THIS OLD HAMMER IT SHINES LIKE SILVER
IT HAS NO MORE WEIGHT - THE OLD SILVER HAMMER
FLEW AWAY FROM THE HANDS OF THE BLACKSMITH
AND IS CLICKING ON THE NAILHEADS HIGH IN THE WINTER SKY
Or the quill. This too is a form thought can take.
A source of troubles all your life. In what manner
is a lord a porcupine? A pacifist? A mathematician? A philosopher?
In what manner is the United States
accountable to logic? - An irreducible quill
waits in the dragon that swallows us. One day
the victim will pierce the heart of the killer. From inside.
With truth. It's the only weapon. The only defence. Because
the difference between love and logic
is smaller than most of us believe. It was
what he proved. It had to be proved.
Jaan Kaplinski (born 1941) Estonia
Translated by the author with Fiona Sampson
(Dr. H.H. Roth related the story of a python in the Erfurt Zoo which died after a long residence there. The post mortem found that the cause of death was a quill the animal had ingested while it was still free.)
Dr. Erna Mohr, Altweltliche Stachelschweine
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