The Untranslatable: Verschlimmbessern

By Thomas Page

This is a series of poems of words that do not directly translate into English. I have tried to capture the essence of the word in a poem.

 

Have you ever tried to put out a fire at a banquet

Only to have the reams of white set ablaze after she threw the bouquet?

 

Or maybe after a long, sweaty day some good food

Only for it to be a little bit of dinner drenched in blood?

 

Or that one time when you were going to pursue whatever you see Love as again

Only for it to be a forecast of disasters imbued with rain?

 

Or perhaps you were in class trying to read

Only for your mind to activate the mode called dead?

 

Or maybe, just maybe, it was something you said

That made everyone put your intelligence in the coffin laid?

 

You know?

 

Language of Origin: German