Those who were there
A new moon, and dawn frost on the fields
they massacre the wheat.
On the bare fields,
here and there, was rot (it takes time
for sun and rain to bury what's dead),
but it was still a pleasure waking up to see
if frost had covered that up too. Then the moon came,
like the floods, as if somebody had been dreaming
of the day all that would green with grass.
The peasants' eyes fill up with tears, with looking.
This year, when the sun starts shining - if it shines -
that wheat will all be burnt-off leaf-stalks.
The moon's a bitter thing, and good for nothing
but for swallowing the mist, while
in this crystal air, the adder-bite of the frost
turns all that greenness to manure. They fed the earth
manure, and now the wheat's shit too. There's no point
looking at it, it'll all have to be burnt,
it's gone to rot. It’s one of those mornings
that take all the strength you have
to get out of bed, like one of the living,
and wander down your fields.
Later, they'll see
timid spears of green fledge the bare fields,
over the wheat's grave; and they'll have to sweat
to turn that to manure as well, to burn it off.
Because sun and rain only help weeds. And now,
now the wheat's ruined, the frost, of course, is over.
Translated by Duncan Bush
Page(s) 17
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