The Three Ponds In Hellbrunn

The First Around the flowers the blowflies reel, Around the pale flowers on dull flood, Go away! Go away! The air burns! In the depth the fervor of putrefaction glows! The pasture weeps, the silence stares, A sultry vapor brews on the waters. Go away! Go away! It is the place For black toads' disgusting rut. The Second Images of clouds, flowers, and people Sing, sing, joyful world! Smiling innocence reflects you - Everything it likes becomes heavenly! It amicably transforms darkness into light, Distant things become near! O joyful you! Sun, clouds, flowers and people Breathe the peace of God in you. The Third The waters shimmer greenish-blue And calmly the cypresses breathe, The evening sounds bell-deep - Then the depth grows immeasurably. The moon rises, the night turns blue, Blossoms in the reflection of the floods - An enigmatic Sphinx face, On which my heart wants to bleed to death.