How Should I Call Myself?

by Ingeborg Bachmann

Ingeborg Bachmann

Once I was a tree and bound,
then I slipped away as a bird and was free,
found tied in a ditch,
released me cracking a dirty egg.

How do I hold myself? I forgot,
where I come from and where I'm going
I am possessed by many bodies
a hard thorn and a fleeing deer.

I am a friend today to the maple branches,
tomorrow I'll rape the trunk...
When did guilt begin its round
with which I swam from seed to seed?

But a beginning is still singing in me
- or an end - and resist my flight,
I want to escape the arrow of this guilt
who looks for me in grain of sand and wild duck.

Maybe one day I can recognize myself
a dove a rolling stone...
Only one word is missing! what should i call myself
without being in another language.





Last updated October 31, 2022