My name is Lena Khalaf Tuffaha and I'm reading one of my favorite poems which is "Geranium" by Rainer Maria Rilke from the book The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke translated by  A. Poulin Junior. I love this poem because it was one of the first that I could read in a language I was learning, in Fench. I could read and understand it enough on my own. And I also love the way that the sound of the poem really informs the ideas and the images that the poet is engaging about the passage of time. So it's interesting how the short and long sounds really make that manifest.

"Geranium

Geranium qui eclate
au doux soir pluvieux
que ta joie ecarlate 
me penetre mieux

qu'un plus tendre presage.
Comme je suis convaincu
de ta rouge rage-
et le lent refus

de ce soir qui pleure
et qui murmure: assez-
je le connais:  c'est l'heure
qui se dissout pour passer."