By Audra Woehle
‘s Beispiel vom Bàim | Elsässisch
Lüag un lehr wia d’r Bàim sich
tiaf in d’r Heimatboda tüat bohra
so wàchst‚r hoch zum Liawesliad vo sina Bletter
otmet Luscht üs àller Luft
Sàft kunnt vo tiaf
Liacht kunnt vo hoch
ar singt im Niederwind
ar singt im Ewerwind
un steht noch gràd un steht noch krumm im Sturm un
losst nitt luck
verwurzelt hoch
waltoffa tiaf
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Das Beispiel vom Baum | Deutsch
Schau und lerne wie der Baum sich
tief in der Heimatboden tut bohre
so wächst Hoch zum Luftraum wo seine Blätter
atmet Lutscht erloschen aller Luft
Saft könnt’ von tief
Licht könnt’ von hoch
er singt im Niederwind
er singt im Ewerwind
und steht noch grad’ und steht noch krumm im Sturm und
verliert nicht Glück
verwurzelt hoch
waldoffen tief
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The Example of the Tree | English
Look and learn how the tree
Gouges deep in the home ground
So it grows high to the sky where its leaves
Breathes, sucks all extinct air.
Sap could be deep,
Light could be high.
It sings in the high wind,
It sings in the low wind,
And stands still level and stays still crooked in the storm and
Loses not luck,
Enrooted high
Deep in the open forest.
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Comments from the Author
Adrien Finck (1930 – 2008) was a French poet, writer, and professor at the University of Strasbourg. Born in Hagenbach, Germany, Finck’s Alsatian identity would hold a large influence on his life as he would go on to teach German and Alsatian literature for decades as a professor, promoting the regional languages and cultures from which he came. In his lifetime, he was knighted to the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and was awarded the Johann Peter Hebel Prize.
Translating a poem between not just one, but two languages was certainly a challenge. Alsatian as a language has many similarities to German, and often throughout the poem one can see how similar certain words are to one another. This made it all the more tricky, however, when it came to a word like “Liawesliad,” which I could find no translation for directly given that Alsatian is a dying language, nor could I find something similar in neither German nor French. It often came to a point in my translation where I had to use the context of the poem and my own creative liberty to best express what Finck wrote himself. It’s just as much a shame that Adrien Finck is no longer alive to share what he intended with this work as the original language of this text is dying and inaccessible. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to uncover the mystery of this diamond-in-the-rough language and take on the job of piecing together this poem.
