"Else Lasker-Schüler's poems are small red fires of passion in a time of total darkness. At great cost, she rescued her innocence from the brutality of the Nazi age and tested the resilience of her Jewish soul. In these translations, Janine Canan renders into English both the lyrical intensity of that endeavor, and the palpable danger and mystery that made it possible. This is travel at root-level."-Andrei Codrescu
Night Secret
I have chosen you
among all these stars.
Am awake, a listening flower
in the buzzing bush.
Our lips long to make honey,
our shimmering nights are in full bloom.
From your body's holy spark
my heart lights its heaven.
All my dreams hang from your gold.
I have chosen you among all these stars.
