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Rúfus, Milan: Thus (Tak in English)

Portre of Rúfus, Milan

Tak (Slovak)

Tak odchádzame. Denne. Stá a stá.
Zdivený básnik, márne volanie.
A kadlúbka, čo po nás ostane,
sa časom vyplní. Tá jamka, vyhĺbená
kvapôčkou tela… Všetko zarastá
nezničiteľnou trávou, obilím.

A iný bude chodiť po kolená
v chlebe, na ktorý zdola spomínaš.
A iný chrbát ako tetiva
sa vypne, vystrelí…

Ach, ľudstvo, drobný dážď,
klopúci vytrvalo na okná
prázdneho domu, v ktorom nebýva
nikto!

A iba hlad dá na to zabudnúť.
Nie príliš veľký.
Hlad. Nie príliš malý.
Hlad, v ňom sme jedli chlieb,
hlad, v ňom sme milovali.


PublisherDielo I. MilaniuM 2002, s. 234

Thus (English)

Thus we depart. Day by day. Hundreds are gone.
The startled poet. Useless calls.
The hollow that we leave behind
fills up in time. The whole carved out by
the small drop of a body... All gets overgrown
by indestructible grass, by grain.

And someone else will walk knee-deep
through bread-grain you remember from below.
Some other back will tighten like a bow-string
and shoot its arrow...

Ah, mankind, that fine rain
beating persistently on the windows
of an empty house inhabited by
no one.

And only hunger can make us forget.
Not too great a one.
Hunger. Not too slight a one.
Hunger with which we ate our bread.
Hunger with which we made love.


Source of the quotationSister Hope. Poems in Eglish

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