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Ehrentraut Helmberg-Lanner:
Traurige Stadt IV
Viel Monde sah ich aufgehn und erblassen,
ich zählte nicht der langen Stunden Schlag.
Viel Jahre lang durchschritt ich Deine Gassen,
doch bliebst du fremd mir wie am ersten Tag.
Mein schneller Puls schlug niemals mit dem deinen,
der träg und schläfrig durch die Zeiten geht.
Du sahest nie mein Lachen und mein Weinen,
weil immer Nebel dir im Auge steht.
Nur von den Höhen rings, umweht von Stürmen,
blickt weit man in das freie Land hinaus
und du liegst unten tief mit deinen Türmen
und siehst von ferne froh und friedlich aus.
Walter A. Aue: Durchgang
(Waidhofen a/d Ybbs, Rothschild Schloß, 2003)
VIEL SPÄTER (2009)
Walter A. Aue: Das innere Leben
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, Helmberg Haus Innenhof, 2007)
Walter A. Aue: "Traurige Stadt IV"
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, Postkartenaufnahme von 1906 nahe dem Helmberg Haus am Unteren Stadtplatz, digital verändert.)
Walter A. Aue: Stadt der Türme
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, vom Krautberg)
Walter A. Aue: Schwarzer Holler
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, Rothschild Schloßturm mit Aufsatz, 2007)
NB: "Holler" (Holunder) ist ein Dialektwort für groben Unsinn.
Walter A. Aue: Wieder Holler
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, Rothschild Schloß mit postmodernen Aufsätzen, 2007)
Walter A. Aue: An der schönen grünen Ybbs
(Waidhofen/Ybbs, Rothschildschloß, 2007)
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Ehrentraut Helmberg-Lanner:
Town Triste IV
So many of your moons have come and vanished,
I did not count how many hours passed.
So many years I've walked your alleys - banished
from knowing you - a stranger to the last.
My faster pulse did never match your sighing,
so slow and sleepy was your ancient plod.
You never saw my laughing and my crying
because your eyes were always full of fog.
It's only from the heights, where wild wind flowers,
that one can see the freer country fair -
and in the valley deep you lie with all your towers
and seem so blithe and peaceful from up there.
The town is Waidhofen an der Ybbs in Lower Austria. Its medieval town center, with steeples, towers and walls, lies deep down in the valley of the Ybbs river, along its often foggy bluffs. Several series of photographs from Waidhofen are contained in the series Vienna Tourist. (Of particular interest may be the page Waidhofen for Artists)
Dr. Helmberg, by all accounts, was a most remarkable woman. She came from a family in South-Tyrol (now part of Italy), and was only the third female student to earn a medical doctorate from the University of Innsbruck, (North-)Tyrol. She came to Waidhofen by marriage and, as her poems suggest, strongly responded to it. I am indebted to her daughter, Mag. Roswitha Helmberg, for allowing me to translate and post her formally perfect and emotionally penetrating poetry.
My thanks also go to Gottfriede Fuerst, M.A. (my fair-weather sometime editor, and the very best and más nerviosa one I ever had) for making me aware of Dr. Helmberg's poems. And for pointing out, much later in the game, two most disheartening spelling errors of mine...
MUCH LATER (2009)
In 2007 I came by Waidhofen on Ybbs again, for a most joyful highschool reunion, marking the 54th anniversary of our graduation. It was all there: A dream weather (as the Austrians say); great food (no, I didn't lose my taste yet, as I had thought!); the best of company and organization (thanks Mui and Co!); and great dollops of friendship and nostalgia (not to mention whipped cream).
As is my habit, I also took a few photographs. Well, actually quite a few. When I recently looked at them again, it occurred to me that one or the other might just fit the "Town Triste".
You'll find them on the left side. Never mind what the German says, just see what the images mean...
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