Aida Vidan

englisch

KALKI

U zelenoj delti Nila
vlakom brzim putujući
vidjeh seljaka
na bijelom magarčiću
kako gacka preko polja
riže. Čovjeka u dugoj bijeloj
haljini, glasnika prošlih
il' budućih dolazaka
na zemlju.

Mogao bi biti Josip
ili njegov odrasli posinak,
a možda i Kalki,
inkarnacija posljednja
indijskoga boga iz trojedne
slike.

Što meni znači
Egipćanin u bijeloj
galabeji, na bijelom
magarčiću, posjednut
postrance?

Sve ono što kazah
o adventu, između
prije i poslije, a ponajviše
to što jest: ratar na
magarčiću, mnogo bijeloga
na zelenome.

Bijela mrlja
na zelenome.

                                       Aleksandrija – Kairo, 20. studenoga 1999.

Aus: Crni obelisk
Zagreb: Mozaik knjiga, 2001
Audioproduktion: Tomislav Krevzelj, Udruga radio mreza 2011

Kalki

In the green valley of the Nile
while traveling in a fast train
I saw a peasant
on a small white donkey
as he was wading through a field
of rice. A man in a long white
robe, a prophet of the past
or future arrivals
to Earth.

He could have been Joseph
or his grown up step son,
perhaps even Kalki,
the last incarnation
of the Indian god from a picture of the
triumvirate.

An Egyptian in a white
galabeah, sitting aside
on the white donkey,
what does he mean to me?

All I have said about
the advent, between
the before and the after, and above all
that which is: a plowman on
a donkey, much white
on the background of green.
White
on the green.


Alexandria-Cairo, November 20, 1999

Translation by Aida Vidan