June 20, 2013

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 rocksbodies 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*-)




5 comments:

Tartanscot said...

And there is something I would do again-
If I had forever, if there were time.

Syl v O said...

“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.”
― William Shakespeare,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
xoxox

Alistair (from the land of...) said...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
The best you ever had?
Four lovers ran into the woods
And everyone ended up wed!

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2)

Unknown said...

Bless thee, Ms.Edna! Bless thee! Thou art translated.
~after A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Anja said...

Our souls are in the sky!