Anna Follinus: Myself (Magam)

Someone else shares the bed.

This year it’s me: myself.

The faceless can undress

only to leave a mask.

Message from Á. at night.

A sharp and waking tone.

The rhythm of the heart-

bell had been broken off.

Usually talkative,

now behaves like a fish…

Waiting for some feelings

to reach you but then slips

away from you withdrawn

for cannot be united with

the one who had met and

took on eternity.

Translated by: Maria Bencsath

Anna Follinus: Between Two Silences (Két csend között)

You conceal a name only,

the other hides all that's behind it.

You question who it can be –

asks you back: who you want it to be.

Teach me to be yourself please –

you implore between two silences.

Only the grey eyelashes,

not what has been broken, are falling.

But at night when you’re asleep,

nestling against you, in your dream

makes birds fly and chases deer,

frightened of itself, into your sleep.

Getting up at dawn, in silence

sneaks out of your room leaving behind

just a blanket on your bed,

like frightened ants their crumbs behind.

Then, still snuggles up to you,

pokes around you looking for spring.

You will see – when touching you –

the fingers are swinging with the reed.

Translated by: Maria Bencsath

Anna Follinus: Between Transience and Eternity (Mulandóság és öröklét között)

In loneliness I am also alone.
I’m learning to talk without vocal cords.
There is no relief, no support at all.
After one word I stop, I do not talk.

It is cold, I wrap my coat around me.
I only listen to the sound of movements.
Without silence there is no destiny,
neither is there any peace left for me.

When I point at myself I look at you.
I search for the person I could be in you.
Every day I write a letter to you,
yet every evening slips by without you.

Then desires mount above me in bed,
and at times they also come and lift me.
However, now I am defenseless when
you embrace and yet do not embrace me.

That the kiss is: just a flower head hanging.
That your chest is: between earth and fruit tree.
I would tie your far away world to me –
tying transience to eternity.

Translated by: Maria Bencsath

Anna Follinus: From Word to Word (Szótól szóig)

To the 50th anniversary of Attila Gérecz’s death

To survive someone else’s death
is as impossible as to survive
your own. The one who hopes for more
is going then point behind himself.

Where did we leave those still alive? -
my mirror finds only unknown faces.
Would there be just one among them
offering himself to be touched by me?

Whom this fate invoked a poem,
would he discover where that sickle moon
had cut away from his own soul
what he did have way back in his childhood?

Klauzal Square is bare tonight.
From word to word the silence is spreading.
Don’t look here for the sot of glare,
bright light, behind the Sun you shall see it!

What, don’t you see it? … Featherless,
who’s going to redeem you but yourself?
How far do you – broken ridge-arched,
lonely hill range move from the poem?

Translated by: Maria Bencsath