Jakob van Hoddis: Weltende (The End of the World)

Wind blows hat off bourgeois' pointy head
Screaming gales resound in skies once blue
Steeplejacks go tumbling and lie dead
And on the coast, we read, the floods renew.

The storm is here, the big wild waves are smashing
Noses are by streaming colds assailed.
On land those big thick dams are crashing
And trains on high embankments get derailed.

Jakob van Hoddis (1911)

Translation © 2026 Jurek Kirakowski