Thursday, April 5, 2007

Unappetizing happiness rumor

It has been said by Ernst Jandl
that many faces read
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY,
but that his diarrhea, caught
and smeared in his face,
might serve as the same kind
of “identification,” as he calls it;
we, who don’t have to take his word
for it, can safely call it “shit-faced.”

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2007)

The reference is to Jandl’s poem “der ausweis” (“the ID”) from the 1982 collection "der gelbe hund," which is quite faithfully retold in English in the statement part of this rumor.

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