A New-born Babe / NOVOROZENĚ
Translation: Ivana Noble

A new-born babe

Knows nothing of his name

And nothing of the reasons.

He is simply born

And starts his life,

An endless surprise,

A naked bundle in bed.

He does not know of the mark he bears.

A star or a cross

You do not find out that easily

Like a kid on hay

The new-born babe is sleeping

And then life starts its course,

Like grass falling down.

From behind its mother’s scarf

A crescent of Venus can be seen,

The planet of hope.

If things go wrong today

They may improve tomorrow.

Destiny, stop your turning!

But destiny doesn’t look left or right,

Puffing like a steam machine

Through the chain of streamers

Heading up the hill

Then, long queues

In front of the gate

To the left, to the right

Music plays loud

Jolly songs

And black angels

Illuminating our heads.

Go on, musicians, go on.

Play for our dance,

So that monstrances may move in the wind.

Only those unmarked

Will be saved

As a Deer that Wants to Drink Water / JAKO JELEN KDYŽ VODU CHCE PÍT
Translation: Ivana Noble

As a deer that wants to drink water

Runs through the forest to the hidden stream,

As a deer that wants to drink water,

So I long to be with you.

I feel anxious alone,

So I long to be with you.

Help me in my loneliness,

Help me in my life,

Help my abandoned soul.

Every night I call to you,

Every night I call for help.

A deep anguish has settled in my heart,

What darkness in front of my eyes.

A deep anguish has settled in my heart.

I have never been as lonely as tonight,

Over-reaching pride has built a wall.

I have never been as lonely as tonight.

Help me in my loneliness,

Help me in my life,

Help my abandoned soul.

Every night I call to you,

Every night I call for help.

I believe in spite of everything

That my calling will reach to your ears.

I believe in spite of everything.

When the leaves of the aspen tree fall down in October

I accept without reserve all that will come.

When the leaves of the aspen tree fall down in October.

Help me in my loneliness,

Help me in my life,

Help my abandoned soul.

Every night I call to you,

Every night I call for help.

Each One of Us is Carrying a Burden / KAŽDÝ SI NESE SVÉ BŘÍMĚ
Translation: Ivana Noble

Each of one of us is carrying a burden

Through the summer paths towards winter.

Each one is carrying what is his,

As he walks through life.

Each one of us dreams of something.

Each one is having some troubles.

And no one knows

What tomorrow will reveal.

The watchman is opening the gates.

The wind has calmed the wounds.

After a long night

Morning is approaching.

The comets are past the halfway point,

So children can look forward to them.

What happens on the earth

Was written before the ages

In the sky.

The evil things will go with the floods

And what you dreamt about will become true,

All that you always wanted.

A postman is knocking on the door.

He says that better times are to come,

But has forgotten where he heard it

The watchman is opening the gates.

The wind has calmed the wounds.

After a long night

Morning is approaching.

The comets are past the halfway point,

So children can look forward to them.

What happens on the earth

Was written before the ages

In the sky

Litany at the End of the Century / LITANIE U KONCE STOLETÍ
Translation: Ivana Noble

The number of men lying dead in the grass

The number of orphans and widows

The amount of blood for his greater glory

The number of words

The number of gods and goddeses

The number of torches in the streets of the towns

The number of prophets at each corner

The number of gestures

My Lord in the highest

My Lord, don’t you see and hear

My Lord, my blind God

The number of deceitful swine in their Panzer tanks,

The number of leprosy pillars  and leprosy wounds,

The number of evil signs in the sky,

The number of crows

The number of yellow stars and striped clothes,

The amount of rope and of guillotines,

The number of small button-holes in children’s coats,

The amount of guilt.

My Lord in the highest

My Lord, don’t you see and hear

My Lord, my deaf God

The number of wells filled with sand,

The number of lost caravans,

The number of obelisks and monuments

The number of gates

The amount of golden shit from golden calves,

The number of dead people by the gaping holes,

The amount of fear of what to do

Alone

My Lord in the highest

My Lord don’t you see and hear

My Lord, my dead God
 

Sarajevo
Translation: Ivana Noble

      Translation: Roman Kostovski >>>
 

A cruel wind is blowing though the planes of Halic.

