The Bird Coach Poem by Friederike Mayröcker

for Christa Kühnholz

was it chicken children lapwings letterings
that along the pond and pastures :
clouds lush clouds and pastures : rippling
and where you saw 3 guys in straw yellow
van-Gogh-hats...this innocence this indirection
toward the lake and clattering tin bucket under overcast
weather it was pomegranates i.e. drops out of
a stormy sky : from the eaves
rattling and needle instrument inexplicable
weather instrument etc., the leek shoots and
parapluies in the woods above geranium gardens when
left in the rain they start
they bleed i.e. a white umbrella as
stuck in flowered ground : firn or
glacier snow on mountain nape,
chalked on the blackboard propped against the gate
to the Greek restaurant, the menu
starts off with some dish like GOD LAMB / LAMB
OF GOD, in a costume of rain and herolds :
1 black twig so bent and twisted
i.e. broken off the tree it formed
the poet's initial.

what do you need? a tree a house to
weigh how great how small our human life
gauge judge understand estimate conceive

how great how small when you look up to the tree top
and get lost in the lush luxuriant green
green lavish/luxuriant lush rank abundant beauty

how great how small when you think how short
your life compared with the life of trees
you need a tree you need a house
not all for yourself just a corner a roof
to sit to think to sleep to dream
to write to be silent to see your friend
the stars grass flower sky

Translated by Rosmarie Waldrop