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“To the Muted” by Georg Trakl 🇦🇹 (3 Feb 18873 Nov 1914)
Translated from the German by Jim Doss & Werner Schmitt
O, the insanity of the large city, when in the evening
The stunted trees stare at the black wall,
The spirit of evil gazes from a silver mask;
Light dislodges the stony night with a magnetic scourge.
O, the rapt sound of evening bells.
Whore, who in icy shudders bears a dead babe.
Raging, God’s wrath whips the forehead of the possessed,
Purple pestilence, hunger that breaks green eyes.
O, the horrible laughter of gold.
But muter humanity calmlybleeds in a dark cave,
Assembles the redeeming head out of hard metals.