from In Tattern

Uljana Wolf

We have nothing new to say on the question of the origin of these dispositional hypnoid states. They often, it would seem, grow out of the day-dreams which are so common even in healthy people and to which needlework and similar occupations render women especially prone.

         — Breuer/Freud, Studies on Hysteria, trans. by James Stratechy, 1895

I have bin told that after some hours I get my German language through speaking it very badly, [Schluß fehlt]

         — Anna O./Bertha Pappenheim, Bericht über ihre Krankheit

Lace is never for lace's sake. It is a way to tell a story.

         — Hildur Bjarnadóttir



















Deckchen aus Ringen und Bogen für Anfänger (vierte Runde):   1. Rg. 12 a 12 1. Bg. 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3























Grimm: tattern, s. dattern die gänse gehen und tattern miteinander.
CREIDIUS 1, 300



























































( Freud fragt: Wie kann ein solches Kamel durch das Nadelöhr? )


















translated from the German by Shane Anderson

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Listen to the poems read in the original German by the author:

Uljana Wolf was born in 1979 in Berlin and lives and works in Berlin and Brooklyn. She has published three volumes of poetry, kochanie ich habe brot gekauft (2005), falsche freunde (2009), and Meine schönste Lengevitch (2013), as well as the essay “BOX OFFICE” (2010) and a joint sonnet erasure project with Christian Hawkey, Sonne From Ort (2012). Among the English-language poets she has translated into German are Matthea Harvey, Erin Mouré, John Ashbery, Yoko Ono, and Cole Swensen. Her own work has been translated into more than thirteen languages. She has received numerous prizes for her literary works and translations, including the Peter Huchel Prize and the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize. Wolf teaches German and literary translation at New York University and the Pratt Institute.

Shane Anderson is a writer and translator living in Berlin. He has translated works by a number of contemporary German writers, including Elke Erb’s A poem is what it does (Wallstein Verlag) and Ulf Stolterfoht’s The Amme Talks (Triple Canopy). His translation of the Spiegel Bestseller, The Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger, is forthcoming with Norton. His writing and translations can be found in 032c, 6x6, Asymptote, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere.