2013. december 31., kedd

Linda Hogan: Two

The weight of a man on a woman
is like falling into the river without drowning.

Above, the world is burning and fighting.
Lost worlds flow through others.

But down here beneath water’s skin,
river floor, sand, everything

is floating, rocking.
Water falls through our hands as we fall through it.

And when a woman and a man come up from water
they stand at the elemental edge of difference.

Mirrored on water’s skin,
they are fired clay, water evaporating into air.

They are where water turns away from land
and goes back to enter a larger sea.

A man and a woman are like those rivers,
entering a larger sea

greater than the sum of all its parts.

2013. december 30., hétfő

Bhartrihari: Untitled

 She who is always in my thoughts prefers
  Another man, and does not think of me.
 Yet he seeks for another's love, not hers;
 And some poor girl is grieving for my sake.
         Why then, the devil take
 Both her and him; and love; and her; and me.

2013. december 28., szombat

Gárdonyi Géza: Tolsztojnak

Azt mondod-e, hogy versnél szebb a próza?
A próza fű. A vers közötte rózsa.
A próza billegdélő házi kácsa:
csak úszni tud, bár oldalán a szárnya.
A vers csapongó énekes-madár:
a földről mindig a magasba száll.
A próza csupa bővizű patak,
rajt hánykolódva megy a gondolat.
A vers aranyló tiszta napsugár.
A gondolat benn ölelkezve száll.
A próza morgó malom kelepe.
A vers a szívnek hárfa-éneke.
A próza mállik, szertehull ha régi.
A vers örök, mint minden ami égi!

Varró Dániel: Üzenet az olvasóknak

Mivel az olvasásnak volt most az évada, – jusson az eszetekbe Závada,
– Esterházy Péter és Tandori Dezső, – meg a többi potyaleső, – de
mindannyiunknak sok örömet szerző – kortárs magyar szerző. – Hiszen írók
nélkül az olvasás bajos – (eszembe jut még Parti Nagy Lajos), – ha ők nem
volnának, az olvasók, komálnák, nem komálnák, – kénytelenek volnának
olvasni a Románát, – meg a többi rissz-rossz szerelmes füzetet, – ebből az
apropóból szól most az üzenet.
De mielőtt még kivenném a szót a számból, – fölteszem a kérdést a jámbor –
olvasónak esdvén – itt a költészet és a próza közti mezsgyén, – ami ugyebár a
rímes próza, más néven makáma – (mintha az ember aranyat kakálna, – és ami
másfelől, mint közismert, nem könnyű dolog, – hiszen olyan, mint repülni
gyalog), – szóval fölmerül a kérdés, – hogy az olvasó olvas-e és mikor és hogyan és
mért, és – ha ugyan olvas, akkor is mit, – Garaczi Lacit vagy Eörsi
Pistit, – és honnan tudja, hogy mit érdemes – olvasni a nyájas, szíves, érdemes – olvasó?
–Mit olvasson, ha ő egy kistesó, – ha vénül, – ha szerelmes és a rét
gyepén ül, – vagy ha kamaszodik, és tucatszám nőne ki – az arcán őneki – a
sok mitesszer meg a csúf kis pattanások? – Ebben a kérdésben adnék szaktanácsot.
Üzenem hát, hogy ki-ki olvasson illőt az alkatához, – ha egyszer úgy határoz,
– hogy könyvet kíván a kezébe venni. – Röviden ennyi.
Magyarul: akinek a szíve kőkemény, – annak nem való a költemény, – aki
durván harsog, és bömbölve herseg, – az ne olvasson verset, – olvasson inkább
 prózát, – ha meg akarja őrizni a komoly ember pózát, – sorakozzanak a polcán
a vaskos regények – szegénynek, – amíg a szem ellát, –vagy olvasson novellát.
Ezen belül, aki nem ragad bele a sárba itt alant, – akinél jelentkezik a kaland,
– mint hiány, – aki a lelke mélyén indián, – és aki szerint az anyjukat – azoknak,
akiknek fáj a vadnyugat, – az jobban teszi, ha Coopert és Karl Mayt – meg
más hasonló regényeket fal majd. – Aki Prousttól – prüszköl, – és irtózik Joyce-tól,
 – annak gondolom, jobban fekszik Tolsztoj, – viszont akinek az olvasás
csak afféle ebéd utáni ejtőzés, – az olvasson Rejtőt, és – ha még nem olvasta
a Svejket – (ami elég sokat sejtet), – akkor ajánlom neki Hasekot, – ne sokat –
habozzon, – lapozzon – bele, – de ha elégedetlen vele, – és ha nem jön be neki
Wodehouse, – mert amilyet ő ír, olyat tud száz, – leküzdeni a lélek undorát
– olvasson egy kis Kunderát.
De ne olvassatok ti prózát, – mimózák! – És ne olvassatok prózát, ti kábák,
– akiknek a lábát – az élet – kemény bakancsa nyomja, mert szűk a méret, – és
fölsértik apró kavicsok; – olvassatok ti Babitsot!
Hiszen azok az ászok, akik a lírát – írják, – és akinek alkotóterülete a próza, –
az a tehetségét nyilvánvalóan elaprózza, – szóval sok-sok verseskönyvet vegyetek,
– húzzák le a súlyos verseskötetek – a kabátzsebeket, retikülöket, tasókat,
– ezt üzenem a nyájas olvasóknak.

2013. december 27., péntek

William Butler Yeats: Az ég köntösére vágyik

Volna csak enyém az ég köntöse,
arannyal hímzett ezüstszínű fény,
az ég kék, sötét s szürke köntöse,
melyben az éj jár s a hajnal s a fény,
azt teríteném lábaid elé;
de minden kincsem csak az álmaim;
álmaim terültek lábaid elé;
lépj lágyan: amin jársz: az álmaim.

(Szabó Lőrinc fordítása)

Nikki Giovanni: I Wrote A Good Omelet

 I wrote a good omelet...and ate a hot poem...
 after loving you

 Buttoned my car...and drove my coat home...in the
      rain...
 after loving you

 I goed on red...and stopped on green....floating
      somewhere in between...
 being here and being there...
 after loving you

 I rolled my bed...turned down my hair...slightly
      confused but...I don't care...
 Laid out my teeth...and gargled my gown...then I stood
      ...and laid me down...
 to sleep...
 after loving you

2013. december 26., csütörtök

William Butler Yeats: He wishes for the cloths of heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

2013. december 25., szerda

Dsida Jenő: Templomablak

Kik csak az uccán
járnak-kelnek
szépséget rajta
nem igen lelnek,
kiváncsi szemmel
rá nem tapadnak:
csak egy karika,
szürke karika,
ólomkarika,
vén templomablak.

Rácsa rozsdás,
kerete málló,
emitt moh lepi,
amott pókháló, -
sütheti napfény,
sötét örökre,
mint világtalan,
bús világtalan,
agg világtalan
húnyt szeme-gödre.

De ki belép
a tág, iromba,
boltozatos,
hűvös templomba
s belülről pillant
ablakára,
megdöbbenten áll,
megkövülten áll,
elbűvölten áll: -
Nézz a csodára! -

Színek zengése!
Fények zúgása!
Mártir mosolya!
Szűz vallomása!
Kék, ami békül,
piros, mi lázad!
Magasba ragad,
a mennybe ragad
lángtünemény
és tűzkáprázat!

Ó, titkok titka:
a földön ittlent
belülről nézzen
mindenki mindent,
szemet és szívet
és harcot és békét! -
Áldja meg az Úr,
áldja meg az Úr
a belülről látók
fényességét!

Charles Bukowski: Miracle

I have just listened to this
symphony which Mozart dashed off
in one day
and it had enough wild and crazy
joy to last
forever,
whatever forever
is
Mozart came as close as
possible to
that.

2013. december 24., kedd

Ilam Peruvaluti: This world lives

 This world lives
 because
 Some men
 do not eat alone,
 not even when they get
 the sweet ambrosia of the gods;

 they've no anger in them,
 they fear evils other men fear
 but never sleep over them;

 give their lives for honor,
 will not touch a gift of whole worlds
 if tainted;

 there's no faintness in their hearts
 and they do not strive
 for themselves.

 Because such men are,
 this world is.

2013. december 23., hétfő

Andy Weaver: A Little Love Poem

Someone who hates scrabble.

Someone who sleeps on her back near an open window in winter, her breath rolling like a river into night.

Someone who wants me to wake her in the morning by reading ee cummings' love poems, giving a small candle-flicker of a smile just before opening her eyes.

Someone who appreciates the architecture of churches, but refuses to step inside.

Someone who has hands fit to hold hurt sparrows and robins.

Someone who threw out all her Alice Cooper records when she found out he loves to golf.

Someone who would swerve a new car into the ditch to avoid a frog crossing the road.

Someone who would tattoo my name on her arm in writing the same colour as her skin, so it would appear slowly from nowhere when she suntanned, people thinking her blood was telling secrets to the world of its own accord.

Someone who learned Spanish to read Marquez, or Lorca, or Neruda.

Someone whose hips whisper their own stories of the serpent and the garden of Eden.

Someone who bites the back of my neck like a leopardess carrying her kitten to safety.

Someone who'll make me wait for her to come out of the shower.

Someone whose smallest movements amaze me: her hair falling over her eyes, the soft swell of her hips when she ties down, a deep sigh when she sleeps.

