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        bkms
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    • Translates into 
      • abkhazian
        afar
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        arabic
        araucanian
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        azerbaijani
        bashkir
        basque
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        kannada
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        kazakh
        kirghiz
        korean
        kumyk
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        latvian
        lezghian
        lithuanian
        lushai
        macedonian
        malay
        malayalam
        maltese
        marathi
        mayan language
        mongolian
        nepali
        norwegian
        occitan
        oriya
        ossetic
        persian
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        rhaeto-romance
        romanian
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        sardinian
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        southern sami
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        swahili
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        tajik
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        telugu
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        turkish
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        udmurt
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        urdu
        uzbek
        vietnamese
        welsh
        yakut
        yiddish
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  •  

Steffen Jacobs

Bipolar

  • 1 Einem Gerüstbauer | Translations: nlhusl
  • 2 Festtagsgedicht | Translations: en
  • 3 Die Liebe im September | Translations: huslen
  • 4 Mystical Wife | Translations: en
  • 5 Alp | Translations: nlpt
  • 6 Möglichkeiten der Zusammenkunft | Translations: husl
  • 7 Kindertodtenlied
  • 8 Bipolar | Translations: nlen
  • 9 Übungen | Translations: hu
  • 10 Letzte Partie | Translations: en
  • 11 Einem Klassizisten zu Lebzeiten
Language: german
Translations: dutch (Bipolair), english (Bipolar)
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Bipolar

Eine unbekannte, verkantete Welt,
schlingernd zwischen zwei heißkalten Polen,
und nichts, das nicht jäh aus den Angeln schnellt,
kein Wesenszug, der nicht zu Schlacke zerfällt,
kein Haftstoff, der unter flüchtigen Sohlen
den Grenzgänger zwischen den Abgründen hält,
ist die Luft erst zu schneidend, um sie zu holen.

Verschollen die Suchtrupps, die Expeditionen
in ewiger Hitze, in brennendem Eis.
Zwischen dem Pol mit den klirrenden Zonen,
zwischen dem Pol mit den flirrenden Zonen
findet kein Ding seinen Daseinsbeweis.
Verloren die Suchtrupps, verloren ihr Ziel,
und von allem zuwenig, von allem zuviel.

Und du bist, der über die Ufer drängt,
die Dürre bist du, die ins Flußbett sinkt,
das Totenkopfschiff, das in Sturmwellen krängt,
der Tropenzyklon, der die Sturmwellen lenkt.
Ein Brand bist du, der in den Balken singt,
ein Du, das verlöscht und ein Du, das versengt,
die Asche, die Gärten und Gräber durchdringt.

Doch wie zwischen Hie, zwischen Da navigieren,
in statischen Strudeln, in reißenden Kalmen;
und wie zwischen Scylla, Charybdis lavieren,
ohne den Kurs aus dem Blick zu verlieren,
die Zunge gespickt mit zerraspelten Psalmen?
Sieh, wie die Schlünde nach Menschenfleisch gieren:
Fühlst du ihr Lecken, hörst du ihr Malmen?

Da reißt du dich fort, und du reißt dich entzwei,
doch plötzlich geschieht dir von außen ein Du.
Es sagt nur: Sei bei mir und stehe mir bei,
und nun bist du eins, denn ihr beide seid zwei.
Es sagt nur: Komm zu mir, denn du kommst mir zu,
es ist fast, als ob es schon immer so sei.
Und du (also du) sagst: Was immer ich tu,

so lange wir währen, bin ich nicht vorbei.

© Wallstein Verlag
From: Die Liebe im September. Gedichte.
Wallstein Verlag: Göttingen, 2010
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2015
Categories: rhymed stanza

Translations:

Language: dutch

Bipolair

Een wereld die gekanteld is en onbekend,
die schommelt tussen twee heetkoude polen,
en alles dat onverhoeds uit zijn hengsels vliegt,
elke karaktertrek die als gruis uiteenvalt,
want geen lijm houdt onder vluchtige zolen
de grensganger tussen de afgronden vast,
de lucht snijdt te erg om erin rond te dolen.

Verdwenen de zoekteams, de expedities
in eeuwige hitte, in brandend ijs.
Tussen de pool met de krakende zones,
tussen de pool met de zinderende zones
vindt niets van zijn bestaan nog een bewijs.
Spoorloos verdwenen de teams, hun posities,
te groot en te klein hun ambities.


