German Poetry Now: A bilingual online-anthology, featured by DAS GEDICHT chapbook
Ilma Rakusa
Moroccan bowl
You are holding it in your hand,
it fills out your entire palm.
Glazed terracotta bowl, whitish
with turquoise symbols that
gaily, lightly lead around,
circling. Fluttering, in a way.
In the early light they keep still.
When the day rises, they cry:
milk. You are amazed, wondering
about the hassle. But you don’t
step aside calmly. Water sounds
better. Tea sounds best. The
green one with mint. The bowl
stares at you. In the tea you see
yourself. Distorted. Then
the signs begin to speak
like crickets. Through the
haze you recognize that the
word tufts are twitching.
It’s handcraft at work.
Each time this transformation.
Each time you are ready for it.
translated by Paul-Henri Campbell
+ German Original / Das OriginalIlma Rakusa
Marokkanische Schale
Du hältst sie in der Hand,
sie füllt deinen Handinnenraum.
Glasierte Tonschale, weisslich
mit türkisen Zeichen, die
unbeschwert um das Rund
kreisen. Irgendwie flatternd.
Im Frühlicht halten sie still.
Wenn der Tag steigt, rufen
sie: Milch. Du wunderst dich
über das Gehabe. Und gibst
nicht klein bei. Wasser klingt
besser. Tee am besten. Der
grüne mit Minze. Die Schale
schaut dich an. Im Tee siehst
du dich selbst. Verzerrt. Dann
beginnen die Zeichen wie
Grillen zu reden. Durch den
Dampf erkennst du das
Zucken der Wortbüschel.
Die Handarbeit in Aktion.
Jedesmal diese Verwandlung.
Jedesmal bist du bereit.
© Ilma Rakusa, Zürich (Schweiz)
aus: DAS GEDICHT Bd. 22 / Oktober 2014
+ About the author / Zum Autor
The daughter of a Slovenian father and a Hungarian mother, Ilma Rakusa was born in 1946 in Rimavská Sobota (Slovakia). She spent her early childhood living in Budapest, Ljubljana, and Trieste. In 1951, her family immigrated to Switzerland. She studied Slavic and French literature in Zurich, Paris, and St. Petersburg. After her dissertation on the motif of loneliness in Russian literature, she debuted with her first book of poems entitled »As in Winter« (1977). She has also published poetry collections, short stories, as well as essays. She translates from Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, and French. Ilma Rakusa has for many years been a prominent patron and advocate for Eastern European literature in the German speaking world and beyond. She contributes to major newspapers, such as Die Zeit and Neue Züricher Zeitung. Her work has been widely celebrated. She is a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature. Today, Ilma Rakusa lives in Zurich, Switzerland. Her poetry is marked by a voice that ambulates from the tone of a highly reflected inner monologue to poetic imagery reminiscent of the language of the Romantics up to the elevated diction of prophecy and down again to the rambling of children playing. Given her background in translation and the trajectory of her life, Ilma Rakusa is an avid traveler and thus frequently takes up less Eurocentric themes, such as the Temple of the Fox (shrine of Inari) in Kyoto, Japan, or enters into a dialogue with movies by Andrei Tarkovsky. In her sequence of long poems, entitled »Love after love«, Ilma Rakusa explores the transient intersections between love, devotion, lust, and violence.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« im Archiv
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« is an online collection of contemporary German-language poetry in English translation. All poems were taken from issue no. 22 of the German poetry magazine DAS GEDICHT, focused on the Poetry of Things. New English translations by Paul-Henri Campbell as well as the German originals are published here every Wednesday. All poems of this online-collection will also be published in a special print-edition. In order to read previous poems in this series, click here.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« ist eine Online-Sammlung zeitgenössischer deutschsprachiger Dinggedichte in englischer Übersetzung. Alle Texte sind Band 22 der Zeitschrift DAS GEDICHT entnommen. Jeden Mittwoch erscheint ein neues Gedicht, das von Paul-Henri Campbell ins Englische übertragen wurde, zusammen mit dem deutschen Original. Die Beiträge dieser Online-Anthologie gibt es auch als Sonderausgabe in Buchform. Alle bereits erschienenen Folgen von »Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« finden Sie hier.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« im Archiv
