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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 07/05/2022
  • 186 Words
  • 309 Views
  • 2 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

a Glass Floor Underfoot - 8. The Fictitious Real-World Hypocrites

.

Den fiktiven Realheuchlern

 

Was frommt, wieviel ihr

schafft u[nd] schaut –

Wenn ihr nur Euch vermeinet.

Bemüht am Bild von

Welten baut,

Vom All der

Welt verneinet,

Euch weder Gott noch Wesen traut,

noch liebend zweit und einet . . .

Zum Menschenbild,

des Keim euch ward,

Quert hundertmal noch Wieg'

u[nd] Grab,

Oh weh, wie viel

zu weinen. [i]

 

 

---------------------------------

 

 

The Fictitious Real-World Hypocrites

 

How sanctimonious, for however much

one creates and observes –

It's but mere reflections of the self.

Struggle to construct a metaphor

for the world around us,

To distance yourself from both

the Earth and the cosmos,

Trusting in neither God nor living being,

not loving the one or the other . . .

You are the seed-germ,

to the spitting-image of man,

Who's been crossed a hundred times over

with the cradle and the grave,

Because, there is much about

which to weep.

 

 

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Lyonel Feininger People at Sea (1921)

 

 

 

 

 

[i] Den fiktiven Realheuchlern (“The Fictitious Real-World Hypocrites”)

Letter to Erwin Loewenson, June 23rd, 1914

 

Copyright © 2022 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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AC Benus
37 minutes ago, Backwoods Boy said:

What I acquire here is a very strong feeling of isolation.

Thank you, Jon. I'll take the opportunity to mention here that this poem was among the most difficult to translate. I started with the usual desire to match the structure of the original (its stanza pattern; metre; rhymes or lack there of; etc.), but found it impossible with this poem. The original overflows with ideas and images that uses many fewer words in German than English. 

In the end, I almost gave, but then decided to set form aside and just say what the poet is saying. After that, I was able to arrange both the original and my version into a pattern that could resemble one another.

And the title! Wow, so hard. Hopefully what I've used is reasonably reflective of English-language thinking patterns, but I'm not so sure 

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