das leben der anderen

i am kind of in love with this movie?






i watched it yesterday afternoon/evening. i was home alone, so i made some coffee, tore out my knitting (because i messed up sock number two again, alas), and WATCHED THIS MOVIE IN GERMAN. that is to say, no subtitles. it's not an easy movie, so i was pretty proud of myself. it was amazing.

one of my favorite scenes was the shot of the stasi man reading a bertolt brecht poem out loud. i googled "bertolt brecht schönen sommerhimmel" and managed to find it:

1. An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September

Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum

Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe

In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum.

Und über uns im schönen Sommerhimmel

War eine Wolke, die ich lange sah

Sie war sehr weiß und ungeheuer oben

Und als ich aufsah, war sie nimmer da.


I think yet another factor contributing to my apparent nerdyness is the fact that I really like Bertolt Brecht. We read a poem by him in German class called "Tannen": (Yes, my dear mother, as in "Tannenbaum".)

In der Frühe

Sind die Tannen kupfern

So sah ich sie

Vor einem halben Jahrhundert

Vor zwei Weltkriegen

Mit jungen Augen.


This one I feel I can sufficiently translate: "In early morning, the pines are coppery. I saw them so a half century ago, before two world wars, with young eyes."

I love German poetry. I think German is really an amazing language for writing, probably due to its unique grammatical structure. I cannot wait to comtinue to improve my German in the next couple of years. I have much enthusiasm partially because of so many pieces of German literature I can aspire to be able to finally read.

Starting with my dear Sansibar. Only ten pages left!!