THE MARIONETTES
We love our slender puppets so much
—Their white faces are all alone
Atop the bodies, pious in their fragility—
And we like to toy with the strange linkages
Of their arms when they make love.
Tragic gestures are given to them.
Their dark fate shoves us away.
They are ruled by other stars.
Sometimes their silence takes us by the heart,
And then there bursts a hot surprise!
Our innermost feelings in a loud voice
From their wide-open mouths.
Author and Translator Bios
Maria Luise Weissmann (1899–1929) was a German poet and translator during the First World War and Weimar periods.
James Reidel’s latest book is Manon’s World: A Hauntology of a Daughter in the Triangle of Alma Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel (Seagull Books, 2021). He is currently preparing The Early Ripening: The Poetry and Prose of Maria Luise Weissmann. Selections from this work-in-progress have been previously published in The Lincoln Review.
Translation © by James Reidel. All rights reserved.
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