Peter Milcak

slowakisch

The Hat

A green hat is blowing through Harvard Square
and no one is trying to catch it.
Whoever has lost it has given up –
perhaps, because his wife was cheating,
he took it off and threw it like a frisbee,
trying to decapitate a statue
of a woman in her middle years
who doesn’t look anything like his wife.
This wind wouldn’t lift the hat alone,
and any man would be glad to keep it.
I can imagine – as it tumbles along,
gusting past cars, people, lampposts –
it sitting above a dark green suit.
The face between them would be bearded
and not unhealthy, yet. The eyes
would be green, too – an all green man
thinking of his wife in another bed,
these thoughts all through the green hat,
like garlic in the pores, and no one,
no one pouncing on the hat to put it on.

© Matthew Sweeney & Jonathan Cape
Aus: Selected Poems
London : Jonathan Cape, 2002
Audioproduktion: 2006, M.Mechner / Literaturwerkstatt Berlin

Klobúk

Zelený klobúk vietor ženie po Harvard Square

a nikto sa ho nepokúša chytiť.

Ktokoľvek ho stratil, vzdal sa ho –

azda preto, že mu bola žena nevemá,

zložil ho a odhodil ako lietajúci tanier

s cieľom podťať sochu

ženy v stredných rokoch,

ktorá sa však na jeho ženu vôbec nepodobá.

Tento vietor by sám klobúk nezdvihol

a nijaký muž by si ho neponechal rád.

Viem si predstaviť – zatiaľ čo padá

a miňa autá, ľudí, stĺpy –

ako sedí nad tmavozeleným oblekom.

Tvár medzi nimi by mala bradu

a ešte by nevyzerala nezdravo. Aj oči

by boli zelené – celý zelený je muž,

čo myslí na svoju ženu v cudzej posteli,

jeho myšlienky prerastajú zeleným klobúkom

ako cesnak škárami a nikto,

nik sa za klobúkom nevrhne a nenasadí si ho.    

Preložil Peter Milcak