[Poesiealbum] Liu Xiaobo – You Wait for Me with Dust

© tatsu-subaru

You Wait for Me with Dust
– for my wife, who waits every day

nothing remains in your name, nothing
but to wait for me, together with the dust of our home
those layers
amassed, overflowing, in every corner
you’re unwilling to pull apart the curtains
and let the light disturb their stillness

over the bookshelf, the handwritten label is covered in dust
on the carpet the pattern inhales the dust
when you are writing a letter to me
and love that the nib’s tipped with dust
my eyes are stabbed with pain

you sit there all day long
not daring to move
for fear that your footsteps will trample the dust
you try to control your breathing
using silence to write a story.
At times like this
the suffocating dust
offers the only loyalty

your vision, breath and time
permeate the dust
in the depth of your soul
the tomb inch by inch is
piled up from the feet
reaching the chest
reaching the throat
you know that the tomb
is your best resting place
waiting for me there
with no source of fear or alarm
this is why you prefer dust
in the dark, in calm suffocation
waiting, waiting for me
you wait for me with dust

refusing the sunlight and movement of air
just let the dust bury you altogether
just let yourself fall asleep in the dust
until I return
and you come awake
wiping the dust from your skin and your soul.

What a miracle – back from the dead.

April 9th 1999

(Übersetzt aus dem Chinesischen: Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander.
In: Lyrikmail Nr. 2390. 21.03.2011)

 

[Poesiealbum] Dylan Thomas – And Death shall have no dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

–Dylan Thomas, 1936

 

[Poesiealbum] Mascha Kalèko – Ansprache eines Bücherwurms

© Windy999

Ansprache eines Bücherwurms

Der Kakerlak nährt sich vom Mist,
Die Motte frißt gern Tücher,
Ja selbst der Wurm ist, was er ißt.
Und ich, ich fresse Bücher.

Ob Prosa oder Poesie,
Ob Mord – ob Heldentaten –
Ich schmause und genieße sie
Wie einen Gänsebraten.

Ich bin ein belesner Herr,
Nicht wie die andern Viecher!
Daß Bücher bilden, wißt auch ihr,
Und ich – ich fresse Bücher.

Die Nahrung, sie behagt mir wohl,
Verleiht mir Grips und Stärke.
Was andern Wurst mit Sauerkohl,
Das sind mir Goethes Werke.

Ich fraß mich durch die Literatur
So mancher Bibliotheken;
Doch warn das meiste, glaub es nur,
Bloß elende Scharteken.

Das Bücherfressen macht gescheit.
So denken sich´s die Schlauen.
Doch wer zuviel frißt, hat nicht Zeit,
Es richtig zu verdauen.

Drum lest mit Maß, doch lest genug,
Dann wird´s euch wohl ergehen.
Bloß Bücher fressen macht nicht klug!
Man muß sie auch verstehen.