Plaint

Sleep and death, the gloomy eagles

All night long wheel round this head:

The golden portrait of man

Let devour the icy wave

Of eternity. On horrible reefs

Crashes the purple body.

And the darkling voice complains

Above the sea.

Sister of stormy sorrow

See an anxious skiff sinks down

Below stars,

The hushed visage of night.

Georg Trakl