Kemény Zsófi: Gáncs

Arról nem volt szó, hogy kigáncsolsz, mikor melletted megyek.
Arról sem volt szó, hogy lerántalak magam mellé, mikor fel akarsz húzni.
Végül valóra váltál, csak nem nekem, és még akkor sokáig senkinek.

Velem most történt valami nagyon jó, szinte először azóta.
Rágondolok, és tévedésből sírni kezdek.
Erre olyan tiszta lesz a tükör, hogy átlátok a tükörképemen.

Még megengedhetném, de már nem engedem meg
magamnak a gáncsolást, itt, a fejlődésem tetőfokán.

Valahol a sivatagban eközben boldog emberek tűrik a homokot.
Valahol a sivatagban eközben boldogtalan emberek is tűrik a homokot.

Chuang Tzu: When the Shoe Fits

Ch’ui the draftsman
Could draw more perfect circles freehand
Than with a compass.

His fingers brought forth
Spontaneous forms from nowhere. His mind
Was meanwhile free and without concern
With what he was doing.

No application was needed
His mind was perfectly simple
And knew no obstacle.

So, when the shoe fits
The foot is forgotten,
When the belt fits
The belly is forgotten,
When the heart is right
“For” and “against” are forgotten.

No drives, no compulsions,
No needs, no attractions:
Then your affairs
Are under control.
You are a free man.

Easy is right. Begin right
And you are easy.
Continue easy and you are right.
The right way to go easy
Is to forget the right way
And forget that the going is easy.

-- Translated by Thomas Merton

Franz Wright: Old story

First the telephone went,
then
the electricity.
It was cold,
and they both went to sleep
as though dressed for a journey.
Like addictions condoned
from above evening
fell, lost
leaves waiting
to come back as leaves—
the long snowy divorce…
That narrow bed, a cross
between an altar
and an operating table. Voice
saying, While I was alive
I loved you.
And I love you now.

Pethes Mária: Add a kezed

Mielőtt elsodornának a hétköznapok
Mindennapos kis háborúinkban
egymáson újabb sebeket ejtünk
Add a kezed
Mielőtt rádöbbensz
milyen kiábrándítóan
én is csak nő vagyok
Add a kezed
Mielőtt elillan életünk
mint nagyanyám süteményének
mindent belengő fahéj illata
Add a kezed
Mielőtt a simogatás mozdulatát
feledné kezünk
és csak ökölbe szorított ujjaink
merednek nyirkos tenyerünkbe
Add a kezed
S az éjszakák
azok a borzalmas éjszakák
mikor partra vetett sima testű
delfinként szomjazunk a csókra
és riadtan várjuk a feloldozó hajnalt
az elmaradt ölelés mozdulatában
lelkünk sírva egymásért remeg
Add a kezed

Virginia Hamilton Adair: Fair warning

Parked in your battered Mustang
a little way into the woods,
we watched rain glisten on glass.
I asked if you had written to Leonard.
You said “No, when friends move away
they go out of my life.”
Earlier, in our ecstasy,
I thought: Even dying would be joy
if you leaned over me then
in that hour of passage,
your cool, talismanic fingers
touching my eyes shut.
Now, inexorable miles of highways,
tollbooths, drawbridges,
spun before my sight.
Shafts of gear and brake
came between our bodies.
I said “Thanks for the warning.”
But I loved you long after
our family moved a continent away,
felt your hands and words
come between me and the wheel,
driving alone at night
into treeless hills.

Alice Walker: Gray

I have a friend
who is turning gray,
not just her hair,
and I do not know
why this is so.

Is it a lack of vitamin E
pantothenic acid, or B-12?
Or is it from being frantic
and alone?

‘How long does it take you to love someone?’
I ask her.
‘A hot second,’ she replies.
‘And how long do you love them?’
‘Oh, anywhere up to several months.’
‘And how long does it take you
to get over loving them?’
‘Three weeks,’ she said, ‘tops.’

Did I mention I am also
turning gray?
It is because I adore this woman
who thinks of love
in this way.

Mary Lou Taylor: Letter to a Longtime Friend

I have an amaryllis
in a pot on the sink. They grow
so fast you can watch the buds 
expand and burst
into showy color. This one
is bright red streaked
with white, its petals
velvet, soft to the touch.
I wish it were beside you.

Pilinszky János: Minden felemás

Milyen felemás érzések közt élünk,
milyen sokféle vonzások között,
pedig zuhanunk, mint a kő
egyenesen és egyértelmüen.

Hányféle szégyen és képzelt dicsőség
hálójában evickélünk, pedig
napra kellene teregetnünk
mindazt, mi rejteni való.

Milyen
megkésve értjük meg, hogy a
szemek homálya pontosabb lehet
a lámpafénynél, és milyen
későn látjuk meg a világ
örökös térdreroskadását.

Brian Patten: And Nothing Is Ever As You Want It To Be

You lose your love for her and then
It is her who is lost,
And then it is both who are lost,
And nothing is ever as perfect as you want it to be.

