Music In Mirabell

by Georg Trakl
1887-1914

A fountain sings. Clouds stand

In clear blueness, white, delicate.

Silent people wander thoughtfully

Through the old garden in the evening.

The ancestors' marble has turned grey.

A line of birds streaks into the distance.

A faun with dead eyes looks

On shadows that glide into darkness.

Leaves fall red from the old tree

And rotate inside through the open window.

Firelight glows in the room

And paints dim specters of anxiety.

A white stranger enters the house.

A dog leaps through decayed lanes.

The maid extinguishes a lamp.

At night the ear hears the sounds of sonatas.