Silence and Violence
Long ago on a windy hunt
a horrible happiness abruptly bloomed in me
and the landscape congealed only its pungent
blood rustling through my veins the gun smoked
incessantly the hound did not bark
as it gazed at the clouds tightening
into meat and skinning over with fur
streaming tangled by despair
Because on the horizon a stout tower appeared
which swayed slowly between emptiness
and the overflowing clamor of hideous joy
like a gigantic latrine
the sweaty sun mottled Earth and Welkin
until suddenly it was eclipsed by cold
ravens of freedom who carried my eyes
and fresh images like flags in their bills
At twilight which was only flashes
as the sea is but the triumph of the drowned
my hunting jacket was freed of its heavy
web of lust I simply ran forward
along the mute moor coming across
animals with shining coals for hearts
I shot them so many that the road home
was finally choked with grass
Long ago I seized the empty beaker
and faced its inflexible challenge
and ever since this endless draught rinses –
my gun-barrel mouth which sparkles
in the starry sky and when it sees
some too-warm nebula defiling cosmic night
it proclaims ponderously and clearly
I DENY DEATH BUT AFFIRM ICE
To Live Free Or Die
To weigh the sun on the scales of leaves
to proclaim truth to each gust of wind
to bear on the brow the reflection of wells
to live free or die
To kiss stones kiss the keys of azure sky
kiss animals amid thunder and oblivion
to sing in the desert in a snowy voice
to live free or die
To gather up all lost words
to sway in the orgasm of flowers
which shatter the opaque sky
to live free or die
To listen to the fountain of fair blood
declaiming in the garden of terrifying grass
to know vengeance and the value of stars
to live free or die
To know that the decayed eyes of traitors
become the spawn of the fish of hope
without dreams of ferns and iron
to live free or die
To bemoan the petrified bees
to find the crack where the moon will be reborn
to smile in the face of the swirling storm
to live free or die
To see the black cloud blossoming
above the barren landscape’s gaudiness
to embrace the translucent sculpture of madness
to live free or die
To recall the shame to recall the sea
to understand a child’s earthy question
to remain faithful to a melted ice floe
to live free or die
To watch the dawn growing in the valley like a tree
to watch it from the ridge of the sierra of abomination
to unite hail and a butterfly in a human face
to live free or die
To live as flying fish live
to live in wintry fires and in the night of benevolence
to live endlessly vanishing
to live free or die
To live as grass on the murderer’s grave
to live a rock in one hand and joy in the other
to live to discover the heart of waves
to live free or die
Translated by Richard Adang, Andres Ehin
