Walter Schweppe

AWAKE, MY FRIEND! by Walter H. Schweppe

Now also a song/Jetzt auch als Lied von Wellenreif: https://open.spotify.com/album/4Q9PJK9j1CipeuWTIfpIzR?si=IyzK2A7JSVidfKMmtBcXiQ

Awake, my friend, it's time, it's time!

You've dreamed too many dreams.

The land woke up by all the cries

You gave and tears you shed.

You've lost, my friend, your love, your love,

But love's not lost on you!

You lost a "you" to find a self

That now just wants to be!

So leave, my friend, your bed, your bed,

Take heart, arise and walk.

Give sickness now its final fall

And meet the day's demand.

Lift up, my friend, your eyes, your eyes,

And face the rising sun.

You've walked so many weary miles

That now your time has come

To be, my friend, the world, the world,

Whose riches are all yours;

And if your cup should overflow

You feed the need of poorer souls.

So bury, my friend, the past, the past,

Plant flowers on its grave!

The present has prepared a feast

For you, my friend, to live!

(Walter H. Schweppe, Sins of My Youth, illustriert von Sandy Schweppe, Impromptu publishing, 2004)

MONDNACHT/MOONLIT NIGHT von Joseph von Eichendorff, übersetzt von Walter H. Schweppe

It was as though the heavens / Es war, als hätt der Himmel

Had gently kissed the earth,/Die Erde still geküsst,

That in its blossoms' shimmer/dass sie im Blütenschimmer

Now heavenly dreams brought mirth/von ihm nun träumen müsst.

The air brushed through the fields,/Die Luft ging durch die Felder,

Waved rushing in the corn,/Die Ähren wogten sacht,

The forest softly yields/Es rauschte leis die Wälder,

A rustle, the starry sky the morn./So sternklar war die Nacht.

And then my soul unfolded/Und meine Seele spannte

Wide its wings to roam/Weit ihre Flügel aus,

Over the quiet country/Flog durch die stillen Lande,

As though it now flew home./Als flöge sie nach Haus.

(Joseph von Eichendorff, ins Englische übersetzt von Walter H. Schweppe, German Poems From Goethe to Brecht- A Personal Selection, Goyal Publishers, Neu-Delhi, Indien, 2004.)

EPITAPH by Walter Schweppe

I walked through the graveyard yesterday,

With you five thousand miles away.

I walked by a grave,

Not yet very old,

Amid flowers and wreaths stood an urn.

And the epitaph written on it was this:

"Here rest, in always peaceful unrest,

two bodies and souls that a fire burned

to ashes grey and cold.

To love being slaves,

They could not attain

To freedom.

In life seperated,

In death now united,

Their ashes lie mingled and married here."

(Walter H. Schweppe, Sins of My Youth, illustriert von Sandy Schweppe, Impromptu publishing, 2004)