O little root of a dream
you hold me here
undermined by blood,
no longer visible to anyone,
property of death.
Curve a face
that there may be speech, of earth,
of ardor, of
things with eyes, even
here, where you read me blind,
even
here,
where you
refute me,
to the letter.
Copyright © 2000, Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh, translated from the German written by Paul Celan, Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan, Wesleyan University Press
O Little Root of a Dream
Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh, translation from
the German written by Paul Celan
the German written by Paul Celan