.
Berlin Street Scene: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), 1913-14, oil on canvas, 121 x 95 cm (Neue Galerie, New York)
Not that I intend this to have a political sense,
no not at all, biography of another, tenderer sort
is what I will sketch here, say she has
an unutterably significant behind.
With a deep cleavage she looked enchantingly fine
and would sit with propriety never before beheld,
a tuft of feathers tucked in her hair,
gleaming and gracious there at a table-d'hôte.
If she passes me by, she measures me not
with a single glance, not even the tiniest. Years
she lived in solitude, whisking down alleyways,
claiming, fabulously, that she was an Empress. Once
she gave me a smile, and I feel it was
a thousand years since ever she did so, not
that the lady was elegant, that I demur to claim,
yet with her eyebrows alone,
which seemed to belong to a countess,
she possibly could in my maybe a bit
arch-professorial view resolve
all the problems besetting our continent. Her hand,
O how beautiful! Only to kiss it was all
the sum, for months, of my wishes; index enough
of her merit, the worth she presented, enchantress.
I alone in reality know her,
the lady who calls herself Empress Europa.
RobertWalser (1878-1956): Not that I intend this to have a political sense (December 1928) from RobertWalser: Thirty Poems, selected and translated by Christopher Middleton: Christine Burgin/New Directions 2012
Berlin Street Scene (detail): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), 1913-14, oil on canvas, 121 x 95 cm; image by Matthew Felix Sun, 15 September 2010 (Neue Galerie, New York)
Street Scene, Berlin: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), 1913, oil on canvas, 120.6 x 91 cm; image by maru press, 15 July 2012 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Street Scene, Berlin (detail): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), 1913, oil on canvas, 120.6 x 91 cm; image by cashoutcurse, 15 August 2008 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Five Women in the Street: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1913, oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm; image by mbell1975, 5 May 2012 (Museum Ludwig, Cologne)
Two Women in the Street: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1914, oil on canvas (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf)
Two Cocottes: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1914, oil on canvas
Red Cocotte: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), 1914, pastel on greyish white paper, 41 x 30.2 cm; image by masterpieceart, 25 March 2012 (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart)
Study for Red Cocotte: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1914, pencil, 20.5 x 16.6 cm (Brücke-Museum, Berlin)