Sibila Petlevski
kroatisch
In the dust
And then in the dust he drew a face,
the face of a woman, and he asked
the man drinking whiskey beside him
if he’d ever seen her, or knew who she was,
all the time staring down at her, as if
this would make her whole. And then,
at the shake of the head, he let his boot
dissolve her into a settling cloud.
He threw another plank on the fire,
drained his glass and filled it again,
watching his dog rise to its feet
and start to growl at the dirt-road
that stretched, empty, to a hilly horizon.
A shiver coincided with the dog’s first bark,
that doubled, trebled, became gunfire
that stopped nothing coming, so he stood
to confront it, but not even a wind
brushed his face, no shape formed,
and after the dog went quiet, a hand
helped him sit down and rejoin his glass.
Aus: Sanctuary
London: Jonathan Cape, 2004
Audioproduktion: 2006, M.Mechner / Literaturwerkstatt Berlin
U PRAŠINI
A onda je u prašini nacrtao lice,
žensko lice, i pitao
čovjeka koji je pio viski pokraj njega
je li je ikada sreo, ili možda zna tko je ona,
i svo vrijeme je zurio dolje u nju, baš kao
da će od toga žena biti cjelovitija. A onda,
na odrječito kimanje glavom, čizmom je
raspršio njen lik u oblačak koji se slegao.
Dodao je cjepanicu u vatru,
iskapio čašu i još jednom nalio do ruba
prateći pogledom svojega psa kako ustaje
da bi promuklo zalajao prema prljavoj cesti
koja se pružala, pusta, u pravcu brdovitog horizonta.
Srsi su ga prošle baš u trenuku kad se ogasio prvi lavež
koji se potom udvostručio, utrostručio, zaštektao kao mitraljez
koji presreće nadolazeće ništa, i tako je ustao
spreman na suočenje, ali nije bilo čak ni vjetra
da mu očeše lice, nije se uobličila nikakva prilika,
pa kad je pas zamuknuo, nečija ruka
mu je pomogla da ponovno sjedne i pridruži se čaši.