Sunday, August 17, 2003

'Speak, you also,
Speak as the last,
Have your say,

Speak--
But keep yes and no unsplit,
And give your say this meaning:
Give it the shade.

Give it shade enough,
Give it as much
As you know has been dealt out between
Midday and midday and midnight.

Look around:
Look how it all leaps alive--
Where death is! Alive!
He speaks truly who speaks the shade.'

--Paul Celan, tr M Hamburger (1980)

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