Someone who maps every ticklish part of my body and then uses her knowledge strictly for evil.

Someone who paints our bodies black and makes love with me under the stars.

Someone who burns through my chest like that first shot of scotch.

Someone whose tongue, if we're kept apart too long, would nervously trace my face into the roof of her mouth.

Someone who practises her signature with her wrong hand, in case of accidents or a sudden arrest.

Someone whose fingrnails smell faintly of her hair.

Someone who reminds me of the soft tickle of fog.

Someone who would rush outside in the middle of the night, setting a spider onto the lawn, never admitting it's because she hates rain.

Someone who understands the unforgivable importance of ravens.

Someone who'll flicker into my lips with the ferocity of a dragonfly.

Someone who will open, thick, pungent and vital, like a Mapplethorpe flower.

Someone who has searched for me like a near-sighted woman groping for her glasses, stubbing her toes and swearing in Yiddish.

Someone who would understand why Steve and Dave and Paul and I sat in a bar staring at the mirror behind us for twenty minutes because somebody had asked what would happen if you looked at yourself in a mirror using a pair of binoculars unti1 we had to admit the question was too big for us, and we turned back to the safe optics of the beer bottle.

Someone who would just happen to cut my wrist shortly after reading Ondaatje's "The Time Around Scars. "

Someone who'll stare softly but straight at me, smiling reassuringly when I tell her how my 73 year old Medieval lit prof looked up from Chaucer, stared blankly over the class's heads and said that even the happiest marriage will end in death.

Someone who understands the efficiency inherent in suicide.

Someone who knows that love can be the thickest slice of hell we’ll ever taste.

Someone who would dance with me by the sides of highways.

2013. december 21., szombat

Lackfi János: Örök

A Lázervin meghalt?
Meg.
Ő írta ezt a könyvet?
Ő.
Aki könyvet ír, az mind meghal?
Meg.
És aki könyvet olvas?
Az is.
És aki nem ír és nem olvas?
Bizony az is.
Akkor nem a könyvekben van a halasztás.
Hát nem.
Csinálsz nekem egy hosszúlépést?
Az nem gyereknek való.
Mért, mi van benne?
Bor meg szóda.
És aki megissza, hosszabbat tud lépni?
Egy ideig igen.
És aztán?
Ha túl sokat iszik, egyáltalán nem tud lépni.
És ha keveset?
Akkor még ugrándozni is tud.
A Lázervin szerette a hosszúlépést?
Nem tudom, nyáron biztos, mert olyankor nagyon jól esik.
Mégis télen lépte a leghosszabbat.
Mégis.
Most már nem lehet utolérni?
Most már nem.
Akkor se, ha iszom hosszúlépést?
Akkor se.
Akkor inkább iszom rövidet.
Az végképp nem gyereknek való.
Mi való a gyereknek?
Tea meg gyümölcslé.
Akkor csinálj nekem gyümölcslépést.
Az milyen?
Gyümölcslé meg szóda.
Jó, csinálok.
Várj csak, én mégis szeretném egy kicsit utolérni a Lázervint.
Most rögtön?
Valamit meg kell beszélnem vele.
Hát nem tudom…
Tegyél még valamit a gyümölcslépésembe, akkor sikerülni fog.
És mit tegyek bele?
Öröklét.

2013. december 20., péntek

Pat Ingold: For Rita With Love

You came home from school
on a special bus
full of people
who look like you
and love like you
and you met me
for the first time
and you loved me.
You love everybody
so much that it's not safe
to let you out alone.
Eleven years of love
and trust and time for you to learn
that you can't go on loving like this.
Unless you are stopped
you will embrace every person you see.
Normal people don't do that.
Some Normal people will hurt you
very badly because you do.

Cripples don't look nice
but you embrace them.
You kissed a wino on the bus
and he broke down and cried
and he said 'Nobody has kissed me
for the last 30 years.
But you did.
You touched my face
with your fingers and said
'I like you.'

The world will never
be ready for you.
Your way is right
and the world will never be ready.
We could learn everything
that we need to know
by watching you
going to your special school
in your special bus
full of people
who look like you
and love like you
and it's not safe
to let you out alone.
If you're not normal
there is very little hope
for the rest of us.

2013. december 19., csütörtök

Victor Hernández Cruz: Problems with Hurricanes

A campesino looked at the air
And told me:
With hurricanes it's not the wind
or the noise or the water.
I'll tell you he said:
it's the mangoes, avocados
Green plantains and bananas
flying into town like projectiles.

How would your family
feel if they had to tell
The generations that you
got killed by a flying
Banana.

Death by drowning has honor
If the wind picked you up
and slammed you
Against a mountain boulder
This would not carry shame
But
to suffer a mango smashing
Your skull
or a plantain hitting your
Temple at 70 miles per hour
is the ultimate disgrace.

The campesino takes off his hat—
As a sign of respect
toward the fury of the wind
And says:
Don't worry about the noise
Don't worry about the water
Don't worry about the wind—
If you are going out
beware of mangoes
And all such beautiful
sweet things.

2013. december 18., szerda

Jaime Sabines: Espero curarme de ti

Espero curarme de ti en unos días. Debo dejar de fumarte, de beberte, de pensarte. Es posible. Siguiendo las prescripciones de la moral en turno. Me receto tiempo, abstinencia, soledad.

¿Te parece bien que te quiera nada más una semana? No es mucho, ni es poco, es bastante. En una semana se puede reunir todas las palabras de amor que se han pronunciado sobre la tierra y se les puede prender fuego. Te voy a calentar con esa hoguera del amor quemado. Y también el silencio. Porque las mejores palabras del amor están entre dos gentes que no se dicen nada.

Hay que quemar también ese otro lenguaje lateral y subversivo del que ama. (Tú sabes cómo te digo que te quiero cuando digo: «qué calor hace», «dame agua», «¿sabes manejar?», «se hizo de noche»... Entre las gentes, a un lado de tus gentes y las mías, te he dicho «ya es tarde», y tú sabías que decía «te quiero»).

Una semana más para reunir todo el amor del tiempo. Para dártelo. Para que hagas con él lo que quieras: guardarlo, acariciarlo, tirarlo a la basura. No sirve, es cierto. Sólo quiero una semana para entender las cosas. Porque esto es muy parecido a estar saliendo de un manicomio para entrar a un panteón.

2013. december 17., kedd

William Matthews: Misgivings

“Perhaps you’ll tire of me,” muses
my love, although she’s like a great city
to me, or a park that finds new
ways to wear each flounce of light
and investiture of weather.
Soil doesn’t tire of rain, I think,

but I know what she fears: plans warp,
planes explode, topsoil gets peeled away
by floods. And worse than what we can’t
control is what we could; those drab,
scuttled marriages we shed so
gratefully may augur we’re on our owns

when I come through the door, “you’re home.”
Experience is a great teacher
of the value of experience,
its claustrophobic prudence,
its gloomy name-the-disasters-

in-advance charisma. Listen,
my wary one, it’s far too late
to unlove each other. Instead let’s cook
something elaborate and not
invite anyone to share it but eat it
all up very very slowly.

2013. december 16., hétfő

William Butler Yeats: A Coat

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

2013. december 14., szombat

2013. december 13., péntek

Robert Bly: Clothespins

I’d like to have spent my life making
Clothespins. Nothing would be harmed,
Except some pines, probably on land
I owned and would replant. I’d see
My work on clotheslines near some lake,
Up north on a day in October,
Perhaps twelve clothespins, the wood
Still fresh, and a light wind blowing.

2013. december 12., csütörtök

Leonard Gasparini: On the Eve of My Thirty-Sixth Birthday

Sometimes the night exists for me alone.
Sinking into a fevered sleep that turns
Me slowly inside out, my body burns
Like that mythical bird. I stand alone,
Old sins confess and cast a second stone.
It bounces back at me. My heart unlearns
Its metaphors and comes to newer terms
With mortality. Now would I atone
For everything but love on my birthday,
If I could - singing God's incarnate Word
Till death, broken-winged in a bright meadow,
Echoes each feathery note back to clay.
And so I am; and sometimes like that bird
I stand in the grave of my own shadow.

2013. december 11., szerda

Luis García Montero: El Lugar Del Crimen

Másalládelasombra
tedelatantusojos,
yteadivinotersa,
comounmapaextendido
deasombroydedeseo.
Datepormuerta
amor,
esunatraco.
Tuslabiosolavida.

2013. december 10., kedd

Gregory Orr: Some say you're lucky

Some say you're lucky
If nothing shatters it.

But then you wouldn't
Understand poems or songs.
You'd never know
Beauty comes from loss.

It's deep inside every person:
A tear tinier
Than a pearl or thorn.

It's one of the places
Where the beloved is born.

2013. december 9., hétfő

Nate Pritts: What's So Amazing

I have entered a cloud
& I am sore afraid;

I am standing
alone & the light

is dazzling bright.
There was a moment

when I knew the steps
I was taking would lead

where I needed
to go so I took them,

I did it,
I took those steps

& I was awake
in my own life & you

do not understand
it is not you it is me,

me wanting, me needing
something outside

to anchor this regret to.

2013. december 7., szombat

Christopher Poindexter: {I knew that if I ever broke her heart}

I knew that
If I ever broke her heart,
It was not because I
Could not love her,
But because I had been
Damaged.
And
Being in love
Is so damn terrifying
When your 
Bones have already
Been torn.

Christopher Poindexter: {She buried her ears into the calm of his heartbeat}

She buried
her ears
into the calm
of his heartbeat,
and in a matter of seconds:
fell terribly in love
with the way
her loneliness fell
softly and suddenly,
asleep,
in his chest.

Varró Dániel: Metró

Hát elkapott ma, kiscicám,
az ellenőr a metrón.
Nem volt érvényes matricám,
kívánom, bárha lett vón.

Leszállított – az alagút
most énelőttem ásít,
s eljutnom több mint bonyolult
a kívánt állomásig.

S míg kattog egyre távolabb
haladva lent a metró,
halkan kattog a bőr alatt
az ember szíve dettó.

Ó, bár ne kéne lógnia,
föladva minden elvét!
Ez itt egy allegória,
ha nem tűnt volna fel még.

Hisz látod, éppen így megyek
hogy földerítsem, úgy ám,
felszín alatti énedet
a lélek mélyvasútján.

De megvívnám bár érted, ó,
én héroszok tusáját,
nem jutok el hozzád a szó
szűk labirintusán át.

S a vágy metróján, hol az ok
zord ellenőre szétcsap,
mint potyautas utazok,
azt kell hogy mondjam, én csak.

Mert nincsen matricám, se más,
jegy, bérlet, bármi érvény,
a benned rejlő állomást
hogy egyszer is elérném.

S meglelve benned messzi, tág,
mély állomások mását,
meghallanám a bőrön át
a szíved kattogását.

2013. december 6., péntek

Fernando Pessoa: Love is the Essential

Love is the essential.
Sex, mere accident.
Can be equal
Or different.
A man’s not an animal:
Is a flesh intelligent,
Although sometimes ill.

2013. december 5., csütörtök

Jonathan Aaron: Cooking An Omelette

Break
two eggs
into a large bowl,
preferably a blue one.
Look down and see
them staring back at you,
their innocent embrace affirming
what must happen.
Now add salt (kosher salt is best,
being saltiest),
pepper, parsley (fresh,
snipped with scissors) to
remind you of the woods you’d like
to be in, a few flakes
of oregano, and a backhand pinch of garlic powder,
which tells you you are cooking.
Sometimes onions.
Tilt the bowl to favor gravity,
and, with a fork, whip
it all into a froth, a midget
ecosystem of delight.
You may here wish to remember
the perfect symmetry of childhood
mornings. Set
your dented, seasoned frying pan
with a light clang
over a high flame.
Wait until the pan is shining
with dark heat, then lower the flame.
Pour your brew into the pan, and listen.
The hiss is a reward.
Jog the pan in brief, determined arcs
above the flame to send your bubbly mass
in waves against the hot wall of the pan.
When little’s left to riffle outward from
the center, strike the pan at the handle’s base
with the butt end of a spatula or knife
to loosen what you’ve made from clinging metal.
Fold the settled, slightly moistened roundness gently
over, once from each side toward the middle, to create
a lozenge-of egg.
Flop it freely from the canted pan onto
a white plate.
Now you’ve finished.
If you’ve cooked it for your sweetie—
she having just arrived and there being nothing
in the house—you might want to please her
further by tossing on some parsley sprigs for color.
If it’s for yourself, forgo
such niceties, which only measure solitude.
Pick it up with both hands and begin.

2013. december 4., szerda

Federico García Lorca: Soneto de La Dulce Queja

Tengo miedo a perder la maravilla
de tus ojos de estatua, y el acento
que de noche me pone en la mejilla
la solitaria rosa de tu aliento.

Tengo pena de ser en esta orilla
tronco sin ramas; y lo que más siento
es no tener la flor, pulpa o arcilla,
para el gusano de mi sufrimiento.

Si tú eres el tesoro oculto mío,
si eres mi cruz y mi dolor mojado,
si soy el perro de tu señorío,

no me dejes perder lo que he ganado
y decora las aguas de tu río
con hojas de mi otoño enajenado.

2013. december 3., kedd

Kenneth Koch: Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams

You may want to re-read the 'theme' here:
This is just to say

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

2013. december 2., hétfő

Michelle Dent: I Don’t Do Love Well

I don’t do love well
I take it too
personally I hang
on to it like it’s
mine like it
arrives with
luggage I don’t
do love well I
think it will last
forever and means
every word it
says and keeps on
meaning it I don’t
do love well
I make it more
than it is
what is it?
I turn it into belief
when all it really
wants to see is its
own reflection
I don’t do love well.

2013. november 30., szombat

Varró Dániel: {De mit vesződöm én}

De mit vesződöm én tevéled, édes, annyit?
A stressz, a félsz, a hiszti, a nyűgök, macerák…
Mind többször már a gond szívünkben ablakot nyit,
s a szó gégénkbe hátrál, akár egy pici rák.
 
Elég idült idill ez, még hogyha idill is.
A szíved az enyémmel nem kompatibilis.
Bőrünkből szikra pattan, ha megfogod kezem.
Nem illünk össze, drága, mit szépítsünk ezen.
 
De gomblukunkat mégis egymás hiánya lakja,
és elválásaink megannyi kis patakja
a visszaérkezés tavába fut be, lásd.
 
Elhagylak, s lépteim megint mögéd szegődnek.
Mert nem szerettem én még senkit így előtted,
és nem tudok utánad szeretni senki mást.

2013. november 29., péntek

Lang Leav: Three Questions

What was it like to love him? Asked Gratitude.
It was like being exhumed, I answered. And
brought to life in a flesh of brilliance.

What was it like to be loved in return? Asked Joy.
It was like being seen after a perpetual darkness, I
replied. To be heared after a lifetime of silence.

What was it like to lose him? Asked Grief.
There was a long pause before I responded:

It was like hearing every goodbye ever said to
me – said all at once.

2013. november 28., csütörtök

Mark Strand: The Coming Of Light

Even this late it happens:
the coming of love, the coming of light.
You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
sending up warm bouquets of air.
Even this late the bones of the body shine
and tomorrow's dust flares into breath.

2013. november 27., szerda

2013. november 26., kedd

Hafiz: Stop Being So Religious

What
Do sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
So religious
Like That.

(Translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

2013. november 25., hétfő

Kim Visda: For Lack Of A Better Poem

The seventh page of my journal is missing,
savagely ripped out after a successful
attempt at describing your body with overused
metaphors: Broken ribcages. Falling asleep
inside the dip of your collarbones. Slivers
of light cutting through the cracks between
your individual vertebrae. It’s all been said
before and to use them again would be an
insult because your eyes are not pools of
ocean. Your lips are not flower beds and
you are not a temple. I could not capture you
even if the words were written in my own
blood because this skin can only hold so
much. Because I can no longer look at you
without burning. You are too painful for poetry
and too big for language. You are far too many
things I don’t know how to write about.

2013. november 23., szombat

Varró Dániel: Mozi

van úgy hogy tévedésből megszeretnek
és átkozódsz az isten tudja mér
van úgy hogy évek óta ezt kerested
de mégse mész be nincs pucádba vér

van úgy hogy reccs és nincs ki megragassza
kidől a kóla farmerodra szárad
van úgy hogy köpsz az ébredő tavaszra
és otthon ülsz egész nap mint az állat

van úgy hogy sörre gondolsz és perecre
plasztik babácskák szőkesége húz
van úgy hogy több az este mint a lecke
bedobsz egy ötvenest you win you lose

van úgy hogy állsz a könny meg mint a charleston
pereg pereg akár ha film a vásznon

2013. november 22., péntek

Lang Leav: A Photograph

This is our greatest moment,
time is mine and yours;
it is all I’ll ever long for,
beyond this perfect pause.

One day we may be different –
whatever we’ll become,
the moment I will wish for,
will be this very one.

When everything I ache for,
is standing at my side;
and the things my heart
may break for –
are yet to be realised.

2013. november 21., csütörtök

Margaret Atwood: We Are Hard on Each Other

i

We are hard on each other
and call it honesty,
choosing our jagged truths
with care and aiming them across
the neutral table.

The things we say are
true; it is our crooked
aims, our choices
turn them criminal.


ii

Of course your lies
are more amusing:
you make them new each time.

Your truths, painful and boring
repeat themselves over & over
perhaps because you own
so few of them


iii

A truth should exist,
it should not be used
like this. If I love you

is that a fact or a weapon?


iv

Does the body lie
moving like this, are these
touches, hair, wet
soft marble my tongue runs over
lies you are telling me?

Your body is not a word,
it does not lie or
speak truth either.

It is only
here or not here.

2013. november 20., szerda

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin: Szerettem Önt

Szerettem Önt: s talán e mély szerelmem
A lelkemben nem hunyt egészen el;
De békéjét ne dúlja már fel ez sem;
Nem búsítom önt már semmivel.
Szerettem önt, némán, reményvesztetten,
Voltam szelíd, majd féltékeny s irígy -
Mély áhitattal, gyöngéden szerettem,
Ég adja, hogy más is szeresse így.

(Franyó Zoltán fordítása)

Octavio Paz: Palpar

Mis manos
abren las cortinas de tu ser
te visten con otra desnudez
descubren los cuerpos de tu cuerpo
Mis manos
inventan otro cuerpo a tu cuerpo

2013. november 19., kedd

Kathryn Stripling Byer: Diamonds

This, he said, giving the hickory leaf
to me. Because I am poor.
And he lifted my hand to his lips,
kissed the fingers that might have worn
gold rings if he had inherited

bottomland, not this
impossible rock where the eagles soared
after the long rains were over. He stood
in the wet grass, his open hands empty,
his pockets turned inside out,

Queen of the Meadow, he teased me
and bowed like a gentleman.
I licked the diamonds off the green
tongue of the lead, wanting only
that he fill his hands with my hair.

