(after the German of Georg Trakl) <br /> <br />The brown village. A darkness often treads <br />Along the walls that stand in autumn. Mock- <br />Shapes: man as well as woman, dead now, walk <br />In the cold parlours to prepare their beds. <br /> <br />Here young boys play. A heavy shadow spreads <br />Over brown dung. Servant women walk <br />Through the moist blue, and sometimes their eyes mock <br />It, longing, as bells toll above their heads. <br /> <br />An inn leans for the down and lonely there. <br />Patiently it waits beneath dark arches, <br />Moved by clouds of gold tobacco smoke, <br /> <br />Yet always black and near. A stranger soaked <br />In booze stands in the shade of older arches <br />After the wild birds take to the air.<br /><br />Leo Yankevich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-autumn-evening-2/
