František Kupka (1871 - 1957) - Couple, 1909
Posts tagged czech
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not
… embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
And it is all over.
No more sweetpeas,
no more wide-eyed bunnies
dropping from the sky.
Only
a reddish boniness
under the sun of hoarfrost,
a thievish fog,
an insipid solution of love,
hate
and crowing.
But next year
larches will try
to make the land full of larches again
and larks will try
to make the land full of larks.
And thrushes will try
to make all the trees sing,
and goldfinches will try
to make all the grass golden,
and burying beetles
with their creaky love will try
to make all the corpses
rise from the dead,
Amen.
(Translated by Stuart Friebert and Dana Habova)