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Poetry

State of Siege

By Günter Kunert
Translated from German by Gerald Chapple

Wherever to go and whatever from
can always
be said for certain: because it’s Sunday
and three cars in front of the house
hour after hour
Marx Engels Lenin Stalin in the back seat
ad usum delphini

They’ve come straight from Utopia
Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg
smoking and reading the paper and
waiting for objections
coming from my poor and hesitant words
newly hatched migrants
trailblazers
heading to a place where “talk of trees”
does not involve silence
where no one’s going to
shut you up.

English

Wherever to go and whatever from
can always
be said for certain: because it’s Sunday
and three cars in front of the house
hour after hour
Marx Engels Lenin Stalin in the back seat
ad usum delphini

They’ve come straight from Utopia
Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg
smoking and reading the paper and
waiting for objections
coming from my poor and hesitant words
newly hatched migrants
trailblazers
heading to a place where “talk of trees”
does not involve silence
where no one’s going to
shut you up.

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