En jij bent het die over de oevers stroomt,
de dorheid ben je die beddingen uitdroogt,
het doodshoofdschip dat in stormen slagzij maakt,
de tropische cycloon die de stormen uitbraakt.
Een brand ben je die in de balken blaakt,
een jij dat verschroeit en een jij dat dooft,
de as van een graf dat in tuinen wordt verstrooid.

Maar hoe tussen hier en tussen daar navigeren,
in statische kolken, in rukkende stilten,
en hoe tussen Scylla en Charybdis laveren
zonder de koers uit het oog te verliezen,
je tong vol geraspte heiligenliederen?
Zie hoe de muilen op mensenvlees azen:
voel je hen likken, hoor je hen malen?

Je sleurt jezelf mee, je scheurt je in twee,
maar opeens komt er vanbuiten een jij.
Het zegt slechts: wees bij me en sta me bij,
en dan word je één, want samen ben je twee.
Het zegt slechts: kom, want je past bij mij,
het lijkt haast of het steeds zo is geweest.
En jij (jij dus) zegt: wat ik ook uitvreet,

zo lang we blijven duren, ben ik niet voorbij.

Vertaling: Hilde Keteleer
Language: english

Bipolar

An unfamiliar, twisted world,

lurching between two hot and cold poles,

and nothing that’s not quickly unhinged,

no trait that doesn’t disintegrate into slag,

no adhesive beneath fleeting soles

that holds the frontier between the abysses,

the air is too cutting to grab it.


Lost search parties, expeditions

in eternal heat, in burning ice.

Between the pole with the clanking zones,

between the pole with the shimmering zones

no single thing finds its proof of existence.

Lost search parties, lost their goal,

and too little of everything and too much of all.


And you are the one who overflows,

you are the drought sinking into the riverbed,

the ship with the jolly roger careening in storm waves,

the tropical cyclone directing the storm waves.

You are a fire singing in the beams,

a you that extinguishes and a you that scorches,

the ash that permeates the gardens and the graves.


But how to navigate between here and there,

in static whirlpools, in raging calms;

and how to maneuver between Scylla and Charybdis,

without losing sight of the course,

tongue riddled with rasped psalms?

See how the chasms lust for human flesh:

Do you feel their licking, do you hear their grinding?


You tear yourself away and tear yourself in two,

then suddenly a you appears from the outside.

It just says: stay with me and help me,

and now you are one since the two of you are two.

It just says: come to me, because you come to me,

it’s almost like it’s always been that way.

And you (that is, you) say: whatever I do


as long as we endure, I am not over.

Translated by Shane Anderson
previous poem
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Steffen Jacobs

photo © Theresia Jacobs
* 04.04.1968, Düsseldorf, Germany
lives in: Berlin, Germany

Steffen Jacobs, born in 1968 in Düsseldorf, lives in Berlin. He is a poet, essayist, translator and editor of representative poetry anthologies (Die komischen Deutschen, Zweitausendeins 2004; Die liebenden Deutschen, Zweitausendeins 2006) and was, under the pseudonym Jakob Stephan, a poetry critic (Lyrische Visite oder Das nächste Gedicht, bitte! Zürich: Haffmans 2000).

His prizes include the Hugo Ball Promotion Prize of the City of Pirmasens and the New York Fellowship of the Kranichstein Literature Prize and he is a member of the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature and of the PEN Centre Germany. Martin Mosebach has written about him, “Jacobs writes lean, elegant verse. Not only does he not know of the sacredness of metaphor, he does not use any metaphors either, which are generally expected as an identifying characteristic of poetry. … His verse has no fat, no sugar. It is fluent and civilised.”

 photo © Theresia Jacobs
Publications
  • Der Alltag des Abenteurers

    Gedichte

    Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 1996

  • Geschulte Monade. Gedichte.

    Gedichte

    Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 1997

  • Lyrische Visite oder Das nächste Gedicht, bitte!

    Essays.(unter dem Namen Jakob Stephan)

    Zürich : Haffmans, 2000

  • Angebot freundlicher Übernahme

    Gedichte

    Frankfurt am Main : Haffmans bei Zweitausendeins, 2002

  • Der Lyrik-TÜV

    Ein Jahrhundert deutscher Dichtung wird geprüft

    Essays

    Frankfurt am Main : Eichborn, 2007

  • Die Liebe im September

    Gedichte

    Göttingen : Wallstein, 2010

Awards
  • 1998 Kunstpreis Berlin, Förderungspreis Literatur

  • 2002 Hugo-Ball-Förderpreis der Stadt Pirmasens

  • 2004 New-York-Stipendium zum Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis

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