Pavol Lukáč

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 letí  Harvardským námestím

a nikto sa ho nepokúša chytiť.

Ten, čo ho stratil, to vzdal –

asi preto, že ho podvádzala žena,

sňal si ho a hodil ako lietajúci tanier,

skúšajúc sťať nejakú sochu

ženy v stredných rokoch,

ktorá v ničom nepripomína jeho ženu.

Vietor nezodvihol iba klobúk,

ktorý by si každý chlap rád nechal.

Viem si predstaviť – ako sa tak valí,

zmieta okolo áut, ľudí, kandelábrov –

ako tróni nad tmavozeleným oblekom...

Tvár medzi nimi bradatá

a nie nezdravá, ešte nie. Oči tiež

zelené – a celý zelený muž myslí na svoju ženu v cudzej posteli,

tie myšlienky presakujú zeleným klobúkom,

ako cesnak v póroch a nik sa

na ten klobúk nevrhne, hoci je šik...

Z angličtiny preložil Pavol Lukáč