DO NOT PONDER TOO MUCH

by Stefan George (1868-1933) German

Do not ponder too much
meanings that cannot be found --
The symbol-scenes that no man understands:

The wild swan you shot, that you kept alive
In the yard, for a while, with shattered wing --
He reminded you, you said, of a faraway creature:
Your kindred self that you had destroyed in him.
He languished with neither thanks for your care nor rancor,
But when his dying came,
His fading eye rebuked you for driving him now
Out of a known into a new cycle of things.

translated by Stanley Burnshaw






The Only WO'N!