S.KRAUSE

In Summer

In summer
I hear the bees
in winter the frost

I drink
the honey of your tenderness
and
the ice of your presense

Two wonders
in one shell

by Rose Ausländer

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Notes: Rose Ausländer was born in Bukovina when it was still a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bukovina was an intersection of several cultures, including a large Jewish population (mostly German-speaking) that was wiped out by the Holocaust. Ausländer, like another famous poet of the region---Paul Celan---survived. The last line ``In Summer'' is Schalle in German, which can be translated as shell, bowl, peel, or skin.

The german original is also available on this site.