A Translation & 2 Poems - Sally Burnette

The Day of the Faces
(Translated from "Der Tag der Gesichter" by Thomas Bernhard)
 
Tomorrow is the day of the faces.  They will
     rise like dust
     and break out in laughter.
Tomorrow is the day of the faces, who have
     fallen into the potato-earth.  I can
     not deny, that I
     am guilty of these dyings of shoots.
I am guilty!
Tomorrow is the day of the faces, who wear
     my pain on the forehead,
     who own my day’s work.
Tomorrow is the day of the faces, who dance
     like flesh on the graveyard wall
     and reveal Hell to me.
     Why must I see Hell?  There is no
                                             other way
to God?

A Voice:  There is no other way!  And this
                                                               way
     leads over the day of the faces,
     it leads through hell.






Copyright

The voice imitator said, when asked, that, no, he could not imitate his own voice.  Not because, as it was suspected, he had no voice, not because (he didn’t like to admit this) his voice was made up of every voice that he had ever heard, but because (and this is true) his voice was copyrighted and he could be held responsible for any infringement.







Grocery Store Pickup


I saw you                   Walt Whitman
                                                                        (Nice   tomateyou)
childless         lonely 
Wanna see     what              this cucumber
                                        can do?

old grubber              
            I’ve bean looking for a man                       or woman                              like you
poking
            among the meats
                                                aged like this fine wine
 in the refrigerator
                                    I put my Louisiana andouille                    in your silver basket
and                             eyeing the grocery boys                   rye looks     perfect
for an us sandwich