Writer, translator and editor Helmuth A. Niederle was born in 1949 in Vienna. He studied cultural anthropology, history of art and sociology. Since 2003 he teaches ethnology, cul- tural and social anthropology at the University of Vienna. He worked in the Austrian Liter- ary Society for forty years, since 2011 he is president of PEN Austria. He published more than 100 books and is the co-author of many international literary project. His own work was translated into Chinese, English, Georgian, Hindi, Oriya, Polish and Romanian.

 

A FREEDOM GAME

See a zebra there is none
see a giraffe which is not
and even the lion he is not even

as one himself not oneself
is not of itself

It is like not even
how the zebra is not like
the giraffe is not like
and even the lion does not resemble

Rather is the zebra
a lion
not allowed to be one

The interior is not turned outwards
and the outer remains
unaffected by all this

This is the little freedom of play nobody bothers