Josef Winkler-When the Time Comes Sample

8/14/2019 Josef Winkler-When the Time Comes Sample

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When theTime ComesJosef Winkler


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When theTime Comes

Josef Winkler


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Mutter und der eisi tort c atz der ac t

Ro pon i: e uiem r einen ateratura Mortaomra, am U er de an e

ried o der itteren ran eni er c le una wi e rnten

In English Translation

ower or ean enetTe er

Selected Other Works by Jo ef Winkler


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When theTime Comes

Josef Winkler

t ranslated by

Adrian West


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. enn e oweit is Erzhlun Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt amMain . All right re erved by& ontrolled through SuhrkampVerlag Berlin.

ran lation & introducion

Adrian We t.

Fir Contra Mundum Preedition .

All Right Re erved under

International & Pan-Ameri anCopyright Convention .No part of thi book may bereprodu ed in any form or byany elecroni mean , in ludinginformation orage and retrieval

y em , without permi ion inwriting from the publi her,ex ept by a reviewer who mayquote brief pa age in a review.

Originally publi hed in Germana enn e oweit is Erzhlun

in .

Library of Congre

Cataloguing-in-Publi ation DataWinkler, Jo ef,

[Wenn e oweit i Erzhlung.Engli h.]

When the ime Come / Jo efWinkler;

ran lated from the originalGerman by Adrian We ;introducion by Adrian We .

s Contra Mundum Pre

Edition pp., x in.

I . Winkler, Jo ef.II . itle.

III . We t, Adrian.IV . ran lator.

V . We t, Adrian.VI . Introducion.


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J W K ,a mall farming village in the mountain of Au ria

outhernmo provin e of Carinthia, a mo ly rural arealightly maller than Lo Angele County that ha given

birth to a long li of writer of international ature,among them Robert Mu il, Ingeborg Ba hmann, andPeter Handke. Hi father, the Plowman, a he allhim in other work , with referen e to the dialogue be-tween Death and the Plowman by the Medieval Ger-man writer Johanne von epl, eem to have devotedhim elf ingle-mindedly to hi e ate, hi rop , and hilive o k, howing little regard for hi booki h, anemi

on, to whom he would one day bellow, a the novel

.o on i re ount : When Im no longer around, I do

not want you to ome to my funeral. Among the fewphra e he attribute to hi mother, who wa left see h-le by the death of her three brother in the Se ondWorld War, & who e de olate re ignation i the ubjecof Winkler mo re ent work,Mutter und der leisi t,i the admonition : Weve got no money for book !

Tu , a i o frequently the a e in Au rian litera-ture, hi writing i a writing-again : a deation of the

li h of pa orali m, an unveiling of the ruelty and


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orruption moldering beneath the erenity of the al-pine ountry ide, and a repri al on behalf of the ne-gleced and repre ed again that nation CatholiNational So iali sirit whi h i in fac a negationof the sirit, in the word of Toma Bernhard. Hivehemen e ha arried over into hi arti le in thepopular pre , where he ha been ruthle in hi atta kon the venality of the Au rian politi al e abli hment.Yet in site of hi well-known intran igen e, the labelof es e c mutzer or gady hardly exhau the rangeof hi work.

Winkler autobiographi al novel , ba ed on trueevent and in orporating living per on , kirt the outerlimit of the genre : their art lie not in the fabri ationof enario , but in a pain aking rendering of vi ualdetail and an attention to the mu i ality of phra ethat often extend over entire page . Hi approa h i thepre i e oppo ite of the fervor for novelty haraceri iof o mu h of ontemporary literary ulture, where au-thor be ome brand and mu keep urrent throughan in rea ingly perver e pro ration to the whim ofthe literary market or ri k their work being remain-dered and forgotten : in general, hi book are medita-tion on the ame limited number of motif from hi

hildhood and youth, een now from one angle, nowfrom another, pi ked up, are ed, and et ba k downrepeatedly, like the tatter of rope that it on the de kof Maximilian in the pre ent novel, having previou ly


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held the bodie of the ui ide Jonathan and Leo-pold dangling over the oor of the pari h hou e barn.

en t e ime ome i Jo ef Winkler ninth book.Many of the event it examine the aforementioneddouble ui ide, the drowning of the maid ervant whopaint her fa e with men rual blood, or the authoraunt holding him over hi grandmother offin and en- joining him to look down at the lifele fa e below . appear in hi earlier novel a well, parti ularly in thetrilogy a wil e rnten. Death, Winkler ha aid, i my life theme. Tere an therefore be no que ion ofmovin on, a the li h goe . I am happy, he ay el e-where, among the dead, they do me no harm, & theyare people a well. Winkler often give the impre ionof being alive only relucantly, by ompul ion or in de-feren e to other , and eem even to re ent the vital-ity that eparate him from the adaver that haunt hidream .

