Imagine It
by Paul Celan
translated by Daniel Tobin
Imagine it:
Masada’s swamp soldier
hauling himself home
ineradicably
against the wire’s every thorn.
Imagine it:
the eyeless, the shapeless
rousing you to freedom
with their furious digging
until you strengthen
and rise.
Imagine it: your
own hand
has held a scrap
of earth,
more habitable, that
suffered upward again
into life.
Imagine it:
this was borne over to me—
a name awake, a hand awake
forever—
from the ones who will never be buried.
Read “Once” by Paul Celan, translated by Daniel Tobin
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for translating this. This poet terrifies me more deeply than any other.