Monika Herceg

hrvaščina

Marina Veverec

angleščina

Pjesnikinja, ljeti

Neizbježnost dana skotrlja se
niz znojna leđa u pjesmu
kao dječja kolica
puna Venerina sumpora i sjete
Možda se nebo otvori jednom
kad nam kihne u večeru
taj pupak predvečerja
pa nahrupe horde vanzemaljaca
koji smrde na pokvarena jaja
I bog,
nečiji vrući rezignirani bog
koji samo zapisuje anegdote
o tome kako krivnju
jer tučemo djecu,
jer tučemo pse,
jer bacamo tek rođene mačiće,
guramo na vrh trepavica maskarom

Ugušit ćemo se u otrovnoj staklenci
ako uskoro netko ne smisli kako odrezati dimnjake
Bit će to jednog sparnog ljetnog popodneva
sličnom onom kad sam dobila prve batine
Muhe su jele komade neba glasnije od mlažnjaka

Psi ne, ali djeca sve pamte
Pamte kako gledaš poprijeko,
pamte sve dodirne točke
šibe i tijela
Što dublje,
što dublje
u slojeve odjeće

Ljeti je najteže
jer se nema gdje
osim u golog sebe

© Monika Herceg
Iz: Lovostaj.
Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk, 2019
Avdio produkcija: Croatian P.E.N. Centre

The Poet in Summertime

The inevitability of the day rolls down
the sweaty back into a poem
like a pushchair
filled with Venuses’ sulfur and gloom
Perhaps the sky might open up once
the eve’s navel
sneezes into our supper
so the horde of aliens storm in
reeking of rotten eggs
And god,
someone’s fervid resigned god
who only writes down anecdotes
of how we push with a mascara the guilt
of beating the kids,
of beating the dogs,
of throwing away the newborn kittens
to the tip of our lashes

We’re about to suffocate in a poisonous jar
if no one was soon to figure out how to cut the chimneys
It will be a sultry summer afternoon
resembling the day I first got beaten up
Louder than the jets the flies feasted on the pieces of the sky

Dogs may not, but children remember everything
They remember your frowns,
remember each point where
the whip and the body met
And deeper,
and deeper
through the layers of clothes

Summertime is the hardest
since there’s nowhere to turn
but to one’s naked self

Translated by Marina Veverec