Author: Christoph Wenzel
Translator: Richard Martin
for Malte
SPRING’S a time like an accusation
last year’s bad conscience
carried over from then: an overdrawn winter
account and unsolved equations
not yet fully grown: the year breaking out
flexes itself with weak thunderstorms
a spaciousness outside a disturbance
of the air: grass pollen wetness and a gulping
beneath the loosened scarves: tinged with
unsaturated remains of swath and aftermath
the forecast’s current patterns
promise fluid transitions
climate and change in contrast
the tertian fever of short summers
and a last frost in april
is of quite a different nature
Original © Christoph Wenzel,
from Jahrbuch der Lyrik
(S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2007),
to appear in Wenzel’s forthcoming collection
(Yedermann Verlag, 2009)
All rights reserved
Translation © Richard Martin