Tandaradei

The Nightengale from Hans Christian Anderson's THE CHINESE EMPORER.



TANDARADEI


According to Middle High German poets,
Nightingales sing varied songs,
Walter von der Vogelweide
Has the nightingale sing, “Tandaradei.”
I heard a nightingale sing in Rothenburg,
But could not transcribe the complex song
into a single word.
We, a Slavic-Teutonic blonde and I,
Saw a flock of nightingales
in the Moselle valley,
They fluttered on limbs of bushes
growing out of a broken bridge.
We were drinking a dry white wine,
And the dry white wine sung, “Tandaradei.”


Duane Locke

Posted over on Badosa