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.