Vent doux traverse les champs nus labourés et engraisses
par deux tractors
îlots d’arbres et d’arbustes pour traverser le pre
sur l’ancien chemin des morts
course obligatoire des cercueils juifs de toute la région
verse le seul lieu pour les accueillir
au croisement des chemins entre deux grands noyers mon regard relie soudain
ce qui essentialement crée ce pays
le ballon de l’est
le ballon de l’ouest le ballon du sud
triangle immémoriel
à ses pieds le serpent d’argent traverse la vaste plaine.
(Victor Saudan)
The wind blows mildly over fallow fields and fertilizes
by two tractors
tree and bush island half over echoo over the field uf em former tootewägli
obligatory rod for the Jewish coffin us dr whole gägend
hi to the only-n-place where it records
uf dr wagchrüzig zwusche zwee big nussböim brings my view ufsmool tame
what the country is creating
dr blue in east dr blue in west dr blue in south
drüegg us thankless cyt
a sym fuess d’silver snake where flows through the flat land.
(Victor Saudan)
les deux noyers
le monde se couche
entre les noyers très tot
rêve d’une autre nuit
(Martin Burr)
Dear nut trees, stay healthy and defy the black fungus that gnaws at you! What will become of us without you?
You are already in a lonely position. Hardly a hedge, all fields with corn, rape and wheat. Apart from ravens, you hardly hear any birds here and both of you are hardly inhabited. You stand in the midst of lush green or light brown fields. Sometimes a black flock rises from the green, makes a scattered arc through the sky, and settles again in another part of the field.
You too form an arch, touching each other with your branches in the air. Surely you touch each other with your root tips in the earth and thus secretly form a ring through which we are allowed to walk.
A plane, once again, tears through the air above us. can you hear that
You just stand there. “Mangi fi rek”, say the Senegalese: “I’m just there”. This is the answer to the greeting: “Nanga def?”, “How are you?”. “mangi fi rek”, a tree might also say. And if he feels bad
would go: “I can’t bear to stand here!” After all, there are two of you. Your two strong trunks are sticking out
of the earth, branching out beyond my reach,
and, higher up, you branch again into thick branches which continue to branch and taper until from the
tips of a tangle reminiscent of veins your leaves and blossoms sprout. Blossoms like fat, light green worms and barely recognizable leaflets make you appear bald and naked. Your tree bark is furrowed. Lichens have settled on it. They sprinkle your dark gray color with yellow, light gray and dark green. As I engage with you in this way, I experience feelings of friendship, for you give me a warm and powerful calm, and your beautiful appearance amazes me. I realize that a tree is never a stranger to me, where there are trees I feel at home.
(Mimi von Moss)