Paul Celan

Glottal Stop: 100 Poems by Paul Celan

Translated by
Nicholas Popov & Heather McHugh

Weleyan University Press of New England


Who
rules?

Our life--color-beleagued, number-beset.

The clock
wastes time with the comet,
the knights
are anglers,
names
cover frauds with gold-leaf,
the hooded jewelweed
numbers the dots in the stone.

Pain as a snail's shadow.
I hear it's not getting later at all.
Here Bogus and Boring, back in the saddle,
set the pace.

Instead of you, there a halogen lamps.
Instead of our homes, light-traps,
terminus-temples.

Diaphonous, black,
the juggler's pennant
is at its
lowest point.

The hard-won Umlaut in the unword:
your light reflected: tunnel-shield
for a local
shade of thoughts.