Susan McLean

A Translation of "The Last Count of Brederode Eludes Turkish Captivity" from the German of Rainer Maria Rilke
 
 

They followed, dreadful, throwing from afar
their varied kinds of death; he fled away,
abandoned, nothing more than menaced prey.
No longer did his fathers’ past appear
 
connected to him, for to flee like this,
it was enough to be a hunted beast. 
Until nearby the flashing river rushed. 
Resolve then raised him and, with his distress,
 
made him once more the boy of princely race.
A smile of noble women once again
poured sweetness on his too-soon-ended face.
 
He forced his steed to run at the great pace
of his heart, aglow with blood: it bore him then
into the flood as if through castle gates.

Susan McLean, a retired English professor from Southwest Minnesota State University, has published The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife, as well as a book of translations of the Latin poet Martial, Selected Epigrams. Another book of her poems, Daylight Losing Time, is forthcoming from Able Muse Press.