Don't Turn Round
by Gunter Grass (tr. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton)
Don't go into the wood,
in the wood is the wood.
Whoever walks in the wood,
looks for trees,
will not be looked for later in the wood.
Have no fear,
fear smells of fear.
Whoever smells of fear
will be smelled out
by heroes who smell like heroes.
Don't drink from the sea,
the sea tastes of more sea.
Whoever drinks from the sea
henceforth feels
a thirst only for oceans.
Don't build a home,
or you'll be at home
Whoever is at home
waits for
late callers and opens the door.
Don't write a letter,
archives will boast of letters you post.
Whoever writes the letter
lends his name
to the posthumous paper game.
by Gunter Grass (tr. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton)
Don't go into the wood,
in the wood is the wood.
Whoever walks in the wood,
looks for trees,
will not be looked for later in the wood.
Have no fear,
fear smells of fear.
Whoever smells of fear
will be smelled out
by heroes who smell like heroes.
Don't drink from the sea,
the sea tastes of more sea.
Whoever drinks from the sea
henceforth feels
a thirst only for oceans.
Don't build a home,
or you'll be at home
Whoever is at home
waits for
late callers and opens the door.
Don't write a letter,
archives will boast of letters you post.
Whoever writes the letter
lends his name
to the posthumous paper game.
2 comments:
Discovered Grass in 1969, the county library had the book with this poem on the shelf.
Life in 2020 is still full of futility, even impotent rage at the striving after the wind it invokes.
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