Jan Bolesław Ożóg

Jan_Bolesław_Ożóg [Wikipedia]

Jan Boleslaw Ozóg translated by Leonard Kress from Contemporary East European Poetry: An Anthology, ed. Emory George:

Village for a Wedding

Sky like pigeon’s little belly.

Sky like goldfinch egg,

sky like starling’s tune

greenishblue.

But fields like sundrenched sea

where roe-deer bound through oats

like fish through sea of rye.

And the village distant from a hummock

like a chain on a bicycle.

Iris in golden glimmer like pilot-flame.

But trees deeprooted like ponds

of green broth.

But grass like prayers

from lips of decaying willows.

And the village distant from a hummock

harrows gouged by nails

instead of stakes.

Lady bugs slide off lindens,

cockroaches to pick in a kerchief.

In barns peasant gears groan

cranking round the chaffcutter,

and frightened wasps play

like a heathen church at high mass.

Red beaks of carrots

circle higher than storks.

And the power station beyond the village

limping on crutches

like bent herdsman on crook.

Here the morning scented with hemp

saltily with bundle of clover.

Here my beloved hides for the night

safe from the boys in the kneading trough.

But up the ladder to the attic

carrying a measure of rye on his back

like a good husband

Here you are invited to the wedding.