Berlin: Sublunar Poem by Wolfgang Hilbig

Time has returned to Berlin
and imposters parade along Oranienburger Straße
around midnight pointing at the sky: time
has returned from exile.

The whole city in the bonds of silver gray magic
the full moon rolls: and we the marionettes of its light—
Irrealities that brilliantly inform us.
We and the dead
strolling over shadow trenches
we grant each another immortality once more.
O this strong glowing dust among investment ruins
and what an April so briefly before the third millennium
we don't want to go on counting

the green waters in the old buildings slowly burn away.

Translated by Brian Currid