plötzlich konnten wir sie hören.
in der pause zwischen applaus und dem nächsten stück,
in der kurzen stille, groß und still: die wüste.
plötzlich konnten wir sie hören.
hoch über dem revuetheater hing
der rostende colt des mondes in seinem halfter.
die limousinen glitten lautlos vorüber —
langgestreckte, weiße labyrinthe.
die kalten haifischaugen der swimming-pools …
noch heute sehen wir mit geschlossenen augen
die leuchtreklamen und die bunten lichter
der stadt, die blinkt und blinkt, um nicht schlafen zu müssen.
die nacht ist in uns.
~ Jan Wagner
Born in Hamburg in 1971, Jan Wagner studied English in Hamburg, Dublin and Berlin, where he has lived since 1995. He has published six volumes of poetry, including his most recent collection ‘Regentonnenvariationen’ (Rain Barrel Variations, 2014). A translator and essayist, he has received numerous awards, including the Mondsee Poetry Award (2004), the Ernst Meister Prize for Poetry (2005), the Wilhelm Lehmann Prize (2009) and the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (2011).
Iain Galbraith is a prolific translator of German poetry, while his own poems have appeared in a number of magazines. A winner of the John Dryden Translation Prize and editor of five poetry anthologies, his recently translated books include a selection of W.G. Sebald’s poetry, ‘Across the Land and the Water’, and a ‘Selected John Burnside’ in German (both 2011). Iain is also a widely performed translator of British and Irish drama into German and currently teaching literary translation at the University of the Applied Arts in Vienna.
The original version of this poem first appeared in Jan Wagner’s collection ‘Probebohrung im Himmel’ and is republished here with kind permission from Berlin Verlag.
