This poem is taken from PN Review 24, Volume 8 Number 4, March - April 1982.
Two Poems (translated by Michael March and Jaroslaw Anders)
MR COGITO - THE RETURN
1.
Mr Cogito
decided to return
to the stone womb
of his country
the decision is a dramatic one
he would bitterly reproach himself
yet, he can no longer bear
the colloquial expressions
-comment allez-vous
-wie geht's
-how are you
these apparently simple questions
demand a complex answer
Mr Cogito tears off
the bandages of kind indifference
he stopped believing in progress
he is absorbed in his own wound
...
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