Translation

She is pouting by the river Tier when I find her soaking her misery like dirty clothing.

She throws a pale glare down the river, singing my favorite song loudly. It is a dare, though I can see her pointed shoulders heaving.

I sing badly.

I can’t touch her anymore since the baby. She thinks I will hurt the fetus. She knows the baby is a boy.

We don’t have any money.

On the river, a sullen boatman barely misses Blickes Licht point and she laughs, light

falling from her eyes. Sometimes I wish she would be swept away in the Falls.

The war is far away from here.

She has named the baby Raum after my father. The feminine is Raume and the baby is a girl. I sing Wandeln to the child every night, she sings Haltung, sometimes we sing Hals together.

I build a stone statue of her in the river Tier. It is cold and beautiful as a Stirnhorn woman.

When she becomes sick with the Jungfrau, I am terrified— the war is only miles away from here.