Richard Scheid, Germany, biography

Summary

Richard Scheid was born in 1876 in Koblenz, Germany. Scheid worked as a pharmacist, but later became active in education and as a writer. In 1933, he was caught up in the first large wave of arrests in Germany. Held initially at various prisons in Munich, he was sent to Dachau on December 19, 1934 (prisoner number 6,767), where, during the four years of his imprisonment, he was forced to endure the “dark cell” and the “punishment squad.” He was released from Dachau in 1938. A number of Scheid's poems have been published in anthologies. He died in Munich in 1962.

Vision in Erwartung des Todes

O sprich zu mir, die mich so zart geliebt,

o teures Bild, von dessen Hauch ich lebe—

o rufe mich, daß ich mit dir entschwebe,

wenn diese Erde jetzt in nichts zerstiebt.

Die ganze Schöpfung ist von dir entzückt,

ich sehe schon der Seraphim Erstaunen,

wenn unterm Donner der Gerichtsposaunen

sich Gottes Mund mit deinem Lächeln schmückt.

1934 in sechsten Monat der Dunkelhaft im KZ Dachau geschrieben.An: Die junge Freundin—verschollen in Holland.

Vision in Anticipation of Death

O, speak to me: you loved me tenderly,

o precious image, from whose breath I am living—

as now the earth disperses into nothing,

we will float away together: call to me.

In you the whole of creation takes delight;

I see already the Seraphim in wonder

on Judgment Day, when amid the trumpets’ thunder,

the mouth of God is emblazoned with your smile.

Written in 1934, in the sixth month of imprisonment

in the “dark cell” in Dachau Concentration Camp.

To my young girlfriend—missing in Holland

—Translated by Marielle Sutherland

Lebenswende

Hat sich, o meine Seele,

dein Herbsttag nun erfüllt?

Vom Sturm gekühlt die Kehle,

und ist dein Durst gestillt?

Du sinkst zum Born der Schmerzen nieder,

verloren allem, was da war.

Du fällst ins All. Dann kehrst du wieder,

verwandelt, neu und wunderbar.

Dachau 1938