Stralsund

Timothy Adès

The old grey town that blue sea girds:
The swell of rust-red sails,
The squawking, tumbling salt-sea birds,
The flash of clean fish-scales.

On this church wall the pounding wave
And tempest waste their fire:
Though organ-thunder shakes the nave,
No foe hurls down the spire.

The clouds with tender beating wing
Caress its head, that dreams
Of fierce-fought battles reddening
Its foot with gory streams.

The dead are sleeping, stone by stone,
The sounding bells request:
Eternal memory, my son,
Be thine, eternal rest!


Original poem by Ricarda Huch, translated by Timothy Adès.

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Main Location:

Stralsund, Germany

The old town of Stralsund in Germany

Creative Commonsimage by Klugschnacker