From below ice and above - I leap between, - Make a hole above or drill below? Of course - rise to the surface and not lose hope, And there - to the matter of expectation a visa! Ice above me, cracks and bangs! I am bathed in sweat, like a ploughman ploughing. I returned to you like a ship out of a song, Remember everything, even old poems. I am less than half a century - forty and more, - I live because of you and the Lord’s grace. I have something to sing, standing in front of the Almighty, I have something to justify before him.
© Elisabeth Jelinek. Translation, 2018