Sunday, January 4, 2015

Alexander Xaver Gwerder


Amorous Morning


Another world—, morning of blooms
even before waking up—; morning

in the symbol of the bewitching zephyr.

The seagull procession

of fortunate arabesques in the clearest sky,

Dianas

waving from every balcony.



IN:

            Poplar crowns, the damp landscapes—



OUT:

            Luster of tiles and that trembling Venus—



BREATH:

            Stallions with jangling coins,

the fig market and the tiny violets in the milky

shade of the forest,

mosque—and no end—O hour,

the princess awaits

the opium goat!



*



The time has come: the leaves flicker

and above her hair

occasional hands dangle chestnuts.

The sound of splashing rises prettily around Ruhstatt;

horn, spear and booty surround us—, wine presses,

equipment for the harvest, grape-voices

extorted between flying hearts.



Skins too, pelts

hot from sun and corn. The circling and undulating

and whimpering of the eyelid

and lips: you—




Farewell



That waving of some kind of hurtling

machine, and then

the landscape dries up. The houses

crumble into the rubble of bubbling

chalk and the end

gnashes its poison tooth

between tracks.



“Never again that refuge under chattering

leaves; never again the ladybugs’ raining

heart; and certainly never

that mesh of rays

on the breast’s flower-pillows—never!”



O Ragusa! Become that smoggy sulfur city—

The south sea dosed in kerosene and everything

burning! Your cloudy seconds,

take them—, devour

the bright poison of these bites—after you

have mummified yourself

in the sarcophagus of forgetting …







translated from the German by Marc Vincenz






Alexander Xaver Gwerder was born in 1923 to a Swiss working-class family and began writing poems when he was sixteen years old. In 1949, a few of Alexander’s poems were published in the Zurich newspaper, Die Tat. His talents were recognized by a handful of Swiss editors.Gwerder committed suicide in Arles, France in 14. September 1952.

Most of Gwerder’s work was published posthumously. He was clearly influenced by Gottfried Benn and Rainer Maria Rilke. Gwerder’s poems are highly imagistic, written in a rhythmical language and infused with the Swiss dialect of his childhood. Gwerder was highly critical of the bourgeoisie and the conservative institutions of Swiss government and the military. During his lifetime he was a complete outsider to the Swiss literary establishment and little-acknowledged for his poignant and stirring visions. It was only 45 years after his tragic death that Gwerder’s collected and uncollected poems were released in German, and his extraordinary talent finally brought to critical attention.


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