from Bornholm II (1985)
A Beautiful Poem
A bay and a chestnut make up the carthorse pair.
I don’t see it often, my eyes keep turning
Inwards. I see so little, and next to
The man the child in the rug not at all.
The putting up, numberless, suffered daily:
The unrest of what’s meant to be talking;
The gag, to reel in the city refuse;
A friend’s proper distance from loved ones, from loving.
Each one of these gentlemen thinks he’ll pay off
The debts another time, soon, and the children
Think that the kitten has thousands of lives
– And yet it is only seven that are free.
A bay and a chestnut make up the carthorse pair.
I can’t jump on, but must grin and bear.
Uwe Kolbe grew up in the GDR and has been marked by that experience and by the later problems of German reunification. He is held to be one of the best of the younger ex-GDR poets. His work is published by Suhrkamp.
Translated by Michael Hamburger
Page(s) 74
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