Birthday

Only from you God do I hope for rebirth
celestial creatrix mother of earth
thrust from your loins God crying first tears
on the summery dawn of my thirty-nine years

Only by you God upheld in your arm
source of my life and keeper of my soul
warm at your breast with tightly closed eyes
lulled into sleep by your soft lullabies

With thunder and lightning God protected
by jealous mother kept and defended
along your flanks my body resting
beneath your eyes my body growing

Teach me words God that I may pray
and dream and sing in your remade day
be for me friend and sister and brother
name me your child my only mother

C. Moosbach
Translation: Natalie K. Watson
© Gütersloher Verlagshaus

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