Ingeborg Bachmann ,"Do not decree faith on this race"

Verordnet diesem Geschlecht keinen Glauben
[Do not decree faith on this race]

Do not decree faith on this race,
stars, ships and smoke are enough;
it is concerned with things, determines
stars and mathematical infinity,
and a trait, call it trait of love,
emerges more purely from it all.

The heavens hang limp, and stars come loose
from the juncture with moon and night.

(translated by Johannes Beilharz)