Ingeborg Bachmann
Gedichte 1945-1956
Unstillbar

Ingeborg Bachmann
The Collected Poems
Poems 1945-1956
Unappeasable
In a wintery forest
I circle the fruit of the south.
How they will fall to me
I do not know,
they being unable, like I, to flee at all
and thus to yearn.

My beak wanders frozen.
My song is forgotten.
I flee as outlaws flee,
with an eye torn,
over pebbles and stones.
The claws of the ice in my feathers
still make my mouth yearn for
almonds and golden currants.

Death is my part.
The polar moon shines palely in my dreams,
and the bitter roots of the tundra
long for me.

But I still am true to myself!
I steel flee, burning with desire!

transl. by Peter Filkins