If the haracer and in ident related in en t eime ome are not new in Winkler work, their treat-

ment here i nonethele unique. Le novel than poem,it revolve around the entral metaphor of the bone

ooker who brew a bla k o k that i painted on thehor e of the farmer in the village to ward off in ec :the bone ooker be ome the hroni ler of the villagedead, re ounting the ory of their di a rou end beforelaying their keleton in a lay ve el, one atop the other.Hi ominou narration i interla ed with ver e from


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Catholi ongbook and the anza of BaudelaireLitanie of Satan, and follow an ar hitecural motifba ed on the ru iform village of Pul nitz, at the enterof whi h lie a alvary where a painting by the pari hprie , depicing a inner laid out in torment on theoor of H ell, on ign the re ident to their doom.Like Homer in the Catalogue of Ship or the rojanBattle Order, Winkler enumerate the bloodline of thebenighted familie that populate the town, their rela-tion devoid of warmth and erving only to pa on theinheritan e of extincion. A Toma Wirtz omment ,reviewing the book for the ran urter ll emeine ei-tun , Winkler genealogie are for ed death in itu-tion . Carinthia ome to be een a a kind of Hou eof Atreu writ large, it inexorable de aden e ymp-tomati both of the uffering and olitude of the au-thor hildhood and of the longing for ymboli ven-gean e thereby insired.

My r en ounter with Winkler work wa in ,when I pur ha ed a pair of book that had been i uedby Ariadne Pre ome fteen year before : hi fourthnovel, Te er ,and the hort meditation ower or ean enet, tran lated by Mi hl Mit hell & Mi hlRoloff resecively. Te r , ompo ed after a long ab-

en e from hi home village, i a reframing of the tale ofthe prodigal on insired by the word of the baroquedramati Jakob Ayrer : I am the erf of death / It an-not but be o. Te e ond i repre entative of a type of


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narrative Winkler would return to in omra : am U erde an e, and the a oni hing book of hort cion,

c rei mir eine im er au und sech dic am,a hybrid of travel writing & ap ule biography in whi hWinkler examine foreign land ape through the lenof hi totem writer and the re ollecion their worddredge up. Te e book impre ed me deeply : onlyrarely doe one en ounter an arti i vi ion of u h in-gularity married to a yle o elegantly wrought and re -olute ; and I wa di mayed to nd, after I had ni hedthem, that nothing had been tran lated into Engli h

in e, nor anything written ave the odd ant referen ein urvey of German-language literature, an a ademiarti le or two, & a ingle book review inorld itera-ture o a ; a fac that, while mu h to the redit of thelatter publi ation, highlight the di mal but widesreadtenden y to empha ize the exoti i m of the allegedlyforeign at the expen e of it individual theti virtue ,

o that the reading of writer from beyond the Anglo-Ameri an shere ome to be een at be a a urioudiver ion, likeet nic ui ine, and at wor a an obliga-tion to qualify for that mo ontemptible of modernvirtue ,we -roundedne.

Jo ef Winkler anding in the German-seakingliterary world i beyond que ion : from the Spe ial JuryAward at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for excerptfrom hi e ond novel to hi re ent elecion a Pre identof the Au rian Art Senate, hi areer ha ompri ed


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an uninterrupted ucce ion of accolade & recognition ,the mo notable of whi h wa hi being pre ented withthe B hner Prize in . Hi writing ha been a -

laimed by the eminent riti Mar el Rei h-Rani ki, byW.G. Sebald, by the Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Je-linek & Gnter Gra . For the e rea on alone, hi near-ab ence in the literary con ciou ne of Engli h-seakingreader rike me a un on ionable. It wa with thewi h of remedying thi omi ion that I began to tran -late Winkler work in the sring of , at r with

hort pie e in m tote and wri ion : Review, andthen with a erialization of the pre ent text, in a ome-what different ver ion, in theBrooklyn Rail. A morepubli ation followed, it be ame lear that there wa abroad intere in eeing more of Winkler in print &that, thank in part to the wave of independent pre ewilling to take ri k to hed light on underrepre entedwriter , and in part to the ommuni ation among read-er fa ilitated by u h online outlet a:AM , ord

it out Border, and Te uarter onver ation, theaudien e for cion in tran lation had grown immea-

urably in the de ade and a half in e Winkler rappearan e in Engli h.

