The proverb sounds flowery: Don’t delight in last year’s heaven - Don’t return - where some time was paradise, And stop fooling around - go there where you haven’t been. What does nature only make with us there! It is difficult for rumours to reach thither. There each person you meet - could be a tsunami! With storm in the soul and in the head! Peace is here, indeed, not to buy anyway - But you will come back, say your friends, In defiance of the proverb you will act - You will go there, where you met them once! What does nature only make with us here! It is difficult for rumours to reach hither. Sometimes tsunamis are born here And wreck everything in the soul and in the head! On the sea it is calm, but in the world there is no peace - The locator is looking for his object over the clouds, Alarm - if anything happens - Or the signal: Attention - Tsunamni! Today I propose a toast with friends! Tsunami is an indifferent wave. More awful calamities happen than tsunamis And joy is stronger than it!
© Elisabeth Jelinek. Translation, 2018