Midsummer…

… has long been a time when myth and reality converge, when deities dance in woodlands and fiery festivities mark the advent of Midsummer’s Day.  Primarily a European tradition, different countries have their own unique and often colorful take on this festival.

Midsummer

On nights like this we used to swim in the quarry,  

the boys making up games requiring them to tear off  the girls’ clothes  

and the girls cooperating, because they had new bodies since last summer

and they wanted to exhibit them, the brave ones  

leaping off  the high rocks — bodies crowding the water…

(...)

… The summer night glowed; in the field, fireflies were glinting.

And for those who understood such things, the stars were sending messages:  

You will leave the village where you were born  

and in another country you’ll become very rich, very powerful,

but always you will mourn something you left behind, even though   

you can’t say what it was, and eventually you will return to seek it.

~Louise Glück

Sommersonnenwende

Nun die Sonne soll vollenden

Ihre längste, schönste Bahn,

Wie sie zögert, sich zu wenden

Nach dem stillen Ozean!

Ihrer Göttin Jugendneige

Fühlt die ahnende Natur,

Und mir dünkt, bedeutsam schweige

Rings die abendliche Flur.

Nur die Wachtel, die sonst immer

Frühe schmälend weckt den Tag,

Schlägt dem überwachten Schimmer

Jetzt noch einen Weckeschlag;

…Und die Lerche steigt im Singen

Hochauf aus dem duft´gen Tal,

Einen Blick noch zu erschwingen

In den schon versunknen Strahl.”

~Ludwig Uhland, Sonnenwende

               ✗✗✗✗❣ 0*-)