Poem by the Danish writer Henrik Nordbrandt

 

China observed through Greek rain in café turque

the drizzle

falls into my coffee

until it is cold

and overflows

until it overflows

and becomes clear

so that the picture on the bottom

becomes visible.

the picture of a man

with a long beard

in China, in front of a Chinese pavilion

in the rain, pouring rain

which has stiffened

into streaks

over the windswept facade

and over the man’s face.

beneath the coffee, milk and sugar

which are separating

beneath the well-worn glaze

appear eyes, extinguished

or inward-looking

towards China, in the cup’s porcelain

the cup slowly being emptied of coffee

and being filled with rain

clear rain. the spring rain

is atomised against the shed roof of the taverna

the facades on the other side of the street

are like a large

very worn wall of porcelain

whose gleam lights up the vine leaves

the vine leaves that are also worn

like the inside of a cup. the chinaman

sees the sun appear through a green leaf

that has fallen into the cup.

the cup whose contents

are now completely clear.