Volker Braun
 

            SHAKESPEARE SHUTTLE

                                                        How can you say that I'm the king
                                                         The play changes, all seriousness is gone
                                                         (King Richard II *)

During the flight across the Atlantic, the local paper
A chap happy & without job writes to those unhappy & working
I to me ABOUT THE TACTICS OF DOING NOTHING
Seat-belt fastened I sit in this Boeing
Drinking whiskey between scraps of clouds
Weather fronts tumbling shares turbulences
WE WILL OURSELVES IN PERSON TO THIS WAR
The declaration of war is a commercial
Ich kauf also bin ich. No stalk no green leaf
Is blown up here though plastic cups
I, happily busy overtaking time
And my views from a rusty age
WHAT'S TO BE DONE? Have to consider myself defeated
The noble garbage of the Economy class a battle field
Le Bateau ivre on a scheduled flight
Surrounded by metaphers. At England's coast
Cows are burning. Madness resides in court
The stewardess serves a meal. What's that? - Some mass that has been boiling. -
Of beef? - No, human flesh. - Hunger forces it down.
The raggy train of rogues of Kosinzew's LEAR extras
from MOSFILM crossing continents.
What are they suff'ring from? Migraine. They are migrants
Germany for the Germans. Only flying is more beautiful
HOW SHALL WE DO FOR MONEY FOR THIS WAR
Of course the forest is marching off and no woman gives birth to us
The State is BANKRUPT and the country leased
And I the public enemy have warmed up
to it, saying GOOD MIGHT

"The world becomes small," Aafke Steenhuis says, looking out of the 12th
floor of the Plaza. "We're living too fast." "In free fall through
evolution." "Stick to what? love, a man?" She's been moving
with her child from a house made of stone to a houseboat. "Power?"
"An abortion boat out at sea close to Dublin. Abortion in international wa-
Ters!" She still has milk and yesterday saw a baby in a pushcart
Crying and considered to breastfeed him, the father hissed
"Don't touch!" "In Brazil I would have done it where people are
Dancing the samba after working hours, until the car traffic dies down." She
Forgot to eat and I asked whether she had heard of Erica Jong's fucking idea
About allaying hunger, in India.

Or in the BIG BROTHER container. A black guy
Raping the Girl from A Good Family
Under the cover of the public. The television station announces their engagement
My friend the fool, living in two worlds
With one head, how can he forget one of them
How are you, István. - Okay. - Be more precise. - Doing badly.
Plays HIOB a backstage comedy. The dust
Of Egypt is the smoke of Auschwitz
The biblical garb the deathcampuniform
Ready-made clothes Now you will no longer believe that God
Produced them made-to-measure, luxury, A passenger
INCAGED sitting in such a small space
THE WASTE IS NO WHIT LESSER THAN THY LAND
Discovers something. The cockpit is empty
Strangely, it is known to us. It doesn't surprise us
In the entrance, Hobsbawm is leaning, telling a joke
We don't know where we're going. - From a short
Into an insignificant century
A journey without determined goal
Bateau ivre left by its towers
The metapher drinks life POETRY DISHWATER
Rimbaud a discharged king
NOW MARK ME HOW I WILL UNDO MYSELF
My Lord it is enough, will you please read the list of your crimes
I see  them,  in the eyes salt - but you,  traitors
I also see Myself a traitor
Who throws down your handwritten note, it's illegible
MYLORD DISPATCH READ O'ER THESE ARTICLES

And Ann Marlowe is sitting on a chair in Manhattan the eyes
wand'ring afar, into the distance where I'm kicking the bucket, and opens wide her legs
"Once, once more," I whisper, "a society which starts
To move." "O come, you verbal masturbator." "She pushes her knee
Against the fly of the customer. Investment banking and
Drugs, I'm completely confused but that doesn't matter. The cata-
Strophe will prepare the way. "Walk up to it, or take your
Life," she laughs. "That thought is stronger which in-
Corporates the other thought." And she gropes for the waiter, and when he
Steps up to the table shoves the cigarette lighter into the mouth. The
Suicidal one staggers out, and with both hands, for me, she lifts 
Her breasts

What kind of shaking shuttle is this, full of shitty rubble
The place to land a garbage dump FORTALEZA herds
Of grazing boys in a racing competition with vultures
An old woman in her dignified way stalks through laughter through piss
Dr. Bum in front of the SLEEPLAND Powell Street San Francisco
Extended highrise hotels for vacationing nations
To do or not to do, that's no question
SHOPPING AND FUCKING Arrange
A real execution for the relatives of the victims
The century bled empty
By images Lager beaches
Death a tourist the king a customer
I don't have to think in order to compare the earth/the jail
And because the jail is so full I'm in society
Man woman my brain thoughts procreating
I'm feeling fine and don't have enough
Till all is nought
Towards noon it gets noticeably colder, then from
Above darkness is falling as announced
I'm watching the end of the world as usual The blockbuster
The solar eclipse above Reims Or the superbomb
The incoming flight approaching the towers of the World Trade Center
The missing glory of a vast town
The terror within the text The text the terror
I WASTED TIME AND NOW DOTH TIME WASTE ME
Man without might the involuntary escapist
In the worn-out universe, baffled, sees
That he's still alive, breathing air, treading the ground
With tender soles after me
In the light rain my light grave
 


 
 

          * retranslation
 

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           STREET VOICE issue 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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