Hermann the Drunkard Speaks to John the Baptist — Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse Albanian version by Eda Zari Hermann the Drunkard Speaks to John the Baptist Everything suits me fine — come, let us wander on! Things have taken their course; nothing can be changed now. Look: I am an empty house, door and windows open wide;
Hermann Hesse Albanian version by Eda Zari
Hermann the Drunkard Speaks to John the Baptist
Everything suits me fine — come, let us wander on! Things have taken their course; nothing can be changed now.
Look: I am an empty house, door and windows open wide; ghosts reel in and out, every one of them drunk.
You, however, still have money — pay for something to drink. The world is full of pleasures; pity that they stink.
Other poets drink as well, yet write their poems sober. I do it the other way around: sober, I am shy.
But somewhere around the tenth glass logic goes out the window; then writing verse delights me, and I blush no more.
I praise the span of being, praise it to the full; I am a specialist in saying yes, just as respectable citizens like it.
Whoever knows the joys of life may lick his lips. Besides, we have been granted the right to drop dead tomorrow.
© 2020 Eda Zari. All rights reserved. Eda Zari notes the deliberately vernacular, playful register of her Albanian rendering. Photo: Hermann Hesse by Fred Stein.
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