2013. november 18., hétfő

Stephen Dunn: Connubial

Because with alarming accuracy
she’d been identifying patterns
I was unaware of — this tic, that
tendency, like the way that I’ve mastered intimacy
in order to conceal how I felt —

I knew I was in danger
of being terribly understood.

2013. november 16., szombat

Varró Dániel: Eszedbe jut, hogy eszedbe ne jusson

Eszedbe jut, hogy eszedbe ne jusson
valahogy mégis elfelejteni,
leírod, aláhúzod, kiragasztod
szamárfülecskét hajtogatsz neki,

kisímítod, odateszed a székre,
az ágy mellé, hogy szem előtt legyen,
leülsz, kötsz egy csomót a lepedőre,
elalszol, elfelejted, hirtelen

eszedbe jut, felugrasz, zsebre vágod,
a szíved közben összevissza ver,
sehogy sem hiszed el, hogy ott van nálad,

kihúzod, megtapogatod, de mindjárt
el is teszed, és ráhúzod a cipzárt -
mikor megnyugszol, akkor veszted el.

2013. november 15., péntek

Olav H. Hauge: Your Way

No-one has marked out the road
You are to take
Out in the unknown
Out in the blue.

This is your road.
Only you
Will take it. And there’s no
Turning back.

And you haven’t marked your road
Either.
And the wind smooths out your tracks
On desolate hills.

2013. november 14., csütörtök

Lorna Dee Cervantes: Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War Between Races

In my land there are no distinctions.
The barbed wire politics of oppression
have been torn down long ago. The only reminder
of past battles, lost or won, is a slight
rutting in the fertile fields.

In my land
people write poems about love,
full of nothing but contented childlike syllables.
Everyone reads Russian short stories and weeps.
There are no boundaries.
There is no hunger, no
complicated famine or greed.

I am not a revolutionary.
I don’t even like political poems.
Do you think I can believe in a war between races?
I can deny it. I can forget about it
when I’m safe,
living on my own continent of harmony
and home, but I am not
there.

I believe in revolution
because everywhere the crosses are burning,
sharp-shooting goose-steppers round every corner,
there are snipers in the schools…
(I know you don’t believe this.
You think this is nothing
but faddish exaggeration. But they
are not shooting at you.)

I’m marked by the color of my skin.
The bullets are discrete and designed to kill slowly.
They are aiming at my children.
These are facts.
Let me show you my wounds: my stumbling mind, my
"excuse me" tongue, and this
nagging preoccupation
with the feeling of not being good enough.

These bullets bury deeper than logic.
Racism is not intellectual.
I can not reason these scars away.

Outside my door
there is a real enemy
who hates me.

I am a poet
who yearns to dance on rooftops,
to whisper delicate lines about joy
and the blessings of human understanding.
I try. I go to my land, my tower of words and
bolt the door, but the typewriter doesn’t fade out
the sounds of blasting and muffled outrage.
My own days bring me slaps on the face.
Every day I am deluged with reminders
that this is not
my land
and this is my land.

I do not believe in the war between races

but in this country
there is war.

2013. november 13., szerda

Elena Tamargo: Mar de mi patio

Y si llegaras mar
cuando mi cuerpo fuera tierra arada
y lloviera en mis ojos?
Alga y sal de prusia calentura
¿no te crecen las uñas?
Te veré frente a frente
presa en tus quemaduras, levantando las cejas
dejando ver los ojos con esa indiferencia.
Cómo tú eras cuando yo te elegí.
Diosa naciendo y destronando diosas
si tú al verme fijaras la mirada.
Ven hacia mí, no tardes
puedo perder las fuerzas.
Estoy sola bailando y en mi musgo
me pisan miles de pies desesperados.
Sácame este mareo
este jilguero tosco que custodia mi blanco
esta brújula adivinando el este.
Si te demoras se deshace mi estatua
este cuerpo que danza maravillosamente.
--¿Qué hora es que no llegas
perfumando las calles con tus pescados frescos?--
Mar de mi patio, mar atormentado
lo que me duele
es que mis días
se vuelvan más y más de tierra.

2013. november 12., kedd

Jo McDougall: The Phenomenological World

As I drive by my neighbor’s yard,
a swan I’ve mistaken daily for an ornament
raises a wing.

2013. november 11., hétfő

William Henry Davies: Ráérés

Mit ér annak  az élete,
aki nem bámészkodhat sohase?
                                
Ki nem mereng , bokrok tövén,
hosszan, mint a juh vagy  a tehén.

Nem nézi fák mókusait,
hogy rejtik a fűbe makkjaik.

Nem ér rá látni a patak
tükrén a nappali csillagokat.

S fordulni, ha villan a Szép,
s figyelni, hogy táncol, ha lép.

S kivárni, boldog ajkakra
hogy gyúl át  szeme mosolya.

Koldus annak az élete,
aki nem bámészkodhat sohase.

(fordító ismeretlen)

William Henry Davies: Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

2013. november 9., szombat

Utassy József: Fákat altat a szél

Fákat altat a szél,
álmos lombú fákat.
S én most ébredek rá:
nagyon szerethetlek,
ha már a sálam is
integet utánad.

2013. november 8., péntek

Anna Akhmatova: You Thought I Was That Type

You thought I was that type:
That you could forget me,
And that I'd plead and weep
And throw myself under the hooves of a bay mare,

Or that I'd ask the sorcerers
For some magic potion made from roots and send you a terrible gift:
My precious perfumed handkerchief.

Damn you! I will not grant your cursed soul
Vicarious tears or a single glance.

And I swear to you by the garden of the angels,
I swear by the miracle-working icon,
And by the fire and smoke of our nights:
I will never come back to you.

2013. november 7., csütörtök

Nikki Giovanni: Winter

Frogs burrow the mud
snails bury themselves
and I air my quilts
preparing for the cold

Dogs grow more hair
mothers make oatmeal
and little boys and girls
take Father John's Medicine

Bears store fat
chipmunks gather nuts
and I collect books
For the coming of winter

Louise Glück: Eros

I had drawn my chair to the hotel window, to watch the rain.

I was in a kind of dream, or trance –
in love, and yet
I wanted nothing.

It seemed unnecessary to touch you, to see you again.
I wanted only this:
the room, the hair, the sound of the rain falling,
hour after hour, in the warmth of the spring night.

I needed nothing more; I was utterly sated.
My heart had become very small; it took very little to fill it.
I watched the rain falling in heavy sheets over the darkened city –

You were not concerned. I did the things
one does in daylight, I acquitted myself,
but I moved like a sleepwalker.

It was enough and it no longer involved you.
A few days in a strange city.
A conversation, the touch of a hand.
And afterward, I took off my wedding ring.

That was what I wanted: to be naked.

2013. november 6., szerda

Octavio Paz: Bajo tu clara sombra (I, II, III, IV, V)

I
Bajo tu clara sombra
vivo como la llama al aire,
en tenso aprendizaje de lucero


II

Tengo que hablaros de ella.
Suscita fuentes en el día,
puebla de mármoles la noche.
La huella de su pie
es el centro visible de la tierra,
la frontera del mundo,
sitio sutil, encadenado y libre;
discípula de pájaros y nubes
hace girar al cielo;
su voz, alba terrestre,
nos anuncia el rescate de las aguas,
el regreso del fuego,
la vuelta de la espiga,
las primeras palabras de los árboles,
la blanca monarquía de las alas.

No vio nacer al mundo,
mas se enciende su sangre cada noche
con la sangre nocturna de las cosas
y en su latir reanuda
el son de las mareas
que alzan las orillas del planeta,
un pasado de agua y de silencio
y las primeras formas de la materia fértil.

Tengo que hablaros de ella,
de su fresca costumbre
de ser simple tormenta, rama tierna.


III

Mira el poder del mundo,
mira el poder del polvo, mira el agua.

Mira los fresnos en callado círculo,
toca su reino de silencio y savia,
toca su piel de sol y lluvia y tiempo,
mira sus verdes ramas cara al cielo,
oye cantar sus hojas como agua.

Mira después la nube,
anclada en el espacio sin mareas,
alta espuma visible
de celestes corrientes invisibles.

Mira el poder del mundo,
mira su forma tensa,
su hermosura inconsciente, luminosa.

Toca mi piel, de barro, de diamante,
oye mi voz en fuentes subterráneas,
mira mi boca en esa lluvia oscura,
mi sexo en esa brusca sacudida
con que desnuda el aire los jardines.

Toca tu desnudez en la del agua,
desnúdate de ti, llueve en ti misma,
mira tus piernas como dos arroyos,
mira tu cuerpo como un largo río,
son dos islas gemelas tus dos pechos,
en la noche tu sexo es una estrella,
alba, luz rosa entre dos mundos ciegos,
mar profundo que duerme entre dos mares.

Mira el poder del mundo:
reconócete ya, al reconocerme.


