„ … 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
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem