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Lot Essay
'I THINK IN IMAGES. POEMS HELP WITH THAT. THEY ARE BUOYS IN THE SEA. I SWIM TO THEM, FROM ONE TO THE NEXT; WITHOUT THEM, I AM LOST'
(A. KIEFER IN A SPEECH GIVEN TO ACCEPT THE PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO HIM BY THE GERMAN PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION AT THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR, 2008).
COMPRISING PRIMARILY OF A VAST OPEN FIELD OF CANVAS OVER WHICH KIEFER HAS POURED SPLATTERED, DRIPPED, PULLED AND BRUSHED A VARIETY OF MATERIALS INCLUDING MOLTEN LEAD AND GOLDEN PAINT TO CREATE A HIGHLY PAINTERLY IF ALSO IMMENSELY HEAVY TEXTURAL SURFACE REMINISCENT OF LIGHT POURING THROUGH WILD ELEMENTAL NATURE, DIE GROSSE FRACHT (THE HEAVY CARGO) IS AN EPIC WORK PAINTED IN 2005. IT BELONGS TO A MAJOR SERIES OF VAST AND IMPOSING LANDSCAPES AND SEASCAPES PROJECTING LONE SHIPS AGAINST WILD EMPTY HORIZONS MADE BY KIEFER BETWEEN 2004 AND 2006 THAT WERE DERIVED FROM AND DEDICATED TO THE WORK OF GREAT TWENTIETH CENTURY POETS SUCH AS PAUL CELAN, VLADIMIR KHLEBNIKOV AND INGEBORG BACHMANN. SEEMING TO SYMBOLIZE THE LONE PATH OF AN INDIVIDUAL HUMAN LIFE THROUGH BOTH A VAST EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS AND THE RAVAGES OF TIME, THESE EXTRAORDINARILY EVOCATIVE PANORAMAS WITH THEIR LEAD SHIPS JUTTING OUT FROM THE CANVAS PLANE ARE WORKS THAT DRAW HEAVILY ON ANCIENT AND ROMANTICIST NOTIONS OF THE SEA AND OF SEA VOYAGES TO PRESENT A POWERFUL AND PERSUASIVE IMAGE OF THE IMMENSE WEIGHT AND MEMORY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY STILL BEARING DOWN ON US TODAY.
ROOTED IN A CONCEPT OF LITERATURE AS THE VITAL ELEMENT OF HUMAN CULTURE PROVIDING A THREAD OR CONTINUING PATH OF CULTURE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS OF TIME AND HISTORY, THESE TIMELESS-LOOKING WORKS ARTICULATE A SEEMINGLY POST-APOCALYPTIC VISION OF HUMANKIND'S CONTINUING ODYSSEY. THEY ARE IMBUED WITH A PROFOUND AND ALMOST ARCHETYPAL SENSE OF THE HEROIC STRUGGLE OF A LONE VESSEL SAILING AGAINST THE VAST ELEMENTAL FORCES OF NATURE AND THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY. AT THE SAME TIME, THE EPIC NATURE OF KIEFER'S IMAGERY AND THE MAGNIFICENT MIXED-MEDIA NATURE OF HIS OWN UNIQUE PAINTERLY STYLE ALSO EXPRESSES A SENSE OF BOTH THE GRANDEUR AND THE FRAGILITY OF HUMAN CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT AS WELL AS SOMETHING OF THE LONELY AND OFTEN TRAGIC PATH THROUGH LIFE OF THE POET. IT WAS PRESUMABLY FOR THIS REASON THAT IN 2006 KIEFER CREATED ANOTHER WORK, SIMILARLY DEPICTING A LONE SHIP WEIGHED DOWN WITH BOOKS AND SET AGAINST A MATERIAL VOID THAT CARRIED THE SAME TITLE OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT AND WAS MADE ESPECIALLY FOR THE BIBLIOTECA SAN GIORGIO IN PISTOIA.
EXECUTED ONE YEAR BEFORE THE CREATION OF THIS WORK, DIE GROSSE FRACHT OF 2005 SIMILARLY TAKES ITS TITLE FROM THE POEM OF THE SAME NAME BY THE AUSTRIAN POET INGEBORG BACHMANN. THIS WAS A SHORT POEM, FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1953, THAT ARTICULATES THE IMPENDING, AND ULTIMATELY DOOMED VOYAGE OF A 'SUN SHIP' LADEN WITH A 'HEAVY CARGO' COMPRISED OF THE ALL THE WEALTH OF SUMMER. DOOMED TO 'DROWN IN THE LIGHT' ON THE 'ORDERS OF THE WESTERN HORIZON' THE POEM SEEMINGLY MARKS THE TRANSITION FROM ONE ERA, LIFETIME, OR STATE OF BEING TO ANOTHER. IT IS A POEM THAT, AS ITS 'DIVING' AND 'SHRIEKING SEAGULLS' SEEM TO SYMBOLIZE, EXPRESSES A SIMILAR SENSE OF A NATURAL AND INEVITABLE CONCLUSION COMING TO PASS AS THAT INVOKED BY MUCH OF KIEFER'S EARLIER PICTORIAL IMAGERY FROM THE 1970S AND '80S.
TWO OF THE FINEST GERMAN-LANGUAGE POETS OF THE POST-WAR ERA, INGEBORG BACHMANN AND PAUL CELAN WERE ONE-TIME LOVERS WHOSE WORK WAS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE TRAUMA AND TRAGEDY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH, AND WHO WERE THEMSELVES TO SHARE TRAGIC FATES; HE THROWING HIMSELF INTO THE SEINE IN 1970, SHE DYING IN A FIRE IN A FLAT IN VIENNA IN 1973. THE TRIUMPH OF THEIR ART OVER THE TRAGEDIES OF THEIR LIVES AND THE APPALLING TIMES THROUGH WHICH THEY BOTH LIVED HOWEVER, HAS INFORMED AND INSPIRED MUCH OF KIEFER'S WORK WHICH HAS OFTEN DRAWN ON THEIR WRITING FROM THE 1990S ONWARDS.
KIEFER ALSO HAS OFTEN MADE USE OF THE SHIP AS A POTENT SYMBOL OF VOYAGE, ODYSSEY AND OF EPIC HISTORY IN HIS WORKS FROM THE 1970S ONWARDS. CENTRAL TO MOST OF THE 2004-2006 PAINTINGS PROJECTING LEAD SHIPS AGAINST VAST MATERIAL HORIZONS OF BOTH LAND AND SEA IS ALSO THE LEAD BOOK; OFTEN ICONICALLY PRESENTED IN THESE WORKS AS BOTH IMAGE, SYMBOL, WEIGHT AND CARGO. 'THE BOOK', KIEFER HAS EXPLAINED, 'THE IDEA OF A BOOK, IS A SYMBOL OF LEARNING, OF TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE. THE STORY OF OUR BEGINNINGS ALWAYS BEGINS IN THE ORAL TRADITION, BUT EVENTUALLY FINDS ITS WAY INTO THE FORM OF A BOOK. THIS HAS ITS DOUBLE SIDE. IT PRESERVES MEMORY BUT IT ALSO MAKES THE STORY RIGID' (A. KIEFER INTERVIEW WITH M. AUPING IN ANSELM KIEFER HEAVEN AND EARTH, EXH. CAT., FORT WORTH, 2005, P. 174).
KIEFER'S PAINTINGS, OFTEN BASED ON LITERARY PRECEDENTS, OFFER A LESS 'RIGID' TELLING OF SUCH TALES. IN DIE GROSSE FRACHT FOR EXAMPLE, ITS RUSTING SHIP IS SEEMINGLY BORNE DOWN BY THE HEAVY CARGO THAT IT CARRIES - THE 'GROSSE FRACHT' OF THE TITLE - WHICH KIEFER HAS HERE RENDERED AS A PAIR OF LEAD BOOKS. SUCH LEADEN BOOKS ARE, IN THIS CASE, BEARERS, NOT SO MUCH OF INFORMATION AS OF CULTURAL MEMORY AND HUMAN EXPERIENCE. EXECUTED IN A SOFT HEAVY, IMPERMEABLE METAL, RESISTANT TO X-RAYS AND ABLE TO SURVIVE MAJOR DISASTERS, THEY ARE INTENDED BY HIM TO BE SEEN AS NEAR-INDESTRUCTIBLE ARK-LIKE CONTAINERS OF HUMAN HISTORY. HERE, AS IN THE POEM TO WHICH IT REFERS, THE WEIGHT OF HUMAN HISTORY AND OF INDIVIDUAL MEMORY APPEARS TO ACCOMPANY A PERVASIVE SINKING FEELING THAT RUNS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE PAINTING - A SENSE OF DROWNING THAT IS SEEMINGLY REINFORCED BY APPARENT RAYS OF GOLDEN LIGHT STREAKING THROUGH THE LEAD BACKGROUND. BUT, UNLIKE BACHMANN'S POEM, THIS IS NO PICTURE