Translated by Rosmarie Waldrop

From GUTACHTEN (1975)Gulliver's Travels...As I opened my eyes, dense reeds, grown shoulderhigh surrounded my bed; in this circle, a water bird on long legs, his beak emerged from his warm feathers to announce: “You are going to stay here now. I have adopted you.” I got up and looked out above the reeds. “Don't be surprised,” I heard behind me, “stranger things have been true, as you know.” Out on the lake, under the distant clouds, I made out a boat...Portrait of A. E. (An Artful Fairy Tale)As if the house could not have been preserved in this spot at any time: not the basement, not the basement windows, not the windows looking out onto the garden.As if every war had intentionally focused on precisely this spot, on tearing out the stairs.As if every storm too, every stroke of lightning had struck the walls, every downpour brought the dark down on the helpless.As if precisely here a child's inconsolable sobs had been able to melt stones, as if here everything had happened that others were able to fend off.As if here the green of the bushes cut like fire through the soft flowing air.As if this spot could teach us where houses have been preserved one could make friends with and visit.As if the house here had not been preserved so that foundations could be laid for a life.What They Say About MeIn my palace burn twenty-five chandeliersand three goldfish swim in my pondI get four thousand mark for one verseand six lines takes me a yearIn the morning I can afford an eggand a second one too, just as I please, one egg or twoWall Painting in a BarnWith three othersshe looks at the barn, old:I'd be a brown horsepainted on the wall.A picture lovely like earth,a picture one barely can seeon the stones, moist, cold,my picture painted, a horse.Light comes in through the roofas well as my foe, the dark.I'd stand there, in brown painton stone, a horse.SongMother you must be gonethe bridge has fallen downrotten fish fling sparksover your moonlit hair the sparksMother you must be goneThe waters rise and riselong dead, long dead, long deadbehind you bluefuses with bluethe sundog looks aheadMother, go to the willow treemother, look how it standsalone in the open field it standsthe winds blow through the treemother, this you must see.from Der Faden Der Geduld (1984)InedibleOn a handbreadth of bare ground next to the rock by the barn lies the delivered dead mouse. It looks, especially where the leg angles off, as if the fur were rising, sinking, as if it were breathing. Well, I see what I see: breath. The mouse has the so-called black line down its back. Experienced cats, when they have played and practiced their fill, leave those and wander off.1974Peaks    The lonely child of a lonely mother (near, left of, right of, above, below, behind, before lonely families...)    The lonely child in the bosom of the family. The father is lonely, so is the mother. And each of the siblings, each one lonely...    (The difference, lonely as a vanishing point, between groups one and two...)    The loneliness of nature. Lonely woods, but lonely steppes as well. Real godforsaken countries...        Long, lonely walks, a lonely wanderer, a lonely customer sits over his beer...        The lonely cross. Their lonely nights. (Loneliness Fair...)    The loneliness of football fans...    After a life busy as a bee's, lonely old age. One lonely tooth. The family plot...    Lonely achievement. Subtlety. Peaks of loneliness at the bottom of the corporation...    (From me to We, step out of loneliness...)My LetteratureAh, Abraham-A, ah, nurse's breast B,Oh lala! C-major C, daring D, rotten egg E,farcical F and gag G, hushbabyblue-hills H, my inconceivable I,all sorts of jolly J, kangaroo K, lazy lice L!And you, Urmother M, Urmother M, youand my saber of a nose, my chin-N,Ohlala-O, too, and you, palm-P,you, question-Q with a rolled R,ah, and silver S, tinpan-alley T, utterly uvular U,vernacular V and weltschmerz W, then ex-X,xylophon Y and cyclops Y on the way to zero-Zand Abraham-A, ah, nurse's breast B,Ah, my coucou cousins andbodily bugles and winds,who, I ask you, can findthe heart to put you out of mind?In Front of My EyesBeyond the Seven HillsVarious friends of mine walk in the woods, their shoulders sagging, their hands roaming right and left, they walk in the woods. Their steps springy on this beautiful morning, on this outing, their hands dangling from their torsos. —Franz, Frank, Christopherus, they call with their ears, walk on their eyes, search the blue sky with their mouth. Me they can't see. I'm home. I see them walking, I see heads wandering in the distance, through lenses cut in Jena.Cold BuffetIn order to partake of all pleasures, Franz Werfel, to dream a judge as seducer, but also, above all, as a schoolboy among others (but with beautiful flesh in front of him, the victim; eat, it'll rot!), the life of the party, the I of everything. The table is set, Werfel, Franz, even sacred things on the platter, camels that escape through the eye of the needle.