Where am I

By Paul Celan
Translated By Pierre Joris
Where am I 
today?

The dangers, all,
with their appliance,
hickishly gamey,

pitchfork-high
the heavensfallow hoisted,

the losses, chalkmouthed—you
upright mouths, you tables!—
in the disangled town,
harnessed to glimmerhackneys,

—goldtrace, counterheaved
goldtrace!—,

the bridges, overjoyed by the stream,

love, up there in the branch,
niggling at the coming-escaping

the Great Light
elevated to a spark,
on the right of the rings
and all gain.

Copyright Credit: Paul Celan, "Where Am I" from BREATHTURN INTO TIMESTEAD: THE COLLECTED LATER POETRY A BILINGUAL EDITION by Paul Celan, translated by Pierre Joris. Translation copyright © 2014 by Pierre Joris. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. http://us.macmillan.com/fsg
Source: Breathturn Into Timestead (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2014)