Georg Trakl quotes

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet known for his deeply melancholic and expressionistic style. His vivid and haunting imagery had a significant influence on 20th-century European poetry. He struggled with mental health issues and addiction throughout his life. Here are 15 of his quotes:

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

Georg Trakl

The near stillness recalls what is forgotten, extinct angels.

Georg Trakl

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

Georg Trakl

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

Georg Trakl

The murderer smiles palely in wine, Death's horror grips the sick. Excoriated and naked, the nun prays Before the Savior's agony on the cross. The mother sings quietly in sleep. Peacefully the child looks into the night With eyes that are completely truthful. In the whorehouse laughter rings. By candlelight down in the cellar hole The dead one paints with white hand A grinning silence on the wall. The sleeper whispers still.

Georg Trakl

One becomes ever poorer, the richer he gets.

Georg Trakl

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

Georg Trakl

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

Georg Trakl

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

Georg Trakl

The guilt of newborns is immense.

Georg Trakl

For whoever is lonely there is a tavern.

Georg Trakl

In the evening you hear the scream of bats, Two black horses jump in the meadow, The red maple rustles. To the traveller the small inn appears by the wayside. Wonderful the taste of young wine and nuts, Wonderful: stumbling drunk into darkening wood. Through black branches painful bells sound, On the face dew drips.

Georg Trakl

The black snow that runs from the rooftops; A red finger dips into your forehead Blue flakes sink into the bare room, These are the dead mirrors of lovers.

Georg Trakl