These are modern English translations of poems written in German by Bertolt Brecht, who fled Nazi Germany along with Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and many other German intellectuals. Thus Bertolt Brecht was writing from bitter real-life experience.
The Burning of the Books
by Bertolt Brecht
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned,
......
The Best Medieval Poems in Modern English Translations by Michael R. Burch
This collection includes my modern English translations of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) poems and Middle English poems by Caedmon, Charles d'Orleans, Geoffrey Chaucer, Deor, William Dunbar, King Henry VIII, Robert Henryson, Thomas Hoccleve, William Langland, Layamon, John Lydgate, The Pearl Poet, Richard Rolle, John Skelton, Sir Thomas Wyatt and other poets.
How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song …
......
These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......
The Best Medieval Poems in Modern English Translations by Michael R. Burch
This collection includes my modern English translations of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) poems and Middle English poems by Caedmon, Charles d'Orleans, Geoffrey Chaucer, Deor, William Dunbar, King Henry VIII, Robert Henryson, Thomas Hoccleve, William Langland, Layamon, John Lydgate, The Pearl Poet, Richard Rolle, John Skelton, Sir Thomas Wyatt and other poets.
How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song …
......
These are modern English translations of poems written in German by Bertolt Brecht, who fled Nazi Germany along with Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and many other German intellectuals. Thus Bertolt Brecht was writing from bitter real-life experience.
The Burning of the Books
by Bertolt Brecht
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned,
......
These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......