Glenday, John: Undark

And so they come back, those girls who painted
the watch dials luminous and died.

They come back and their hands glow and their lips
and hair and their footprints gleam in the past like alien snow.

It was as if what shone in them once had broken free
and burned through the cotton of their lives.

And I want to know this: how they came to believe
that something so beautiful could ever have turned out right,

but though they open their mouths to answer me,
all I can hear is light.

I tako se vraćaju, one devojke koje su brojčanike satova

svetlucavom bojom farbale i umrle.*

Vratile su se i sjaje im ruke i usne i kose

i ostisci stopala kao stran sneg u prošlosti svetlucaju.

Kao da se to što je u njima nekad sjalo oslobodilo

i spalio kroz pamuk njihovih života.

I voleo bi da znam: kako su mogli verovati

da to što je krasno uvek na dobro se okrene,

mada su im usta na odgovor se otvorile

sve što mogu da čujem je sjaj.

*Radijum devojke, 1917–26. Preduzeća u SAD i Kanadi prema proceni su oko 4000 radnice primili da brojčanike satova sa radijumom farbaju. Brojčanike satova su mešavinom (lepilo, voda i prašak radijma), blistavom bojom sa kistom od kamiline dlake farbale. Mnoge su kistove polizale, sa sjajnom bojom usne, nokte, kosu farbale.