IV

Un cuerpo, un cuerpo solo, sólo un cuerpo,
un cuerpo como día derramado
y noche devorada;
la luz de unos cabellos
que no apaciguan nunca
la sombra de mi tacto;
una garganta, un vientre que amanece
como el mar que se enciende
cuando toca la frente de la aurora;
unos tobillos, puentes del verano;
unos muslos nocturnos que se hunden
en la música verde de la tarde;
un pecho que se alza
y arrasa las espumas;
un cuello, sólo un cuello,
unas manos tan sólo,
unas palabras lentas que descienden
como arena caída en otra arena…

Esto que se me escapa,
agua y delicia obscura,
mar naciendo o muriendo;
estos labios y dientes,
estos ojos hambrientos,
me desnudan de mí
y su furiosa gracia me levanta
hasta los quietos cielos
donde vibra el instante:
la cima de los besos,
la plenitud del mundo y de sus formas.


V

Deja que una vez más te nombre, tierra,
y que mi lengua sepa a tu sustancia.
Mi tacto se prolonga
en el tuyo sediento,
largo, vibrante río
que no termina nunca,
navegado por hojas digitales,
lentas bajo tu espeso sueño verde.

Atado a este cuerpo sin retorno
te amo, polvo mío,
ámbito necesario de mi aliento,
ceniza de mis huesos,
ceniza de los huesos de mi estirpe.

En tu boca me planto,
a tu roca confío
aquello que me invade
y aquello que conquisto:
mi cuerpo, que me fija
y en sus huesos limita mi destino,
y el cuerpo que se abre
y en su tímida gracia me sostiene.

Tibia mujer de somnolientos ríos,
mi pabellón de pájaros y peces,
mi paloma de tierra,
de leche endurecida,
mi pan, mi sal, mi muerte,
mi almohada de sangre:
en un amor más vasto te sepulto.

Sepulto todo, tierra,
en tu fuego lo hundo alegremente:
tu misma esencia fiera
hostiga cada pulso.

Una vez más, sedienta tierra, canto;
canto de nuevo, siempre,
desnudo como tú,
ciñendo una cintura,
canto, cantamos
bajo tus anchas manos que nos llueven,
como dos hierbas puras,
como un árbol azul,
tal una sola flor que te resiste.

Octavio Paz: I (Bajo tu clara sombra)

Bajo tu clara sombra
vivo como la llama al aire,
en tenso aprendizaje de lucero

2013. november 5., kedd

Donald Hall: Safe Sex

If he and she do not know each other, and feel confident they will not meet again; if he avoids affectionate words;
if she has grown insensible skin under skin; if they desire only the tribute of another’s cry; if they employ each other
as revenge on old lovers or families of entitlement and steel—then there will be no betrayals, no letters returned unread,
no frenzy, no hurled words of permanent humiliation, no trembling days, no vomit at midnight, no repeated
apparition of a body floating face-down at the pond’s edge

2013. november 4., hétfő

Ambrose Bierce: Business

Two villains of the highest rank
Set out one night to rob a bank.
They found the building, looked it o’er,
Each window noted, tried each door,
Scanned carefully the lidded hole
For minstrels to cascade the coal—
In short, examined five-and_twenty
Short cuts from poverty to plenty.
But all were sealed, they saw full soon,
Against the minions of the moon.
"Enough," said one: "I’m satisfied."
The other, smiling fair and wide,
Said: “I’m as highly pleased as you:
No burglar ever can get through.
Fate surely prospers our design—
The booty all is yours and mine.”
So, full of hope, the following day
To the exchange they took their way
And bought, with manner free and frank,
Some stock of that devoted bank;
And they became, inside the year,
One President and one Cashier.
Their crime I can no further trace—
The means of safety to embrace,
I overdrew and left the place.

2013. november 2., szombat

Tóth Árpád: Lélektől lélekig

Állok az ablak mellett éjszaka,
S a mérhetetlen messzeségen át
Szemembe gyűjtöm össze egy szelíd
Távol csillag remegő sugarát.

Billió mérföldekről jött e fény,
Jött a jeges, fekete és kopár
Terek sötétjén lankadatlanul,
S ki tudja, mennyi ezredéve már.

Egy égi üzenet, mely végre most
Hozzám talált, s szememben célhoz ért,
S boldogan hal meg, amíg rácsukom
Fáradt pillám koporsófödelét.

Tanultam én, hogy általszűrve a
Tudósok finom kristályműszerén,
Bús földünkkel s bús testemmel rokon
Elemekről ád hírt az égi fény.

Magamba zárom, véremmé iszom,
És csöndben és tűnődve figyelem,
Mily ős bút zokog a vérnek a fény,
Földnek az ég, elemnek az elem?

Tán fáj a csillagoknak a magány,
A térbe szétszórt milljom árvaság?
S hogy össze nem találunk már soha
A jégen, éjjen s messziségen át?

Ó, csillag, mit sírsz! Messzebb te se vagy,
Mint egymástól itt a földi szívek!
A Szíriusz van tőlem távolabb
Vagy egy-egy társam, jaj, ki mondja meg?

Ó jaj barátság, és jaj szerelem!
Ó jaj az út lélektől lélekig!
Küldözzük a szem csüggedt sugarát,
S köztünk a roppant jeges űr lakik.

2013. november 1., péntek

Marie Howe: What the Living Do

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, 
some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, 
and the crusty dishes have piled up
 
waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. 
This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, 
and the sunlight pours through
 
the open living-room windows because 
the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, 
the bag breaking,
 
I've been thinking: This is what the living do. 
And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, 
spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,
 
I thought it again, and again later, 
when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. 
What you called that yearning.
 
What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come 
and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss—
we want more and more and then more of it.
 
But there are moments, walking, 
when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, 
and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep
 
for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat 
that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you.

2013. október 31., csütörtök

About the state of economy :-)

So, I launched this blog a year ago. As of today, more than 750 poems have been posted, and you have no idea how many are waiting in line at this very moment :-)

Soon the number of visitors will reach 16,000. You may wonder which were the most popular posts so far. The top five poems are as follows: In defense of joy by Mario BenedettiTwo bodies by Octavio PazA little girl tugs at the tablecloth by Wislawa SzymborskaI loved my friend by Langston Hughes, and a Hungarian poem, Vallomás, by Jenő Heltai. I find it great that in the top five, there are two Spanish-speaking poets and a Polish one :-)

It is so good to see visitors from all over the world. Naturally, because most of the poems are in English, most visitors come from English speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand...). Some regular readers visit from European countries (Hungary, of course, but also Greece, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...). Others arrive from Costa Rica, Mexiko, South-Korea, the Philippines, China, Russia, and there are occassional readers from African countries and other distant places such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico, among others. I certainly hope not all of those visitors are statistic websites :-)

It is a pity almost noone ever leaves a comment. However, I sometimes receive an encouraging mail from readers - let me thank you now publicly, too.
Many of these poems I share here had helped me in the past in various situations. I wish that reading these poems you find solace, help, encouragement, inspiration and whatever else you need at this very moment in your life.

I hope you found this anniversary blog entry interesting because I intend to debrief you every year at Halloween, if you will still stick around by then :-)

Neil Hiborn: OCD (spanish version)

La primera vez que la vi…
Todo en mi cabeza se silenció
Todos los ticks, las imágenes constantes desaparecieron.
Cuando tienes trastorno obsesivo compulsivo en realidad no tienes momentos callados.
Inclusive en la cama estoy pensando:
¿Cerré las puertas? Sí
¿Me lavé las manos? Sí
¿Cerré las puertas? Sí
¿Me lavé las manos? Sí
Pero cuando la vi, la única cosa en la que pude pensar fue en la curva de la horquilla de sus labios.
O la pestaña en su mejilla–
La pestaña en su mejilla–
La pestaña en su mejilla.
Sabía que debía hablar con ella
La invité a salir seis veces en treinta segundos.
Ella dijo que sí después de la tercera,
pero ninguna de las veces que pregunté se sintió bien así que tenía que seguir haciéndolo.
En nuestra primera cita,
pasé más tiempo organizando mi comida por colores de lo que pasé comiéndola o hablando con ella.
Pero le encantó.
Le encantaba que tuviera que besarla para despedirme 16 veces, o 24 si era miércoles.
Le encantaba que me tomaba todo el tiempo caminar hacia casa porque había muchas grietas en la banqueta.
Cuando nos mudamos juntos ella dijo que se sentía segura,
como si nadie nos fuera a robar porque definitivamente había cerrado la puerta 18 veces,
Yo siempre veía su boca cuando hablaba–
Cuando hablaba–
Cuando hablaba–
Cuando hablaba–
Cuando hablaba;
Cuando me dijo que me amaba, su boca se curveaba hacia arriba en los bordes.
En la noche ella se acostaba en la cama y me veía apagar todas las luces, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas, y prenderlas, y apagarlas.
Ella cerraba los ojos y se imaginaba que los días y las noches pasaban frente a ella.
Algunas mañanas empezaba a besarla para despedirme y ella sólo se iba porque estaba haciéndola llegar tarde al trabajo.
Cuando me detenía en las grietas de la banqueta ella seguía caminando.
Cuando me decía que me amaba su boca era una línea recta.
Me dijo que estaba tomando mucho de su tiempo.
La semana pasada empezó a dormir en casa de su madre.
Me dijo que nunca debió dejarme apegarme tanto a ella; que todo esto fue un error,
pero… ¡¿Cómo podría ser un error que no tenga que lavarme las manos después de tocarla?!
El amor no es un error y me está matando que ella pueda salirse de esto y yo no.
No puedo–
No puedo salir y encontrar a alguien nuevo porque siempre pienso en ella.
Usualmente, cuando me obsesiono con algo, veo gérmenes escabulléndose en mi piel.
Me veo a mí mismo siendo atropellado por una infinita línea de coches.
Y ella fue la primera cosa hermosa en la que alguna vez me he estancado.
Quiero despertar todas las mañanas pensando en la manera en la que agarra el volante.
Cómo mueve las manijas de la regadera como si estuviera abriendo una caja fuerte.
En cómo sopla las velas–
cómo sopla las velas–
cómo sopla las velas–
cómo sopla las velas–
cómo sopla…
Ahora sólo pienso en quién más está besándola.
No puedo respirar porque él sólo la besa una vez– ¡No le importa si es perfecto!
La quiero de regreso tanto que…
Dejo la puerta sin cerrar.
Dejo las luces prendidas.