For me, the importan e of Jo ef Winkler lie in hiradi al in i en e on the priority of lived experien eagain the allegedly arti i , but acually merely om-mer ial, imperative to innovation ; not to mention hi

ategori al refu al of de orum or ompromi e. Tere are


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orie that Winkler ha told a dozen time in hi book ;but the e orie are never over, he re e , their gurewill not ay in their grave , and we are wrong to tryto pu h them away. Not only doe one have the en e,in Winkler work, that there i omething morally high-er than the e heti pro ription of repetitiou ne ; weal o feel that hi on ern for the effec of ob e ion onthe our e of a life he ha now been writing for thirty-ve year , without ever averting hi gaze from the ata -trophe of hi Carinthian hildhood i omethingnearly unpre edented in ope and originality.


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When theTime Comes


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Te one soc , aid the ninet -year-ol man with th ecked mousac e and the trimmed e e row , wain the villa e a little man w o lived in mi erabsance . He u e to at er up the one rom theand a them in a cla ve el, which e laced inthe round over glowing coal and covered u witclum o ra . e would let the bone immer rea , vi cou rew, called Panda i l in the drint ia. Te one coo er would wra the mall monace made o oard in barbed wire, and e had it

a do t at crouched there da and ni t. romtime, a a child, the now ninet -year-ol man woulem ty eer ottle to the bone cooker and ave him the one soc and ay im a ew cent , or in in

it o meat, au a e, read or mil . mid the eamer, the arm eop e would take a crow feather the en e, blac liquid on the or e that ulled tharound the e e and in the outer ear , and on the and the bell , becau e the utrid- mellin soc wthe in e t at u ed to eser the cart hor e , abov

ot ummer da , o vexin them at time that tta e off throu the eld , ickin and jerkin thand cra with their carria e on the hore o th


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Let u note in pa ing that the Chri ian atti-tude in prayer, head and eye lowered, i unfa-vorable to meditation. It i a po ure ondu iveto a lo ed and ubmi ive intellecual diso i-tion, & it di ourage siritual auda ity. If you

hoo e thi po ition, God may ome, woopdown on the nape of your ne k, and leave himark there, where it may linger a long time. Inorder to meditate, you mu nd an open attitude. not deant but not pro rate before God.You mu pro eed autiou ly. A bit too mu h ub-mi ion & God will be ow hi gra e upon you:then youre fu ked.


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I of the lay ve el where theputrid- melling bone ock wa rendered from the boneof laughtered animal , to be bru hed on the hor ewith a row feather around the eye , on the ear andno ril , and on their bellie , to protec them from theie , the hor eie , & mo quitoe , lie the arm bone ofa man, torn from hi body in a tren h on the battleeld,who dragged a life- ized atue of Je u through thefore before the Se ond World War and threw it overa waterfall. Even after day of ear hing, they ouldntnd Je u arm , broken off from hi body in the fall . the pa or, Baltha ar Kranabeter, wandered for nighton end through the fore , with a a hlight and a prayer

ard hanging around hi ne k, praying loudly HolyGod, we prai e thy name, Lord of all, we bow beforethee but in retribution, a ording to the prie , theblashemer lo hi own arm in Hitler war, sent there of hi day with a wooden pro he i to whi h ironhook were affixed, and had to be fed by hi wife and

hildren. Before meal , he would make the ign of the


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ro over hi forehead, lip , and brea with the ironhook affixed to hi pro he i , and pray, Come, Lord

Je u , be our gue , and ble what thou ha be owed.Sin e then, the village prie & painter of prayer ardu ed to ay, lifting hi index nger mena ingly beforethe wide eye of the hildren of the landowner andpea ant eated before him for their religion le on ,that town built in the form of a ro , whi h had alreadybeen burned to the ground at the turn of the entury,i en aged in an image framed left to right, top to bot-tom, by re, and the profaner of Chri lie within it, hihand aloft among the red and yellow ame dartingupward from the oor ofH ell, hi naked tor o boundby a green erpent a thi k a a man arm. Red-wingedLu ifer lean over the inner and sill a up of gallinto hi mouth. toi, le plu avant et le plu beau d

nge , ieu trahi par le ort et priv de ouan eatan, prend iti de ma on ue mi re !

