GERMAIN DROOGENBROODT

GERMAIN DROOGENBROODT

Lonely Goodbye

for those who, wherever, have to die lonely

Chilly the room

the white walls

audible only

the echo of loneliness.

Not a tender word anymore

no warm embrace

just the time,

a leaking tap,

ticking.

None knocking at the door

nobody you expect,

no one, except death.

GERMAIN DROOGENBROODT

Altea, 2.4.2020

Todesfuge *

(Corona virus)

Death, we drink you,

we drink you with our eyes,

we drink you with our ears

we drink you day by day

Deaths

no time is left to say good bye,

no time to dig your graves

The leaders paved the road

with hypocrisy and dazzling lies

Death, we drink you,

we drink you with our eyes,

we drink you with our ears

we drink you day by day.

GERMAIN DROOGENBROODT

Altea, Spain, 28.3.2010

*Todesfuge (Fugue of death),

poem by Paul Celan about the Jews being cremated by the Nazis

Untimely Leaving

When a sun

which knows no more dawn

dies away

in its own light,

and the night

blots out its stars,

snaps the stem,

tears the leaf.

Borrowed Dawn

With its hand of shadow and darkness

unravelled the evening,

the defenceless light

unravelled the future,

the magic,

the borrowed dawn,

pulled out of the wick,

shed the oil,

extinguished time.

TRANSLATION BY STANLEY BARKAN

 IN COOPERATION WITH THE AUTHOR

GERMAIN DROOGENBROODT