DAS MANTELWUNDER / THE MIRACLE COAT / PUFOAICA MAGICA

POSTED IN Roland January 8, 2022

DAS MANTELWUNDER / THE MIRACLE COAT / PUFOAICA MAGICA

War es ein Patient meiner Mutter,
(mit der wir Kinder abends zum Bahnhof liefern,
die Oscar-Cohn-Straße an den Gleisen entlang,
zu schaun, ob ein Zug
mit entlassnen Kriegsgefangenen eintraf
und dem Vater, aus Jaroslawl in Russland),
war es ein Patient meiner Mutter,
der Mann mit dem Holzbein, noch aus dem ersten Krieg,
der dem Dreijährigen im eiskalten Zimmer
dieser düsteren Straße
den abweisend starrgrauen Stoff anmaß,
ihm den Wintermantel zu schneidern,
mit Watte gestopft, mit Steppnaht versehen,
im Hungerjahr sechsundvierzig?

ROLAND ERB

……………

THE MIRACLE COAT

Was it a patient of my mother
(whith whom us, children, went to the train station in the evening,
along Oscar-Cohn-Strasse tracks,
to see if a train
arrived with released prisoners of war
and the father, from Yaroslavl, Russia),
was it a patient of my mother
the man with the wooden leg, from the first war,
who measured the repellent, rigid gray fabric,
of the three-year-old in the freezing room
on the gloomy street
to tailor his winter coat,
stuffed with cotton wool, provided with stitching,
in the famine year forty-six?

…………..

PUFOAICA MAGICA

A fost un pacient al mamei mele
(cu care ne duceam noi, copiii, la gară seara,
de-a lungul sinelor Oscar-Cohn-Strasse,
spre a vedea dacă a sosit un tren
cu prizonieri de război eliberați
și cu tatăl, din Yaroslavl, din Rusia),
a fost un pacient al mamei mele
omul cu piciorul de lemn, din primul război,
care a masurat tesatura cenusie, respingatoare, rigida,
a copilului de trei ani din camera inghetata
de pe acea stradă mohorâtă
să-i croiască pufoaica,
umpluta cu vată, prevazuta cu cusături,
în anul patruzeci și șase de foamete?

 

traducere, M. M. Biela