Venice masks

Tuesday 12 September 2017

When It Is Raining - Zbyněk Hejda

When it is raining,
the pond looks
as if it is just convalescing
from smallpox.
Below, under the dam,
the chubb are gorging on the rain.
Later
the moon reveals itself to girls,
pressing its attentions on
the chaste straw.
And in its little knuckles
how tenderly the straw crackles!
But beneath the dam
appear
the white bodies
of drowned women.

Zbyněk Hejda (1930 - 2013) Czech Republic
Translated by Alexandra Büchler
Source Six Czech Poets, edited by Alexandra Büchler, Arc Publications, 2008

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