Christine Lavant

1915-1973 / Lavant Valley, Carinthia

Shatter The Bell In My Ear

SHATTER THE BELL in my ear,
slash the knot in my throat,
warm my stifled heart
and ripen my eyeballs.

I came stunted from the womb.
O, had you thrown me to the sun
and to the dogstar at night! Your tenderness was to blame
that I rummaged too soon through the scene of the fire.

Who has extinguished my Earth too early?
There the bell would have been cast,
the knot burned and my heart set aglow,
my eyeballs would have a core.
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