It's enough to make me throw the chair through the panes of the mirror Into the street - There I sit with raised eyebrows: All bars are full, My bar is empty - isn't that terrific......
I am the Division Commander, His Excellency. I have attained what is humanly possible. A lovely consciousness. In front of me Important people and chiefs of regiments Bend their knees,...
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....
I stand this way on cloudy winter days From dawn to dusk and I soap heads, Shave them and powder them and speak Indifferent words, stupid, foolish. Most heads are completely shut,...
Many sick people are walking in the garden Back and forth and lying in the porches. Those who are the sickest burn with fever Every wretched day in the hot Grave of their beds....
So many years I sought you, Mary - In gardens, rooms, cities and mountains, In dumps, whores, in acting schools, In sick beds and in the rooms of mad people,...
Every day, when it gets so very dark That I can read no more, I walk along the street singing, Look at every girl... Whether perhaps - who knows - Today of all days a miracle will take place:...
Your eyes are bright lands. Your looks are little birds, Handkerchiefs gently waving goodbye. In your smile I rest as though in bobbing boats. Your little stories are made of silk....
The hour moves forward. The mole moves out. The moon emerges furiously. The ocean heaves. The child becomes an old man. Animals pray and flee. It's getting too hot for the trees....
It's good and beautiful to be a soldier for a year. You live longer that way. And one is certainly pleased With each scrap of time that one snatches from death....
The folds of the sea crash like whips on my skin. And the stars of the sea tear me apart. The evening of the sea is one of screaming wounds for the lonely, But lovers find the good death of their day dreams......
O you Berlin, you colorful stone, you beast. You cast me with street lamps like briars. Ah, when one flows in the night through your lamps After women, silky, plump....
A certain Rudolf called out: I have eaten too much. Whether it's healthy is very questionable. After such a greasy lunch I really feel uncomfortable. But I belch beautifully and smoke...
All things are seamless, As though forgotten, light and dull. From the sacred heights the green sky spills Still water on the city. Glazed cobblers' lamps shine. Empty bakeries are waiting....
The sky is like a blue jellyfish. And all around are fields, rolling meadows - Peaceful world, you great mousetrap, Would that I might finally escape from you.. O if I had wings -...
Packs of houses squat along rotten streets, Around whose hump a gray sun shines. A perfumed, half crazy little poodle Casts exhausted eyes at the big world. In a window a boy catches flies....
The earth grows moldy in fog. The evening is as oppressive as lead. Electric sparks crackle and whimper all around, Breaking everything in two. Like wretched hobos Cities are smoking on the horizon....
The sweaty heads of waiters tower above the room Like lofty and powerful capitals. Lice-ridden boys giggle nastily. And shining girls give painfully beautiful looks. And distant women are so very excited......
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,...