O Little Root of a Dream

by Paul Celan

Translated by Heather McHugh and Nikolai Popov

O little root of a dream

you hold me here

undermined by blood,

no longer visible to anyone,

property of death.

Curve a face

that there may be speech, of earth,

of ardor, of

things with eyes, even

here, where you read me blind,

even

here,

where you

refute me,

to the letter.

from: The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: Selections from the 2001 Shortlist, published by House of Anansi Press.