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The Heavy Cargo Print E-mail

The summer's heavy cargo has been loaded,
waiting in the harbor as a sun ship lies,
as at your back the seagull dips and cries.
The summer"s heavy cargo has been loaded.

Waiting in the harbor a sun ship lies,
and there upon the lips of figureheads
the lemur's mocking smile appears and spreads.
Waiting in the harbor a sun ship lies.

As at your back the seagull dips and cries,
from the western horizon comes the order to sink;
you'll drown, open-eyed, in the light you'll drink,
as at your back the seagull dips and cries.


From The Collected Poems by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Peter Filkins.
Copyright (c) 2006 by John Felstiner. Used by permission of Zephyr Press, Inc.

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