Inside the poems

By Nicolas Born
Translated by Marty Hiatt.

You cannot make a living

            competing with reality

nor can you make a living off reality

but you can survive an intrusion

            and get everything back

            and go through life

            through the rapidly wasting images

you were all that

            you and nascent life

People panting under gravestones

                        With a great heave

            from you and all forbears

            your transmission cuts out

Land and water remain

the sky remains

            and you remain

you are not prepared for anything

small suns light up your democracy and

you elect both life and death

you have many beautiful voices

you are many

your skin is your skin and ultimately

            nothing but skin

you are the entrepreneur of life

            the impresario of white apparitions

you are a space-being in the open air

            the author of the course of history

you can print time like books

you weigh and sift and love And dictaphone ruins

            blow in the wind

unreason is in full bloom

you are the blooms and the unreason

you are day and night by day and night

you are a murderer

            circulating in your own bloodstream

you are father and son

you are the exploited indian

            and the processed indian

you are all colours and races

you are the widow and the orphan

you are the revolt of all prisoners

you are the non-stop howling

            knives thrown shots fired

you are the magnificent runner of dream-miles

            the storm of images in democracy’s capital

you are the destroyer of all chains

you are the secretly luminous watchword

            the banner

            the avant-garde of soup kitchens

you are a human And

            an animal when it senses death

you are alone and you are all

you are your death and you are the great desire

you are the blueprint that you unfurl And

you are your death

Click here to listen to Nicolas Born reading this poem in German on Lyrikline.org.