Now and again
The life that looks through my eyes
And quivers in words through my mouth,
And behaves like the rest of men,
Slips away, so I gasp in surprise.
And then
My unknown breasts begin
To wake, and down the thin
Ripples below the breast an urgent
Rhythm starts, and my silent and slumberous belly
In one moment rouses insurgent.
My soft, slumbering belly
Quivering awake with one impulse and one will,
Then willy nilly
A lower gets up and greets me;
Homunculus stirs from his roots, and strives until,
Risen up, he beats me.
He stands, and I tremble before him.
— Who then art thou? —
He is wordless, but sultry and vast,
And I can’t deplore him.
— Who art thou? What hast
Thou to do with me, thou lustrous one, iconoclast? —
How beautiful he is! without sound,
Without eyes, without hands;
Yet, flame of the living ground
He stands, the column of fire by night.
And he knows from the depths; he quite
Alone understands.
Quite alone, he alone
Understands and knows.
Lustrously sure, unknown
Out of nowhere he rose.
I tremble in his shadow, as he burns
For the dark goal.
He stands like a lighthouse, night churns
Round his base, his dark light rolls
Into darkness, and darkly returns.
Is he calling, the lone one? Is his deep
Silence full of summons?
Is he moving invisibly? Does his steep
Curve sweep towards a woman’s?
Traveller, column of fire,
It is vain.
The glow of thy full desire
Becomes pain.
Dark, ruddy pillar, forgive me! I
Am helplessly bound
To the rock of virginity. Thy
Strange voice has no sound.
We cry in the wilderness. Forgive me, I
Would so gladly lie
In the womanly valley, and ply
Thy twofold dance.
Thou dark one, thou pride, curved beauty! I
Would worship thee, letting my buttocks prance.
But the hosts of men with one voice deny
Me the chance.
They have taken the gates from the hinges
And built up the way. I salute thee
But to deflower thee. Thy tower impinges
On nothingness. Pardon me!