Novembre Pour Les Debutants.(Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

She begins by observing that ' Snow would be the easy/ way out. It is November, the beginning of winter. She and her companion cannot light a fire because it keeps raining. So they wait, brooding; they'sit down thinking of the past, before rising in a changing light. they memorize a couple of lines of German. When spring arrives they 'promise to act the fool'. She concludes in the imperative, ordering the rain to pour, and the wind to sail 'with your cargo of zithers'. The zither is a Greek musical instrument, like a harp, so the wind must carry musical sounds.
Rita Dove's companion that day was probably her husband, Fred Viebahn, who is is a German-born novelist. They married in 1979.