Nelly Sachs (born 10 December, 1891; died 12, May 1970), pictured above in a photograph made in the late 1960s
Line like
Line like
living hair
drawn
deathnightobscured
from you
to me.
Reined in
outside
I bend
thirstily
to kiss the end of all distances.
Evening
throws the springboard
of night over the redness
lengthens your promontory
and hesitant I place my foot
on the trembling string
of my death already begun.
But such is love─
(1959)
—translated from the German by Michael Hamburger
