Gottfried Benn Poems

Ein ersoffener Bierfahrer wurde auf den Tisch gestemmt.
Irgendeiner hatte ihm eine dunkelhellila Aster
zwischen die Zähne geklemmt.
Als ich von der Brust aus
...

Der einsame Backzahn einer Dirne,
die unbekannt verstorben war,
trug eine Goldplombe.
Die übrigen waren wie auf stille Verabredung
...

The mouth of a girl who had long lain in the reeds
looked so chewed up.
When we broke open the torso, the esophagus was so full of holes.
Finally in a bower under the diaphragm
...

A drowned beer-hauler was heaved onto the slab.
Someone had wedged a lavender aster
between his teeth.
As I reached through the chest
...

Der Mund eines Mädchens, das lange im Schilf gelegen hatte,
sah so angeknabbert aus.
Als man die Brust aufbrach, war die Speiseröhre so löcherig.
Schließlich in einer Laube unter dem Zwerchfell
...

Asters—sweltering days
old adjuration/curse,
the gods hold the balance
...

The mouth of the girl who had lain long in the rushes
looked so nibbled.
When they opened her chest, her esophagus was so holey.
Finally in a bower under the diaphragm
...

That narrow cot, hardly any bigger than a child's, is where Droste died
(it's there in her museum in Meersburg),
on that sofa Hölderlin in his tower room at the carpenter's,
...

Renege on the rock! Smash
the oppressor cave! Sashay
out onto the floor! Scorn the cornices—
...

One says: please no inner life,
manners by all means, but nothing affective,
that's no compensation
...