Blackbird (Turdus merula), male, singing, Bogense havn, Funen, Denmark: photo by Malene Thyssen, 13 May 2004
When in my white room at the Charité
I woke towards morning
And heard the blackbird, I understood
Better. Already for some time
I had lost all fear of death. For nothing
Can be wrong with me if I myself
Am nothing. Now
I managed to enjoy
The song of every blackbird after me too.
Charité Hospital, East Berlin: photo by Zimontkrowski, June 1958 (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)
I woke towards morning
And heard the blackbird, I understood
Better. Already for some time
I had lost all fear of death. For nothing
Can be wrong with me if I myself
Am nothing. Now
I managed to enjoy
The song of every blackbird after me too.
Charité Hospital, East Berlin: photo by Zimontkrowski, June 1958 (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)
Bertolt Brecht: Als ich in weissem Krankenzimmer der Charité / When in my white room at the Charité (May 1956), translated by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, from Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956 (1976)
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