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Mendacity
Sensible, sensitive people are doomed to
Mendacity: opposing truths couple
in them and multiply, and couple again; the
Same thing goes for opposing
Lies, and also, though less frequently,
For truths and lies together, and so
The whirling web knots on, a frenzied dance
Which it would be a shame to stop.
Mendacity, if it's deliberate (and based,
Moreover, on sensitivity and sense), is
Complex, inward work with great
Philosophical merit; the goal is reaching
Harmony: between opposing
Truths and lies, and other
Equally opposing things. Beyond
Mendacity's inward realms, such harmony is
Out of reach, and this, after all, is a classical ballet
Which it would be a shame to stop.
Berlin, June 1974
The Dance of the Asphyxiated
Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich and gut.
Goethe
Noble, helpful, good.
They know it by heart, poor things, and
They don't see that these are the staves of a tripod on which sits
Not a cobbler but a Pythia, and not even
A Pythia but a witch who mumbles and mutters, but knows
Damn well what she means. In front of her, moreover,
A cauldron's hanging on
Another three staves (baseness,
Egoism, evil): a fire burns
Beneath it, a brew churns
Inside it, a stupefying brew.
And they, poor things, look at what's beneath
The witch's bottom and believe
That their inebriation emanates
From the staves of nobility, etc.; oblivious,
They inhale the brew's fumes and
Stagger blindly around
The tripods (noticing only the one),
Convinced that their staggering
Is dance and harmony. Since the landscape
Is rocky, one day they'll smash
Their heads against the stones.
Pythia
(the witch)
will keep on
Muttering after their death, with her
Bottom planted firmly on the staves
Of goodness, etc., knowing
Damn well what she means.
Berlin, June 1974
Footnote
(From the poem "Forecast")
(Hamlet gets off a train; Fortinbras is waiting on the platform)
HAMLET
My Fortinbras, I've just come back
From the other world, where it seems
That my neurotic question - to be
Or not to be - is pretty meaningless.
On stage you can tease the audience;
In the afterlife there's no one left to tease.
Back to the castle, someone's got to govern
Denmark. Today I'd like to take a look
At the bookkeeping and at the pacts you signed
With the Czechs, the French, the Chinese, and the Swedes.
Did you wage any wars? Did you pillage the Turks?
My Fortinbras, I've come back from nothingness
Which differs from being only in that
There is no being in nothingness, whereas in being there is.
But here, in Denmark, while I was away,
The Danes lived on, and no one thought to ask
About being or not. So I've come back to check
On how you've managed since the massacre.
Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
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