We present this work in honor of the poet’s 100th birthday.

 

Coffee and apples on an afternoon in June.
In a lukewarm civiliesed corner
my senses take in a faintly abstract situation.
The world has become hospitable,
like a truce in the middle of history.
The apples give off a yellow radiance,
the coffee offers up its intimate steam.
In terms of my failure as a contemporary individual
all this seems sufficient,
the inner chill of apples,
the unstable heat of coffee,
two details from nature that escape my dominion.
So here am I with my sprawling backside
in some chamber adequate to my social class.
Gentle things put in a safe place,
Shut away from the general tumult.
But at times a bomb explodes on the ground floor
and the police show up to find out who is who in this world.

Translation by Richard Gwyn