Neil Hilborn: OCD

The first time I saw her,
Everything in my head went quiet.

All the ticks, all the constantly refreshing images just disappeared.

When you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, you don’t really get quiet moments.
Even in bed, I’m thinking:
Did I lock the doors? Yes.
Did I wash my hands? Yes.
Did I lock the doors? Yes.
Did I wash my hands? Yes.

But when I saw her, the only thing I could think about was the hairpin curve of her lips.
Or the eyelash on her cheek—
the eyelash on her cheek—
the eyelash on her cheek.

I knew I had to talk to her.
I asked her out six times in thirty seconds.
She said yes after the third one, but none of them felt right, so I had to keep going.

On our first date, I spent more time organizing my meal by color than I did eating it, or talking to her.
But she loved it.
She loved that I had to kiss her goodbye sixteen times or twenty-four times at different times of the day.
She loved that it took me forever to walk home because there are lots of cracks on our sidewalk.
When we moved in together, she said she felt safe, like no one would ever rob us because I definitely lock the door eighteen times.

I’d always watch her mouth when she talked—
when she talked—
when she talked—
when she talked;
when she said she loved me, her mouth would curl up at the edges.

At night, she’d lay in bed and watch me turn all the lights off.
And on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off.
She’d close her eyes and imagine that the days and nights were passing in front of her.

But then.
She said I was taking up too much of her time.
That I couldn’t kiss her goodbye so much because I was making her late for work.
When she said she loved me, her mouth was a straight line. When I stopped in front of a crack in the sidewalk, she just kept walking.
And last week she started sleeping at her mother’s place.
She told me that she shouldn’t have let me get so attached to her; that this whole thing was a mistake, but.
How can it be a mistake that I don’t have to wash my hands after I touch her?

Love is not a mistake, and it’s killing me that she can run away from this and I just can’t.
I can’t go out and find someone new because I always think of her.

Usually, when I obsess over things, I see germs sneaking into my skin.
I see myself crushed by an endless succession of cars.
And she was the first beautiful thing I ever got stuck on.
I want to wake up every morning thinking about the way she holds her steering wheel.
How she turns shower knobs like she opening a safe.
How she blows out candles—
blows out candles—
blows out candles—
blows out candles—
blows out—

Now, I just think about who else is kissing her.

I can’t breathe because he only kisses her once -
He doesn’t care if it’s perfect!

I want her back so bad,
I leave the door unlocked.
I leave the lights on.


2013. október 30., szerda

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Rhyme XLI

You were the hurricane and I was the high
tower which defies its power:
you had to crash or to throw me down!
That could not be!

You were the ocean and I was the erect
rock which firmly awaits for its swing:
you had to break or to root me out!
That could not be!

Beautiful you, haughty me: used
the one to trample down, the other to not giving up:
narrow the path, unavoidable the impact...
That could not be!

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Rima XLI

Tú eras el huracán y yo la alta
torre que desafía su poder:
¡tenías que estrellarte o que abatirme!
¡No podía ser!

Tú eras el océano y yo la enhiesta
roca que firme aguarda su vaivén:
¡tenías que romperte o que arrancarme!
¡No podía ser!

Hermosa tú, yo altivo: acostumbrados
uno a arrollar, el otro a no ceder:
la senda estrecha, inevitable el choque...
¡No podía ser!

2013. október 29., kedd

Esperanza Friel: The Truth

These are the facts:
Cigarettes will kill you.
Yes does not always mean yes.
How kind you are to people
sometimes does not matter.
Coffee is bad for you.
8 hours of sleep should not be a goal;
it should always be a reality.
Green vegetables will keep you
young for as long as you eat them.
Nothing will ever be as beautiful
as your solitude.
Breathing deeply can calm you down
in any situation.
Mediation will center you
but only for a short time.
Love will hold you together
when you are falling apart.

2013. október 28., hétfő

Andrea Gibson: I’m never gonna wait that extra twenty minutes...

I’m never gonna wait
that extra twenty minutes
to text you back,
and I’m never gonna play
hard to get
when I know your life
has been hard enough already.
When we all know everyone’s life
has been hard enough already
it’s hard to watch
the game we make of love,
like everyone’s playing checkers
with their scars,
saying checkmate
whenever they get out
without a broken heart.
Just to be clear
I don’t want to get out
without a broken heart.
I intend to leave this life
so shattered
there’s gonna have to be
a thousand separate heavens
for all of my flying parts.

2013. október 26., szombat

Tóth János: Az irodalom szeméttelepén

(nem minden szemét, ami nem világít)

Az irodalom virágos rét
úgy általában,
de jártam már ott is,
ahol szeméttelep.
Turkáltam eldobott
sorokban, tört mondatok
vágtak lelkemen sebet,
s volt hogy atombomba
dörrenéssel jött a döbbenet:
miket eldobnak az emberek,
hisz ez a gondolat remek!
Magamhoz veszem,
letörlöm a hozzátapadt
indulatragot,
felkapaszkodó ragacsos jelzői elé
odavetek egy tőmondatot.
Megyek lassan,
bámulok egy málló költői képet,
de már túl koszos ,
hát hagyom az egészet.
Egy–két rozsdásodó
szó, mit még felkapok,
félkész rímért hajlok és már
itt sem vagyok.
Haza érve az egész holmit
egy zuhanygondolat alatt átmosom,
s pilláimmal intve a délibáb világnak,
a szelektív szemetet
talán verssé álmodom.

2013. október 25., péntek

Keaton Henson: Polite Plea

Come and be human with me
eat nothing that means us both leaving the house
sit on the floor in strange places
and sleep in familiar beds

I will make art, not for, but about you
speak truths while your sleeping and wake you with hands
we will dive deeply into one anothers
and stay out of our own weary heads

We will argue in glorious fireworks
I will throw words, you will break my guitar
remind ourselves that it's something worth burning
and be all the better for making up

Come and eat cereal late at night
in silence, undressed on the kitchen counter
be far too tired for tomorrows long stroll
in love, just enough for the waking up

Come, in your own time, and human be,
Yours politely,
Lonely me.

2013. október 24., csütörtök

2013. október 23., szerda

Pablo Neruda: Your Feet

When I cannot look at your face
I look at your feet.
Your feet of arched bone,
your hard little feet.
I know that they support you,
and that your sweet weight
rises upon them.
Your waist and your breasts,
the doubled purple
of your nipples,
the sockets of your eyes
that have just flown away,
your wide fruit mouth,
your red tresses,
my little tower.
But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me.

Pablo Neruda: Tus pies

Cuando no puedo mirar tu cara
miro tus pies.
Tus pies de hueso arqueado,
tus pequeños pies duros.
Yo sé que te sostienen,
y que tu dulce peso
sobre ellos se levanta.
Tu cintura y tus pechos,
la duplicada púrpura
de tus pezones,
la caja de tus ojos
que recién han volado,
tu ancha boca de fruta,
tu cabellera roja,
pequeña torre mía.
Pero no amo tus pies
sino porque anduvieron
sobre la tierra y sobre
el viento y sobre el agua,
hasta que me encontraron.

2013. október 22., kedd

Wendy Cope: Postcards

At first I sent you a postcard
From every city I went to.
Grüsse aus Bath, aus Birmingham,
Aus Rotterdam, aus Tel Aviv.
Mit Liebe. Cards from you arrived
In English, with many commas.
Hope, you're fine and still alive,
Says one from Hong Kong. By that time
We weren't writing quite as often.

Now we're nearly nine years away
From the lake and the blue mountains,
And the room with the balcony,
But the heat and light of those days
Can reach this far from time to time.
Your latest was from Senegal,
Mine from Helsinki. I don't know
If we'll meet again. Be happy.
If you hear this, send a postcard.

2013. október 21., hétfő

Nikki Giovanni: The Butterfly

those things
which you so laughingly call
hands are in fact two
brown butterflies fluttering
across the pleasure
they give
my body

Sherman Pearl: Delayed Reactions

After the hammer slams down on your thumb
or the hurtful word penetrates,
a stunned moment follows.

You're like a soldier who feels no pain until he sees the wound.

Happiness, too, is sometimes slow to register.

It was years after the rain had sent
me and the girl huddled close to me dashing for cover
that I suddenly felt the drops.

2013. október 19., szombat

Szilágyi Domokos: Ius Primae Noctis

FIGYELEM!
A vers felkavaró.



