Anna Hoffmann

translated by Catherine Hales

 

never-ending game

his outward form in the iris
height girth & colour of hair
skin & eyes
a green like deep in the forest
sparkling more than the canals of suzhou
fingers like summer storms
& filing all this into memory
trying out everything taking everything
like tobacco & coffee with milk
& his tongue beating in agreement
double double
using every centimetre
for the great music of our bodies

then abandoned
then cornered by daylight
then lobbing names into the dark
then parcels arriving news
ransom—the complete folksy bit—
nothing helps
opening her veins to lethe she flows
with warm litres
now her eyes peeling her eyes
leaking away from his memory
images that no longer mirror or hold
anything i.e. from his brain
& hers    removing final doubts
(cries)
carefully paring muscles from bone
eradicating bumps & dips
carving her body into 1000
now inhibitions disappear
under the knife    pieces of heart
into a little red box

 

 

Copyright © Anna Hoffmann & Catherine Hales, 2007.

Anna Hoffmann was born on the island of Rügen, Germany, in 1971 and now lives with her partner and son in Berlin. Her collections include Pandoras Box (Parasitenpresse 2004) and Rote Magie ('Red Magic', Corvinus Presse 2007).

Catherine Hales grew up in Surrey and, after various stops and jobs, now lives and works in Berlin as a freelance translator. Her poems and translations have appeared in several magazines, in print and online.