My great-grandfather was a lard-dealer
and today
everyone still knows him
from Henndorf to Thalgau,
Seekirchen to Kästendorf,
and they hear his voice
and move
as one to his table
which was also the Lord's table.
In 1881, in spring,
he decided in favor of life: he planted
a vine along the wall of the house
and summoned the beggars;
Maria, his wife, she with the black ribbon,
gave him another thousand years of life.
He discovered the music of swine
and the fire of bitterness,
he spoke of wind
and of the weddings of the dead.
He wouldn't give a bacon-bit
for my bouts of despair.
T. Bernhard