With a pure heart - Attila József

Without father without mother
without God or homeland either
without crib or coffin-cover
without kisses or a lover

for the third day - without fussing
I have eaten next to nothing.
My store of power are my years
I sell all my twenty years.

Perhaps, if no else will
the buyer will be the devil.
With a pure heart - that's a job:
I may kill and I shall rob.

They'll catch me, hang me high
in blessed earth I shall lie,
and poisonous grass will start
to grow on my beautiful heart.

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Attila József (1905 - 1937) Hungary
Translated by Thomas Kabdebo
Source: Attila József Poems, edited by Thomas Kabdebo, Danubia Book Co., 1966