LITERARY PROGRAMME
any country
that claims to be absolute
I will resist
any party
that claims to be absolute
I will resist
any religion
that claims to be absolute
I will resist
all those who strive for power
just to achieve power
I will resist
with my actions
with my words
Vienna, 18.3.1987
Translated by Hilde Spiel
EXPUNGE
expunge
the words
the images
going home
into nothingness
Vienna, 28.6.1980
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
POETRY
sitting there and thinking
writing a poem
while others die
due to disease and starvation
due to war and violence
due to indifference
sitting there and thinking
writing a poem
while day after day
the forest burns
the climate changes
the world is poisoned
sitting there and thinking
writing a poem
placing word after word
constructing a system
day after day
trying to stay alive
living in language
living in a poem
Wien/Vienna, 17.3.1991
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
RETROSPECTIVE
at the time
there was this tree
and this white house
with its blue windows
and our reflection
in the blind panes
names erased
long ago
suddenly were there again
the signs
carved into the brown wood
the thinking
the unknown dead
and the mourning
for those never to be seen again
Wien/Vienna, 3.2.1976
Tranlsated by Herbert Kuhner
AGAIN AND AGAIN
again and again
I ask myself how it was
again and again
I ask myself how it was
being extinguished
again and again
I attempt to comprehend
but nothing can bring you back
I feel hatred for your murderers
grief and despair
about your destruction
Vienna, 14.2.1976
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
SO WE DO NOT DIE OUT
so we do not die out
in memory
we are buried
in a white shell
made of you and me and us
the wind carries us away
and throws us on land
seven hills are a grave
for our hope
the sky is resurrection
corn flowers and wheat ears
are symbols of mourning
and an empty hand
is a beggar’s cup
for this life
Vienna, 8.11.1976
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
THE MATZO ISLAND
Vienna’s second district
Taborstraße Tandelmarkt
from time to time I go there
park my car in a courtyard
look up the walls and think
this is where they stood
silently in the cold
with their bundles
ready to be transported
not knowing whereto
delivered up to power
awaiting transportation
then the trains heading
right up to death’s door
and then right through it
an endless line of people
countless victims piles of bodies
and then nothing but ash
Vienna’s second district
Praterstraße Heinestraße
Tandelmarkt Matzo Island
everything expunged
vanished into nothing
gone forever
the windows are blind
the walls are mute
cars drive by
and I sadly go my way
the days are not as they were
they are stained with blood
horror has turned to stone
Vienna, 29.9.1987
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS
brown brood
in a night of red
the synagogues
burn
the Nazi hordes
beat and plunder
glass
breaks
as do
human rights
the mob
curses the Jews
violence reigns
everywhere
and years later
no one is to blame
and no one
was ever there
and no one
can still remember
Vienna, 15.3.1989
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
MAUTHAUSEN 1967
Mauthausen
splendid pearl
in Strudengau
I still tremble
when I drive through
in the heat
of a summer trip
Mauthausen
now a health resort
due to its mild climate
due to its lovely environs
due to its well-kept center
due to its well-run restaurants
a growing town
with a monument
as a tourist attraction
But I can still
sense
the sweet smell
MAUTHAUSEN
Vienna, 3.2.1976
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
MAUTHAUSEN 1987
I go into
the KZ
I walk
across the square
I enter
one of the barracks
I go down
the stairs of death
and go back
up again
I stand
in the forecourt of death
I grasp the handle
for the hanging
I inspect the gas lines
for the gassing
I open a window
and see the sky
Haslach, 12.10.1987
After a visit of the former KZ Mauthausen
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
THERESIENSTADT
(A photograph)
across the meadow
the path to the end
grey in grey the parc
the church two houses
a person in the corner
motionsless shadow
bordered by trees
the glimpse to the sky
lifelessness I think
everything as if it’s dead
the word Theresienstadt
I say suddenly loud
to myself and wait
as if an echo would come back
Vienna, 16.5.1999
Translated by James A. Ritchie
LET US LEAVE
let us leave
these died-out spaces
these empty ruins
the flickering white field
of lies
let us stop
hatred violence and death
and wait no longer
for what time brings
to live a life
to die a death
let us do away
with legends
of genocide
as historical process
