N. Crosses the alps, Taipei Poem by Dieter M Gräf

undyed pants of the
conqueror of the exotic

world, straight razor, chess
pieces he still played

with on St. Helena, now
trapped on this island.

His Chinese-sized camp
bed. Enlargement: then,

a side wing, its own
history on cloth

flowers, mini ideo
grams on egg-shell stelae

in the display with a
magnifying glass, or,

in the foyer, the emperor's
conqueror as a bronze colossus.

Rigor's stiff pauses, when
a servant of the honor

guard massages their necks,
can be unleashed,

before, with staggered
steps, the guard's relieved.

Outside, beside the pond,
a tree might well be

moving the Chi of a
man practicing: to

cross his Alps, crumb
ling into them.

Translated by Andrew Shields