[Vorsicht! Farbe! Himmel frisch gestrichen!]

by Christoph Meckel

Vorsicht! Farbe! Himmel frisch gestrichen!

Von den Wetterwänden

rauscht und zischt es—Triefen, Sprühen, Klatschen.

Sommergelächter des Regens in der Traufe.

Katzenhagel. Sindflut in Platanen.

Regenbogen. Donner. Blaue Flecken.

Nasse Küsse.

Fortgeschwemmte Kleider.

[Caution! Color! Freshly painted sky!]

by Christoph Meckel

Caution! Color! Freshly painted sky!

It murmurs and whispers

from the turn in the weather—dripping wet, spraying, splashing.

Summer laughter of the rain in the eaves.

Cats and dogs. Deluge in the plane trees.

Rainbow. Thunder. Specks of blue.

Wet kisses.

Clothes washed away.

translated from German by Roy Scheele

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Christoph Meckel was born in Berlin in 1935 and published his first book of poems in 1956. His language and subject matter often explore the interplay between waking and the world of dreams, between the real and the surreal, the logical and nonsensical. He is also widely known for his fiction and graphic art.

Roy Scheele has been translating Christoph Meckel’s poems since the mid-1970s, when he was teaching at a gymnasium in Germany. Scheele’s own poems have appeared widely in such journals as Measure, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner, and a number have been anthologized. He was recently nominated for Nebraska state poet.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

[Vorsicht! Farbe! Himmel frisch gestrichen!]

[Caution! Color! Freshly painted sky!]