Reconciliation
translated by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky
(To My Mother)
A great star will fall into my lap. . .
We would hold vigil tonight,
Praying in languages
That are carven like harps.
We would be reconciled tonight—
So fully God overwhelms us.
Our hearts are only children,
Eager for weary-sweet slumber.
And our lips would kiss each other,
Why are you fearful?
Does not your heart border upon mine—
Your blood always dyes my cheeks red.
We would be reconciled tonight,
If we clasp each other, we shall not perish.
A great star will fall into my lap.
Versöhnung
Es wird ein großer Stern in meinen Schoß fallen. . .
Wir wollen wachen die Nacht,
In den Sprachen beten,
Die wie Harfen eingeschnitten sind.
Wir wollen uns versöhnen die Nacht—
So viel Gott strömt über.
Kinder sind unsere Herzen,
Die möchten ruhen müdesüß.
Und unsere Lippen wollen sich küssen,
Was zagst du?
Grenzt nicht mein Herz an deins—
Immer färbt dein Blut meine Wangen rot.
Wir wollen uns versöhnen die Nacht,
Wenn wir uns herzen, sterben wir nicht.
Es wird ein großer Stern in meinen Schoß fallen.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 13, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Reconciliation” first appeared in the original German as “Versöhnung” in Else Lasker-Schüler’s Meine Wunder (Dreililien-Verlag, 1911), and was later included in Contemporary German Poetry (John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., 1923), as translated into English by Babette Deutsch and her husband, Avrahm Yarmolinsky. In the introduction to the anthology, Deutsch and Yarmolinsky write of Lasker-Schüler that she “dissolves the world [. . .] she pours its fluid mass into the golden bowl of passion. [. . .] [S]he differs from most of her contemporaries, who do not love the individual less, but who love humanity more.”
Else Lasker-Schüler
Else Lasker-Schüler, born Elisabeth Schüler on February 11, 1869 in Elberfeld, Germany, was a German Jewish poet, short-story writer, playwright, and novelist affiliated with the avant-garde and German Expressionism. She was the author of several works, including Die Wupper (Oesterheld & Co., 1909) and Mein blaues Klavier (The Jerusalem Press Ltd., 1943). She died on January 22, 1945.