Jan Kaus

estnisch

Adam Cullen

englisch

PIRMASTU II

Siit näeb hästi seda asja, mida nimetame Eesti maastikuks. Õõtsikkaldaga järvesilm. Metsad, mis müürivad vaadet tormidest ja lageraietest hoolimata. Aeg-ajalt sahmab seafarmist haisu. Kui minus voolaks kübekenegi nipernaadit, hakkaksin minema, sest tükk põldu seal metsatukkade vahel justkui küsiks, et mida sa ootad, venivillem selline. Muidugi on kõik proosalisem – teisel pool ürgorgu paistva romantilise kortsna all elavad sopajoodikud. Äial on hea binokkel. Kuu nagu peopesal. Vanarahvas ei lubanud kuukuninga suunas näpuga näidata. Maastik on sellistel öödel kaetud igatsuse õhukese härmatisega.

© Jan Kaus
Audioproduktion: Eesti Kirjanduse Teabekeskus [Estonian Literature Centre]

PIRMASTU II

There is a good vantage from here of what we call an Estonian landscape. A spherical pool with a quaking bog shoreline. Forests that wall off the view despite storms and clear-cutting. Occasionally, the reek of the nearby swine farm will barrel over. If I had even a fleck of wanderer’s blood flowing in my veins, I’d get a move on, because the patch of field there between the tufts of trees seems to ask: what are you waiting for, slowpoke? It’s all much more prosaic, of course – boozehounds squat at the base of the romantic chimney that projects from the other side of the glacial valley. My father-in-law has good binoculars. The moon in the palm of your hand. In the olden days, it was forbidden to point at the moon-king. On nights like this, the landscape is covered by a delicate frost of yearning. 

Translated by Adam Cullen