Nelly Sachs: The Swan

Nothing
above the waters
and at once on the flick of an eye
is suspended
swanlike geometry
rooted in water
vining up
and bowed again
Swallowing dust
and measuring the universe
with air – 


Tr. Michael Roloff. Nelly Sachs (1891-1970) was a German Jew who survived the Nazis by the skin of her teeth: she and her mother were allowed to board the last flight from Berlin to Sweden a year after WWII began. The experience of Nazi terror permanently affected her already delicate mental state. She was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1966 but since then seems to have fallen into near-obscurity. The portrayal of the swan emerging from invisibility "swallowing dust" may have echoes of her experience.