Aquarium 2 (in English by Outi Peck and Andrew Seymour)

The aquarium universe
springs from neither lake,
tributary, stream nor brook;
                     nor flows into some vast self-
contained sea-shelf,
Only the aquarium

For our staring eyes;
Stones, shells, seaweed,
A model of a shipwreck
And a hand
Dispensing food.
A life to please objective eyes
Stilled and sequested within glass;
transparent yet permanent and non-porous
walls simultaneously revealing and
denying
         freedom.
An anonymous hand which provides
sustenance, filters the water and transports
the dead,
       our eyes distracted elsewhere.

Aquarium I (in English by Outi Peck and Andrew Seymour)

Fathomless, my place
in aquarium;
how came I
to this environment.
How elusive my species.
Playing follow the leader
I am yet alone;
my journey through maturity
solitary.
Nought but the shifting water,
Nought but the refracting light,
Nought but the strange colours
of alien fish.
Momentum. Sleep. Food.
The coldness of submarine life
where I find meaning
                            absent.