REFERRING TO OR BORN FROM THE ASHES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, BUT RATHER, AN IMAGE OF CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE REFERRING TO THE REPEATED FOLLY AND TRAGEDY OF TODAY'S CONTINUING WARFARE. UNLIKE MOST OF KIEFER'S PAINTINGS DEDICATED TO THE RUSSIAN FUTURIST POET VLADIMIR KHLEBNIKOV FROM THIS PERIOD WITH THEIR ANTIQUE-LOOKING CRUISERS AND U-BOATS, THE SHIP THAT KIEFER PRESENTS IN DIE GROSSE FRACHTE IS NOT A REPLICA OF A GERMAN SECOND WORLD WAR BATTLESHIP. INSTEAD, LIKE THAT WHICH KIEFER USED IN THE 2005 PAINTING ENTITLED 'YOUR HOUSE RODE ON THE DARK WAVE' DRAWN FROM A POEM BY PAUL CELAN AND REFERRING TO AN ODYSSEY TRAVELING FROM DISASTER TO DISASTER, THE SHIP THAT KIEFER - AN OUTSPOKEN OPPONENT TO MUCH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN RECENT YEARS - PRESENTS HERE, IS A MODERN AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
AS BRUNO CORA HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT, IN PISTOIA, THE PAINTING, 'BESIDES BEING EQUALLY CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH (INGEBORG BACHMANN'S) NAME AND POETRY, APPEARS TODAY TO BE A MORE PEREMPTORY AND AT THE SAME TIME A LUCIDLY LIGHT-TOUCHED IMAGE OF THAT LIVING FREIGHT WHICH EVERYONE HAS TO SHOULDER AS THEY ADVANCE THROUGH TIME: MEMORY' (B. CORà, 'SOME REFLECTIONS OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT BY ANSELM KIEFER IN PISTOIA LIBRARY', ANSELM KIEFER. DIE GROSSE FRACHT, EXH. CAT., BIBLIOTECA SAN GIORGIO, PISTOIA, 2006, P. 76).
THE HEAVY CARGO
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 SUMMERS 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.
INGEBORG BACHMAN
(I. BACHMAN, 'THE HEAVY CARGO', TRANSLATED BY P. FILKINS, DARKNESS SPOKEN: INGEBORG BACHMANN THE COLLECTED POEMS, MUNICH 2006, P. 14)
(A. KIEFER IN A SPEECH GIVEN TO ACCEPT THE PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO HIM BY THE GERMAN PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION AT THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR, 2008).
COMPRISING PRIMARILY OF A VAST OPEN FIELD OF CANVAS OVER WHICH KIEFER HAS POURED SPLATTERED, DRIPPED, PULLED AND BRUSHED A VARIETY OF MATERIALS INCLUDING MOLTEN LEAD AND GOLDEN PAINT TO CREATE A HIGHLY PAINTERLY IF ALSO IMMENSELY HEAVY TEXTURAL SURFACE REMINISCENT OF LIGHT POURING THROUGH WILD ELEMENTAL NATURE, DIE GROSSE FRACHT (THE HEAVY CARGO) IS AN EPIC WORK PAINTED IN 2005. IT BELONGS TO A MAJOR SERIES OF VAST AND IMPOSING LANDSCAPES AND SEASCAPES PROJECTING LONE SHIPS AGAINST WILD EMPTY HORIZONS MADE BY KIEFER BETWEEN 2004 AND 2006 THAT WERE DERIVED FROM AND DEDICATED TO THE WORK OF GREAT TWENTIETH CENTURY POETS SUCH AS PAUL CELAN, VLADIMIR KHLEBNIKOV AND INGEBORG BACHMANN. SEEMING TO SYMBOLIZE THE LONE PATH OF AN INDIVIDUAL HUMAN LIFE THROUGH BOTH A VAST EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS AND THE RAVAGES OF TIME, THESE EXTRAORDINARILY EVOCATIVE PANORAMAS WITH THEIR LEAD SHIPS JUTTING OUT FROM THE CANVAS PLANE ARE WORKS THAT DRAW HEAVILY ON ANCIENT AND ROMANTICIST NOTIONS OF THE SEA AND OF SEA VOYAGES TO PRESENT A POWERFUL AND PERSUASIVE IMAGE OF THE IMMENSE WEIGHT AND MEMORY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY STILL BEARING DOWN ON US TODAY.
