Philipp Mainlander

[ToALonelyPeace]

I find four of his poems translated here.

The Fear: Four Poems by Philipp Mainlander

1. On the Vesuvius
Twilight

The eye can no longer stand the fields of death,
Which in black girded the tremulous crater,
It stirs the fire that bubbles
Down in the bosom of the earth.

Instead of desolation, it seeks for brighter pictures,
It wanders by the sea, towards Quisisana,
Where the Angelo, deep in the clouds,
Bathes his powerful forehead.

Pass through Sorrento, through Cape Minave,
Towards the wild Capri, which bathes the waves,
Passing through the magnificent Miseno
Up to Ischia and its high mountain.

The sun touches the jagged peaks
And the smooth celestial ocean: everything tenses up
In the avid wait
Of the last kiss of the astral queen, complacent.

At last with lust she gives it, red-hot – What a picture!
As if countless luminous rosebuds
Had suddenly awakened,
So shines the coast, in sparse purple.

While a deep blue dyes the living sea,
But a messenger of the night dispels the magic.
Bold violets emerge everywhere,
Catching the […].1

The proud flowers die, bled dry; and she approaches,
Expanding her dark shadows more and more,
Carrying the golden sickle in her hair,
The night itself with her eagle wings.

Oh you, Hikers from the cold north! Let flow free
The admiration that fills your clamor,
No one more beautiful than her
Can be found in this earth.

2. Camaldoli
Neither words nor thoughts
Manage to express
The joy in my chest.
Too large for such forms,
It flows powerfully
Through the quivering soul. If a
God had graciously endowed me
With the power of song, I could
Perhaps be able to express
It in heavenly tones.
But I only have tears left:
Shaping woe, shaping weal!

3.
Oh dawn in the mountains of Sorrento,
Sweet greeting of a more beautiful life
How you refreshed me, of renewed
joy you fill me!

Oh dawn in the mountains of Sorrento,
When the Sun lingers behind the rocks
And Nature coming out of nocturnal dreams,
Amazement awakes in tears.
Oh dawn in the mountains of Sorrento,
When the purple Gulf of Naples foams
And out of the smooth sea the sky laughs,
In the distance a Sail shows up.

Oh dawn in the mountains of Sorrento,
When the golden brocade of the beautiful trees
Ascends the high peaks,
And the song of the birds blaring.

Oh dawn in the mountains of Sorrento,
Sweet greeting of a more serene life,
How you refreshed me, of renewed
joy you fill me!

4.
Stay pure, oh song of the South
Quell your burning blood -
Otherwise your chastity would melt
In the heat of a boiling heart.

If I could glide like an eagle,
And spread my broad wings,
Thus protecting your innocence
And the throng from your desires.

(In the visitors' book of Rosa Mayer in Sorrento, for Carmotta Fiorentino)

1 The original text has a lacuna.