Unter den Linden I explore new spaces
with the fear of one who meditates
escape yet gets lost at the very start,
interrogate a possible defence
among voiceless, nameless faces marching
within the metro's suffocating closeness,
run aground in ice-white loneliness
while the desert underworld proceeds
given that right now, Unter den Linden,
the lime-trees' peace and their shade are as nothing
since I am dispossessed, and of myself
have only the old, sad witness I bear.

Translated by Christopher Whyte