In a very ordinary world
A most extraordinary pain mingles with the small routines,
The loss seems huge and yet
Nothing can be pinned down or fully explained.

You are afraid.
If you found the perfect love
It would scald your hands,
Rip the skin from your nerves,
Cause havoc with a computered heart.

You lose your love for her and then it is her who is lost.
You tried not to hurt and yet
Everything you touched became a wound.
You tried to mend what cannot be mended,
You tried, neither foolish nor clumsy,
To rescue what cannot be rescued.

You failed,
And now she is elsewhere
And her night and your night
Are both utterly drained.

How easy it would be
If love could be brought home like a lost kitten
Or gathered in like strawberries,
How lovely it would be;
But nothing is ever as perfect as you want it to be.

Dana Gioia: Thanks for Remembering Us

The flowers sent here by mistake,
signed with a name that no one knew,
are turning bad. What shall we do?
Our neighbor says they’re not for her,
and no one has a birthday near.
We should thank someone for the blunder.
Is one of us having an affair?
At first we laugh, and then we wonder.

The iris was the first to die,
enshrouded in its sickly-sweet
and lingering perfume. The roses
fell one petal at a time,
and now the ferns are turning dry.
The room smells like a funeral,
but there they sit, too much at home,
accusing us of some small crime,
like love forgotten, and we can’t
throw out a gift we’ve never owned.

Hervay Gizella: Veled vagy nélküled

Veled vagy nélküled,
végülis megszületik az ének,
hallod vagy nem hallod,
mindenképp hozzád beszélek.

Én nem leszek boldogabb,
ha elmondom, amit mondani kell,
de boldogtalan vagyok,
ha nem mondhatom el.

Hallod vagy nem hallod,
mindenképp hozzád beszélek,
veled vagy nélküled,
végülis megszületik az ének.

David Whyte: Start close in

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another's voice
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

e. e. cummings: maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

Tandori Dezső: A Puszta létige szomorúsága

Szerettem volna, ha úgy van.
Nem volt úgy.
Kértem: legyen úgy.
Úgy lett.

Hal Sirowitz: Fun, Fun, Fun When the Guy Goes Away

That’s a strange question to ask

a woman at a bar, she said. “Are 

you having fun?” If I wanted

to have fun I wouldn’t have come here.

This is a lot of work. I have

to decide which guy, out of

all the jerks here, has the potential

of becoming my future husband.

I mostly just have looks to go on,

since the conversation is usually

minimal—like the one we’re having now.

Andrea Gibson: On Being the Blow Job Queen of My High School

There are
a thousand ways

to stay in the closet.
All of them suck.

Áprily Lajos: Vers vagy te is

Indulsz. A mozdony sürget már dohogva
és a tavaszba messze-fut veled.
Ne vidd a vádat és a bút magaddal,
hogy hűvös szóval megsértettelek.

Vers vagy te is. Ezért van harc közöttünk.
Rég vívom érted a művész-tusát.
Ki a hibás, ha túlságos közelből
nem hallom lelked tiszta ritmusát?

Ki a hibás, ha néha feltolulva
egy kusza hang harmóniádba tép,
és gúnnyal int szivárványos magasban
a büszke, győzhetetlen eszme-kép?

Vers vagy te is. A harcban meg nem érzed,
hogy míg hozzád ér, bennem fáj a gáncs.
A fájó gáncs nem céltalan civódás,
s kedves, nem ok, hogy érte visszabánts...

Már távolodsz. A gép repít robogva.
Nem is tudod, hogy most lettél enyém.
Varázs-ütésre dallamod kiépül,
s zengő egész vagy, zengő költemény.

Murakami Kijo: [Őszi reggel]

Őszi reggel, köd ül a fákon.
Falitükrömbe bámulok
és apám arcát látom.

-- Faludy György fordítása

Billy Collins: Bevezetés a költészetbe

Mondom: vegyék a verset,
tartsák a fénybe
mint egy színes diát;
vagy füleljék, mint méhkaptár zaját.

Mondom: dobjanak bele egeret,
figyeljék, hogy kiszimatolja útját,

vagy lépjenek be a vers szobájába,
tapogassák ki, merre van a villany.

Azt szeretném, hogy vizisízzenek
a vers felszínén, épp csak odaintve
a parton ácsorgó szerzői névnek.

Ők erre mást se tesznek,
mint lekötözik a verset egy székhez,
hogy kicsikarják belőle a titkot.

Egy gumicsővel kezdik ütlegelni:
vallja be, mit jelent.

-- Szabó T. Anna fordítása

Anne Sexton: Doctors

They work with herbs

and penicillin.

They work with gentleness

and the scalpel.

They dig out the cancer,

close an incision

and say a prayer

to the poverty of the skin.

They are not Gods

though they would like to be,

they are only human.

Many humans die.

They die like the tender,

palpitating berries

in November.

But all along the doctors remember:

First do no harm.

They would kiss it if it would heal.

It would not heal.

If the doctors cure

then the sun sees it.

If the doctors kill

then the earth hides it.

The doctors should fear arrogance

more than cardiac arrest.

