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Wallops of Translations #2
The second of my translations (again, original on soc.culture.esperanto)
was, I think, more succesful. It is two parts of a poem by Soviet
Esperantist Evgenii Mikhalski, born in 1897, presumed purged in 1937.
Mikhalski wrote very much from the outside of mainstream Esp culture
(Kalocsay). Clelia Conterno Gugglimenti dismisses him as a second-hand
Mayakovsky; all I can say to that is that Mayakovsky must have been quite
a poet.
There are nontrivial expressional problems in this translation, but because
the typographical arrangement is important, I am only putting in a
translation of the Esperanto. Work out the rest yourselves. You'll see
how I've had to deviate and take shortcuts here and there. It is cute,
somewhow, that the poem could have gone on forever without the gender of
{ko'a}, or for that matter the poet, revealed. See Cavafy.
WHATSOEVER
Quickly.
Muscles are tense-lively...
The sun is post-horizon.
The heart twilights
in desire.
Life is Golgotha.
Two crosses are black.
Masses of crows squawk,
sensing those about to die.
Your hand to me, [girl]friend.
Lip on lip
of love's trust.
Life is Golgotha.
Two crosses are black...
..........
Wheels screech, doors creak,
cars whistle-blow their horns...
Shop windows shine...
The plaza's circle is bald.
The temple peak is heavenward
in relief.
12 o' clock.
The lights are extinguished.
Ghostly shadows slide,
from a foggy shawl.
She and I
in the dense see
of banality.
A tram carriage was derailed ---
and the spark started blue;
through the grey sounded a cry,
a cry of despair.
Life is Golgotha.
Two crosses.
She and I.
II
I awoke after a night filled to the brim with love ---
it was morning...
I look to her face, she sleeps quietly,
her beautiful forms
of the passionate body
are caressed by the sunrays,
penetrating though the curtain.
Why do I stand silently, do I regret,
that the night has has ended, that the illusion
doesn't last?
I crouch by the bed,
long, long do I sit so, look at her,
guard her healthy sleep,
sleep of sweet repose.
Oh enchanting woman!
No! More truthfully --- enchanting body, divine body
in its nakedness!
Thou --- extreme of the beginning ---
thou --- beginning of the extreme ---
drivest [one] mad by the power
of the eternal love-problem.
A red disk swims out in a grey sky,
dewdrops are pearls in vases on flowers,
the wall-painting nuances
in rainbow colours...
Mischievous rays play on the lips of the one lying,
on the lips --- cup of joy...
Attracting-exciting fell the cover from the young woman,
her snow-white knee demans kisses.
She sleeps in peace
after exhaustion
from the night's immoderate caressing.
--- "Goodbye, woman!
Today calls me
by the town's noise to business..."
The last shadows of the morning have withered, ---
the day smiles in the serenity
of the sunshine.
Bleats-whistles the siren
of a car.
zo ru'a cu tcita le pemci befi la evGEN. miXALSK. be'o poi di'e nomoi ce'o
remoi le'i pagbu be ke'a .i tu'e
sutra
.i trati tsali fa loi sluji
.i la sol. cu fe'eba'o pinta
.i le cinmo cu ctemurse
ci'o leka djica
ni'o me la GOLgotas. fa le nunji'e
.i xekri fa re kucyga'a tosa'a 1moi pinka toi
.i so'e cipnrkorvo cu krixa
seja'e lenu zgana lo ba morsi
ni'o ko le xance mi doi pendo
.i le ctebi le ctebi
le nunpra nu lacri
ni'o me la GOLgotas fa le nunji'e
i xekri fa re kucyga'a;
ni'o xislu tagysa'e .i vorme savru
.i karce siclu
.i le ve'uzda ja'orca'o cu se gusni;
i le di'urpanka cukla cu lunbe
.i le malsi jipno ne'a le tsani
cu sfecra
.i la gaicac. cu tcika
.i co'u gusni
.i le mucti ctino cu sakli
gi'e canci vi le grusi
poi ne'orbu'umlu se bumru
.i mi jo'u ko'a
vi le xamsi denmi
pe lenu to'e manci
.i lo lajre'e carce cu nitli'a le velklali'i
.i le fagyspi co'a blanu
.i va'o le grusi co'a krixa
.i krixa cusku lonu xrani
ni'o me la GOLgotas. fa le nunji'e
.i re kucyga'a
.i mi jo'u ko'a go'i
ni'oni'o remai
mi cikna ba lo nicte nesekai lo nunpra
.i cerni
.i mi leko'a flira cu catlu .i ko'a panpi sipna
.i lei melbi tarmi
be leko'a camci'o xadni
cu se satre fi le se soldi'e
poi pagre le murta
.i ki'u ma mi smaji sanli .i xu mi xenru
lenu ge mo'u nicte gi co'u
xanri
.i mi co'a demyste ne'a le ckana
.i ze'ujeze'u zutse gi'e catlu ko'a
.i nurgau lenu ko'a kanro sipna
.i sipna surla
doi ninmu xrula
.i na'i go'i .i sa'unai xadni xrula .i xadni censa lunbe
.i doi fanmo be lo cfari
do'udoi cfari be lo fanmo
do'u fekri'a fa lenu do vlipa
fi le roroi pranabmi
.i le xunre cukla cu limkla le grusi tsani
.i lei ctejau dirgo cu melo jemnrmargarita.
ne'a loi xrula poi vi se vasru
.i le bimpi'a cu ralci
tu'a le skari be le tsanybargu
.i lei fazykei se dirce cu vitci tu'a le vreta ctebo
noi kabri loka gleki;
.i trina joi bapli farlu fa le gairbu'u fi le fetcitno
.i leri snime blabi cidni cu mukti lenu cinba
.i ko'a spina mapti
ba'o lenu tatpi
lonu nicte satre carmi
.i lu co'o ninmu
.i le cabdei cu minde
be lo nungunka be'o ta'uvru
li'u .i le romoi ctino pe le cerni cu ruble
.i le dinri cu cisma panpi
va'o le solri gusni
.i siclu fa le vrubra
be le karce
tu'u
ni'oni'osa'a pinka
.i pamai le cusku cu tavla la GOLgotas. noika'u diklo lenu la xrist. morsi
ja'e lenu se sfalasna fi lo kucyga'a .i ri .e ru kulnu sinxa lenu cinmo cortu
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nick Nicholas, Melbourne Uni, Australia. nsn@{munagin.ee|mullauna.cs}.mu.oz.au
"Despite millions of dollars of research, death continues to be this nation's
number one killer" - Henry Gibson, Kentucky Fried Movie
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