Heathybottom

Möödunud aasta Palupõhja-retkest on valminud raamat "Metsik sõna", kus on ka ingliskeelsed tõlked toonastest tekstidest. Minu tankasarja on inglise keelde tõlkinud Karel Leet.

 

Eleven incidental tankas plus one haiku from

HEATHYBOTTOM

Translation from Estonian by Karel Leet

I
a behaviouristic experiment –
a swamp is taken
a writer is inserted.
additional data:
the input has a bad cold

II

irony would protect us
from making things poetic
to preserve space for the
incisive delight
of freshly sprouted leaves

III

a small willow grove
across the river reminds us
that among all beings
it is the form of trees that's
truly the most prudent one

IV

a bulky black grouse
on top of a spruce.
we watch it in excitement
fussing with binoculars
while it – as in days of yore

V

a snipe or a gal-

linago? which name is true?
who would answer that?
„I am a rattler

how come you cannot hear?”

VI

softly dimmed
pale green
submerged. at the edges
russet-grey cranberry leaves 

upside down, bleaching

VII
with Alvydas

two men standing
on the riverbank at night
in great stillness
neither dares to leave
it would make a sound

VIII

if here in the dusk 

one stays quiet for long enough

maybe some bird will

come close in the end?

gnats. blood will not stand still

IX

within reach a nightingale's
anxiuos cry is sounding
what is its worry?
what will it eat and where will it get it?
poet, be silent

X

at first the fog
falls down onto the river
then a sandpiper whizzes
across the surface, then the wind,
and so goes it all

XI

it takes its course, its flow,
its whirl, its roll and its ripple
it glides, it advances
it deepens, it dives, it crinkles,
it alters, it self-containes, it becomes

XI

Astor who herds people in a bog

a dog sits in the bus
in a window seat
heading for a hike