ROOTED IN A CONCEPT OF LITERATURE AS THE VITAL ELEMENT OF HUMAN CULTURE PROVIDING A THREAD OR CONTINUING PATH OF CULTURE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS OF TIME AND HISTORY, THESE TIMELESS-LOOKING WORKS ARTICULATE A SEEMINGLY POST-APOCALYPTIC VISION OF HUMANKIND'S CONTINUING ODYSSEY. THEY ARE IMBUED WITH A PROFOUND AND ALMOST ARCHETYPAL SENSE OF THE HEROIC STRUGGLE OF A LONE VESSEL SAILING AGAINST THE VAST ELEMENTAL FORCES OF NATURE AND THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY. AT THE SAME TIME, THE EPIC NATURE OF KIEFER'S IMAGERY AND THE MAGNIFICENT MIXED-MEDIA NATURE OF HIS OWN UNIQUE PAINTERLY STYLE ALSO EXPRESSES A SENSE OF BOTH THE GRANDEUR AND THE FRAGILITY OF HUMAN CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT AS WELL AS SOMETHING OF THE LONELY AND OFTEN TRAGIC PATH THROUGH LIFE OF THE POET. IT WAS PRESUMABLY FOR THIS REASON THAT IN 2006 KIEFER CREATED ANOTHER WORK, SIMILARLY DEPICTING A LONE SHIP WEIGHED DOWN WITH BOOKS AND SET AGAINST A MATERIAL VOID THAT CARRIED THE SAME TITLE OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT AND WAS MADE ESPECIALLY FOR THE BIBLIOTECA SAN GIORGIO IN PISTOIA.
EXECUTED ONE YEAR BEFORE THE CREATION OF THIS WORK, DIE GROSSE FRACHT OF 2005 SIMILARLY TAKES ITS TITLE FROM THE POEM OF THE SAME NAME BY THE AUSTRIAN POET INGEBORG BACHMANN. THIS WAS A SHORT POEM, FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1953, THAT ARTICULATES THE IMPENDING, AND ULTIMATELY DOOMED VOYAGE OF A 'SUN SHIP' LADEN WITH A 'HEAVY CARGO' COMPRISED OF THE ALL THE WEALTH OF SUMMER. DOOMED TO 'DROWN IN THE LIGHT' ON THE 'ORDERS OF THE WESTERN HORIZON' THE POEM SEEMINGLY MARKS THE TRANSITION FROM ONE ERA, LIFETIME, OR STATE OF BEING TO ANOTHER. IT IS A POEM THAT, AS ITS 'DIVING' AND 'SHRIEKING SEAGULLS' SEEM TO SYMBOLIZE, EXPRESSES A SIMILAR SENSE OF A NATURAL AND INEVITABLE CONCLUSION COMING TO PASS AS THAT INVOKED BY MUCH OF KIEFER'S EARLIER PICTORIAL IMAGERY FROM THE 1970S AND '80S.
TWO OF THE FINEST GERMAN-LANGUAGE POETS OF THE POST-WAR ERA, INGEBORG BACHMANN AND PAUL CELAN WERE ONE-TIME LOVERS WHOSE WORK WAS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE TRAUMA AND TRAGEDY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH, AND WHO WERE THEMSELVES TO SHARE TRAGIC FATES; HE THROWING HIMSELF INTO THE SEINE IN 1970, SHE DYING IN A FIRE IN A FLAT IN VIENNA IN 1973. THE TRIUMPH OF THEIR ART OVER THE TRAGEDIES OF THEIR LIVES AND THE APPALLING TIMES THROUGH WHICH THEY BOTH LIVED HOWEVER, HAS INFORMED AND INSPIRED MUCH OF KIEFER'S WORK WHICH HAS OFTEN DRAWN ON THEIR WRITING FROM THE 1990S ONWARDS.
KIEFER ALSO HAS OFTEN MADE USE OF THE SHIP AS A POTENT SYMBOL OF VOYAGE, ODYSSEY AND OF EPIC HISTORY IN HIS WORKS FROM THE 1970S ONWARDS. CENTRAL TO MOST OF THE 2004-2006 PAINTINGS PROJECTING LEAD SHIPS AGAINST VAST MATERIAL HORIZONS OF BOTH LAND AND SEA IS ALSO THE LEAD BOOK; OFTEN ICONICALLY PRESENTED IN THESE WORKS AS BOTH IMAGE, SYMBOL, WEIGHT AND CARGO. 'THE BOOK', KIEFER HAS EXPLAINED, 'THE IDEA OF A BOOK, IS A SYMBOL OF LEARNING, OF TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE. THE STORY OF OUR BEGINNINGS ALWAYS BEGINS IN THE ORAL TRADITION, BUT EVENTUALLY FINDS ITS WAY INTO THE FORM OF A BOOK. THIS HAS ITS DOUBLE SIDE. IT PRESERVES MEMORY BUT IT ALSO MAKES THE STORY RIGID' (A. KIEFER INTERVIEW WITH M. AUPING IN ANSELM KIEFER HEAVEN AND EARTH, EXH. CAT., FORT WORTH, 2005, P. 174).
