English versions

Thanks to Henry Gould


Exactly, W.C.W.      (published in "Tankstellengedichte")

I drank
the milk
left in the
fridge

It was so cold
so good
poured from afar
down my throat

so fast it was
hard to taste
hard to believe
that milk

Trakl  / Salzburg / 20th century     (unpublished)

The life of Georg Trakl ended in autumn 1914
at 27 years. In Galicia,

after two or three missions in military hospitals
against which neighter morphine nor cocaine
won any victories.

His favorite sister died young,
five more siblings died later,
without children of their own.

The eldest, Maria, survived them all.

She lived through World War Two,
and more recent Festspiele,

and when she passed away, at ninety,
bequeathed to her home town
some family silver

and a nice little mother-
of-pearl-ornated

pistol.