Marched through many views of the world,
through We and You and I
yet everything's been spoiled
by the eternal question, why?
Such questions do not survive youth.
There's just one thing--you learned late--
endure, mind, madness or myth,
your "you must" determined by fate.
Whether roses, dahlias, snow--yes,
it all washed away with the rain.
Two things remain: emptiness
and your cursed self, branded like Cain.
Gottfried Benn
Translated from the German by
Thomas Dorsett
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