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Pilinszky János: Cooled world (Kihűlt világ in English)

Portre of Pilinszky János
Portre of Kery, Leslie A.

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Kihűlt világ (Hungarian)

E világ nem az én világom,
csupán a testem kényszere,
hogy egyre beljebb, mint a féreg
furakodom beleibe.
 
Így táplálkozom a halállal,
és így lakik jól ő velem;
az életem rég nem enyém már,
vadhúsként nő a szivemen.
 
Minden teremtett elevenből
kijózanodva a szemét
így ütközik ki, leplezetlen
föladva hiú szégyenét.
 
A mindörökre ismeretlen
végül is így lesz otthonos.
Mint hervadás az őszi lombot,
a pusztulás bebalzsamoz.
 
Kihűlt világ ez, senki földje!
S mint tetejébe hajitott
ócskavasak, holtan merednek
reményeink, a csillagok.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotation http://mek.oszk.hu

Cooled world (English)

Not mine, this world, this world is only
my body's strange obsessive rite,
it makes me burrow ever deeper
into its gut: a parasite.
                       
Thus I sustain myself with dying,
death feeds on me, it takes its part;
my life has not been mine in ages,
it grows like proud-flesh on the heart.
                       
So scum, having been disenchanted
with every living creature's game,
stands proudly out, disdains disguises,
makes no pretence at idle shame.
                       
The things that are for ever unknown
become more homey, we pretend.
Like wilt that strikes the leaves in autumn,
decay embalms us in the end.
                       
This is a no-man's land, a cooled world.
Looming above it, stark and sparse,
like heaped scrap-iron, dead, discarded,
are our fondest hopes: the stars.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationL. A. K.

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