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Rose Ausländer

 

MY NIGHTINGALE

My mother was once a deer
the golden-brown eyes
the elegance
stayed with her from her time as deer

Here she was
half angel half human-
the middle was the mother
When I asked her what she would have liked to become
she said: a nightingale

Now she is a nightingale
Night after night, I listen to her
in the garden of my sleepless dream
She sings the ancestor’s song
she sings of old Austria
she sings of mountains and t beech groves
of Bucovina
she sings lullabies to me night after night
my nightingale
in the garden of my sleepless dream

 

MOTHERLAND

 

My fatherland is dead

They have buried it in fire

I live in my motherland

Word

 

MOTHER TONGUE

I transformed myself
into myself
from one moment to the next

splintered to fragments
on the way of words

mother tongue
put me together

human mosaic

 

STILL YOU’RE HERE,

Throw your fear
into the air

Soon
your time is over
soon
sky expands
under the grass
your dreams fall
into nowhere

Still
the carnation smells sweetly
the thrush sings
still you may love
give words away
still you are here

Be what you are
Give what you have

 

Translated from German by Sarita Jenamani

Biographical Note:

Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet writing in German and English. Born in Czernowitz in Bukovina, she lived through its tumultuous history of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Soviet Union and eventually today’s Romania.