Winter has been instilled in me
this will not change until the last
silent age has passed

the frosty stars and crusted lakes
trees clawing into sky-flesh and
mute game's snow-snuggling in
white woods that
the night encloses and
what visits the mainland it comes
from across the sea as burning cold
storm-driven ice who knows how
long I've had this winterinland

I only hear the little stayawaybell
tolling when I'm in the south where
I come from in the land of cold
it's silent because insideoutsidewinter
softly knock together
bearing the same
as two branded bent figures
two happy ones

You with your grassy nature
you all play all summer stay
hang your head hang
its shine into my
winterdom with you I don't hear
the little bell ah far from it
even if you've been granted
the counter-sense of my position

As a native of this
land you resemble me
as I do you who've
blossomed from the ice

Translated from the German by Derk Wynand