SUNDAY READING | CONVERSATION IN THE MOUNTAINS BY PAUL CELAN

- ON THE STONE IS WHERE I LAY, BACK THEN, YOU KNOW, ON THE STONE SLABS; AND NEXT TO ME, THEY WERE LYING THERE, THE OTHERS, WHO WERE LIKE ME, THE OTHERS, WHO WERE DIFFERENT FROM ME AND JUST THE SAME, THE COUSINS; AND THEY LAY THERE AND SLEPT, SLEPT AND DID NOT SLEEP, AND THEY DREAMT AND DID NOT DREAM, AND THEY DID NOT LOVE ME, AND I DID NOT LOVE THEM, BECAUSE I WAS JUST ONE, AND WHO WANTS TO LOVE JUST ONE, AND THEY WERE MANY, EVEN MORE THAN THOSE LYING AROUND ME, AND WHO WANTS TO GO AND LOVE ALL OF THEM, AND - I WONT HIDE IT FROM YOU - I DID NOT LOVE THEM. THOSE WHO COULD NOT LOVE ME, I LOVED THE CANDLE THAT WAS BURNING THERE, TO THE LEFT IN THE CORNER, I LOVED IT BECAUSE IT WAS BURNING DOWN, NOT BECAUSE IT WAS BURNING DOWN, FOR IT WAS REALLY HIS CANDLE, THE CANDLE THAT HE, THE FATHER OF OUR MOTHERS, HAD KINDLED, BECAUSE ON THAT EVENING A DAY BEGAN, A CERTAIN ONE, A DAY THAT WAS THE SEVENTH, THE SEVENTH, ON WHICH THE FIRST WAS TO FOLLOW, THE SEVENTH AND NOT THE LAST, I LOVED COUSIN, NOT IT, I LOVED ITS BURNING DOWN, AND YOU KNOW, I LOVED NOTHING MORE SINCE THEN.