Saturday 26 December 2009

From 'The shores' - part of Klaus Høeck's collection 'Fairytale'

(...)
“some day you will miss me”
        my mother
        had said
and it was true she was right
        about that – but
        what she hadn’t
realised was that i had
        always missed her
even while she was alive and we
almost saw each other every week


what she hadn’t realised was
        that the greatest
        longing was the longing
for what we already possessed
        that all longings
        really
sprang from this one longing
        which was
        only slaked
in the moment of acquisition when
longing and longing became one


and that was life’s hardest task:
        that what you have
        and are had to be
reconquered over and over each day
        and life’s greatest
        paradox: that
what you were to conquer could only
        be given to you
        in the great moment
of acquisition when you had
precisely lost it again


and all other longings were only
        lengthenings of
        this one
longing – journeys out of the mind
        towards the distant goals
        on the horizon of
the fairytale where the clouds’ castles
        hung so red
        with gold in the
evening sun – so you could return home
again to what you were and are


and that was life’s greatest fairytale
        to journey
        to the world’s end
to gain the simple insight
        that what you
        searched for you
had already found that who you
        wanted to be
        you already were
that all the time you were yourself
who else should you otherwise have been? (...)

For the whole collection in translation, go to here

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