School libraries

This makes me sad. Arkansas looks good so far--but my days in this state are numbered.

Poetry month

I'm enjoying everyone's poems, whether quoted or original, and especially the German poems wordsrmylife has posted. So I'm inspired. Here's a very early (Mittelhochdeutsch/Middle High German, from around the year 1200) poem by an unknown writer:

Dû bist mîn, ich bin dîn:
des solt dû gewis sîn;
dû bist beslozzen in mînem herzen,
verlorn ist daz slüzzelîn:
dû muost och immer darinne sîn.

My translation:

Thou art mine, I am thine:
That thou shouldst surely know;
Thou art locked in my heart,
lost is the key:
There must thou then always remain.

There's kind of the same difference between Middle High German and modern (high/standard) German, and Old/Middle English and modern English. Probably closer to Middle English, because I can read it without it being too strange. More like someone with a funny accent (and really, everyone in Germany has a funny accent except the one place you live).

Anyway, like early poems surviving in other languages, I like the brevity of it, and the image of mutually residing in each other's hearts. Because when you care about someone, whether romantically or just as a person, a little bit of them lodges inside you and sort of becomes a permanent part of you.