This website is using cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website. 

Sweeney, Matthew: Poker

Portre of Sweeney, Matthew

Poker (English)

There were five of us playing that night,
Padge, Kieran, Neal and me –
and, stretched out in his coffin, Uncle Charlie.
We dealt him a hand each time
and took it in turns to bet for him,
waiving his losses, pooling his wins,
for what good were coins to him?
What could he win but his life?
Still, five of us played that night
and when we stopped it was daylight.
We left the cards with him
to remind him, forever, of that game
and Padge, Kieran, Neal and me
went up the road to our beds
and slept until we buried him,
then played until we had to agree
the good hands had gone with Uncle Charlie.



Uploaded byRépás Norbert
PublisherVintage Digital
Source of the quotationSelected Poems
Publication date

Póker (Hungarian)

Öten játszottunk aznap éjjel,
Padge, Kieran, Neal meg én,
és Charlie bácsi, kiterítve koporsója ölén.
Osztottunk neki minden körben,
s helyette váltásban ment a licit,
veszteségét elengedtük, amit nyert, közösbe tettük,
hisz az apróból ugyan mi haszna lenne?
Az életén kívül máŝt mit nyerhetne?
De bárhogy is, öten játszottunk aznap éjjel
és be se fejeztük, csak napkeltével.
Otthagytuk vele a paklit,
hogy örök emléke maradjon e játék
és Padge, Kieran, Neal meg én
hazamentünk és ágyunkba tértünk
és aludtunk mind míg eltemettük
aztán játszottunk, amíg be kellett látni:
már nincs olyan zsugás, mint Charlie bácsi.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationH. P.

minimap