The Door from Miroslav Holub

The first of several Miroslav Holub poems in English translated by P-i-R from Reihe Hanser's (Franz Peter Künzel) German translation of the Czech originals. They are therefore not direct translations. The result is a kind of poetic Chinese whispers.

The Door

Go and open the door.
Perhaps outside
there's a tree, or a wood,
or a garden,
or a magic town.

Go and open the door.
Perhaps outside
there's a dog scratching.
Perhaps there's a face outside,
or an eye
or the picture
of a picture.

Go and open the door.
If there's fog outside
it will go.

Go and open the door.
There could be outside only
singing darkness,
and there could be outside only
wind's hollow breath
and there could be
absolutely nothing
outside,
go and open the door.

At least
there would be
a draught.

-----
gw 2009