for Anna Akhmatova
To one who's never been stunned by a word,
and I say to you all.
Who only knows how to help himself
and only with words -
he cannot be helped.
Not over the short term
and not over the long.
To create a single lasting sentence,
to persevere in the ding-dong of words.
No one writes this sentence
who does not sign her name.
Ingeborg Bachmann
1965
1 comment:
Love the poem, and the name Ingeborg jumped out at me. I have 8 women with the first name of Ingeborg in my family tree. All from Norway!
Guess even though we would consider it an uncommon name, it must have been quite common in the Scandinavian countries.
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