What we used to have was taken by the waters.

As birds of passage, as swifts,

We fly through the sky, two blue letters.

The fire is still burning, the wood still crackling,

But it is time to go to bed.

Behind the hill, there is Sarajevo,

Where, my love, we will get married tomorrow

In the church a priest will bind us forever,

And he will throw the crown of tamarisk to the river

Whose water will flow back to the sea.

The two of us here, the heavens above us

The fire is still burning, the wood still crackling,

But it is time to go to bed.

Behind the hill, there is Sarajevo

Where, my love, we will get married tomorrow.

I will build you a house out of white stone,

Framed by oak boards

So that everyone will know that I love you.

I build it firm, it will stand forever.

The fire is still burning, the wood still crackling,

But it is time to go to bed.

Behind the hill, there is Sarajevo

Where, my love, we will get married tomorrow.

The Song of Těšín / TĚŠÍNSKÁ
Translation: Ivana Noble

If I had been born a hundred years ago

In this town

I would have picked flowers for my bride

In Larisch’s garden.

She’d have been a shoe-maker’s daughter

From Kaminski’s house, somewhere in Lviv

(a sentence in Polish)

I’d’ve loved her and

At least for two hundred years

We’d’ve lived in Sachsenberg

At the Jew Kohn’s house.

Of all the jewels in Tìšín

She’d be the prettiest one.

Speaking Polish and a bit of Czech,

A couple of words in German, she’d smile nicely.

Once a century a miracle happens,

A miracle happens.

If I had been born a hundred years ago

I would have been a book binder.

I’d’ve worked at Prochazka’s from five to five

And got 5 guineas for it.

I’d’ve had a beautiful wife and three kids

Good health. I’d be round thirty

With a long life ahead,

A long beautiful twentieth century

If I had been born a hundred years ago

In a different time

At Larisch’s garden I’d pick flowers

For you, my love.

A tram would go up the hill across the river

And the sun would be raising the border barrier

And the nice smell of Sunday lunch

Would pour out of the windows

In the evening, an ancient melody

Would be heard from Moshe.

It’d be summer nineteen hundred and ten

And a river beside the house.

I can see it like today, a happy me,

Wife, children, and the sky of Tìšín.

It’s just good that you don’t know

What lies ahead.

Underground sources / PODZEMNÍ PRAMENY
Translation: Ivana Noble

The sun has painted on my face

A million dots

A river is flowing among the trees

And I walk, I ramble like a silent river

Among all the people,

Looking to the ground, trying to understand

What awaits me when I lie in the earth.

Underground sources,

Unknown streams.

Words are signs

Whose meaning we don’t know.

We search for roots,

Knowing nothing of them.

We ramble under the earth,

Under the earth we ramble,

Hopelessly, yet we still do.

Which one of my loves

Managed to break me

And who will hold me now?

Who will again offer me an arm?

I look into a shop window,

Seeing my own outline,

Glassy and dull.

I am neither good nor bad,

I am both good and bad.

Underground sources,

Unknown streams.

Words are signs

Whose meaning we don’t know.

We search for roots,

Knowing nothing of them.

We ramble under the earth,

Under the earth we ramble

Hopelessly, yet we still do.

WILD HORSES / DIVOKÉ KONĚ
(dedicated to Vladimir Vysocky)
Translation: Ivana Noble

I have seen wild horses

Running through the sunset.

The air was heavy

And smelled strangely of tobbaco.

They run without a bridle, without a saddle,

Through the land of rivers and mountains.

Who the hell cares what desire led them

Beyond the horizon!

Maybe the world above this world,

Maybe a ticket for eternity.

This desire of ours, don’t die yet!

We still have enough strength.

In the nostrils, the smell of mares is getting sweet

On the bank of the lake.

Making love is a wild song

Of the evening.

The stalks of grass are bowing their heads down.

They form a line:

A king with his court is coming for the execution

Of outlaws.

I’d love to run like the wild horse,

Not to think of coming back,

To kick the horsetraders out the door.

I’d love it.

I have seen wild horses