[ Letter V ] Poem by Szilárd Borbély

If I come to Berlin at Easter, would you have an hour to spare,
so that I could visit you? It could be at any time, for I won't
have any other business in Berlin, save our meeting. I hardly
have a proper suit in which to appear before you. But that is truly

incidental. One easily slides into temptation, however. I am only
travelling to Berlin to show myself to you, the one misled
by my letters, so you can see who I really am. I could not accomplish this in writing,
because I was in defiance of myself: in the light of reality

nothing remains hidden. Presence is irrefutable. If only I will have had
enough sleep when I meet you. If only my knees won't shake. What
a farcical and vague monologue this is. If I travel,
I will be staying in the Askanischer Hof hotel on Königgrätzstrasse.