Ich lerne Deutsch
For pleasure, for travel, and for reading, I am improving my level of German at the wonderful not-for-profit Frome Community Education. To widen my range of vocabulary, and to experience the beauty of the language, I am at the same time learning poetry: so far by Ingebord Bachmann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Grillparzer, Franz Werfel, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Georg Trakl, and Hugo von Hoffmanstahl. That German, with its close linguistic ties to English, is not more widely taken up in schools, seems a great pity.
Und immer weht der Wind, and immer wieder
Vernehmen wir und reden viele Worte
Und spüren Lust und Müdigkeit der Glieder.