Georg Trakl Quotes & Sayings

Silently, God opens his golden eyes over the place of skulls. — Georg Trakl

The thrush called strangeness into the sunset. — Georg Trakl

For whoever is lonely there is a tavern. — Georg Trakl

When we are thirsty, we drink the white waters of the pool, the sweetness of our mournful childhood. — Georg Trakl

Shuddering under the autumn stars, each year, the head sinks lower and lower. — Georg Trakl

At the Moor
Wanderer in the black wind; quietly the dry reeds whisper
In the stillness of the moor. In the gray sky
A flock of wild birds follows;
Slanting over gloomy waters.
Turmoil. In decayed hut
The spirit of putrescence flutters with black wings.
Crippled birches in the autumn wind.
Evening in deserted tavern. The way home is scented all around
By the soft gloom of grazing herds;
Apparition of the night; toads plunge from brown waters. — Georg Trakl

I do not have easy days at home now and I drift between fear and helplessness in sunny rooms where it is unspeakably cold. Strange shudders of transformation, bodily experienced to the point of vulnerability, visions of mysteries until the certainty of having died, ecstasies to the point of stony petrifaction, and a continuation of dreaming sad dreams. — Georg Trakl

Your body is a hyacinth,
Into which a monk dips his waxy fingers.
Our silence is a black cavern,
From which a soft animal steps at times
And slowly lowers heavy eyelids.
On your temples black dew drips,
The last gold of expired stars — Georg Trakl

The guilt of newborns is immense. — Georg Trakl

The near stillness recalls what is forgotten, extinct angels. — Georg Trakl

A whore who with icy shudders gives birth to a small dead child. — Georg Trakl

Black frost. The ground is hard, the air tastes bitter. Your stars cluster in evil signs. — Georg Trakl

I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods. — Georg Trakl

The blue of my eyes is extinguished in this night, the red gold of my heart. — Georg Trakl

In an old family album
Ever again you return, Melancholy,
O meekness of the solitary soul.
A golden day glows and expires.
Humbly the patient man surrenders to pain
Ringing with melodious sound and soft madness.
Look! There's the twilight.
Night returns once more and a mortal thing laments
And another suffers in sympathy.
Shuddering under autumn stars
Yearly the head is bowed deeper.
-Georg Trakl (1887-1914) — Georg Trakl

Earlier lives drift by on silver soles, and the shadows of the damned descend into these sighing waters. — Georg Trakl

Cold metal walks across my forehead,
spiders search for my heart.
It is a light that goes out in my mouth ... — Georg Trakl