of development
let us all carry
life where
there no longer is any
Vienna, 1.2.1976
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
AFTER AUSCHWITZ
after Auschwitz
one cannot write
poetry anymore
said Theodor Adorno Wiesengrund
but what’s the use
of this rejection of life
for the extinguished the dead
what’s the effect of
silencing and remaining silent
and the attitude of renunciation
for the future of mankind
isn’t it better
to talk about it again and again
also with a poem
that the danger continues to exist
isn‘t it better
to bear witness again and again
for each time to come
and to remind to be alert
so that Auschwitz
isn’t consigned to history
becoming a mere historical case
to talk about Auschwitz must mean
to give voice to the reality
of mankind
and to admit
that nothing is anymore
and nothing will ever be again
as it was before Auschwitz
Vienna, 3.2.1975
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
AUSCHWITZ
to examine all the words
on the things
on the spectacles
on the shoes
on the cut off hair
on the brown suitcases
with the names
painful pictures
documents of horror
the stacked up
cans of cyclone-B
the broken doll
in the glass case
the long rows
in the latrine hut
the iron tools
in the crematories
to examine all the words
on reality
red roses bloom
in Auschwitz
and the sky
is blue
Auschwitz, 20.6.1999
Translated by James A. Ritchie/A.S.Nowak
WARSAW GHETTO
A stone
from my heart
I lay on the monument.
How can one speak
with millions of dead
I ask myself.
The church bells
strike midday.
The lime trees bloom,
it smells of jasmine.
For Germans only –
I read silently
on a white enamel plate
in the museum.
A stone I lay
on the black marble
as a sign
of mourning memory.
Warsaw, 15.6.1999
Translated by James A. Ritchie/A. S. Nowak
LOVE POEM
I want to
share with you
the words
the silence
the water
the sky
the warmness
the coldness
the evening
the night
the flowers
the light
Vienna, 3.5.1980
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
LOVE POEM
I promise
I will not
search for you
I promise
I will not
think of you
I promise
I will not
mourn for you
I promise
I will not
remember you
Vienna, 23./30.1.1981
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
LOVE POEM
into the sky
into the clouds
into the sound
of the sea
into the silence
of the night
into the green
of the meadows
into the vastness
of the fields
I write
that I love you
For Annemarie Susanne Nowak
Vienna, 25.6.1981
Transalated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
LOVE POEM
sadness
written in your hair
words
hidden in your hand
a smile
that makes me tremble
a sense of being there
as if you had left
and a trace
of love and death
Vienna, 30.11.1986
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
LOVE POEM
when you said
the summer
is over
the shadow
of your face
fell on me
outside the seagulls
were already flying
and my heart
began to freeze
in the cold
who will be here
for me in spring
I thought to myself
when the magnolias
bloom in their splendor
Vienna, 21.3.1990
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
LOVE POEM
in one of your dreams
I want to live on
in your white breath
on a winter’s night
in one of your steps
when you walk our ways
in that silence in the room
when you listen to music
in a red blossom of a flower
before your window
for a while I want
to live on in you
after my death
For Annemarie Susanne Nowak
Vienna, 24.8.1999
Translated by Annemarie Susanne Nowak
EVENING BY THE SEA
a seagull flies
over the sea
dark clouds
afar on the horizon
green is the tree
in front of my window
I think back
to earlier years
finding myself again
in memory
but as if I were
a stranger therein
Lanterna near Porec in Istria, 31.8.1999
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
EVENING IN VENICE
black gondolas
loving couples
reflections
dancing wildly
church domes
evening light
your red lips
on a glass
my train will leave
in one hour
Venice, Easter 1978
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
RILA MONASTERY
three candles
I have lit
before the icon of Madonna
one for my father
one for my mother
one for my brothers and sisters
then I stayed
in the church for a while
without a prayer
for I thought
this silence is good
it satisfies everyone
the living
and the dead
Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, 2.11.1991
Translation: A. S. Nowak/J. A. Ritchie
IN A CAFÉ IN PRAGUE
the unknown face of an old man
behind a white framed window
on a photograph
in a café in Prague
looking at me inquiringly
and curiously
outside the evening
fades away grey-blue
in the last light
people go hastyly or wearyly
somewhere
a girl standing at the tram stop