If they are too proud,

and some are,

then they leave home on horseback

but God returns them on foot.

Mary Oliver: The Fist

There are days
when the sun goes down
like a fist,
though of course

if you see anything
in the heavens this way
you had better get

your eyes checked
or, better still,
your diminished spirit.
The heavens

have no fist,
or wouldn't they have been
shaking it
for a thousand years now,

and even
longer than that,
at the dull, brutish
ways of mankind -

heaven's own
creation?
Instead: such patience!
Such willingness

to let us continue!
To hear,
little by little,
the voices -

only, so far, in
pockets of the world -
suggesting the possibilities

of peace?

Keep looking.
Behold, how the fist opens
with invitation.

Székely Magda: Albigens töredék

I.

Az első tiszta mozdulat
aztán kilóg a lópata
tehetetlenül sorvad el
az angyalok pillanata

Mert az igazon győz a rossz
a rosszon győz a rosszabb
mivégre mégis ellene
mondani a gonosznak

II.

Mikor a jóra semmi jel,
jel nélkül is indulni kell
az egyre sürgetőbb sötétben,

amíg kigyulva, mint az ablak,
magam világítok magamnak.

Jeffrey Harrison: The Day You Looked Upon Me As A Stranger

I had left you at the gate to buy a newspaper
and on my way back stopped at a bank of monitors
to check the status of our flight to London.

That was when you noticed a middle-aged man
in a brown jacket and the green short-brimmed cap
I’d bought for the trip. It wasn’t until I turned

and walked toward you that you saw him as me.
What a nice-looking man, you told me you’d thought-
maybe European, with that unusual cap …

somebody, you said, you might want to meet.
We both laughed. And it aroused my vanity
that you had been attracted to me afresh,

with no baggage. A kind of affirmation.
But doubt seeped into that crevice of time
when you had looked upon me as a stranger,

and I wondered if you’d pictured him
as someone more intriguing than I could be
after decades of marriage, all my foibles known.

Did you have one of those under-the-radar daydreams
of meeting him, hitting it off, and getting
on a plane together? In those few moments,

did you imagine a whole life with him?
And were you disappointed, or glad, to find
it was only the life you already had?

Naomi Shihab Nye: My Friend’s Divorce

I want her
To dig up
every plant
in her garden,
the pansies, the penta,
roses, rununculas,
thyme and the lilies,
the thing
nobody knows the name of,
unwind the morning glories
from the wire windows
of the fence,
take the blooming
and the almost-blooming
and the dormant,
especially the dormant,
and then
and then
plant them in her new yard
on the other side
of town
and see how
they breathe!

Szabó T. Anna: Szemben

1.

Tükörbe nézz, ott van az ördög:
ez az arccsont, ez a szemöldök,
az üveges üres tekintet,
ami belülről figyel minket,

fészket rakott a koponyában,
tőle mozog a nyelv a szájban,
nélküle a test összetört rög:
tükörbe nézz, ott van az ördög.

2.

Tükörbe nézel, ott van Isten:
pórusaidban, sejtjeidben,
csak működik benned nyugodtan,
nem bámulja magát, csak ott van,

nem kér, nem szólít, nem nevez meg,
nem mondja azt sem, hogy szeretlek,
mert nem vagy és a tükör sincsen:
tükörbe nézel, ott van Isten.

Alan Bold: A Special Theory of Relativity

According to Einstein
There's no still center of the universe:
Everything is moving
Relative to something else.
My love, as I move myself towards you,
Measure my motion
In relation to yours

According to Einstein
The mass of a moving body
Exceeds its mass
When standing still.
My love, in moving through you
I feel my mass increase.

According to Einstein
The length of a moving body
Diminishes
As speed increases.
My love, after accelerating
Inside you
I spectacularly shrink.

According to Einstein
Time slows down
As we approach
The speed of light.
My love, as we approach
The speed of light
Time is standing still.

Richard Brautigan: At Last Our Bodies Coincide

At last our bodies coincide.
I'll bet you thought this
would never happen. Neither
did I. It's a pleasant
surprise.

Pethes Mária: Szerelmi átváltozások

Kiváló érzékkel tudunk
az ünnepnapokból
szürkét csinálni
Kamupipőkévé és
Spermahajderré válni
Zokszó nélkül elnézzük
egymás könnyét
és büszkén gázolunk át
kedvesünk már
amúgyis megtépázott
önérzetén
Némák tudunk lenni
mikor szólni kellene
Ölelést provokálni
ha a másik fáradt
és jól időzített szóbombát
hajítunk a védtelenre
észre sem véve hogy
békétlen és lázad
Szemrebbenés nélkül lapozunk át
szívből szóló verseken
Gyakorlottan lépünk át
kisiklott terveken
Reggel a tükörben
elnézőn bámuljuk arcunk'
és ebben a dermedt
csendben naponta
feléljük egymás életét

Phillip Lopate: We Who Are Your Closest Friends

We who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting,
as a group,
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift.
Your analyst is
in on it,
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband;
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us.
In announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves.
But since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community
of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center,
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective.