Elis

To the boy Elis
by Georg Trakl
translation by Michael R. Burch 
  
Elis, when the blackbird cries from the black forest,
it announces your downfall.
Your lips...

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Categories: german, bereavement, bird, blue, boy,

Rilke Translations Ii

Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the...

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Categories: german, tribute,

Macchu Picchu (German/English/Spanish)

Du Einsame, 
in den Bergen getrotzt,
versteckt in den Wolken
getragen vom Geist des Inka,
hochgepriesen,
wie von Geisterhand
überragst du das 
zerklüftete Tal des Urubamba.
Stein auf Stein,
gebaut mit großem...

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Categories: german, history