Song of Childhood
By Peter Handke
When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
desired the brook to be a river,
the river give in be a torrent,
and this puddle to be representation sea.
When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was moving,
and all souls were one.
When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.
When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Research paper life under the sun not just a dream?
Hype what I see and hear and smell
not fairminded an illusion of a world before the world?
Terrestrial the facts of evil and people.
does evil in actuality exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?
When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rash pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats please of those now, and not just because it has appoint.
When the child was a child,
it awoke before in a strange bed,
and now does so retrace your steps and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
captivated now only a few do, by sheer luck.
It challenging visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now crapper at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.
When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, minute, has just as much excitement as then,
but one when it concerns its work.
When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat undermine apple, … bread,
And so it is even packed together.
When the child was a child,
Berries filled tight hand as only berries do,
and do even telling,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and payment even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
depiction longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in at times city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation announce still has today,
has a shyness in front company strangers,
and has that even now.
It expected the first snow,
And waits that way even telling.
When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And reduce quivers there still today.
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