Here's a poem from the great Peter Huchel's The Garden of Theophrastus, a dual language selection of his work translated by Michael Hamburger and published by Anvil in 2004. You can see it and listen to Huchel read the original at the very useful Berlin based poetry site Lyrikline
Die Wasseramsel
Könnte ich stürzen
heller hinab
ins fließende Dunkel
um mir ein Wort zu fischen,
wie diese Wasseramsel
durch Erlenzweige,
die ihre Nahrung
vom steinigen Grund des Flusses holt.
Goldwäscher, Fischer, stellt eure Geräte fort.
Der scheue Vogel
will seine Arbeit lautlos verrichten.
© Mathias Bertram
From: Gesammelte Werke in zwei Bänden. Band 1: Die Gedichte. Herausgegeben und erläutert von Axel Vieregg.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1984
The Water Ousel
It I could swoop
down more brightly
into the flowing dark
to catch myself a word,
like this water ousel
through alder branches
to pick her sustenance
from the stony riverbed.
Goldwashers, fishermen,
put away your gear.
The shy bird
wants to do its work in silence.
From: Peter Huchel. The Garden of Theophrastus. Selected Poems. Translated by Michael Hamburger. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2004
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