Anna Ospelt
Winter 2023 | Poetry
In search of a nesting place
I walk through thin branches
the child sleeps
dreams
(the) brood
(I) blackbird
(the) egg
a first crack in the shell
yolk-yellow flowers in my hair
the child dictates
when I can write
quiet inbetweentimes
the fox-colored cat sees the stroller
I bathe the child in the lake
tadpoles swim around it
grate at its toes
the child laughs
in search of writing material
I always want to nurse
falling asleep as I do
dreaming
waking
in other countries
I teach the child foreign languages
it shows me how to coo
the blackbird sees me in the same place
once again
picking pencil tips beyond the bend
mythical creatures appear in my texts
fireflies line the path.
Translated into English by Anne Posten, with adjustments from Anna Ospelt.
The Poem ist part of the Book “Frühe Pflanzung” (early planting) by Anna Ospelt , published in 2022, Limmat Verlag, Zürich, Switzerland.
Anna Ospelt, born in 1987 in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Studied sociology, media and education studies in Basilea. She publishes poetry and short stories in literary magazines and anthologies. For her book "Wurzelstudien", she received, among others, a scholarship from the Nantesbuch Foundation as part of the German Prize for Nature Writing and the Literary Colloquium Berlin, and was nominated for the Clemens Brentano Prize. In 2023, her new book "Frühe Pflanzung" was nominated for the European Union Literature Prize (EUPL). Anna Ospelt lives with her family in Vaduz.
Anne Posten translates prose, poetry, and drama from German. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, her translations of authors such as Anja Kampmann, Libuše Moníková, Peter Bichsel, Carl Seelig, Thomas Brasch, and Tankred Dorst, have appeared with Catapult, New Directions, Christine Burgin/The University of Chicago, Music and Literature, n+1, and VICE, among others. Her translation of Anja Kampmann’s High as the Waters Rise was shortlisted for the National Book Award. She is based in Berlin.