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Rita Ann Higgins

Ask the Concierge

  • 1 Ask the Concierge | Translations: de
  • 2 Edict | Translations: de
  • 3 He Knows No Artichokes | Translations: de
  • 4 The Immortals | Translations: de
  • 5 Ireland is changing Mother
  • 6 Light of the Moon
  • 7 Our Brother the Pope | Translations: ru
  • 8 Some People | Translations: de
  • 9 The Did-You-Come-Yets of the Western World | Translations: de
  • 10 Woman's Inhumanity to Woman | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (Frag den Concierge)
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Ask the Concierge

The demented walk tricky step here
jittery footfall, fractious jibe.
They bicker in the ‘everything for a $ shop’
later when the energy is spent
they sit with their own selves
their underweight psyche.

One begs outside a shop called ‘seduction’
underwear to raise the titanic
healthy looking mannequins with brazen breasts
balefulls of Canadian promise.
They come hither you but you never come hither them.
Their chilling look deceptive, their cherry lips,
kiss me kiss me, but only in your dreams loser.

Further down the street of the black squirrel
a shop owner boasts about the underground,
you should see our underground
safest in the world, no one ever gets plugged here.
In a doorway above Hades, a policeman tells a man with no legs,
my name is zero tolerance have you a licence for that rig?
My name is zero tolerance, where is your mud guard?

The concierge have the real power here
they take one look at your baggage, one look at you
haversacks disgust them, owners  and trainers of haversacks disgust them more.
Cross them and you will never see one drop of Niagara fall.
They wide step and side eye you,
in their loose suits,  hair oil up their sleeves,
their feet are made of sponge.
They deal in looks and eyebrow raising
The Concierge code, uncrackable to the luggage losers.

Back down on the high street
I ask the man outside ‘seduction’ if I can take his picture.
Don’t ask me, I have no picture to give or take,
what you see is what you get, you see nothing you get less.

What the concierge seeks he finds
he pirouettes, he plucks, he spins he flies
where the concierge lives, the beggar dies.

© Rita Ann Higgins
From: Unpublished Manuscript
Audio production: 2008 Literaturwerkstatt Berlin

Translations:

Language: german

Frag den Concierge

Die Verrückten gehen hier unsicheren Schritts,
Vorsichtiger Fußfall, spitzer Spott.
Sie zanken sich im McGeiz
Und später, kaum ist die Energie verpufft,
Sitzen sie bei den übrigen Persönlichkeiten
Ihrer untergewichtigen Psyche.

Einer bettelt vor dem Laden ‚Verlockungen’,
Die Titanic könnt man mit solcher Unterwäsche heben,
Dralle Mannequins mit schamlosen Brüsten
Randvoll kanadischer Verheißung.
Sie betören dich, du sie nie.
Trügerisch der eisige Blick, die Kirschlippen,
Küss mich, küss mich, träum weiter, Loser.

Die Straße des schwarzen Eichhörnchens hinab
Protzt ein Ladenbesitzer mit der Untergrundbahn,
Unsere Untergrund solltet ihr sehen,
Sicherste in der Welt, hier wird keiner zum Opfer.
Eine Tür überm Hades sagt ein Polizist dem Mann ohne Beine,
Keine Gnade ist mein Name, haben Sie einen Führerschein für Ihr Gefährt?
Keine Gnade ist mein Name, wo sind die Kotflügel?

Die Concierge haben hier die wahre Macht
Sie werfen nur einen Blick aufs Gepäck, nur einen auf Dich
Rucksäcke widern sie an, vor allem Rucksackträger, Rucksacktrainer.
Komm ihnen quer, und Du siehst nie einen Tropfen vom Niagara-Fall.
Groß geben sie bei, glotzen kleinäugig
Im Schlabberlook, Haaröl am Ärmel,
Die Füße aus Schwamm.
Sie dealen mit Blicken, hochgezogenen Brauen,
Ein Concierge-Code, den kein Gepäckverlierer knackt.

Zurück auf der Hauptstraße
Frage ich den Mann vor ‚Verlockung’, ob ich ein Foto von ihm nehmen darf.
Fragen Sie mich nicht, ich habe keine Fotos zu geben, keine zu nehmen,
Was man sieht, ist, was man kriegt, sieht man nichts, kriegt man weniger.

Was der Concierge sucht, findet er,
Er dreht Pirouetten, protzt, wirbelt und fliegt,
Wo der Concierge lebt, sterben Bettler.

Aus dem Englischen von Bernhard Robben
previous poem
   (Woman's Inhumanity...)
1 / 10
nächstes Gedicht
(Edict)   
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Rita Ann Higgins

* 26.05.1955, Galway, Ireland
lives in: Galway, Ireland

Rita Ann Higgins, born in Galway in 1955, has published numerous volumes of poetry, as well as several plays. One of 11 children, Higgins left school at 14 and first began to be interested in writing during a long stay in hospital in her 20s.

In an interview she described her decision to become a poet with a typical lack of pretension: 'You didn’t have to worry about tenses and verbs. You could write a poem without a verb, and if you didn’t know what a verb was – and I didn’t – it was ok.' Her poems, similarly ironic in tone, have been awarded numerous prizes.

Higgins has held the post of Writer-in-Residence at several Irish Universities, undertaken readings at Oxford, Queens, and Yale University - where her poems are also part of the Literature Curriculum - and at conferences in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and Israel. Her poems have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Dutch, French and Swedish.

Publications
  • Goddess on the Mervue Bus

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1986

  • Witch in the Bushes

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1988

  • Goddess and Witch

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1990

  • Face Licker Come Home

    [Play / Theaterstück]

    First produced: Punchbag Theatre, Galway

    Salmon Publishing, 1991

  • Philomena's Revenge

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1992

  • God of the Hatch Man

    [Play / Theaterstück]

    First produced: Taibhdhearc na Gallimhe, Republic of ireland

    Unpublished, 1993

  • Higher Purchase

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1996

  • Sunny Side Plucked: New and Selected Poems

    Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1996

  • Throw in the Vowels: Selected Poems

    Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2005

Links
  • Rita Ann Higgins' Official Website

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