Similarities 1 by Adeel uz Zafar. Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery
Wenn am Nachmittag die Phasen des Schweigens
Länger werden als im Winter die Schatten,
Kommt die Idee des Stilllebens auf.
Alles im Zimmer wird Bild, der Betrachter
Verschwindet allmählich durch die offenen Türen.
Das Licht streicht über Möbel und Böden, berührt
Die Teekanne, auf dem Teller die Khakifrüchte,
Macht die Konturen unverwischbar als Fixativ.
Es schreibt ein Buch der überflüssigen Dinge.
Die alten japanischen Meister malten
In der Zeit des Nichts los nurmehr Unbelebtes,
Tassen und Wandschirme. Das war genug.
~Durs Grünbein
Those afternoons when the phases of silence
grow longer than shadows in winter,
that’s when we turn to the idea of still-life.
The room becomes image, and everything in it,
through the open doors the onlooker fades away.
Light moves over the furniture, floors, and rests
on the teapot, the persimmon fruit on the plate,
fixes their contours flawlessly like glue.
It is writing a book about superfluous things.
In times when there was nothing going on the old
Japanese masters would paint only the inanimate:
tea-cups and folding screens. That was enough.
~trans. Karen Leeder
Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grünbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany. His recent work has seen a shift from a streetwise, ironic style to new formal constraints and a more human voice, even if the lyric subject is largely absent. He himself has also translated, including Aeschylus, Seneca, and Sarah Kane, and has worked with contemporary Japanese poet Yûji Nawata.Â
Karen Leeder’s translations of German poetry have appeared in a variety of journals globally. She has won numerous awards, including for her translations of Evelyn Schlag and Ulrike Almut Sandig. In 2013 she received first prize in the Stephen Spender competition with her translation of Durs Grünbein’s ‘Childhood in the Diorama’. Her volume, ‘Volker Braun, Rubble Flora: Selected Poems’, with David Constantine, appeared in 2014.
Editor’s note: Durs Grünbein, ‘Teekanne mit Khakifrüchten, taken from: Durs Grünbein, ‘Koloss im Nebel. Gedichte’ © Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2012
