From Flight and Metamorphosis, a poetry collection, which will be published in March by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sachs (1891–1970) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966. Translated from the German.

White serpent
polar circle
wings in granite
pink sorrow in the iceblock
forbidden zones around the mystery
heartpounding miles from distance
wind chains hanging on homesickness
flaming shell of fury—

And the snail
with the ticking pack of God-time.