Искусствоед
Ingeborg Bachmann
Gedichte 1957-1961
Liebe: Dunkler Erdteil
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Ingeborg Bachmann
The Collected Poems
Poems 1957-1961
Love: The Dark Continent
The black king holds aloft the panther's claws
and chases ten pale moons around like prey,
invoking great tropical rain that begins to fall.
The world is looking at you in a different way!
You're drawn across the sea and to those coasts
of gold and ivory, and onward towards his mouth.
But there you always fall upon your knees,
for he chooses and rejects you without grounds.
Yet he's the one who orders the day to change.
The air shatters to pieces of green and blue glass,
as the hot sun boils the fish in shallow water,
and around the buffalo herd it burns the grass.
Into another world, the shimmering caravans move.
He lashes at the dunes across the desert land,
for he wants to see fire burning at your feet,
as from your welts there flows the bright red sand.
He, hairy, brightly colored, is by your side;
he snatches you up, throws over you his snare.
Soon long liana ropes will bind your hips,
your throat is ruffled with a lush fern collar.
From every jungle recess: sighs and screams.
He lifts the fetish. You have no reply.
Sweet wooden sticks begin to beat dark drums.
You stare transfixed, seeing where you will die.
Look, gazelles are floating on the breeze,
only halfway down bends the date's ripe swarm!
Everything is taboo: earth, fruit, streams...
The snake hangs shimmering upon your arm.
He gives to you insignia from his hands.
Wear the corals, walk in deluded raiment!
You can deprive the kingdom of its king,
for it's you who, secretly, has seen his secret.
On the equator all barriers are lowered.
The panther lives alone by love's own laws.
He crosses over from the valley of death,
trailing the heavens' fabric in his claws.
transl. by Peter Filkins
Gedichte 1957-1961
Liebe: Dunkler Erdteil
читать дальше
Ingeborg Bachmann
The Collected Poems
Poems 1957-1961
Love: The Dark Continent
The black king holds aloft the panther's claws
and chases ten pale moons around like prey,
invoking great tropical rain that begins to fall.
The world is looking at you in a different way!
You're drawn across the sea and to those coasts
of gold and ivory, and onward towards his mouth.
But there you always fall upon your knees,
for he chooses and rejects you without grounds.
Yet he's the one who orders the day to change.
The air shatters to pieces of green and blue glass,
as the hot sun boils the fish in shallow water,
and around the buffalo herd it burns the grass.
Into another world, the shimmering caravans move.
He lashes at the dunes across the desert land,
for he wants to see fire burning at your feet,
as from your welts there flows the bright red sand.
He, hairy, brightly colored, is by your side;
he snatches you up, throws over you his snare.
Soon long liana ropes will bind your hips,
your throat is ruffled with a lush fern collar.
From every jungle recess: sighs and screams.
He lifts the fetish. You have no reply.
Sweet wooden sticks begin to beat dark drums.
You stare transfixed, seeing where you will die.
Look, gazelles are floating on the breeze,
only halfway down bends the date's ripe swarm!
Everything is taboo: earth, fruit, streams...
The snake hangs shimmering upon your arm.
He gives to you insignia from his hands.
Wear the corals, walk in deluded raiment!
You can deprive the kingdom of its king,
for it's you who, secretly, has seen his secret.
On the equator all barriers are lowered.
The panther lives alone by love's own laws.
He crosses over from the valley of death,
trailing the heavens' fabric in his claws.
transl. by Peter Filkins