Wet Picture -- Jaroslav Seifert

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

Wet Picture

by  Jaroslav Seifert

Those beautiful days

when the city resembles a die, a fan and a bird song

or a scallop shell on the seashore

          -- goodbye, goodbye, pretty girls,

        we met today

      and will never meet again.

 

The beautiful Sundays

when the city resembles a football, a card and an ocarina

or a swinging bell

          -- in the sunny street

        the shadows of passers-by were kissing

      and people walked away, total strangers.

 

Those beautiful evenings

when the city resembles a rose, a chessboard, a violin

or a crying girl

          -- we played dominoes,

         black-dotted dominoes with the thin girls in the bar,

       watching their knees,

 

        which were emaciated

        like two skulls with the silk crowns of their garters

        in the desperate kingdom of love.

 

(Translated by Ewald Osers)

Comments

[ghostsandlovers.livejournal.com]

Argh, this is too lovely. It hurts.