Translation:V. Faded leaf

by Maximilian Bern

               From branch into the distance
               From over trees and waves
Leaflet blowing so in loneliness
Where!, where you fly in longing ...
I myself don’t know – therefore don’t ask me again:
Among storm – fell the oak in horrendous night
Which sometime was my strength among storms!
Today wild force of fate tugs me...
               Up and down
                  From villages to villages,
               Among wild tests
                  Over hillock and grave!
[I’m] lifted with unstable shoulder of the gales
I fly, where kidnaps me will of fate,
Where sooner or later the destination of rose
To go, where even, laurel to disappear [is] the fate ...