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Originally Posted by Tchocky
I like that one, but my favourite poem in this area is from WB Yeats
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
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Wonderful! I fullheartly agree! I know that one as well, it would have been the one I would have listed next (from English language poems)! Although I know it in the German translation, and would even prefer that - the rhymes are softer, and more music in it. But maybe that is just me:
Ich weiß mein Leben wird einst enden
hoch droben zwischen Wolkenwänden.
Die ich bekämpfe, hass' ich nicht,
die ich beschütze, lieb ich nicht.
Es hieß mich kämpfen, nicht Pflicht noch Moral,
kein Staatsmann und kein General.
Entzückte Lust an einsamkeit
trieb in die wolken mich zum Streit.
Ich wog es wohl, bedacht' es klar:
vergebliche Müh' die künftigen Jahre
wie die vergangenen.
In Schwebe bot sich dieses Leben, dieser Tod.
In parts (Kilkartan)it is not a word-by-word translation, but I think that is the art of translating a poem from one language into the other: not blidnly sticking to the form and missing the content, but to focus on keeping the essence.
Sarah Teasdale's "there will come soft rains" also is beautiful, but I already have quoted that here twice, i think.