Translated from the German by Stuart Friebert
She climbed into her red canoe without a paddle
on a road heavy as lead, without water
apples in her pack, absent a future, postcards
in gaping shoes, dead holiday greetings
yesterday, superseded, freezes, in the faces
behind the blinds, the dark’s falling guillotines
in the last crack, red mirrored, lost things
flaring explosives on the lines of the ambush
Ute von Funcke, who wrote plays for children before turning to poetry in 2004, has published three collections of poems, most recently “frau auf der flucht” (scaneg Verlag/Munich). Two earlier collections appeared from Deutsche Nationalbibliothek/poesia vol. 1&2. A fourth collection is now in progress.
Stuart Friebert’s recent books include DECANTING: Selected & New Poems (Lost Horse Press), & A DOUBLE LIFE: In Poetry & Translation (Pinyon Publishing). Black Mountain Press will soon publish his 17th volume of translations: SHADOW of SHADOWS: Selected Poems of Ute von Funcke.
