Summer's in full swing.

The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing and the
flowers are in full bloom. But does the promise of sunny days fill you with
delight or foreboding? These German poems describe summer at its best and
worst and will inspire you to get out that German dictionary again.

It’s a common trend that the desire to explore a nation’s literature will inspire language
learners to take their linguistic skills to the next level.

You may have experienced that jolting feeling when reading a translation of a foreign
book or poem. Or perhaps you have found yourself at a dead end when that piece
you’ve always wanted to read just hasn’t been translated.

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Most of us are probably in agreement that poetry is the hardest art-form to translate.
How can the myriad of structural choices stay in tact during translation to deliver the
same reading experience as the original? This tends to be the reason that so many
poems are just never officially translated.

So why wait for the English version? Here's a list of ten German poems which take on
the sunny season that are worth learning German for.

1. Sommer by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1810)

 
 
Goethe is one of Germany's literary giants. His works spanned the genres of drama, prose, poetry, autobiography
and literary criticism. While many may know his famous works like "Faust" and "The Sorrows of Young Werther", he
is little read outside the German-speaking world.

His poem "Sommer", or "Summer", is only eight lines long and delivers powerful
imagery of days growing alongside the heat. Meadows are ablaze in the summer's heat
and fiery storms show no mercy. 

"Der Sommer folgt. Es wachsen Tag und Hitze,

und von den Auen dränget uns die Glut;"

Goethe's poem stands out from visions of a calm summer's day but nevertheless ends
with the image of love smiling beneath the stormy weather. Goethe's literary talent
should not be missed just because of a language barrier.

Full text available here.

2. "Dämmernd liegt der Sommerabend..." by Heinrich Heine (1827)

Heine's works are some of the most famous literary exports from Germany in the 19th
century. His lyric poetry garnered particular acclaim after it was set to music by Robert
Schumann and Franz Schubert.

His untitled poem paints a more positive picture of summer than Goethe's did. Heine
sets the scene of the summer evening stretching across a forest and green meadows at
twilight. The moon is golden and sounds of crickets are in the air.

"Dämmernd liegt der Sommerabend

Über Wald und grünen Wiesen;"

The poem ends with a girl bathing in the river, her bare skin shimmering in the
moonlight, evoking a sense of purity and mystique in the summer's night.

Full text available here or listen to a recording of the poem.