In a summer
                                       wie er nie wieder war
I found the name
                                       Wulf Kirsten
                     the line in a
poem
                                       Seestück
                     which title took on depth
as the summer became more and more that way
                     you are from Lake country
                                       Minnesota
                     where
wahr ist nichts als der nachtatem des sees
                     I
want to think now as
                     a romantic that
might have drawn my next to last
                     but what I would
rather point you to is offhand Kirsten
in the
                                       mir nichts
                                       dir nichts
                     of
                                       Ödland
                     I would
translate it to you extempore
                     make you
                     see
a not too odd old man of the world to
whom love is not a something
                                       was der land-
                                       wirtschaft nutzen abwirft
                     there or where we work
nothing id est to you to me
                     who reads
German
                     someone not to be met with an in-
visible yawning
                                       Rodney’s so gifted
                     mute commentary
and who may be up to
hitting the hay with a woman once in
a while as well
                     but now I would rather think
of the lines of a poem
                     a chance that
you might like them in and for themselves
                                       and me
 
GLOSSARY 

wie er, etc                  the like of which would not come again
Seestück                   Lake Piece
wahr ist nichts, etc     truth is nothing but the night breath of the
                                 lake
mir nichts, etc            nothing to you, nothing to me
was der, etc                of any use in farming