Monday, August 9, 2021

GUNTER EICH ~




Inventory


This is my cap,

this is my coat,

here's my shaving gear

in a linen sack.


A can of rations:

my plate, my cup,

I've scratched my name

in the tin.


Scratched it with this

valuable nail

which I hide

from avid eyes.


In the foodsack is

a pair of wool socks

and something else that I

show to no one,


it all serves as a pillow

for my head at night.

The cardboard here lies

between me and the earth.


The lead in my pencil

I love most of all:

in the daytime it writes down

the verses I make at night.


This is my notebook,

this is my tarpaulin,

this is my towel,

this is my thread.



____________________

Gunter Eich

Valuable Nail

translated from the German by

Stuart Friebert, David Young & David Walker

Field, 1981