Ivan Jelinek
To the Czech Language
When it rains in England
I hear from mothers’ mouths the names of their children
and my own among them in the still-life of vowels.
When it rains in England
I hear two women tenderly speaking in Czech
And the words are only another name for love.
It rains on my eyes, on the harbour, on the deck,
and fishes swim and swim around the girls’ heads.
One of them with the key in its mouth, as though
it would leap the weir – longing for speech kills me.
When it rains in England
The drowned day crawls towards the dark, a body
Without a soul – as though myself were drowned.
When it rains in England
Two lovers should light on the banks of the Morava
A candle, and pray at the weir for a soul.[1947, EM]
Translated by Edwin Muir
Page(s) 167
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