TUNNELS WITHOUT LIGHT
On a rope that's lower than my hip
I walk, not far above the ground;
it hardly elevates me, but may trip
me just when I think I have found
the path that takes me where there are
so many things that lie above the ground,
a path that does not take me far.
The rope will trip me up, though it may raise
my expectations. On its height
I will meander in the mundane maze
in tunnels ending without light.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt reviews a book by Douglas Kennedy, 'The Job' (Hyperion) , in the NYT, July 9,1998. He quotes the novel's epigraph, by Kafka:
The true way leads along a tightrope, which is not stretched aloft but just above the ground. It seems more designed to trip one than to be walked upon.
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Christopher Lehmann-Haupt reviews a book by Douglas Kennedy, 'The Job' (Hyperion) , in the NYT, July 9,1998. He quotes the novel's epigraph, by Kafka:
The true way leads along a tightrope, which is not stretched aloft but just above the ground. It seems more designed to trip one than to be walked upon.
1/26/10
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem