Category Archives: Practicing translation

Two in a boat

I thought I would never write poetry. And yet here I am translating a beautiful poem by Reiner Kunze. Enjoy.

Rudern zwei

Rudern zwei
ein Boot,
der eine
kundig der Sterne,
der andre
kundig der Stürme.
wird der eine
führn durch die Sterne,
wird der andre
führn durch die stürme,
und am Ende ganz am Ende
wird das Meer in der Erinnerung
blau sein.

Reiner Kunze

Translation from German

Two in a boat

There are two of them
In a boat,
One reads the stars,
The other finds the way through the storms,
When one navigates the stars,
The other leads through the storms,
And then, at the end, at the very end,
They’ll remember
The sea was blue.

Reiner Kunze (Translation by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels)

Picture: The view from my home office on a stormy evening.

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