This is part of a poem I really like by Rudolf Alexander Schrder. I tried to translate it for non-German speakers, but I'm not particularly excellent at poetic translation 
Ob dir ein Leib beschieden ward
Von Fleisch und Bein,
Und ob die Prfung noch so hart,
Dein Herz soll hrter sein.
Mag dir ein Herz gegeben sein,
Das wnscht und trauert:
Die Zeit verlangt es, werde Stein.
Stein trgt und berdauert.
Though you were given a body
of flesh and bone
And though the test be ever so hard,
your heart should be harder.
Though you may be given a heart
that wishes and grieves
The times require that it become stone.
Stone sustains and lasts.
(Maybe supports would have been a better word than sustains... Argh... fuck...)
(EDIT TO ADD: I actually considered writing supports and survives-- I didn't put a lot of time into this, but I chose lasts because it was clearly associated with stone, whereas survives doesn't sit as well with me for inanimate objects)
Ob dir ein Leib beschieden ward
Von Fleisch und Bein,
Und ob die Prfung noch so hart,
Dein Herz soll hrter sein.
Mag dir ein Herz gegeben sein,
Das wnscht und trauert:
Die Zeit verlangt es, werde Stein.
Stein trgt und berdauert.
Though you were given a body
of flesh and bone
And though the test be ever so hard,
your heart should be harder.
Though you may be given a heart
that wishes and grieves
The times require that it become stone.
Stone sustains and lasts.
(Maybe supports would have been a better word than sustains... Argh... fuck...)
(EDIT TO ADD: I actually considered writing supports and survives-- I didn't put a lot of time into this, but I chose lasts because it was clearly associated with stone, whereas survives doesn't sit as well with me for inanimate objects)
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
lesabre:
nice
sheena:
I like your translation quite a lot!