You Look for Yourself

You Look for Yourself

You look for yourself
in joy

Quickly
it moves to its end

Melancholy
fades
slowly

You look for yourself
find yourself
in the word

Rose Ausländer (1901–1988)

Translation Germain Droogenbroodt- Stanley H. Barkan

from: Ich höre das Herz des Oleanders
Gedichte 1977-1979, Fischer Verlag