suddenly I think of
a distant spring
a bygone love
in a newspaper I see
a picture of people
in basement vaults
and I know
there is still war in Chechenya
Prague, 14.1.2000
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
IRISH SCENERY
a picture
as in a dream
black water
right through the green
beyond the bank
an abandoned house
a red houseboat
crossing the canal
motionless standing
a white horse
a train audible
far in the distance
on the stones
the last light
soon it will be night
also inside me
Monasterevin/Ireland, 26.7.1999
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
IRISH GRAVEYARD
a green stone
I take with me
from your grave
Margaret Nash
born 1926
died 1995
brown is the earth
brown is the grass
grey are the stones
of the graves all around
the wind waves
over the hills
and all is bright
in the morning light
Monasterevin/Ireland, 27.7.1999
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
TARA HILL
over the green
hills I wander
over the graves
from a distant age
under me lies
the wide open land
under me lie
the bones of the dead
they rest here
for thousands of years
in their stone graves
hill by hill I cross
grave by grave I climb
everything is silent
only in the trees
the rustling wind
Dublin, 8.8.1999
Translation: James A. Ritchie
ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
in the dark of the cathedral
the voices are lost
in the spotlight
I look upon a grave
with my fingers
I touch the stone
I read the Latin figures
I am silent in silence
step by step I carefully
go on the flagstones
on my way
into uncertainty
Remembering Dublin 1999
Vienna, 18.8.1999
Translation: James A. Ritchie
DUBLIN WALKS
up the river
along the walls
water and stones
heaven and light
house fronts
and backyards
here and there
also closed doors
the look across
to the other bank
a green dome
glows from afar
a steeple marks
my direction and goal
buses
drive past
to terminals
some where
without longing
I wander through
deserted districts
unknown area
deeper and deeper I walk
into this evening
into the glowing red
lighted night
Dublin, 2.8.1999
Translation: Susanne Nowak
PANORAMA ST. PETERSBURG
from the colonnades
of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral
the fantastic panorama
of the magnificent city
there is the Eremitage
with my forefinger
I point out in the distance
a girl’s smile
bewitches me for a while
then I think of the dead
hundreds of thousands starved
in the encircled city
Leningrad then in the winter of 1941/42
I hear the thunder of the cannons
of the Aurora in October 1917
suddenly music from somewhere
the sun now illuminating
a stripe of sky on the horizon
the sea of houses glowing in the evening red
a dome shining golden in the light
so bright that it hurts my eyes
the pain maintains the memory
I suddenly say aloud
the sound of a ship’s siren
New York comes to my mind the harbour scenery
our walk in winter the seagulls
who am I what am I doing here and what for
I see the Russian colonel before me
reciting Rilke-sonnets in 1946
in the hall of my parent’s house
once more my gaze over the panorama
of the city the churches palaces the parks
then I go down the steps again
I step once more in front of the picture of the Madonna
light the flame of a candle maybe
to shine for me in the dark of the night
St. Petersburg, 8.10.1994
Translation: James A. Ritchie
IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON
black beauties
at bus stops
white covered tables
in good restaurants
homeless people wrapped
in dirty blankets
beneath the doorways
of luxury stores
shopping in the supermarket
people rushing by
the smooth evening light
on a marble statue
church bells ring
turret clocks strike
red buses drive
to the outskirts
tube trains clatter
and are stuffed full
in parks the birds
sing until nightfall
London, 9.2.2002
Translation: James A. Ritchie/ Annemarie S. Nowak
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
between heaven
and earth
the horizon
no-man’s-land
between heaven
and earth
terror
genocide
between heaven
and earth
the bird’s flight
the bird’s cry
between heaven
and earth
the border
of freedom
between heaven
and earth
clouds
rain
coldness
snow
Vienna, 29.6.1980
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
SECLUDED
from afar
the fading
voice
the last song
from a distance
the lamp’s
last light
the shadow
of the falling snow
our house
Vienna 1980
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
RETURN
returned
into silence
to the edge
of shadows
where emptiness
gives you space
where time
doesn‘t know you
where the truth
will find you
Vienna, 6.10.1986
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak
CONCLUSION
