Rilke's "Le noyer" (walnut tree)

The picture is of a 150-year-old American black walnut tree in France (https://www.promhaies.net/news/arbre-dici-et-dailleurs-le-noyer-noir-de-sablonceaux,6999/)






To escape from the narrow pound of my own thought, I sometimes attempt to translate a poem. Here's one I've spent several hours on; the reward is the process. 

Walnut Tree (Le Noyer)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
 
i.
Tree that in place
proudly grows and bends
all around the space
of summer as it ends,

tree whose volume,
round and exuberant,
is proof and epitome
of all we want: 

I’ve seen your leaves redden
as they are turning green;
with that display of modesty
your magnificence
demands their punishment. 

ii.
Tree, always in the center
of all that’s about--
tree that savors
heaven’s entire vault;

like anyone else
you turn here and there--
like an apostle
who does not know where

God will come down. . . .
so to be sure, it aims
to make itself round
and holds out ripe arms.

iii.
Tree which perhaps
within itself sees
an ancient Tree Master
among the serving trees!

Tree that self-controls
and slowly grows and bends
into the shape that eludes
the hazard of winds:

full of austere forces
your clear shade offers
a leaf that refreshes,
fruit that perseveres.

NOTE: The original, like the translation, alternates between 2nd and 3rd person in addressing the tree.

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