I came to the city,where all people live –and I saw with great pain,that everybody was hexagonal,dodecagonal or octagonal –those, whom I didn’t know,laughed and said, I was an egg –and those, who loved me,turned grey and lamented,for one single […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the boy’s lament
where can I hidewhere can I hide,o tonight they will all comethey will all come from all over the world –o does there not exista single hiding placejust a single hiding placefor metonight –I am so scaredI shall die of […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: confession
priestess –!I pay tribute to you – finished your destiny rests –surewith giant bolts all the way through the earth –,unshakeable, like that, which has happened –,sure as the fall –one desireis your life – you know the great goal –among […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: wait
she waits –nothing is too great –bent over she sits –the brow stares –the night strings long longhumming velvet-bands through her open pupils –quietly the nostrils gropechoosing from the abundance –nothing is too great –patiently upwards-turned palms awaitsthe first drop –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: laughter
in despairI hurt the shrine,which you with temples and everythinghad bound with the thread of lovebeneath my heart,and it fell –among low remainsI saw you walkforever – long I wentcarrying my mad laughteramong the ruins –many came –none could build […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: don’t speak to me
so quietso quiet –don’t speak –! very very carefullyI must tread,if I am to find anything –,and alone I must go,if I am to find anything – yet I have found nothing –I have neitherfound my houseor my belovedor my […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: evening
I complained –:greater than everything was my beloved –,greater than everything – and I went – an evening by the sleeping riverI remembered,that the song about the great loveis played most wondrously with two stickson a piece of wood –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: my father
he staggeredand I caught his eyes –oh like wonderfully silenthelpless birds’ hearts they werewith the power of the great pain,which is art,shining in a glossy sea –o weakness assaulted me like a stormand I hit – a night, where one […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Ellen
ellen –, not was it my intention –ellen, today I will cometo pick you –lay something on the deep woundstoday –, just today –I shall pick you –you shallwe’ll go and eat under the trees –I do not know where […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the rain
the rain came –,and the men crouchedholding their rags of clothes up under their belliestheir backs blinking like oil pools in the nightand swayed back and forth,to pass the time –,their wet cheeks chewed sunflower-seeds,while the water ranand filled the […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: and god spoke
it was not god – the hands playedlike children in the dust of the road,and his eyes fluttered like white butterflies –and he whispered –: why do you hide your dreams-?why do you carry faces in front of your dreams […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: with closed eyes
it is as ifno stream can drown meno sorrow choke mecompletely –it is as iflove comes to meover all seas,because a soft chord always swaysinside me –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: dedication
on the road my heartbecame too heavy to carryhere I laid this part of itat the roadsidebut this as well belongs to you –herethe place, where I last restedand had to lay this –this as well belongs to you –over […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: untitled
we are human –why blame each otherfor being nothing but –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Fröding
your quiet laughtermade the gnawing sinsand wasted lives of othersa merry dance on sun-green meadows – I see the despairing fight,which tore your own mind to shreds –, and I remain silent –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Spinoza
on your sharp tubercular facethe calm of wisdom lay in sad smiles – your goodnesswas the helpful humor of your racetrained under the hot caresses of the inquisition – your faithhad the strength of clarityand the mildness of understanding –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the only one
– my beloved is beautiful –she awakens with her beautythe lurking tiger of my desire,and wipes the foam off its mouthwith the hands of her beauty –– my beloved is strong –she bathes my wounded limbsin the strong sea of […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: medicine
to draw arabesques of wordsis the comfort of lovesick younglings – I will cut stonesand sleep – I make a fist of my hand in my pocketand push the hat backwards, and art is beautiful again –
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: thank
dear –,I do not know, if your mind carries hidden wounds,I do not know your light and your dark hours,not your everyday’s –, but your smiles – you took my unrest,you gave my searching body rest –by you I was […]
Gustaf Munch-Petersen: ideal
I am only human,but one day I shalltear up the mountains of the earthand let them rattleby the ears of those who sleep –I am only human,but one day I shalltake the sun down from heavenand shine into all dark […]