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This poem is taken from PN Review 159, Volume 31 Number 1, September - October 2004.

Sixteen Poems (translated by Richard Dove) Friedericke Mayröcker

like Giacometti :
shadow of evening
(wie Giacometti : Schatten des Abends)

statuette
of spring: Etruscan
hermaphrodite naked, cool bronze
figure between the panes, a
little obscured by the flaking rose in
purple, I comprehend the long-drawn-out
body, the greenish pelvis, the deep
cleft between its girlish breasts - l
ong narrow moon of the navel, between
the ribs as happened to me when
the seeing hand of the doctor glided
along my breastbone, candid
locality cardiac congestion nearly
not to be localised, nearly not aware
...


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