Muller: Poem of the Day

Heart of Darkness Adapted from Joseph Conrad

by Heiner Muller

In the hard-currency-bar of the Hotel METROPOL

Berlin Capital of the GDR a Polish whore

A foreign worker is hitting

Up a very old man with a cold

Between the chapters of his lecture

About freedom in the U.S.A.

He snorts into a snot-rag and yells for the trash can

Still feeling pity for her difficult profession

I hear two travelling salesmen

Bavarian from the sound of it

Dividing up Asia: WELL I WOULD LIKE MALAYSIA

THAILAND KOREA TOO IS PART OF IT

WELL I WOULD ALSO PLAN THE CROSS-TRACK SYSTEM

FOR YEMEN THEN

THAT WOULD TAKE CARE OF IT

CHINA IS PART OF IT TOO

CHINA IS THE ONLY PROJECT THAT'S BEEN SOLD

In the elevated train ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN

FRIEDRICHSTRASSE

I came to know two citizens of the GDR

One of them says My son three weeks old

Was born with a sign in front of his chest

I WAS IN THE WEST ON THE NINTH OF NOVEMBER

My daughter same age I have twins

Carries the inscription ME TOO

THE HORROR THE HORROR THE HORROR