Feeling the fall mood? These two short autumn poems by Rilke and Hebbel are tiny doses of calm, beauty, and golden leaves.
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Do you read poems in autumn?
There's something about this season that makes me want to curl up with a cup of tea and a good poetry book. Maybe it's the colder temps when the air turns crisp and the light gets golden. Maybe it's the leaves dancing with the wind.
Does fall has that effect on you too?
I'm sharing two of my favorite short autumn poems below. They are by the incredible German-speaking poets Friedrich Hebbel and Rainer Maria Rilke. I think they both captured the season's mood beautifully.
Both poems are about fall, yes; but they feel very different. While Hebbel finds peace and stillness in nature, Rilke turns the simple act of falling leaves into something spiritual and eternal.
Friedrich Hebbel: „Autumn Day"
Only four lines, and you can almost „feel" the still air.
Autumn Day (English translation)
This is an autumn day like none I've seen before!
The air is motionless as if we're hardly breathing,
And still, the fairest fruits fall with a rustle,
Far and near, from every tree.
German original:
Herbsttag
Dies ist ein Herbsttag, wie ich keinen sah!
Die Luft ist still, als atmete man kaum,
Und dennoch fallen raschelnd, fern und nah,
Die schönsten Früchte ab von jedem Baum.
Rainer Maria Rilke: „Autumn"
This one is more famous. It's one of those fall inspirational poems that goes deep. Rilke takes the image of falling leaves and makes it feel cosmic. And yet, the end is remarkably comforting. You can find this and other selected poems by Rilke in this book.
Autumn (English translation)
The leaves are falling, falling as from far,
as though great gardens in the heavens withered;
they fall with a denying gesture.
And through the nights the heavy Earth is falling
from all the stars into the solitude.
We all are falling. This hand here falls.
And look at others: it is in them all.
And yet there is One, who holds this falling
endlessly gently in his hands.
German original:
Herbst
Die Blätter fallen, fallen wie von weit,
als welkten in den Himmeln ferne Gärten;
sie fallen mit verneinender Gebärde.
Und in den Nächten fällt die schwere Erde
aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit.
Wir alle fallen. Diese Hand da fällt.
Und sieh dir andere an: es ist in allen.
Und doch ist Einer, welcher dieses Fallen
unendlich sanft in seinen Händen hält.
Need more poems?
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Do the poems resonate with you, too? I'd love to know what other fall inspirational poems you come back to when the days turn golden.
Wishing you planty of golden fall days delights,
Ramona
♥
Ovidiu says
These poems are beautiful, nostalgic. Autumn is the most romantic season, it is par excellence the season of poets and poetry.
"The world needs poets."- is a line from the movie Genius(2016)
Yes, more than nice to sit on a chair maybe near a window, to read and look outside from time to time, with a tea and something sweet around. 🙂
Ramona Winkler says
Yes, definitely something sweet to go with a cup of tea and a poetry book. Cookies, surely, cookies.