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On the Road to San Romano

trans. French Richard Tillinghast Poetry like love is made in a bed. In her messed-up sheets the sun rises. Poetry lives in deep woods. She has all the room she needs. One whole side of the universe      Is ruled by a hawk's gaze,      By the dewdrop on a furled fern,      By the memory of a…

Melancholia

trans. German Thomas Frick A field of stubble. A black wind thunders. Violet sadness unfolds, The same thoughts come back, mud surrounds the brain; Asters die, leaning on fences, And sunflowers, black and dishevelled. The dreary soul shudders silently Next to the dark and empty window.

Zh. 234

And all day, terrified by its own moans, The crowd churns in agonized grief, And across the river, on funeral banners, Sinister skulls laugh. This is what I wrote and dreamed about, They have ripped my heart apart, As after a volley of gunfire, it's suddenly still, And death send patrols through the courtyards. Summer…

Grodek

(Trakl's last poem) At sundown the autumn woods resound With deadly weapons, the golden fields And blue lakes, the sun Moves on seriously; The night grasps Dying soldiers, the wild cries From their shattered mouths. Red clouds gather silently Over the meadows, sent by a wrathful god, Soaking up the lost blood, cool as the…

Zh. 244

Don't torment your heart with the joys of earth, Don't cling to your wife or your home, Take the bread from your child To give to a stranger. And be the humblest servant of the one Who was your bitterest foe, And call the beast of the forest brother, And don't ask God for anything,…

Six Bits

1. LASER MAJESTY Light show at the Planetarium. Schlock music. Seven colors put through drum Majorette paces. “We saw God tonight,” Said Morgan, Yes, and She was chewing gum. 2. VOLTAIRE: ON A STATUE OF CHRIST IN JESUIT ATTIRE Admire these monks' excessive art And industry, who've dressed you, dear God! in their very robes…

Air

trans. German Stuart Freibert I made myself some air every which way. It remained nicely invisible. No one saw me petting it. We went on living together. I felt great standing there finding what I sought in the air. I was partial to it because it was all around me. And it stood by me…

Zh. 255

He whispers: “I won't even apologize For loving you so — Either be mine alone Or I will kill you.” It buzzes around me like a gadfly, Incessantly day after day, This same boring argument, Your black jealousy. Grief smothers — but not fatally, The wide wind dries my tears And cheerfulness begins to soothe,…