 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Elevation for bed alcove ca. 1790 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Elevations for bed alcoves before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Two bed canopies before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
ADVERTISEMENT
But where are we going
carefree be carefree
when it grows dark and when it grows cold
be carefree
but
with music
what should we do
cheerful and with music
and think
cheerful
in facing the end
with music
and to where do we carry
best of all
our questions and dread of all the years
to the dream laundry carefree be carefree
but what happens
best of all
when dead silence
sets in
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Bed alcove with standing figure ca. 1790 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Bed alcove detail before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
THE LIBRARY
The shelves sing.
The volumes are weighted down with the past.
Their sweat is dust.
Their impulse is rigidity.
They no longer struggle.
They have saved themselves
upon the island of knowledge.
Sometimes they've lost their conscience.
Here and there, protruding
from them, human fingers
point directly towards life
or towards heaven.
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Canopy bed before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Canopy bed before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
ENIGMA
At the Nile at night, at the Nile,
where the stars hang down into your mouth
and your dry heart is moist once again,
in the Egyptian night,
where you have never been before, but soon will be,
in order to give the Sphinx your answer.
In the blue night,
as in an eternally open mouth the desert's tongue
seeks your moisture.
If it burns you up,
your exhausted grasp
will resemble my answer.
Life of my life,
savage mouth
that takes the breath away
and no longer allows a memory,
let me be myself,
let me be with you.
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Elevation for bed alcove before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Elevation for alcove before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Crest of canopy ca. 1790 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
CURRENT
So far in life and yet so near to death
that there's no one I can argue with now,
I rip from the earth my separate part;
I thrust its green wedge into the heart
of the calm ocean, as I wash aground.
Tin birds rise and cinnamon scents!
With my murderer, Time, I'm alone.
Drunk and blue we spin our cocoon.
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Design for royal tent before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Stage design - Pavilion with trophies of war before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Chair before 1809 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Giuseppe Barberi Family eating melons ca. 1800 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
– from Darkness Spoken: Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), translated by Peter Filkins (Brookline, Massachusetts : Zephyr Press, 2006)