Daily Poem: Homesick ~ Else Lasker-Schüler
Homesick
~ Else Lasker-Schüler
Translated from German by Michael Hamburger
I don’t know the language
Of this cool country
And its pace is not mine.
Nor can I interpret
The clouds that pass.
The night is a step-queen.
Always I have to think of the pharaoh forests
And kiss the images of my stars.
Already my lips are luminous
And speak far things,
And I am a gaudy picture book
On your lap.
But your face weaves
A veil made of weeping.
My glittering birds
Have had their corals ripped out,
In the garden hedges
Their soft nests turn to stone.
Who anoints my dead places—
They bore the crowns of my forefathers,
Their prayers have gone down in the holy river.
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