There’s the little radio and the army trunk
There is the answer, but nobody asking the questions
High above the garden
Stands the Constellation of Steffin
REMEMBERING MY LITTLE TEACHER . . .
Remembering my little teacher
Her eyes, the blue angry fire
And her worn cloak with the wide hood
And the wide hem, I named
Orion in the sky the Constellation of Steffin.
Looking up and contemplating it, shaking my head
I believe I hear a faint coughing.
IN THE NINTH YEAR FLEEING FROM HITLER . . .
In the ninth year fleeing from Hitler
Exhausted by the journeys
The cold and the hunger of Finland in winter
And waiting for the passport to another continent
Our comrade Steffin died
In the red city of Moscow.
MY GENERAL HAS FALLEN . . .
My general has fallen
My soldier has fallen
My pupil has gone away
My teacher has gone away
The one who looked after me has gone
The one I looked after has gone
AFTER THE DEATH OF MY COLLABORATOR M.S.
Since you died, little teacher
I go around not seeing, restless
In a gray world amazed
Without employment like a man dismissed.
I am denied
Admission to the workplace
Like any other stranger.
I see the streets and the public gardens
Now at unaccustomed times of the day and so
Scarcely recognize them.
Home
I cannot go: I am ashamed
That I am dismissed and in
Unhappiness.
WHEN I CAME BACK FROM SAINT-NAZAIRE . . .
When I came back from Saint-Nazaire
I had no knickers on.
Oh, what a fuss there was at once:
Where have your knickers gone?
I said, Just outside Saint-Nazaire
The sky’s too blue, too blue
And the oats stand tall, too tall
And the sky, the sky is too blue.
INSTRUCTION IN LOVE
Hearken, girl, to my advice
Try to make your cries endearing
I like souls to have some flesh
And flesh with soul is more alluring.
Chastity won’t dampen lust
When I’m hungry I could eat you.
Virtue’s better with a bust
And a bust in turn needs virtue.
Leda once was raped by Zeus
Now maidens fear to play along
Though she herself quite liked abuse:
The god would have his swanny song.
THE SONG OF FRATERNIZATION
Just seventeen I was
When the enemy came to town.
He offered me his arm
And laid his saber down.
And after evensong
Came May nights warm and long
The regiment formed a square
The bugle sounded, they stood at ease
Then the enemy took us into the trees
And fraternized, right there.
The enemy were many
My enemy was a cook
I hated him by day
At night I loved the schnook.
For after evensong
Come May nights warm and long
The regiment forms its square
The bugle sounds, they stand at ease
Then the enemy takes us into the trees
And we fraternize, right there.
The love that so consumed me
Was truly a force from above.