1. ROSE GARDEN
2. LOVE
3. FUTILITY
4. THE BRIDGE
5. BEING AND NOT BEING
6. AT NIGHT, WHEN THE WORLD IS DREAMING
7. CONVERSATION WITH AN UNKNOWN MAN
8. THE SONG OF THE MOMENT
9. THE SUN IN ME
10. STONES
11. LOVE
12. A NEW LIFE
13. TAKE FLIGHT, MY BIRD
14. MY TURBULENT SOUL
15. WHEN LOVE DIES
16. SNOWFLAKE
ROSE GARDEN
From my heart,
there sprang a rose
Carefully, I plucked the lovely bloom
and gave it to my love,
my soul leapt from my body,
and so I entered the eternal rose garden.
-Song of the moment ”Gesang des Augenblickes” Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe AG 2016, Frankfurt
Translated from German to English by Marion Godfrey
LOVE
Oh, this feeling
when your heart is filled
with pain, and your chest
is so tight, you cannot breath,
and you wish you could
tear out your heart
and hold it in your hand,
and present him with this gift of
love.
-Song of the moment ”Gesang des Augenblickes” Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe AG 2016, Frankfurt
Translated from German to English by Marion Godfrey
FUTILITY
It is futile to write,
and the echo of your cry
will fade into oblivion;
no-one is listening,
tell them about the war,
speak to them of poverty and pain;
they look at you as if you were
an alien and then go on their way.
no-one understands you,
no-one is listening,
easier just to walk on by
and pass the buck
leaving decisions to others
we gave away
responsibility for our lives a long time ago,
and all we have to do is merely
function.
THE BRIDGE
“for A”
From the bank across the river
came a loud cry
confused, unknowing,
how I could help her,
no-one else came to her rescue;
louder and louder still she cried
till a raging strength took hold of me
and I grew and grew, far beyond
myself and arched across the river
to become a bridge,
but just as she was about to cross,
I broke.
-Song of the moment ”Gesang des Augenblickes” Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe AG 2016, Frankfurt
Translated from German to English by Marion Godfrey
BEING AND NOT BEING
Being and not being
the dividing line
a thin wall.
Gingerly my fingers touched
the thin partition
so light, so taut
to the touch
A trembling
overcomes me
what infinite
unity joins
being and not being
surely they are one.
-Burning desire ”Brennende Sehnsucht” Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe, AG 2014, Frankfurt
Translated from German to English by Marion Godfrey
AT NIGHT, WHEN THE WORLD IS DREAMING
At night,
when the world is dreaming,
when the world is at rest,
I search for you in my dream,
my lost love,
who left me so cold,
bewildered, my fingers touch the
thin skin of night,
suddenly, it parts
and there you are my love, and
I see you and your radiant light.
-Song of the moment ”Gesang des Augenblickes” Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe AG 2016, Frankfurt
Translated from German to English by Marion Godfrey
CONVERSATION WITH AN UNKNOWN MAN
You, the music of my soul,
the anchor of my being,
the strength of my breath.
Do you live in me
or I in you?
Are we one and
at the same time two?
How can you nurture
my small being in you?
How can I support
your great mass in me?
I breathe in you
and you in me,
till I float up on the wings
of your luminous spirit.
THE SONG OF THE MOMENT
Life rushes past me,
and with my inner eye,
firmly rooted, I observe
the restless shifts of time.
The song of the moment
beckons us
not to pass unmoved
along life’s path,
a moment of awareness
endows us with
a penetrating look at life in full flow.
Thus, the state of being
enshrines mortality.
THE SUN IN ME
The darkness
falls across
the land.
The gloom
drives life
into nothingness.
The people
all vanish
in the blink of an eye.
The doors
close, one after
the other.
Everywhere, the seeds
of fear and
the harvest of
despair.
The devil
peers at the people,
light held
in hand.
And quickly, I shut
the doors,
cover the windows,
to hide the sun
living deep in my heart
from the devil.
STONES
Stones keep silent
and are mute.
Yet their silence
is not soundless,
open your ears,
and you will hear a loud cry
A loud cry,
which is muted,
because the unsayable
cannot be told.
LOVE
Love, you keep me warm,
and I hold you in my hand,
I feel your loving heart
pulsate and rob me of my senses.
A NEW LIFE
In my thoughts,
from the depths of my being,
I encounter the boundless infinity
which sustains and
nurtures us
until our outer skin falls away
to reveal the new born….
a new life.
TAKE FLIGHT, MY BIRD
“for my daughter”
Take flight, my bird,
fly,
fly, my heart,
You, born out of
my own body,
you, whose flight
profoundly touches
my heart,
you, that I can
no longer hold,
you, so mature now
that you can go your own way.
Take flight, my bird,
fly,
in wistfulness and pain
I look at you
and deep inside, I know
that soon, you will find your way
back to me.
Take flight, my bird,
fly.
MY TURBULENT SOUL
Oh, brutal storm of my turbulent soul,
your rage reaches down to the depths of my heart,
and breaks all that is still whole in me,
I can only watch you impotently,
shuddering at your power,
how can I tame you
and tear off these chains?
You shackle me,
your heart is full of greed,
ruling my life,
shattered, I tremble, you tyrant,
and finally, I bow down,
you sweep me up
and I am yours.
WHEN LOVE DIES
Oh, heart, how oppressed you are
when sensing
the death of love,
its halting breath,
no hope of escape,
deeply rooted, I see it,
the cry rising from deep within me,
forgotten for all time,
devoid of life,
buried so deep in me,
how often must I
see the death of love.
Oh, heart, my breath is laboured,
Shall I yield to this,
my tragic fate,
and shall I, too,
die with it.
SNOWFLAKE
A little snowflake
left the cool cloud with joy,
dancing, light as air,
it floated down, smiling,
till it reached the earth
and vanished.
