Poem of Stone
1.
Stone was given, stone was given!
That is the Instant, which speaks for the whole of silence.
Near the border of the cemetery ignite a holocaust.
World of the living haven’t you yet seen beyond your brows?
Let it burn down like wood to the ashes!
Over the creeds of the pious let there be scattered ashes!
2.
That is the Instant which flies out...
maybe it wanted to say of the dead that only the dead live...
O semblance of sombre music spellbound into the clockhands,
what did the Instant want to say?
3.
O roof of the heavens, what manner of house is this wherein we suffocate?
O roof of the heavens, show tongues on pointless palates,
how many doors there are which stayed for us in this seeming brightness.
Why - every love I begin ends before it starts.
Why - we whilst here will never learn where the garden is.
4.
Stone was given, stone was given.
Let it not stop in its flight! Let it drop!
(Jiri Orten trans. Tomas Mika and Toby Litt)
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[Jirí Orten (30.8.1919 Kutna Hora - 1.9.1941 Prague). During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Orten, who was Jewish, was unable to publish under his own name. He died after being hit by a German ambulance.]