Arnon Grunberg

Curtained window

Gasfitter

Around 21:30 I got the hiccups.
I was having dinner with a theologian and we were discussing Achterberg’s poems in Coetzee’s translation:

“1

Ballad of the Gasfitter

You must have made your entry from the rear.

To each house in the row I turn my glance

and in each curtained window catch a glimpse

of You, as out of nothing You appear.”