KIEFER'S PAINTINGS, OFTEN BASED ON LITERARY PRECEDENTS, OFFER A LESS 'RIGID' TELLING OF SUCH TALES. IN DIE GROSSE FRACHT FOR EXAMPLE, ITS RUSTING SHIP IS SEEMINGLY BORNE DOWN BY THE HEAVY CARGO THAT IT CARRIES - THE 'GROSSE FRACHT' OF THE TITLE - WHICH KIEFER HAS HERE RENDERED AS A PAIR OF LEAD BOOKS. SUCH LEADEN BOOKS ARE, IN THIS CASE, BEARERS, NOT SO MUCH OF INFORMATION AS OF CULTURAL MEMORY AND HUMAN EXPERIENCE. EXECUTED IN A SOFT HEAVY, IMPERMEABLE METAL, RESISTANT TO X-RAYS AND ABLE TO SURVIVE MAJOR DISASTERS, THEY ARE INTENDED BY HIM TO BE SEEN AS NEAR-INDESTRUCTIBLE ARK-LIKE CONTAINERS OF HUMAN HISTORY. HERE, AS IN THE POEM TO WHICH IT REFERS, THE WEIGHT OF HUMAN HISTORY AND OF INDIVIDUAL MEMORY APPEARS TO ACCOMPANY A PERVASIVE SINKING FEELING THAT RUNS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE PAINTING - A SENSE OF DROWNING THAT IS SEEMINGLY REINFORCED BY APPARENT RAYS OF GOLDEN LIGHT STREAKING THROUGH THE LEAD BACKGROUND. BUT, UNLIKE BACHMANN'S POEM, THIS IS NO PICTURE REFERRING TO OR BORN FROM THE ASHES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, BUT RATHER, AN IMAGE OF CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE REFERRING TO THE REPEATED FOLLY AND TRAGEDY OF TODAY'S CONTINUING WARFARE. UNLIKE MOST OF KIEFER'S PAINTINGS DEDICATED TO THE RUSSIAN FUTURIST POET VLADIMIR KHLEBNIKOV FROM THIS PERIOD WITH THEIR ANTIQUE-LOOKING CRUISERS AND U-BOATS, THE SHIP THAT KIEFER PRESENTS IN DIE GROSSE FRACHTE IS NOT A REPLICA OF A GERMAN SECOND WORLD WAR BATTLESHIP. INSTEAD, LIKE THAT WHICH KIEFER USED IN THE 2005 PAINTING ENTITLED 'YOUR HOUSE RODE ON THE DARK WAVE' DRAWN FROM A POEM BY PAUL CELAN AND REFERRING TO AN ODYSSEY TRAVELING FROM DISASTER TO DISASTER, THE SHIP THAT KIEFER - AN OUTSPOKEN OPPONENT TO MUCH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN RECENT YEARS - PRESENTS HERE, IS A MODERN AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
AS BRUNO CORA HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT, IN PISTOIA, THE PAINTING, 'BESIDES BEING EQUALLY CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH (INGEBORG BACHMANN'S) NAME AND POETRY, APPEARS TODAY TO BE A MORE PEREMPTORY AND AT THE SAME TIME A LUCIDLY LIGHT-TOUCHED IMAGE OF THAT LIVING FREIGHT WHICH EVERYONE HAS TO SHOULDER AS THEY ADVANCE THROUGH TIME: MEMORY' (B. CORà, 'SOME REFLECTIONS OF DIE GROSSE FRACHT BY ANSELM KIEFER IN PISTOIA LIBRARY', ANSELM KIEFER. DIE GROSSE FRACHT, EXH. CAT., BIBLIOTECA SAN GIORGIO, PISTOIA, 2006, P. 76).
THE HEAVY CARGO
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 SUMMERS 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.
INGEBORG BACHMAN
(I. BACHMAN, 'THE HEAVY CARGO', TRANSLATED BY P. FILKINS, DARKNESS SPOKEN: INGEBORG BACHMANN THE COLLECTED POEMS, MUNICH 2006, P. 14)