Guericke's sparrow Poem by Jan Wagner

„ … more exquisite than gold, devoid
of all becoming or passing away …"
- Otto von Guericke -

what is invisible, yet so powerful
that no force can withstand it? a circle
of burghers gathered around master guericke
and his construction: the vacuum pump
towering on three legs in the room, a perfect
piece, standing there with the obscene grace
of the mantis religiosa. polished brass,
its recipient a glass sphere: and here too
is the sparrow, now beginning to flutter
like the flame on a spirit of wine - its air
growing ever thinner. before the window
the yellow plums ripen in the buzzing heat,
the grass spreads on the ruins. and on the wall
hangs this engraving: old magdeburg.
the unswerving progress of the pendulum clock,
diopter, pedometer, astrolabe;
the globe on the table where new zealand's
dorsal has shortly cut through
the great pacific, and as if from afar
the dogged trot of a passing horse and cart.
"that dead sparrow," whispers one,
"will yet fly through an empty sky".

Translated into English by Iain Galbraith