DISCOVERING BARBADOS by Otto Emersleben
English translation: Helen Cafferty
moons tin swimmers
pods in cloudy distance ahead ahead
the horizon a towering
horse's neck a wave's silhouette
like cirrus clouds heavy the word breathes
awe
in memory they appear
the stumps of Mostar's columns and
Törnstedt's steeples and Brünzow: two thirds of my life.
The light up in the mast, my trembling star
planet of uncertainty
we land all around
the first rays of red or has the sun
just gone down compassless drifting
out of time. Hoping
I long for Tomorrow
and sense it's first name is
Today.
What can you say
in response? we know
everything.