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PARADE by Robert Walser (translated by Daniele Pantano)

July 1, 2011 Contributed By: Daniele Pantano, Robert Walser

Flawed elements naturally
asserted themselves again this time;
I’m thinking of important behavior,
incidentally, I’m not going to use rhyme
in this poem, so as not to make it sound
playful, and because today I want to turn
poetry into a children’s game, o, I saw
the founder of a publishing house
coming up rosy amid the countryside
that ruined him, standing in the crowd.
A line of costumed people passed by.
Some arrived late for the show, others stood
there already before there was anything to see;
to me the Amazon seemed the most beautiful,
sitting on her horse, as if hoards of believers
had, after a journey of longing, arrived
at a beautiful and secret destination.
One will understand when I say
that I might’ve found a monster interesting
for the sake of its fang-pointed advice.
But it was all play, and the demons
were already thinking about their
large beers later at the cozy place.
A girl dressed as a peasant
pretended to cry; beautiful seemed
the wagon that brought to mind
a wedding, and a house, knocked
together by the builders’ songs
zigzagging to heaven, floated by.
The female cook threatened gracefully
with her ladle, and out of colorful
centuries a scribe radiant
with the poise of an inkwell.
A flag thrower who like a dancer
let the country flag climb into the air;
it fell always, like a possession,
back into his hand; it seems every skill
deserves a quick applause.

FESTZUG

Defekte Elemente machten sich
auch diesmal selbstverständlich wieder geltend;
ich denke an ein wicht’ges Sichgebärden,
übrigens reim’ ich dies Gedicht hier nicht,
damit es nicht als spielerisch empfunden
wird, und weil ich das Dichten heute mir
zum Kinderspiele machen will, o, einen,
der eine rosige Verlagsanstalt
im Grünen gründete, wobei er pleite
ging, sah ich in der Menschenmenge stehen.
Ein Zug von Kostümierten schritt vorüber.
Ein’ge kamen zum Schauspiel spät und andre
standen schon da, eh’s was zu sehen gab;
am schönsten schien mir eine Amazone
zu sein, die auf dem Pferd saß, wie wenn Scharen
von Gläubigen am einsamschönen Ziel
sehnsücht’gen Wanderns angekommen seien.
Verständlich wird man finden, daß ich sage,
ein Ungeheuer hätt’ mich int’ressiert
um zähneweisender Berachung willen.
Gespielt war alles nur, und die Dämonen
hatten im Sinn, sich einen Doppelliter
später an heimeligem Ort zu leisten.
Ein Mädchen in der Tracht der Ländlerin
gab vor, sie weine; herrlich sah ein Wagen,
der eine Hochzeit zu vergegenwärt’gen
schien, aus, und schwebend gleitete ein Haus
vorbei, das sich die Bauenden mit Liedern,
die zickzackförmig in den Himmel stiegen,
zusammenzimmerten. Die Köchin drohte
zierlich mit ihrer Kelle, und ein Schreiber
aus farbenfröhlichem Jahrhundert strotzte
von tintenfässeligem Gleichgewicht.
Ein Fahnenschwinger ließ die Landesfahne
wie einen Tänzer in die Höhe klimmen;
sie fiel ihm immer wieder wie ein Eigentum
in die Hand; mir scheint, daß allem Können
man billig ein’gen Beifall dürfe gönnen.

Reprinted with the friendly permission of Suhrkamp Verlag and the Robert Walser-Zentrum.

 

Return to table of contents for Issue 4 Summer 2011

Filed Under: Poetry, Translation Posted On: July 1, 2011

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