Kuno Francke

“ Smiling then as children smile in sleep,
Moving still our silent lips we keep,
And the word will, ere it spoken seems,
Fall into oblivion, death in dreams.
Over us the mighty vessels float,
Sails are bright on many a sombre boat. ”

“ They have no day down there, they have no night.
The sand is shimmering green. There planks lie scattered,
A giant mast in livid splinters shattered.
And up from pallid vines rise bubbles whirling—
From vines that evermore are swaying, curling,
Their long and wary tendril-arms unfurling. ”

“ The sea-wind wakes and the wave from sleep,
Her corpse to rock and to hold.
The sea is rising, with passionate arms
There by the canal-bed to cling.
As if the young spouse with his kisses and charms
To beauty new life should bring. ”

“ A thousand thousand, an unnumbered band:
Their hands are stiff, their eyes unseeing stare,
With leaden feet they wade across the sand,
Way-farers lost without a path or way—
Blue-jackets, grimy fellows, women folding
Limp arms round languid babes that they are holding—
That lived on sunken ships ”

“ Ho, fellows, why so dumb? A roundelay!
For what the morrow brings, who cares today?
Heads high and gay! Our sailor's custom keep!
We men, when we're at home or when we fare
On foreign seas, each day our shroud must wear. ”

“ Sings the morning sunlight
—Lack-a-day!— its joyful song.
You were mine again!
Go and taste life's sweetness!—
I in deep, deep darkness
Sleep once more with pain.
↑ Translator: Margarete Münsterberg. ”