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

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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]

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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.

Lyonel Feininger People at Sea (1921)