Those were fine times, when I still Walked in silk socks and wore underpants, Sometimes had ten marks to spare, in order To hire a woman, bored in the day Night after night I sat in the coffeehouse....
You don't love me... I have never appealed to you... Was never your type... And my hard eyes annoy you, my darling... I'm too dark for you. And too coarse - And my white teeth have such a brutal shine...
In weary circles a sick fish hovers In a pond surrounded by grass. A tree leans against the sky - burned and bent. Yes... the family sits at a large table, Where they peck with their forks from the plates....
The deserted streets flow in gleaming light Through my dull head. And hurt me. I clearly feel that I shall soon slip away - Thorny roses of my skin, don't prick like that....
The troops are singing fervently, each for himself: God, protect me from misfortune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, That no grenades strike me, That the bastards, our enemies,...
Some day - I have signs - a mortal storm Is coming from the far north. Everywhere is the smell of corpses. The great killing begins. The lump of sky grows dark, Storm-death lifts its clawed paws;...
The poet thought: ah, I have enough trash! The whores, the theater, and the moon in the city, The dress-shirts, the streets, and smells, The nights and the coaches and the windows,...