W of Saint George, patron aint ofhor e , whi h wa bru hed in the early morning, whilethe dewdrop ill gli ened on the periwinkle growingalong the hur h outer wall, with the bla k bone o k,

melling of de ay, around the eye , no e, mouth, andhalo, the townseople, among them Maximilian theneight-year-old father, walked the four kilometer fromPul nitz to Grobotenfeld at even in the morning, led


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by the a ri an arrying a ro . With the life- izedatue borne by four men, the faithful would take the

out ret hed right arm of the village rebuilt in the formof a ro fteen year before, ome hildren playingwith re had redu ed it to a he and lip between the

ramped nger of the ru ied right hand, praying theirHail Mary and Our Father until they had pa ed overthe palm pier ed by the nail and then falling quiet athey arrived at the dank Ponta fore , where to thi daythou and of nowdrop ill blo om in the sringtime.Te Ponta fore wa al o alled Galgenbi hl, where the

riminal were hanged, Maximilian ninety-year-old fa-ther aid, and a a hild, when he would go on foot toKindelbr ken to take a me age to hi grandfather orbring him hi mail, he u ed to pa by there a qui klya po ible, in dread. Te murmuring of the pro e iononly ro e again when the pilgrim had turned towardthe neighboring town hip of Nubach, likewi e built inthe form of a cro , and had left the Galgenbichl behind.After a ma held in a lover eld in Grobotenfeld, paidfor year after year by Maximilian grandfather, FlorianKir hheimer, a hor e-breeder e eemed far & wide, theSaint George pro e ion would di band. Te pilgrimvi ited their friend and family, the ta e of the ho illin their mouth , or went to the inn, or auntered homeon the eld and fore path . Te atue wa lifted ontoa ala h and pulled ba k to Pul nitz, where it took upit pla e in the hur h, by two hor e a ompanied by


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the prie and Maximilian grandfather, and runninggirl would follow behind them, dai y wreath wovenwith hor ehair into their hair. et the cent o t i acri- ce ri e to t ee, ord, and our word not be i norehave lain not calve , but th acred eir, who haawa from de air.

I where the pandapigl wa ren-dered, to be bru hed on the hor e with a row featheraround the eye and no ril and on the belly, to pro-tec them from mo quitoe and hor eie , Maximilian,the bone ollecor, lay atop the arm bone of the bla -phemer, who threw a life- ized atue of Je u over a wa-terfall before the Se ond World War and lo hi ownarm on the battleeld Tat wa a puni hment fromGod ! the prie would ream over and over from thepulpit , the bone of hi great-grandmother, PaulaRo enfelder, who lo a on in the Fir World Warand took her own life, it wa aid, be au e he fearedher pregnant daughter, who lay in bed with an infe -tion, would fall ill with the Spani h u and u umb todeath, a o many other young women in the village builtin the form of a ro had done. Her hu band, AuguRo enfelder, Maximilian great-grandfather, ame ba khome from the attle market, looked for hi wife in thekit hen and able, went into hi pregnant daughterbedroom & a ked after her mother. Trowing the quilt


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ba k from over her head, hi u- i k daughter whiseredhoar ely : She gone ba k up to the atti ! Te bone ol-lecor great-grandfather limbed the eep atti air a eand aw, before he had rea hed the la ep, hi wifehead hanging mode ly over her brea . He approa hedthe orp e, rangled with a alf halter, and ried : Butmama ! But mama ! It eem Maximilian grandmother,Leopoldine Fel berger, pregnant with Maximilian un le,Kajetan Fel berger, at the time of her mother ui ide,kept the in ident long on ealed, and only soke of itduring the Se ond World War, after hearing that her

on Mi hl the third to have done o had fallenin Ru ia, in the vi inity of Nevel. She fainted in thegarden and wa arried into the hou e by her hu band,hi leg quivering. When he ame to, he lit a andleand prayed more than an hour for the oul of her threefallen on , & then, in tear , he told of her mother

ui ide for the r time.

