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Ingeborg Bachmann
Gedichte 1945-1956
Betrunkner Abend

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Ingeborg Bachmann
The Collected Poems
Poems 1945-1956
The Drunken Evening

The drunken evening, saturated with blue light,
staggers to the window to sing a ballad.
The pines press hard and thick against the sight,
as in the glass his shadow becomes entangled.

He slinks so darkly around the sea of houses,
strikes a child, and shrieks to scare him away;
while behind everyone else he pants for breath,
sounding a whispered alarm that gives him away.

In a damp farmyard, nearby the dark outer wall,
he rustles with rats deep in the corners.
The woman wearing a raggedy fray shawl
skitters away to hide herself still deeper.

There's still a stream trickling from the well,
a drop that runs, trying to catch the first;
he drinks there from a rusty pail,
and more from black gutters to ease his thirst.

The drunken evening, saturated with blue light,
staggers against the window and begins to sing.
Windowpanes shatter. His bloodied face fights
his way inside, wrestling me down, still shuddering.

transl. by Peter Filkins

@темы: b, 20, deutsche-oesterreichisch, bachmann, ingeborg