After Nature by Winfried Georg Sebald & Winfried Georg Sebald

Author:Winfried Georg Sebald & Winfried Georg Sebald [Sebald f.c]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: poetry
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: 2003-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

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On the twentieth of March, 1741,

Steller stepped into the long

blockhouse of the Petropavlovsk

command post on the eastern shore

of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

In a windowless recess, no larger

than six feet by six, at the far end

of the building’s interior,

in no other way subdivided, he finds,

at a table of planks nailed together,

covered by land maps

and sea charts showing

vast tracts of whiteness,

Bering, the Commandant-captain,

his fifty-nine-year-old

head supported by his

right hand tattooed

with a bird’s unfolded wings,

the left hand holding

a pair of dividers,

sitting motionless

in a flickering light.

It takes an uncannily

long time, Steller thinks,

for Bering to open

his eyes and look

at him. What is this

being called human?

A beast, shrouded

in deep mourning,

in a black coat

lined with

black fur.

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