A R ,Maximilian al oholi great-grandfather, wa often mo ked and jeered at bythe fourteen-year-old Rupert, a hoolmate of the nowninety-year-old man with the gray-e ked mou a heand the trimmed eyebrow . When the young manhad on e again aped hi bandy-legged gait, the drunk

ru k him in the fa e with a wit h of hazelnut. Tefourteen-year-old ood rying with a broken no e and


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blood- meared fa e before the houting old man bran-di hing hi wit h. Hi daughter-in-law, who wantedto limit hi al ohol intake, lled hi empty hnappbottle with blea h. Te blea h orroded hi throat andpharynx o badly that he ould hardly nouri h him elfand only ate and drank with unbearable pain. In hieighty-r year, oon after thi grievou injury, he tieda bla k ro ary around hi wri , went into the able, un-fa ened the hemp ord from one of the alve rou hedat the feeding trough, wound the rope around hi ne kand hanged him elf from the doorframe of the able.

In the lay ve el-where the putrid- melling boneo k wa rendered from the bone of laughtered ani-

mal , to be painted on the hor e with a row featherin the ummer heat, around the eye and no ril and onthe belly, to protec them from the pri king and blood-

u king hor eie and mo quitoe , lie the keleton ofthe hanged Augu Ro enfelder over the keleton ofhi wife Paula, who took her life up in the atti . A thi kbla k braid overed her right eye and the tip of hertongue, whi h u k out from between her lip . Whenthe able door were for ed open, hi hobnailed hoe

la ked again the wooden oor, and the ro ary wungba k and forth between the blue tip of hi ontracednger , and the young woman, who had been looking forher father-in-law, and who had burned out hi e opha-gu with blea h, felt the bur of the all air and aw herfather-in-law dangling in the dung-slattered doorway,


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hi tongue protruding from hi mouth. hear a call rinout : rother ! wake from thy lum er, the ord i u , night i far, the da i ni ! E c ew all deethe ni ht ! ence ort ma all men bear the arm

- - L F ,Maximilian mother aid, had to work on the S hae h-ner farm with pea ant and menial who mo ked and jeered at her in e antly. On e, the boy were a king

raw bale on the thre hing oor of the barn when thegirl, to u e hi mother word , be ame unwell. A hebent over the raw bale , the boy made fun of the bloodthat had eeped through her underwear. In tear , the girllet the raw bale fall and ran down the gangway of thehayloft and down the village reet to the alvary, where

he knelt, folding her hand in prayer, under the ameleaping up from the oor ofH ell. While the men rualblood ran over her thigh , he obbed out, with a pound-ing heart : Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whomHi love entru me here, ever thi day be at my ide,to light and guard, to rule and guide. Wedging her handbetween her thigh , he meared blood on her fa e, onthe whitewa hed wall of the alvary, and on the devilhorned head, & ran, red-ma ked, with blood-dren hedhand and thigh , pa the graveyard, where the ro e

ood iff a life- ized toy oldier , ret hing theirthorn- rowned head , pa the hur h, over the lope


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of the pond, down through eld fen ed in with ru edbarbed wire hung with tuft of gray and brown hair fromthe grazing attle, through the narrow, tangled wood-land by the river, and ung her elf into the rapid ofthe Drava. After day of pointle ear hing, her orp ewa pulled out of the river in Villa h. Milla got naggedup in the grating on the Drava bridge ! Tu Maximil-ian mother, the wife of the ninety-year-old man withthe gray-e ked mou a he and the trimmed eyebrow .

In the lay ve el where the pandapigl wa renderedfrom the bone of laughtered animal , to be paintedon the hor e with a row feather, around the eye andno ril and on the belly, to protec them from the pe -tering mo quitoe & hor eie , the bone ollecor laythe keleton of the fteen-year-old girl, found aughtup among the driftwood in the grating and pulled upout of the river, over the keleton of Augu Ro enfelder,who e dung-slattered orp e wa ut down from the

able door before the ow tail winging ba k andforth. Oppo ite the hoolhou e, in the enter of thetown built in the form of a ro , in front of the alvarywhere the blashemer, who threw the life- ized Je uover a liff, lie among the ame ofH ell, holding hihand aloft, while Lu ifer, hi red wing unfurled, bendover hi vicim, to sill a up of gall in hi open mouthwhile he rie out in mi ery, the funeral train halted,with the bla k- lothed prie , the a olyte in bla k &white, the pea ant and menial bearing lit andle and


