Wulf Kirsten
Anything, Save . . .
Door closed, time to be off,
I didn't ask what else
could keep me here
in Potschappel, no more trains
left from this rather
horrendous station, dragged
my suitcase all night long
through villages which had sunk
into themselves, walking on the verge
of an endless country road,
suffering the frost yard by yard,
with every step on Sachsdorf Hill
knee-deep in snow,
the toil of plodding
up a road buried under drifts, just
a single solitary thought
kept me awake: anything, save
foundering in the snow
with my brown vulcanised suitcase,
nobody else that night was going
that way, which was no longer a way,
after every step, deep into
the snow, that didn't hold me,
needing to heave a leg out again
and thinking as I did, just get
over Sachsdorf Hill,
anything, save . . .
I didn't ask what else
could keep me here
in Potschappel, no more trains
left from this rather
horrendous station, dragged
my suitcase all night long
through villages which had sunk
into themselves, walking on the verge
of an endless country road,
suffering the frost yard by yard,
with every step on Sachsdorf Hill
knee-deep in snow,
the toil of plodding
up a road buried under drifts, just
a single solitary thought
kept me awake: anything, save
foundering in the snow
with my brown vulcanised suitcase,
nobody else that night was going
that way, which was no longer a way,
after every step, deep into
the snow, that didn't hold me,
needing to heave a leg out again
and thinking as I did, just get
over Sachsdorf Hill,
anything, save . . .
Translated by Stefan Tobler
Page(s) 81
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