The Silent One Der Schweigsame

The Silent One
from "A Few Poets"
Words fail, he writes,
all of them.
And he writes and writes.
Silence, he writes,
without drive, time or presence
and he writes
blackens the pages with it
aus “Ein paar Dichter”
Kein Wort gelingt, schreibt er,
kein Wort.
Und schreibt und schreibt.
Das Schweigen, schreibt er,
ohne Antrieb, Zeit noch Gegenwart
und schreibt
daβ es die Seiten schwärzt
until it’s unreadable.
bis zur Unlesbarkeit.
Oh you beautiful art,
Du schöne Kunst,
in wonder I pause.
11.1.16
Der Schweigsame
BROADSIDED PRESS
www.broadsidedpress.org
bewundernd halt ich ein.
Poet Elisabeth Borchers (1926 - 2013) was a lead editor at Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt, Germany for close to thirty years. She is the author of eight books of poetry and numerous
children’s books, plays and essays.Translator Caroline Wilcox Reul is a freelance lexicographer and translator. Artist Janice Redman is a sculptor who lives on Cape Cod. She was
the recipient of a 2016 purchase prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This poem comes from Wer lebt/Who Lives, forthcoming from Tavern Books in 2017.

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