An uncommon day - warm and it doesn’t thaw, - Obviously nature has resources, - Now... and how that often happens, I lie on the lyrical course. The heart beats, as if I were dead drunk Drunk I am, as if filled right up to the throat: I simply drank six turkish Black coffees, - and it knocks! To drink such a dose is not advisable, but It is not advisable even not to love! - There is an acquaintance - a virtuosic He proves, that one cannot live. No, life is possible, one must live and - much: Drink, suffer, be jealous, love, Don’t let life drag along in poverty - But breathe it, sing it, drink! And without batting an eyelid you’ve no time - And it’s time already to put on a play in the box. You grow sad, will be reflecting, will be sorry - But... it’s time already that you have one foot in the grave. One must thus, when you were summing up By everything, that passed - be able to say: "I have all the same not lived badly, - Drank, loved, been jealous and suffered!" No, in spite of everything nature is richer! What a day! What is poetry? - gibberish! ... However, I have written it down differently As I wanted. What can I do - I am no poet.
© Elisabeth Jelinek. Translation, 2018