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murmuring prayer . With holy water and in en e, theprie ble ed the bloody handprint the young ui idehad left on the wall of the alvary and on the imageof H ell that he him elf had painted, aying : rincde lexil, qui lon a fait tort, Et qui, vaincu, toujours tdresses lus ort, atan, pren s iti de ma on ue m

I , at twenty degreebelow zero, when Maximilian grandfather FlorianKir hheimer u ed to drive the hor e- leigh laden withmilk an twenty kilometer among the nowdriftfrom Pul nitz to the dairy in Villa h, he would put onan ankle-length leather oat with a tufted bla k lambwool liner. For the townseople, who ent their milkover to the dairy, he wa given raw ugar & oil in ex-

hange ; wrapped to hi ankle in hi leather oat, hileigh hung with i i le , he would pa them out to

the townseople on hi return in the ame pla e wherehed pi ked up the milk. He would draw the oil upout of a jerry an and pour it into gla bottle arriedby the townseople who ood there waiting for him.

Maximilian father, the ninety-year-old man withthe gray-e ked mou a he and the trimmed eyebrow ,

aid that a a hild of ve, affliced with a evere inam-mation of the middle ear, he had at one winter day inthe hor e- leigh be ide hi father in hi ankle-lengthleather oat with the tufted bla k heep wool liner, a


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wool arf wrapped around hi head to protec hi a h-ing ear , while they arted log held together by heavyiron hain from Rmerhof to Frankenhau en by way ofPul nitz. While hi father wa handing over the log atthe awmill in Frankenhau en from afar you ouldhear the blow of the pi kaxe again the tree trunk ,round, moi , & lippery, ra hing again one anothera they were dragged from the hor e- leigh the ve-year-old hild, uffering from an inammation of themiddle ear, wa treated in the offi e of Docor Lampre ht.

For a i k all, the bone ollecor father aid, youhad to eek out the ountry docor, in winter with thehor e- leigh and in ummer in a ala h. Only later didthe docor buy him elf a hor e and ride out to ee the

i k and dying. Before harne ing the nag in the um-mer heat and mounting it himmering ank with hibrown leather docor bag, he would bru h the bla kbone o k, melling of de ay, around the hor e eye& no ril , on it outer ear and on it belly, with a

row feather, to drive away the in ec .On the way ba k to Pul nitz from Frankenhau en,

the hild of ve with hi head bound up at again in thehor e- leigh be ide hi father, who grased the ra kingleather reign , lothed in an ankle-length leather oatlined in tufted bla k heep wool ; moaning low to iethe pain in hi ear , he wat hed the two hor e trottingalong the sru e fore edge, the ilvery glimmer oftheir hoove in the un. Te reign ill hang today, the


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leather dark gray, worn thin by the hor e hindquarterand now ra ked and peeling, along with the ru y har-ne , in the atti of Maximilian parent hou e, underwas ne the ize of o er ball .

A a twelve-year-old hild, Maximilian father hov-ed a hay bale into the haff utter in the hayloft. Beforethe boy ould pull hi hand ba k, hi brother Eduardsun the wheel of the ma hine in a ir le and ut offone of the hild nger with the rotary blade. Tetwo brother ran reaming down the gangway, theyounger one holding hi right hand in the air, it littlenger hanging by a ap of kin, and into their parent hou e. Te village midwife, lingering in the kit hen &

hatting with Maximilian great-grandmother aboutthe oral de oration for the high altar on the omingCorpu Chri i, ut the ap of kin with a pair of i -

or and threw the hild nger on the dung heap,where it landed among the roo er and hen , whi h jerked their head , a kling in fright, and rat hedat the ground. After the midwife had di infeced the

hild ump, he meared a bla k and bitter- mellingointment on it, tied a pie e of loth over the woundwith a white thread, and wa hed the blood from hiforearm. Te mother a embled her ix hildren aroundthe table and lit a andle. Te hildren folded theirhand oar e, happed, and lthy, the nail hewedaway and prayed to their guardian angel, aringxedly at the andle wavering yellow ame.


