The children are in love but do not know with what. They talk in gibberish, muse themselves into an indefinable pallor, and when they are completely at a loss they invent a language that maddens them. My fish. My hook. My fox. My snare. My fire. You my water. You my current. My earth. You my if. And you my but. Either. Or. My everything…my everything…They push one another, go for each other with their fists and scuffle over a counter-word that doesn’t exist.

The children are in love but do not know with what. They talk in gibberish, muse themselves into an indefinable pallor, and when they are completely at a loss they invent a language that maddens them. My fish. My hook. My fox. My snare. My fire. You my water. You my current. My earth. You my if. And you my but. Either. Or. My everything…my everything…They push one another, go for each other with their fists and scuffle over a counter-word that doesn’t exist.

– Ingeborg Bachmann –

The Thirtieth Year: Stories

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