Excursion

Houellebecq at 15 travels with his class.

Germany is a story and he’s shoved in his bag

a volume by Pascal.

The column moves in near-inexplicable order:

all anyone sees is the backs of their heads

and they jostle down the Ku’dam.

It happens that the space between them

grows.

Then they gaze at their shoes, crack jokes,

pay no attention to the heavenly girls

as they stumble.

Here they are – people with no chains,

with no death penalty,

who are being killed by love.

Some already are, some will be.

Imagine a line of the unhinged

with exposed arms and legs,

as yet without bodies,

who will love one another,

be free.

Translated by Tom Phillips

The Bulgarian text first appeared in Празна зора/Empty dawn (Small Stations Press, 2019)