Author: Heinrich Detering
Translator: Paul-Henri Campbell
Treves, Easter 1041
no they have not come for the procession
not to venerate the holy man
not at all have they come for they lie
here as always
they do not desire his blessing or his
robes blankets gems they don’t give a damn
about the money that he holds out to them as
they raise their heads
when they whack the bishop and his minions
out of their saddles toss the coins aside
assault the horses jumping at them with fists
the horses
strangled torn chewing their flesh drinking
their blood the raw sacrament of beasts
the only ones who still do not understand
bleeding to death
Calvary, Little Birds
of dust and mud he had made little birds
that flew across the road upon his command
all had seen it (a generation ago)
his footfall was so gentle that as he stepped out
from the shore onto the lake he did not leave
the slightest trace on the water everyone saw it
when a friend died he called him up
out of the earth upon that command he returned as though
gravity itself pulled him upwards some saw it
like now when all see him there on the road
caving under the weight of a wooden beam
forcing him down on the ground sweating and bleeding
a beam upon which he soon will be hung to die
and all of them see birds coming the birds
the hungry little birds
Adamitic
when Adam named each creature
he ruled the world escaped fear
and forgot his own expiration
when Adam named each creature
none of them understood a word indeed
it seemed they were not even listening
when Adam named each creature
he banished himself with each word
into a language that was of no concern to them
when Adam named each creature
they barked bellowed warbled on
and simply trudged darted sailed away
to dark mysteries and to
mute depths to
mute depths
Underwood
the border ran right through our car
in the woods between Sweden and Norway
when we had lost our way when we
came to a halt at the border post in the underwood
ruckus hooting on the backseat
in the woods between Sweden and Norway
the joy that a line ran between us
an utterly invisible line
Predators
when they chase doves around
in the parking lot in the schoolyard
at the bus stop
when their shouting sounds as if
they were mimicking gunshots
when they grow in strength because the
doves are fleeing from them
then they are evil
Check for Yourself
after I was born mother counted
each one of my toes and fingers
and then calmly leaned back into the pillows
after she had told me that again
yesterday on the phone I sat still for a moment
then I counted and checked one more time and
leaned back into my arm chair everything
indeed was still there
From Heinrich Detering, Wundertiere. Gedichte. (Of Beasts and Miracles. Poems.) Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, 2015.