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For two whole ummer , when he wa ve and ix,Maximilian father had lived with hi a hmati grand-mother, who wa ent to re uperate in a little road ide

abin overlooking a brook in the mountain in Inner-krem , where thou and of heep, ow , and hor egrazed in the pa ure . Hi grandmother would buypolenta and milk from the neighboring farm peopleand make breakfa and dinner for her elf and hergrand on at the open hearth. From time to time, hifather Florian rode a hor e a bottle of the bla k bone

o k lay near to hand in hi addlebag the forty kilo-meter to Innerkrem & brought hi on home-bakedbread, se k, au age and potatoe . A la e had al-ready begun in hi hometown of Pul nitz, the ix-year-old went to hool in Innerkrem for a time. Betweenhi teeth you ould ill ee the yellow grain of po-lenta a the ninety-year-old man with the gray-e kedmou a he & trimmed eyebrow grinned, bright-eyed,and told of how the tea her in Innerkrem , from whomhe had learned hi r letter , u ed to ride to hoolon a white hor e, trailed by houting hildren.

A leaping leftand right, forward and ba kward like sarkler over hi

hoe , the boy u ed to go often in the midday ummerheat, through the meadow melling of herb and fre h-

ut gra , or in the fall through the mi ed-over eld of


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ubble, when the bla k, mildew- ented leave from thebu he growing on the fore edge lung to the bottomof hi hobnailed hoe , but al o in the knee-deep new

now or the i ed-over eld the deer would ink downin the now, their long lender leg breaking throughthe ru that glimmered in the unlight to Kindel-br ken, where hi grandfather, Ferdinand Kir hheimer,lived in the Buggel heim Inn, to bring him a me age orhi mail. Te grandfather would give the hild a li e ofReinling with innamon- oated rai in baked in, sread-ing yellow butter and hi hand-harve ed honey onthe pa ry. Eat, boy ! Eat ! He would ay a the honeydripped off the bread and ran between the boy nger .Te boy would li k the honey from hi nger , eatingone li e of Reinling after another at hi grandfather

ide while the latter opened letter and ipped offee.He ob erved the old man gray beard hair by hair. I an

ill remember hi offee up very well, it wa white, hadblue dot , and a dark blue lip. Te enamel wa hippedin everal pla e : thu Maximilian ninety-year-old fa-ther. When hi grandfather died hi keleton lie inthe lay ve el where the bone o k wa rendered fromthe bone of laughtered animal , to be bru hed on thehor e with a row feather, around the eye & no riland on the belly, to protec them from the blood u k-ing mo quitoe and hor eie , over the keleton of thefteen year-old Ludmilla Felfernig, who e wollen body,mouth agape, hair oaked and logged with and, wa


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pulled out of the Drava by remen the twelve-year-old boy, who u ed to vi it the old man year in, year out,bringing him letter and me age the old man toldMaximilian the ory with mi y eye , hi denture la k-ing had ried terribly.

One hot ummer day, when the brown hor e paintedwith bla k bone o k ood already harne ed in frontof the able, their head buried in a trough of oat , be-fore the offin wa brought from the mourning hou e tothe emetery, the fa e of hi grandfather orp e, whi hhad been left expo ed though it had already begun torot, welled o fat that the hair of hi beard poked outlike the sine of a hedgehog. Te dead man, reeking ofde ay, oozed a adaverou uid that dripped out fromthe ra k in the bla k wooden box, down the atafal-que draped in bla k repe paper, and onto the oor ofthe mourning hamber. While the offin ontaining the

wollen body wa arried out the door and heaved ontothe hay art, where the two brown hor e meared withbone o k were harne ed, huddering, haking theirhead and omping to drive away the ie , Ingo Kir h-heimer, one of the dead man on , ood at the wideopen window on the e ond oor of the hou e and letout a a kle over the urrounding mourner , who rai edtheir head , and over the bla k-dre ed prie , who walifting hi damp gray asergil for the nal ble ing. Tecorp e uid had dripped onto the brown Carinthian uit of one of the pallbearer , & he vomited be ide a funeral


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wreath propped up again a garden fen e. On it bla kribbon, in golden letter , wa written A La Goodbye.

et all our thou ht be winging, to where Tou dids and let our heart be inging : e ee Tee, Chri riend, Tee, od exalted on, our i e, & wa to

