Donald Finkel
Born
in New York, New York, The United States
October 21, 1929
Died
November 15, 2008
Genre
![]() |
A Splintered Mirror: Chinese Poetry from the Democracy Movement
2 editions
—
published
1991
—
|
|
![]() |
Not So the Chairs
by
—
published
2003
|
|
![]() |
What manner of beast: Poems
3 editions
—
published
1981
—
|
|
![]() |
Adequate Earth
2 editions
—
published
1972
—
|
|
![]() |
The Wake of the Electron
|
|
![]() |
The Detachable Man
4 editions
—
published
1984
—
|
|
![]() |
The Garbage Wars
—
published
1970
|
|
![]() |
Answer Back
—
published
1968
|
|
![]() |
Endurance: An Antarctic Idyll
2 editions
—
published
1978
—
|
|
![]() |
Endurance and Going Under
|
|
“I have taken the liberty of quoting at length throughout from the gospels of the Emperor penguins. To them I owe a special debt of gratitude for their remarkable patience.”
― Adequate Earth
― Adequate Earth
“Vogelfanger"
Play with birds and one day the birds
begin to play with you.
First sparrows, little,
with a darting life of their own:
they arrange themselves,
there, among crumbs, or on wires,
a fine distribution!
Then one rises, and another,
past your face,
a flutter of beads and feathers.
Suddenly the astonished sky is full
of nails, knocked like stars
in the roof, to keep
the whole blue nothing up.
Who'll buy my sparrows?
Who'll listen to their quarrels
and comprehend?
They hop up and down in their cages
like guilty secrets.
Lightly the air
presses down on our shoulders
its great blue thumbs,
lightly, as if afraid to hurt us.
What will you do when the sky falls,
brother? See?
the sparrows hold it up:
pray to them.”
―
Play with birds and one day the birds
begin to play with you.
First sparrows, little,
with a darting life of their own:
they arrange themselves,
there, among crumbs, or on wires,
a fine distribution!
Then one rises, and another,
past your face,
a flutter of beads and feathers.
Suddenly the astonished sky is full
of nails, knocked like stars
in the roof, to keep
the whole blue nothing up.
Who'll buy my sparrows?
Who'll listen to their quarrels
and comprehend?
They hop up and down in their cages
like guilty secrets.
Lightly the air
presses down on our shoulders
its great blue thumbs,
lightly, as if afraid to hurt us.
What will you do when the sky falls,
brother? See?
the sparrows hold it up:
pray to them.”
―