Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village
Showing posts with label Gottfried Benn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gottfried Benn. Show all posts

Monday, 9 May 2016

High-flying


Dear You, 
I stare at the many posts of you that I have missed. So sorry!
I look out of the window and see that the swallows are back.
I swallow hard.
The last weeks were - wonderous. Unreal. Now it is time to land back on earth (a very appropriate metaphor - can you imagine that I - yes: I! - steered an airplane? A Cessna - and of course with a pilot at my side. It were some of the most glorious 20 minutes of my life - I love, love, love to fly (but will not start taking lessons).
And then I drove through the sunny countryside with a Jaguar Mark II - creamwhite and red leather seats.
Well - and now I'm back to everyday life.
Which is less uneventful at the moment, but beautiful and reassuring too.
The syringa starts to flower, enveloping whole streets into dark, beguiling deep lilac perfumes.
Reminds me of a poem by Gottfried Benn: 

Bar 

Lilac in lathy vases, 
hanging lamps, hushed light, 
and the Yanks go wild, 
when the singer speaks ... 

I have roughly translated the first stanza of this poem (1953) for you - the second one is a mixture of American and German, and maybe I will pluck up courage and translate it on my poetry blog www.burstingwithhappiness.blogspot.de.
Demands the same courage as to steer a plane...