you feel the dust
of passed years
in your lungs
delusive hope
has made you blind
also no longing more
you ascertain calmly
the rustling coloured leaves
on a sunny day in autumn
remind you of something
but you don’t know of what
you know you need
no refuge anymore
this certainty is good
Vienna, 7.7.1996
Translation: James A. Ritchie/A:S. Nowak
PREPARING FOR WINTER
the sun blinded me
but the rain cooled my eyes
the summer has gone
soon the seagulls will come
winter brings the cold and death
and love is long past
Vienna 1980
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
DESERTED HOUSE
noone lives here anymore
the house is deserted
I go through the rooms
memory still exists
dried flowers here
there a broken picture
and still on the hook
the old hat of my father
mother’s prayerbook
the cane a rosary
my brother’s violin
a closed piano
the dusty shoes
the old kitchen clock
a wardrobe is open
a moth flies out
the telephone is cut off
the line already dead for long
Haslach, 16.4.1983 / Vienna, 18.2.1997
Translation: J.A.Ritchie/A.S. Nowak
RETREAT
I have come
into silence now
into a landscape
between heaven
and brown earth
suddenly it seems
as if I still heard
the sound of the bells
from the high steeples
of the stone church
as if I would find here
what I looked for
something that was before me
something that will still be
after me
Kloster Glendalough,
Wicklow Mountains
Dublin, 6.8.1999
Translation:
Annemarie Susanne Nowak
WITHDRAWING
withdrawing
with the elongating
shadows
withdrawing
into sadness
into hope
withdrawing
into silence
wiping out the traces
being undiscoverable
the day is beautiful
death is near
Vienna, 22.5.1973
Tranlsation:
Annemarie Susanne Nowak
THE LAST LIGHT
the last light
as the language
of the trees
as message
of the sky
black blue
the shadows
of night
you hear
this silence
you hear
your breath
you hear
your heartbeat
as a sign
of time
Hagenbrunn, 25.11.1984
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
but you say
everything will be all right
and I believe you
since I prefer
to believe in miracles
rather than banal reality
but you say the nights are white
and I reply no
these nights are red
so red and you are mistaken
they are red from moon-blood
and the suffering of all those
who have been tortured and killed
but you say it will be spring one day
I know that for sure
everything is as it was
since time immemorial
that gives you certainty
but I say yes that could be
but not hope and courage not
faith deliverance from despair
do smell the air you say
it smells of linden blossoms
listen to the wind
the rustling of the leaves
all is hope
I and you and we
touch my hair and my skin
feel the summer in my heart
this mild magnificent summer
that is here for you
smell the scent of my body
and think of love and joy and desire
but I say think of the moon-blood
always remember it
the night in front of your eyes
just before going blind
when hope deserts or betrays you
then there is no joy no love no desire
look so many people are only shadows
and in every language of the world
the watchword is muerte smrt or death not hope
even then you say
love is the only hope left
even then in the pitch black darkness of night
Helsinki, 12.5.1996 / Vienna, 30.7.1996
Translated by Herbert Kuhner
ARRIVING IN LIGHT
One should arrive
somewhere, I say;
somewhere.
Maybe on the other side
of the dark water.
And arrive in the light.
White ash falls
silently on me –
like oblivion.
The game of blind man’s buff
no more, I say,
that game no more!
You say: I am here.
I say: I am there.
Where should I go?
I observed bird’s flights
in the evening down by the river.
This maze of life.
Rowanberries glow
in the late evening light.
Always only wandering.
I listen to the evenness
of my steps
on the way
into no-man’s-land.
My dark reflection
in the water.
The boat waits
on the other shore.
Everything is green
here in the countryside.
Only a house
glows red from afar.
And a cry breaks
inside of me.
Oulu/Kosto 1998
Translation: J.A. Ritchie/A.S.Nowak
AFTER MY DEATH
Where will I be
if you call my name?
Will you call to me?
Will I hear you?
Where will I be
if you call my name?
Will there be me?
If so, where and how?
Perhaps I’ll be
minuscule particles
in the infinity
of the universe,
lacking space and time.
Perhaps I’ll be
in the fluttering
of a seagull’s wings
above the sea
or in a blackbird’s cry,
in the last glimmer of dusk.
Where will I be, I ask,
if you are looking for me; where?
Maybe in the scent of a flower,
or as a trace in the sand;
or as a trace in the snow.
Perhaps I’ll be in the flicker
of a burning candle;
or in your sigh,
or in the lack of response.
Translation: Annemarie Susanne Nowak