Status Updates From Love Poems

Perhaps

Poems
that are much frailer
than stone
will perhaps
outlast
my house of stone

Uncertain

From life
I went
into poems

From poems
I went
into life

Which way
will have been better
in the end?

The Good Gardeners

How nice
that we walk
hand in hand in the garden
and water and rend
our young tree

I pick off grubs
you bring it water!
How green it would be
had we not
hacked off
its roots

Wer die furchtbaren
Windmühlenflügel
vor Augen hat
den
reißt sein Herz
und sein Kopf
und seine Lanze
mit in den Kampf
gegen den Riesen

Confusion (sencond stanza)

To love each other
and let each other starve to death
To love each other and know
that one can do little about it
To love each other
and try not to be blunted
To love each other
and with time
kill each other
And yet love each other
with better and better weapons

Confusion (first stanza)

To love each other
in a time
when people kill each other
with better and better weapons
and let each other starve to death
And to know
that we can do little about it
and to try
not to be blunted
And still love each other

I don't know what love is
but perhaps
it is something like this:

When she
comes home from abroad
and tells me proudly: "I saw
a water rat"
and I remember these words
when I wake up in the night
and next day at my work
and I long
to hear her say
the same words once more
and for her
to look exactly the same
as she looked
when she said them -

I think that is maybe love
or something rather like it

Berechnung ist nicht dasselbe wie Vorsicht. "It is foolish / says caution" is translated correctly. "Berechnung" does not mean "caution". It means calculation:

It is unhappiness
says calculation

(I'm aware how difficult it is to tranlate poems. This is just meant to be a side note for my group readers.)

What it Is

It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love

It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight
It is what it is
says love

It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love

Berechnung ist nicht dasselbe wie Vorsicht.

Was es ist

Es ist Unsinn
sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist Unglück
sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz
sagt die Angst
Es ist aussichtslos
sagt die Einsicht
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist lächerlich
sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig
sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich
sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

(1983)

Versuch sich Anzupassen

Ich soll mich drein fügen
und nicht fragen
warum ich das soll
und ich soll nicht fragen
warum ich nicht fragen soll

Attempt to Conform

I must accept things
and must not ask
why I must
and must not ask
why I must not ask

The Enemies

Those already torn apart by life
who still take care
to know no answer
to unasked questions

and spend
the rest of their lives
hymning
their unlived lives

Those who may be also ready
to give their lives
not to have to see
what they live for and against

and who still hope for tomorrow
without knowing about yesterday and
open to every lie and deception
these are my brothers and sisters