On the Other Side of the Moon

Hilde Domin

On the other side of the moon
your real days
go
shrouded in golden clothes
they live
as you would
in the light
banished from here
chased away
they wander there
you know they are yours.

But you welcome
morning after morning
their deputies:
stranger
than any strange land.
You know
yours
are wandering in the light
day after day
they go alongside you
only on the other side of the moon.

 
Word and Thing

Word and thing
lay tightly
side by side
the same
body warmth
in thing and
word.

Translated into English by Elke Heckel and Meg Taylor