(http://ezratranslation.com/Fall_2008.html):
WHEN I WALK THROUGHGERMAN CITIES
~~translated by Daniele Pantano
When I walk through German cities,
getting lost
with every fourth step
Through these black and gray
wastelands that
like giant cesspits
had to be burnt down
Stuck in the monotonous mass of its
denizens,
hearing their language, knowing
they despise us provincials
Although it is they who are
behind the times,
mankind’s prime in every imaginable
situation
Once world champions in poetry and thought.
Oppressors, not out of primitivity
but presumption, proud even
of their afflictions
Relieved I return to my country
And put all the trash
that surrounds me here
back onto my shoulders. With my head
held high I begin again
to fight the windmills.
Always a Don Quixote, I love my country
by castigating it
affirm the world by negating it
Speaking a better German than the Germans.
FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT
No comments:
Post a Comment