March flies swarm and spill.
Blistered prints of dragon-flies and frogs.
Dream zones of bright verdure.
...
The tail of the damsel-fly
blown up a bit with blue.
She taps, as she would
...
The owl breathes into the night.
I imagine the circle of its mouth.
I enter a forest made of owls,
...
I touch you with a hand
in which I have no feeling.
Lupins break out on the slope.
...
The heron walks. The marsh is hunched.
Above it, another with ragged wings.
‘It's my birthday!' says the first.
...
Then when it's dark this beetle
joins and unjoins the pear-tree leaves.
Two others turn the shelves of oak
...
Petr Borkovec (April 17, 1970, Louňovice pod Blaníkem) is a Czech poet, translator and journalist. He studied Czech language and literature at the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University but did not finish his studies. His poems have been translated into almost all European languages. His books have been published in Austria and in Italy. Borkovec translates mostly 20th-century Russian poetry.)
Drained Pond
March flies swarm and spill.
Blistered prints of dragon-flies and frogs.
Dream zones of bright verdure.
A shell, its nose held up,
crumbles at the merest touch,
but the hard edge holds:
this instrument sounds like
an owl call, as I stride into
the summer forest, owls about.
Translated into English by Justin Quinn