Excerpt
Pavol Janík

Uncorroborated Reports / Nezaručené správy

VIVACE MA NON SOLTANTO COSI

 

With a bare foot

you are jumping  from one star to another.

And everything it clinks

like a kiss of crystal glasses.

Thousands of your faces

keep on skating

on the frozen lakes.

I am opening you

with a treble clef

and I am looking for a bow

which could compare you with its flexibility.

Deep in you

instead of springs

I found a tear.

 

STROKE

 

When the air stops in front of your face

and checks the volume of your lungs,

when the sun asks you with a secret word,

then you’ll understand it.

It is possible to cross the horizon

and think about something else.

The mountains hurry to strip concrete constructions of the hills.

In the crowns of the trees, telephone exchanges are buzzing.

You are an octave higher.

The only rocket

crosses easily the sky with a green light.

So I’m keeping knowing you

and setting my breath to yours.

 

MARRIAGE

 

We were two

and only an indefinite number of dawns and twilights

had left from us.

From that day I’m wandering

the souls of unexisting  things,

and I’m keeping stumbling on them.

Everyday I see you past blossoming

in an armful of herbs.

And I’m trembling

of free running animals.

Everyday I place you to my eyes

like a drawing of a child

and I take my breath away.

Translated by Monika Majzlánová

(From: Uncorroborated Reports, Smena Publishers, 1981)