Nád-erdő közepén tavirózsák
- nád-szablyák, csillagtalan víz-ágy -

Jönnek, parancsra tárva testük öblét,
lehajtott lelkű, mosolytalan menyecskék,

illattalan virág-árnyak - -
járják a villogó szemű nádast,

álmaimban, összeszorított ajakkal,
mellükön tejfehér teleholddal.

Tapogatják szőrös-kezű rémek,
pókhasúak ölelik őket,

vérbő tokák nyakukra folynak,
kan-agyarak vállukba marnak,

göcsörtös térdek térdüket nyomják,
zsíros fülek nyelik fájdalmuk hangját,

szemük szirmait tövises szemek tépik,
fejük rózsaként hajol földig,

kedvük temetődik rögök alá
- hol van, ki kínjukat kiáltaná?

Fénytelén ágyékukat sugárral simítani
hol a Nap? hol vagytok, szerelem csillagai?

Nád-erdő közepén tavirózsák
- nád-szablyák, csillagtalan víz-ágy -

Jönnek, parancsra tárva testük öblét,
lehajtott lelkű, mosolytalan menyecskék,

álmaimban jönnek lengő sorban,
arcukon keserű ráncok csokorban,

méhük sunyító bánattal terhes -
nyújtják kezüket századok szürkés

ködén át, ajkuk szótalan jajjal,
villog vértelen gyötrődés-habbal,

nyugtukat nem lelik a földben,
szívüket forgatják szívemben,

nyelvem pattogzik, agyam elforr,
s vér fakad tejes liliomokból -

2013. október 18., péntek

Sherman Alexie: How to Create an Agnostic

Singing with my son, I clapped my hands
Just as lightning struck.

It was dumb luck,
But my son, in awe, thought

That I’d created the electricity.
He asked, “Dad, how’d you do that?”

Before I could answer, thunder shook the house
And set off neighborhood car alarms.

I thought that my son, always in love with me,
Might fall to his knees with adoration.

“Dad,” he said. “Can you burn
down that tree outside my window?

The one that looks like a giant owl?”
O, my little disciple, my one-boy choir,

I can’t do that because your father,
Your half-assed messiah, is afraid of fire.

2013. október 17., csütörtök

Fodor Ákos: Korunk

hommage á K. D.


Nem szívom mellre,
nem veszem szivemre, csak
gyomrom nem bírja.

A.E. Stallings: The Wife of the Man of Many Wiles

Believe what you want to. Believe that I wove,
If you wish, twenty years, and waited, while you
Were knee-deep in blood, hip-deep in goddesses.

I’ve not much to show for twenty years’ weaving—
I have but one half-finished cloth at the loom.
Perhaps it’s the lengthy, meticulous grieving.

Explain how you want to. Believe I unraveled
At night what I stitched in the slow siesta,
How I kept them all waiting for me to finish,

The suitors, you call them. Believe what you want to.
Believe that they waited for me to finish,
Believe I beguiled them with nightly un-doings.

Believe what you want to. That they never touched me.
Believe your own stories, as you would have me do,
How you only survived by the wise infidelities.

Believe that each day you wrote me a letter
That never arrived. Kill all the damn suitors
If you think it will make you feel better.

2013. október 16., szerda

Fodor Ákos: Rezignáció

Inkább mindent és
mindenkit megértek - csak
ne vitassuk meg...

Nicolás Guillén: Glosa



No sé si me olvidarás, 
ni si es amor este miedo; 
yo sólo sé que te vas, 
yo sólo sé que me quedo.

ANDRÉS ELOY BLANCO

              1

Como la espuma sutil
con que el mar muere deshecho,
cuando roto el verde pecho
se desangra en el cantil,
no servido, sí servil,
sirvo a tu orgullo no más,
y aunque la muerte me das,
ya me ganes o me pierdas,
sin saber que me recuerdas
no sé si me olvidarás.

              2

Flor que sólo una mañana
duraste en mi huerto amado,
del sol herido y quemado
tu cuello de porcelana:
Quiso en vano mi ansia vana
taparte el sol con un dedo;
hoy así a la angustia cedo
y al miedo, la frente mustia...
No sé si es odio esta angustia,
ni si es amor este miedo.

              3

¡Qué largo camino anduve
para llegar hasta ti,
y qué remota te vi
cuando junto a mí te tuve!
Estrella, celaje, nube,
ave de pluma fugaz,
ahora que estoy donde estás,
te deshaces, sombra helada:
Ya no quiero saber nada;
yo sólo sé que te vas.

              4

¡Adiós! En la noche inmensa
y en alas del viento blando,
veré tu barca bogando,
la vela impoluta y tensa.
Herida el alma y suspensa
te seguiré, si es que puedo;
y aunque iluso me concedo
la esperanza de alcanzarte,
ante esa vela que parte,
yo sólo sé que me quedo.

2013. október 15., kedd

George Wallace: Before Everything Is Over

before everything is over i would like to make love to you
the same number of times as a gentleman knocking on a
door that will never open for him.

the same number of times a mirror fails to reflect the spirit
of a ruined man. the same number of times a young woman
discovers in the middle of a noisy party

that she is alone. i would like to make love to you like a man
leaning his face from the window of a passenger train to catch
one more look at the one woman he ever

truly adored, but now he must leave behind. like a circus
performer looking up at a ceiling of trapeze rings, crazy
lights and precarious high wires,

knowing he will never climb that high. like a washed up prize
fighter reaching for the canvas because it is his only friend.
like a bum reaching for a twenty dollar bill

that is blowing across a busy boulevard. o i would like to
make love to you before the passersby pass by before
the falling sun falls out of this world

and into the next, before the brown bear of winter falls
into his magnificent winter slumber. i would like to make
love to you with my forehead

pressed to your naked waist. with my platelets pulsing in
your veins. with my brain on fire and snow falling on your
hissing flames o i would like to make

love to you a hundred times with the shuddering knowledge
of you, with your frozen smile and untraceable fingertips.
you with your indecipherable dreams.

because i am doomed to live with you even when i am
without you -- you with your incomplete shoulders. you
with your rainbow colored lips.

you with your empty hands. your perfumed silence, your
perfect elegance. you, with the sunlight that leaks out of
your darkness and into my world.

2013. október 14., hétfő

Neil Gaiman: Sonnet

I don't think that I've been in love as such,
Although I liked a few folk pretty well.
Love must be vaster than my smiles or touch,
For brave men died and empires rose and fell
For love: girls followed boys to foreign lands
And men have followed women into Hell.

In plays and poems someone understands
There's something makes us more than blood and bone
And more than biological demands...
For me, love's like the wind, unseen, unknown.
I see the trees are bending where it's been,
I know that it leaves wreckage where it's blown.
I really don't know what "I love you" means.
I think it means "Don't leave me here alone."

2013. október 12., szombat

Szilágyi Domokos: Ragyogj

Elaludtak a fák
a levelek libegnek
az álmok tudnak várni
az álmok nem sietnek

Tudjál álmokra várni
ahogy ők tudnak várni rád
az éber
csak így nem csalja meg magát

A levelek fölött
álmodó fények úsznak
az álmok fölragyognak
a fények elalusznak

Aludj fényekkel együtt
ragyogj álmokkal együtt

2013. október 11., péntek

Ellen Kennedy: I Have No Ambitions

i don't want to hate the president
i don't want to go to harvard
i don't want to win the pulitzer prize
i just want to sit in my bathtub
and think about relationships i will never have
with people i will never meet
and then go lay in my bed
with a magnifying glass
and count all the stiches in my sheets
until i fall asleep
and wake up
to repeat again.

2013. október 10., csütörtök

Suzanne Buffam: Enough

I am wearing dark glasses inside the house
To match my dark mood.

I have left all the sugar out of the pie.
My rage is a kind of domestic rage.

I learned it from my mother
Who learned it from her mother before her

And so on.
Surely the Greeks had a word for this.

Now surely the Germans do.
The more words a person knows

To describe her private sufferings
The more distantly she can perceive them.

I repeat the names of all the cities I’ve known
And watch an ant drag its crooked shadow home.

What does it mean to love the life we’ve been given?
To act well the part that’s been cast for us?

Wind. Light. Fire. Time.  
A train whistles through the far hills.

One day I plan to be riding it.

2013. október 9., szerda

Luis Cernuda: If a man could say what he loves

If a man could say how much he loves,
if a man could raise his love in the sky
like a cloud in the light;
if like falling walls,
in order to salute the truth, straightened in the middle,
he could plunge his body headlong,
leaving just the truth about his love,
the truth about himself,
which is not called glory, nor fortune, nor ambition,
but love or desire,
I would be the one who imagined;
the one who, with his tongue, his eyes and his hands,
proclaims in front of the men the ignored truth,
the truth about his true love.

Freedom I do not know but the freedom of being imprisoned in anybody
whose name I cannot hear without chill;
someone for whom I forget this mean existence,
for whom the day and the night are for me whatever he wants,
and my body and spirit float in his body and spirit
like lost logs that the sea submerges or raises
freely, with the freedom of love,
the only freedom that exalts me,
the only truth for which I die.

You justify my existence:
if I do not meet you, I haven't lived;
if I die without meeting you, I don't die, because I haven't lived.

Luis Cernuda: Si el hombre pudiera decir lo que ama

Si el hombre pudiera decir lo que ama,
si el hombre pudiera levantar su amor por el cielo
como una nube en la luz;
si como muros que se derrumban,
para saludar la verdad erguida en medio,
pudiera derrumbar su cuerpo,
dejando solo la verdad de su amor,
la verdad de sí mismo,
que no se llama gloria, fortuna o ambición,
sino amor o deseo,
yo sería aquél que imaginaba;
aquél que con su lengua, sus ojos y sus manos
proclama ante los hombres la verdad ignorada,
la verdad de su amor verdadero.

