GALILEI’S Lamentation

what to construct
a telescope for
that shows
impossible things?

why raise
the eyes
to an empty
sky?

mankind does not
know how to look

nevertheless, I believe
in mind
and the temptation
of the unknown.

that is why I construct
useless things
and think
the unthinkable

Christoph Janacs, Austria, 1955

Translation Germain Droogenbroodt

Selected from the project in progress «Lamentationes«,
which will be published by Edition Tandem in Salzburg in 2023.

Painting by Tineke Storteboom, Netherlands