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GoetheInstitute

02/06/2006

An acrostic for Deutschland

The glories of the German football team bring out the poet in Robert Gernhardt.

Swept up in World Cup fever the Folio magazine of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung commissioned a whole string of authors to elucidate on their respective teams' chances of victory. Read Rodrigo Fresan on Argentina, Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro on Brazil, Andrew Anthony on England, Herve Le Teiller on France and Leon de Winter on the Netherlands. More to follow as the championship approaches...

Germany will win, there's no denying -
Everyone agrees, or else they're lying!
Right it is, that the world's fixed its eyes on
Multitalent on the Deutsche horizon.

Allow me the luxury of generalizing,
No need for me here to be proselytizing.
Yes, each of our boys is his weight in gold;
With skills like theirs' a poet's made bold.

In citing the one or the other credential,
Lose sight I would of all the potential
Lying in wait in that mystical being

Which goes by the name of the German team.
Its victorious wings will carry it up;
Not a thing can prevent it from taking that cup!


*

This poem forms part of compilation of writings originally published in the Neue Zürchner Zeitung magazine Folio on May 2, 2006.

Robert Gernhardt is a writer and painter who lives in Frankfurt am Main.

Loose translation: lp

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