Libertad no conozco sino la libertad de estar preso en alguien
cuyo nombre no puedo oír sin escalofrío;
alguien por quien me olvido de esta existencia mezquina,
por quien el día y la noche son para mí lo que quiera,
y mi cuerpo y espíritu flotan en su cuerpo y espíritu
como leños perdidos que el mar anega o levanta
libremente, con la libertad del amor,
la única libertad que me exalta,
la única libertad por que muero.

Tú justificas mi existencia:
si no te conozco, no he vivido;
si muero sin conocerte, no muero, porque no he vivido.

2013. október 8., kedd

Anna Denise: How to Change a Frog Into a Prince

Start with the underwear. Sit him down.
Hopping on one leg may stir unpleasant memories.
If he gets his tights on, even backwards, praise him.
Fingers, formerly webbed, struggle over buttons.
Arms and legs, lengthened out of proportion, wait,
as you do, for the rest of him to catch up.
This body, so recently reformed, reclaimed,
still carries the marks of its time as a frog. Be gentle.
Avoid the words awkward and gawky.
Do not use tadpole as a term of endearment.
His body, like his clothing, may seem one size too big.
Relax. There's time enough for crowns. He'll grow into it.

2013. október 7., hétfő

Naomi Shihab Nye: The Art of Disappearing

When they say Don't I know you?
say no.

When they invite you to the party
remember what parties are like
before answering.
Someone telling you in a loud voice
they once wrote a poem.
Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.
Then reply.

If they say We should get together
say why?

It's not that you don't love them anymore.
You're trying to remember something
too important to forget.
Trees. The monastery bell at twilight.
Tell them you have a new project.
It will never be finished.

When someone recognizes you in a grocery store
nod briefly and become a cabbage.
When someone you haven't seen in ten years
appears at the door,
don't start singing him all your new songs.
You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.

2013. október 5., szombat

Szilágyi Domokos: Ünnepek

Legszebben a szerelmesek ünnepelnek:
meztelenül -
tüzes súlytalanságba öltözötten,
mint az űr
meghódítói - -
legszebben a szerelmesek ünnepelnek:
meztelenül.

Szerelmesek szép, meztelen, súlytalan ünnepeit
- ezt az értelmes csodát -,
szerelmesek szép, meztelen, súlytalan ünnepeit
kívánom neked is, világ.

2013. október 4., péntek

Patrick Phillips: 6:12

My heart swelled inexplicably
when I turned the key

and caught the scent
of something lovely, coming from the kitchen.

I dropped my loaded bag
and clowned a heart-attack

when my son came running from his room
and gripped my thumbs, and balanced on my shoes.

And as I broke into our nightly dance—
his graceless, middle-aged old man,

I knew: that I will be content
if this is all the heaven that we're granted.

2013. október 3., csütörtök

Andrea Gibson: Friends


Li-Young Lee: The Gift

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he’d removed
the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.
I can’t remember the tale,
but hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.
Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy’s palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife’s right hand.
Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he’s given something to keep.
I kissed my father.

2013. október 2., szerda

Pablo Neruda: Talán nem-lét a lét is, ha te nem vagy

Talán nem-lét a lét is, ha te nem vagy,
ha nem jönnél a délidőt jelezni,
akár egy kék virág, hogyha nem indulsz
sétálni később kövek közt a ködben,

ha nem emelnéd ezt a fényt kezedben,
amit talán más nem is lát aranynak,
miről tán senki sem tudja, hogy úgy nőtt,
akár a rózsa piros ragyogása,

ha nem vagy végül, hogyha el sosem jössz
váratlan, hogy az életem megismerd,
te rózsaözön, szél zúgó kalásza.

S azóta azért vagyok, mert te is vagy,
azóta vagy, vagyok vagyunk mi ketten,
s leszek, leszel, leszünk most már örökre.


(Somlyó György fordítása)

Pablo Neruda: Soneto LXIX

Tal vez no ser es ser sin que tú seas,
sin que vayas cortando el mediodía
como una flor azul, sin que camines
más tarde por la niebla y los ladrillos,

sin esa luz que llevas en la mano
que tal vez otros no verán dorada,
que tal vez nadie supo que crecía
como el origen rojo de la rosa,

sin que seas, en fin, sin que vinieras
brusca, incitante, a conocer mi vida,
ráfaga de rosal, trigo del viento,

y desde entonces soy porque tú eres,
y desde entonces eres, soy y somos,
y por amor seré, serás, seremos.

2013. október 1., kedd

Linda Gregg: Asking for Directions

We could have been mistaken for a married couple
riding on the train from Manhattan to Chicago
that last time we were together. I remember
looking out the window and praising the beauty
of the ordinary: the in-between places, the world
with its back turned to us, the small neglected
stations of our history. I slept across your
chest and stomach without asking permission
because they were the last hours. There was
a smell to the sheepskin lining of your new
Chinese vest that I didn't recognize. I felt
it deliberately. I woke early and asked you
to come with me for coffee. You said, sleep more,
and I said we only had one hour and you came.
We didn't say much after that. In the station,
you took your things and handed me the vest,
then left as we had planned. So you would have
ten minutes to meet your family and leave.
I stood by the seat dazed by exhaustion
and the absoluteness of the end, so still I was
aware of myself breathing. I put on the vest
and my coat, got my bag and, turning, saw you
through the dirty window standing outside looking
up at me. We looked at each other without any
expression at all. Invisible, unnoticed, still.
That moment is what I will tell of as proof
that you loved me permanently. After that I was
a woman alone carrying her bag, asking a worker
which direction to walk to find a taxi.

2013. szeptember 30., hétfő

David Lee Garrison: Bach in the D.C. Subway

As an experiment,
the Washington Post
asked a concert violinist--
wearing jeans, tennis shoes,
and a baseball cap--
to stand near a trash can
at rush hour in the subway
and play Bach
on a Stradivarius.
Partita No. 2 in D Minor
called out to commuters
like an ocean to waves,
sung to the station
about why we should bother
to live.

A thousand people
streamed by. Seven of them
paused for a minute or so
and thirty-two dollars floated
into the open violin case.
A café hostess who drifted
over to the open door
each time she was free
said later that Bach
gave her peace,
and all the children,
all of them,
waded into the music
as if it were water,
listening until they had to be
rescued by parents
who had somewhere else to go.

2013. szeptember 28., szombat

Tóth Éva: Szótár

Az ember azt mondja: száj
és egy szájra gondol.

Azt mondja: szem
és az a szem jut eszébe
amelyikben önmagát nézte.

Azt mondja: kéz
és a simogatása gondol.

Azt mondja: ember
és nem gondol csak egyetlen egyre
akit szeretett s aki őt szerette.

2013. szeptember 27., péntek

D. H. Lawrence: When

When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright,
but things will happen to us,
so that we don’t know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power;
we shall stamp our feet with new power,
and old things will fall down;
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper.

2013. szeptember 26., csütörtök

Gregory Orr: Lots of sorrow and a little joy

Lots of sorrow and a little joy.
Lots of joy and only a bit
Of sorrow.
Who can know
The formula beforehand?

We don't get to watch
While it's mixed.  No one tells us
What's in it.
We lift it
To our lips - azure elixir
That burns our throats to crystal.

2013. szeptember 25., szerda

Michael Drayton: Búcsú a szerelemtől

Ha vége, hát csókolj meg s isten áldjon;
megtagadlak, már nem vagyok tied;
gyönyörnek, ó, mily gyönyörnek találom,
hogy ledobhattam bilincseimet.
Egy kézfogás még, - töröld esküinket,
s ha találkoznak sorsunk útjai,
ne árulja el se szó, se tekintet,
hogy a volt vágyból maradt valami.
Most, bár szerelmünk már-már alig él,
s ravatalánál zokog a hüség,
és utolsót lüktet a szenvedély,
s a tisztulás lefogja a szemét,
most még, noha mindnyájan elsiratták,
fel tudnád támasztani, ha akarnád.

(Szabó Lőrinc fordítása)

Antonio Machado: Proverbios y cantares

De lo que llaman los hombres
virtud, justicia y bondad,
una mitad es envidia,
y la otra, no es caridad.

2013. szeptember 24., kedd

W.S. Merwin: How It Happens

The sky said I am watching
to see what you
can make out of nothing
I was looking up and I said
I thought you
were supposed to be doing that
the sky said Many
are clinging to that
I am giving you a chance
I was looking up and I said
I am the only chance I have
then the sky did not answer
and here we are
with our names for the days
the vast days that do not listen to us

2013. szeptember 23., hétfő

Constantine P. Cavafy: On the Stairs

As I was going down those ill-famed stairs
you were coming in the door, and for a second
I saw your unfamiliar face and you saw mine.
Then I hid so you wouldn’t see me again, and you
hurried past me, hiding your face,
and slipped inside the ill-famed house
where you couldn’t have found sensual pleasure any more
            than I did.

And yet the love you were looking for, I had to give you;
the love I was looking for—so your tired,
knowing eyes implied—you had to give me.
Our bodies sensed and sought each other;
our blood and skin understood.

But, flustered, we both hid ourselves.

(Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard)