Moved here from /kaki/ for discussion. See the thread about creating an illustration there.
A Fine Childhood
The mouth of a girl who had long lain in the reeds
looked so chewed up.
When we broke the chest, the esophagus was so full of holes.
Finally in a bower under the diaphragm
we found a nest of young rats.
One little sister rat lay dead.
The others were living off liver and kidney,
drinking the cold blood and enjoying
a fine childhood.
And fine and fast was their death too:
we threw the whole bunch into water.
Oh, how those little snouts squeaked!
^-^
It's weird to see a Benn poem in English. I love his poems, own two of his books and there's an album by Das Ich with the poems from the book "Morgue" set to music.
Nice... Actually the other day I was reading Porphyria's Lover by Browning and thinking it might be relevant to people's interests.
i trought this had to go in /lit/.
>>6
Yes. And all of them are just great. You can download some translated poems here:
ttp://supervert.com/elibrary/gottfried_benn
"Man and Women Go through the Cancer Ward" is probably my favorite.
The man:
Here in this row are wombs that have decayed,
and in this row are breasts that have decayed.
Bed beside stinking bed. Hourly the sisters change.
Come, quietly lift up this coverlet.
Look, this great mass of fat and ugly humours
was precious to a man once, and
meant ecstasy and home.
Come, now look at the scars upon this breast.
Do you feel the rosary of small soft knots?
Feel it, no fear. The flesh yields and is numb.
Here's one who bleeds as though from thirty bodies.
No one has so much blood.
They had to cut
a child from this one, from her cancerous womb.
They let them sleep. All day, all night. They tell
the newcomers: here sleep will make you well.
But Sundays one rouses them a bit for visitors.
They take a little nourishment. Their backs
are sore. You see the flies. Sometimes
the sisters wash them. As one washes benches.
Here the grave rises up about each bed.
And flesh is leveled down to earth. The fire
burns out. And sap prepares to flow. Earth calls.
