Poems by Gunnar Translated by Klein Voorhees

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Plane Trees, Late Summer

See, even their branches crave reprieve,

just a few days’ rest,

and see how those alleys

end: answerless.

Feel this August

still humming on the lakes’ breeze,

already tolling the hour you must leave

and forget this haunt.

Go on then, you know 

the ropes in those alleys

and beneath the branches that crave reprieve,

that is where you are at home.

Platanen, Spätsommerlich

Sieh ihre Zweige noch um Aufschub flehen,

um Tage bloss,

und sieh, wie die Alleen

enden: antwortlos.

Spür den August

noch summen auf den Seen,

doch schon von einer Stunde, da du gehen

und vergessen musst.

Gehe, du kennst dich aus,

in den Alleen

und unter Zweigen, die um Aufschub flehen,

bist du zu Haus.

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Untitled

In the thousandfold Tolling of the Mountaintop,

in all the soaring Hours

lives Your Silence.

In the swollen, stunning Rainscent,

rising from the soil of the Grave,

You pronounce Your Second Coming.

I sublimate before You

like Snow beneath sobbing Spring Wind.

My renounced Life is consumed

by those Springfires.

Your Silence heralds

my Sleep, 

that final Homegoing 

in the Singing Winds.

Kein Titel

Im tausendfältigen Läuten der Gipfel,

in allen aufstrebenden Stunden

lebt Dein Schweigen.

Im vollen, betäubenden Regenduft,

der aus Gräbererde steigt, 

kündet sich Deine Wiederkunft an.

Ich werde hinfällig vor Dir

wie der Schnee unterm schluchzenden Föhn.

Mein abgetanes Leben verbrennt

mit den Frühlingsfeuern.

Es läutet Dein Schweigen

meinen Schlaf ein,

den Heimgang ins Singen

der Winde.

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Klein Voorhees (they/them/theirs) is a poet, artist, and translator from North Carolina. They received their MFA from California College of the Arts in 2022 Their work has been featured or is forthcoming in Asymptote Journal, Degenerate Art Magazine, and St. Mary’s Processing Crisis: An Anthology, among other publications. You can find more of their work at www.kleinvoorhees.com

Not much can be definitively said of the pseudonymous writer “Gunnar,” other than that they wrote and published poetry, prose, and essay from the 1960s onward. Based on archives and the translator’s own investigations, Gunnar’s writing was published in the magazine Der Kreis, a monthly Swiss publication for homosexual men which featured art, literature, journalism, and reviews, and later anthologies of work from the magazine. According to Ernst Ostertag, a former staff member of Der Kreis, members and contributors to the magazine all used pseudonyms to maintain safety. Though we may never know Gunnar’s true identity, it is my hope that their work will further illuminate the rich history of queer experience and literature in Europe.

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2 August 2022