F the ninety-year-old manwith the gray-e ked mou a he and the trimmed eye-brow u ed thi turn of phra e repeatedly when seak-ing of hi hildhood and youth hi un le Ingo Kir h-heimer, who ood a kling at the e ond oor windowof the mourning hou e while hi father body wa ar-ried out the door for it nal ble ing, o that the bla k-dre ed prie , lifting hi gaze, let the damp asergildrop ba k into the dented opper ve el, would go onfoot from Kindelbr ken to Pul nitz and bang a oneagain the iron rail in front of the Kir hheimer e ate,pre ided over by hi brother, until a few head poked outover the ro bar of the parlor window. Ten he wouldvani h without entering the hou e. After uffering abullet wound in the Fir World War, Ingo Kir hheimer,the great-un le of the bone ollecor Maximilian, waadmitted to the in ane a ylum in Klagenfurt, & appearonly to have left, ave for a few minor ex ur ion withhi relative , three de ade later, in a offin. Hi brotherFlorian u ed to vi it him now and then in the p y hiat-ri hosital and bring him a pa kage of se k, au age,


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COLOPHON

W H E N H E I M E C O M E S wa type et inI nDe ign.

Te text and page number are et inAdobe en on Pro.Te title are et inC arlema ne.

Book de ign & type etting: Ale andro SegaliniCover de ign: Ale andro Segalini

W H E N H E I M E C O M E S

i publi hed by Contra Mundum Preand printed by Lightning Sour e, whi h ha re eived Chain of

Cu tody erti ation from: Te Fore t Steward hip Coun il,Te Programme for the Endor ement of Fore t Certi ation,

and Te Su tainable Fore try Initiative.


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Other Contra Mundum Press Titles

Gil ame hGhra im Lu a, elf - ha owin Pre

Rainer J. Han he,Te AbdicationWalter Ja k on Bate, e ative a abilityMikl Szentkuthy,Mar inalia on a anova

Fernando Pe oa, hilo ophical E ayElio Petri, Writin on Cinema & Li

Friedri h Nietz he,Te reek Mu ic Drama Ri hard Foreman, la with ilm

Loui -Augu e Blanqui,Eternit by the tarMikl Szentkuthy, oward t e One & On Meta or

Some Forthcoming Title s

Emilio Villa,Te ele ed oem o Emilio illa Jean-Ja que Rou eau,arci u

Fernando Pe oa,Te ran ormation oo

Alfred de Vigny,Te ateMikl Szentkuthy, ra Remy de Gourmont,Te ro em o t le


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about the author

J W i the author of nearly twentybook , among them the award-winning trilogya wi de rnten. Hi major theme are ui ide,homo exuality, and the orro ive inuen e of

Catholi i m and Nazi m in Au rian ountry life.Winner of the B hner prize and urrent

pre ident of the Au rian Art Senate, Winkler livein Klagenfurt with hi wife & two hildren.

about the t ransl ator

A W i a writer and literary tran latorfrom the we ern Roman e language and German.

Hi work ha appeared in numerou journal in print& online, in ludingMc weene , the roo n ail,

ord it out order, and :AM . He live withthe inema riti Beatriz Leal Rie o.


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I before the SecondWorld War, a man throws a atueof the crucied Chri over a water-fall. Later, in Hitlers trenches, he

loses his arms to an enemy grenade.e bla hemer, screaming in agony,

presided over by Satan, who poursa cup of gall into his open mouth,is portrayed amid the ames of Hellin a painting by the parish priethat is mounted on a calvary where

the two reets in the cross-shapedvillage meet. us begins en t eime omes, Josef Winklers chroni-

cle of life in rural Au ria written inthe form of a necrology, tracing thebenighted de iny of a communitythrough its suicides and the tragicdeaths that befall it, pun uated by

the invocation of the bone-cookerwhose viscous brew is painted onthe faces of the work horses andthe haunting anzas of Baudelaires

Litanies of Satan. In a hypnotic, in-cantatory prose reminiscent at timesof Homer, at times of the Catholicliturgy, at times of the naming of thegenerations in the book of Genesis,

en t e ime omes is a ruthlessdisse ion of the pa oral novel, lay-ing bare the corruption that lies inits heart. Writing in the vein ofhis compatriots Peter Handke andElfriede Jelinek, but perhaps goingfurther in his relentlessness andsthetic radicalism, Josef Winkleris one of the mo signicant Euro-pean authors working today.

Josef Winkler is someone who not only writes, but rather lives to write.. Gnter Grass

Josef Winklers entire, monomaniacuvr [] is a ually an attemptto compensate for the experience of humiliation & moral violation byca ing a malevolent eye on ones own origins.

. W. G. Sebald, author ofA

Documents

Josef Winkler-When the Time Comes Sample