POEM BY GUNTER EICH

QUOTATION FROM NORWAY



We continue to think
the grass on the rooftops,
leave the fjords to the left,
partisans of the fog.
Where can you cry
in this country?
The lemmings
have gone into the sea.
The tobacco pouches
of polar explorers
preserve Time
in little crumbs.


-Gunter Eich, Trans. David Young