GENTLY THE SMALL BETRAYALS FALL IN LINE
When we become aware of our desires
gently to stroke his cheek
they will beseech us & will let us know
that he lives high up there among the bells
& they will sound a proclamation:
that the gallows may not cast a shadow
over any foreign plot of land
no not even if they hang a heart on it
This they will keep repeating
until the rain
over some small provocation
arrests us in that town
bearing the most beautiful name
in all the world
a little settlement called Huslei
And they won’t flinch but will obey it
when we sniff the fingers on the hand
that gnawed death like an iron moth
That’s when we’ll sneeze
& leave the wolf weddings
somewhere behind us
Derived from a poem by Jan Skacel
Transcreations from Czech by Jerome Rothenberg & Milos Sovak
Posted over on Poems and Poetics
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