Ernest WICHNER (Germany) was born in Romania in 1952. He studied German and Romanian literature at the West University of Timișoara. In 1975 he emigrated to West Berlin, where he continued his studies of German literature and political science at the Freie Universität. After many years of working for the Literaturhaus Berlin, he served as its director from 2003 to 2017. Wichner’s literary works include poetry and essay collections as well as numerous adaptations and translations of Romanian. In 2005, Wichner was awarded the city of Münster’s International Poetry Prize. His translation of Cătălin Mihuleacs has been nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize.
Matthiola
you hang up the phone and now don’t want to live any more,
it’s the last straw and every path’s been tread. where once was a
god, now a gaping hole in the wall, yet your flowers
stand in the garden closely framed by walls and bloom at the
evening, today they’ll still bloom at night and
exude their heavy fragrance as if you had tried
to push back the night into that summer of sixty-five
when my naked legs landed with pinking shears in the flower bed
near the matthiola. their fragrance lay like spilled
perfume in the garden, the whole summer long straddling each
night and only falling silent when storms raged, yet when
lightening glimmered in the distance, it was the first to reawaken.
another decade passed, we moved westward. now
you don’t want to live any more and hang up the phone, leave
me behind, the small garden still in view, and from the
corner of the room i know i’m being watched by your empty shoes.
(Translated by Laurie Schwartz)
恩尼斯特．維茨納（德國），1952年生於羅馬尼亞，曾於蒂米什瓦拉西方大學學習德語文學和羅馬尼亞語文學，1975年移居柏林，並於柏林自由大學進修德語文學和政治學。多年來一直在柏林文學館工作，2003至2017年間擔任館長。維茨納的文學作品包括詩歌集和散文集，以及眾多羅馬尼亞語的改編與翻譯。2005年獲頒明斯特國際詩歌獎，譯著Cătălin Mihuleacs獲提名萊比錫書展大獎。
紫羅蘭
你放下聽筒，不想活了，
忍無可忍，無路可走。神存在過的
地方，現在卻是牆上一個裂開的洞，而你的花朵
卻密密地矗立於圍牆內的花園中，在黃昏
盛開，今天晚上依舊綻放，
瀰漫著濃郁的芳香，彷彿你曾努力
把晚上拖回從前的六十五個夏天
我赤裸雙腳，如鋸齒的剪刀
落在紫羅蘭附近的花床上。花的芳香就像是
打翻的香水，每天晚上整個夏天遍地
四散，只有在雷暴怒吼時，沉默不語，卻當閃電
在遠處閃爍時，搶先一步再次甦醒。
另一個十年過去，我們移居西部，但我
仍獨自找尋可以形容你悲傷的文字。現在
你不想活了，並放下聽筒，等著我
回來，小小的花園重現眼前，而在房間一角
我意識到，你空著的鞋子在凝視著我。
（翻譯﹕歐建梆）